Referrals: The Biggest Lost Opportunity in Business

Let's face it, there is no such thing as the perfect marketing plan. No matter who you are, what type of business you are in, there is always an opportunity to improve your marketing. With so many different business priorities, there is just not enough time in the day to focus on all the opportunities to promote your business.

Therefore, when we approach a subject as critical as referrals, I will make sure I stress that this tactic is not a "nice to have" but a "must have" in your marketing practices. That said, I would be willing to guess that 90% or more of all businesses do not have a reasonably sound strategy for leveraging client referrals.

How many plaintiff's firms follow up with their personal injury clients by sending an e-mail or letter along the following lines: "Dear Ms. Smith, it was our pleasure assisting you with your case. We wish you a speedy continued recovery.
We hope we were able to exceed your expectations while we represented you. If there is anything we could have done better, please let us know, as we are always looking for ways to improve our practice.
If you were satisfied with our service and performance, we would greatly appreciate your future referrals."

Requesting referrals is a very easy tactic that offers an astounding return on your efforts, but is often forgotten. As a defense lawyer working with a client, how about following up a positive survey response with a follow-up call? "Good afternoon Mike, I wanted to take a minute to thank you for your continued business and the time you took to provide feedback. [My pleasure] Mike I would like to ask you one more thing, do you feel based on our service level that you would feel comfortable recommending our firm to a peer? [yeah, certainly] Would you be comfortable giving me the names and contact information of 2 or 3 peers that you feel may be interested in considering our firm on their next case? [no problem] That's wonderful, thank you so much, and may I refer to the fact that we have worked with you on these particular matters [go for it] Thank you!

And that is how simple and effective referrals can be. It takes a little salesmanship, but if you give it a shot, you will be increasing your business in no time!

Tip: Think about missed referral opportunities in your ordinary course of business and try to leverage them whenever possible

Return on Client Investment

If you were to impart just one lesson from your business experiences, what would that be?

Although I certainly have a lot more learning to do, I would have to say that over the first 10 working years of my career, my personal lesson is to always strive to exceed expectations -- as it pertains to both performance and character.

I have always tried to go above and beyond what my supervisors expected. Further, I came to the fundamental realization that it was not enough to exceed the expectations of the company that employs me, but that I needed to do everything within my sphere of control to exceed the expectations of those who employ my company - our clients.

What does this have to do with marketing?

As I noted in an earlier blog, marketing touches all parts of your business and Tip: there are few things that can impact your business brand (positively, or negatively), like the level of service you provide to your clients.

Think about the last time a business truly wowed you with its level of service. Companies that I interact with that stand out in my mind are Enterprise Rental Car, Optimum Cable, Fidelity Investments and Geico. Every time I deal with these organizations they are prompt, knowledgeable, profesional and always seem to go the extra yard. Consequently, my business has stayed with these organizations even though I may conceivably have saved a few bucks by moving elsewhere.

The best organizations create a culture of customer service amongst their employees and if you are able to achieve this, you too will see remarkable improvements in your business output. Great client service reduces turnover and increases profits. I have seen top tier client service salvage Fortune 500 accounts, in spite of inferior product offerings. Yes, it is THAT important.

As a plaintiff's firm, consider the importance of giving regular feedback to your clients on the status of their cases. Yes, it is likely that you are extremely busy, but think of how professional you would look if you had your secretary or paralegal proactively e-mail a periodic status update to your client. You would reduce the number of calls and improve satisfaction and subsequent referrals.

Defense firms - same thing. Keeping adjusters and defense counsel in the loop is another great strategy to build relationships. Couple surveys with a strong process for status updates and you are already ahead of the game. If you want to truly wow your best clients, try noting their contact preferences and customizing your follow-up strategy to their unique needs.

As a vendor servicing litigation firms, take the time to understand what clients value most in your interactions with you. Is it the support that you provide when they have questions on their software? Is it how quickly you respond to a trial exhibit need? How much personal care you give in understanding what they are looking for in a Web site? Determining the types of service interactions your clients value most and going above and beyond to execute better than your competition is another clear key to success.

The Rise of the Affiliate Marketing Program

If you have ever paid someone a fee or a percentage for sending you business, you are already familiar with the core concept behind affiliate marketing, a form of online marketing that is, relatively speaking still in its infancy.
Today plaintiff's firms typically take 1/3 of 1/3 when referring a case to another firm that is better equipped to handle that particular type of case. Maybe there are minor deviations, but this is fairly standard practice in the industry today. This arrangement will likely be gone with the rise of the Internet, as will the standard 1/3 fee.

The Internet is giving considerable power to the consumer and things that we have come to expect as standards today will be obsolete tomorrow. You can call it a prophecy, lunacy, or just research enabled foresight. In any case, I will spare you the details of my Nostradamic prediction, just trust me that competition will increase, fees will be even more closely aligned with lawyer performance and the 1/3concept will be subject to added flexibility.

Speaking of alignment with performance - we have come full circle and returned to the topic of affiliate marketing - which does just that. With affiliate marketing, an organization pays a fee to one or more affiliates or partners for a customer, or for traffic generated by the affiliate's efforts. For a very comprehensive explanation of affiliate marketing you can go to the following Wikipedia listing:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affiliate_marketing

If you are currently using revenue sharing as part of your business strategy, or considering this as an alternative, it pays to conduct some additional research into the concept of online affiliate marketing, even if only for your own knowledge. Today, major online retailers, e-commerce companies, financial services companies, etc... are the major players in affiliate marketing. Interestingly enough Wiki's historical overview points to gaming and adult Web sites as being among the first movers in the world of affiliate marketing.

Affiliate programs are somewhat complex to manage and consequently may be less feasible for a smaller, non e-commerce business. However, with the Internet becoming more sophisticated, chances are strong that online affiliate marketing programs may be something your organization will want to educate itself on further - particularly if you are a vendor with a strong online lead presence, or in a larger law firm targeting online leads.

Marketing Tip: Be aware of any new trends in marketing that can help to give you a leg up on the competition.

What is Marketing?

Ask 10 different lawyers or business people what marketing is and you are likely to hear a very broad range of responses. To one, it may be television advertising, yellow pages and print ads. To another it's a well designed web page and intelligent search engine marketing. A third will say it's managing client relationships through effective service.

The textbook definition of marketing is actually the process through which an organization develops and communicates value to its prospects and customers. When you stop to think about it, this is quite a broad definition - and it should be.

Tip: Marketing touches all parts of your organization and it encompasses vastly more than most imagine.

Marketing is pricing, market research and strategy, messaging, appearance of marketing material, planning and measurement, service, sales and yes, the channels through which you reach your clients. Solid marketing can make a company with a mediocre offering successful and poor marketing can make a company with a great offering fail.

The best marketing organizations measure return on marketing investment for every tactic and do not engage in tactics that are not measurable.

How many times have law firms become so dependent one or two marketing tactics that they are eventually blindsided when these channels dry up, or become oversaturated with competitors? Marketing requires the continual monitoring and analysis of results, tracking of lead sources and regularly updating strategies to keep ahead of the curve.

As for vendors, many do not realize how precarious their competitive position is, absent consistent monitoring and adjustment of their marketing efforts. I have managed marketing plans that have enabled the companies for which I workedto take considerable market share from segment leaders, in short periods of time. We were able to do this by executing throughly researched, integrated marketing plans and rapidly adapting them to those channels where the highest return on investment was realized. We maximized the highest return tactics and eliminated, or dramatically reduced the rest.

In conclusion, the proper management of your marketing is your highest return on investment. If, you are not able to afford a full time resource to assist in the continual tracking and measurement of your investments, consider retaining an experienced marketer on a consulting basis for a full evaluation of your current marketing process.

If you have any specific marketing topics you would be interested in hearing about, or have a specific question that pertains to your firm, please e-mail me or leave a comment and I will do my best to address your inquiry.

Getting the Most Out of Face to Face Events

When the economy is jittery, everyone starts to debate the value of most marketing efforts. Very often, tradeshows and events are among the first marketing tactics to receive the scrutiny of those looking to reduce costs... and often with good reason.

I have participated in scores of conferences, in a variety of industries, as an exhibitor and in a networking / attendee capacity. It amazed me how often I would see abandoned exhibits, exhibitors chatting away with peers with their backs turned to prospective clients, showing little to no effort to interact with attendees. When the event is over, it is often these same companies that complain the loudest about how poorly organized the event was.

Tradeshows, if conducted properly, are highly effective methods of reaching target audiences and studies have shown that leads generated from conferences cost considerably less to close than those generated from field sales calls. Attendees of events generally want to be there and most come with specific agendas.

The challenge is that even when exhibitors go through the right motions at events, a majority do not set objectives and an even larger percentage have no process for measuring their objectives, quantifying event results, or following up on leads.

Goals of any organization participating in an event include one or more of the following: increasing sales, increasing share of customer, introducing new products and services and positioning the company or its brand(s). It is important to understand the specific objectives of your organization for the event and plan a strategy around the objectives.

Assuming you have thoroughly researched the event and it is the appropriate forum to reach your intended audience, set your goals and strategies in advance of the event. Use past events to determine how many prospects you must speak with to achieve your specific target objectives and plan to hit your goals.

Measure your results after the event and track ultimate client revenue back to your lead to demonstrate your return on investment. Evaluate the event and report, using metrics to back up your outcomes.

A tactic used succesfuly by some exhibitors and one that my companies have often taken advantage of includes identifying and reaching out to key prospects and clients in advance of the conference and either arranging for a discussions/demo at the booth, or meeting over meals, drinks, or in a private, sponsored event.

As a vendor looking to reach litigators it is helpful to understand your target demographic. Is your ideal client a solo practitioner, or a 20 person firm? If the latter and you can obtain a pre-show attendee list, you may want to do some advance research on your top prospects. You can find lawyer bios and photos on many firm web sites, or bar directories. Even if some of your targets do not walk by your booth, knowing who they are may allow you to introduce yourself in a networking function, or different setting.

A defense firm looking to strengthen its brand value and facilitate networking opportunities between its lawyers and clients or prospects may consider sponsorship of a private reception. Be wary though, some "private" events have a tendency of turning into conference wide affairs - so be sure you have a solid plan for getting the qualified traffic to your event while filtering out the party crashers.

Plaintiff's lawyers, I appreciate that your role is rarely, if ever that of exhibitor, so I will leave you with an attendee tip. Sure, you're in Hawaii and the last place you want to be is in the exhibit hall when you can be enjoying your tax write-off vacation by the pool. Remember though, that there is a reason why many of the nation's top trial lawyers are also the same individuals who spend the most time in the exhibit halls at conferences. They are there to learn and determine which vendors can give them the advantage needed to stay ahead of the curve. I highly recommend speaking with as many vendors as possible when you are at a conference, whether you decided to purchase their services or not - if you go early in the morning there will be plenty of time to catch some sun. Not all will wow you, but it is very likely that you will have some interesting conversations that will give you clearer insight on ways to improve your practice.

More business with less insurance claims

Did you know that claim volume is shrinking considerably each year? Improved automobile safety standards, risk management practices, hospital policies, new technologies and boots with better soles mean less injuries, lower severity injuries and consequently reduced overall litigation market revenues. This industry trend, while great for society will inevitably affect the bottom lines of plaintiff's lawyers, defense lawyers and industry vendors. As a result, a number of law firms or companies that are in business today will not be in business this time next year. Even if your firm is not among the casualties, you may very well see dramatically reduced profit margins, or work longer hours to achieve the same results.

While the change will inevitably impact the industry, it doesn't have to impact your firm.

This blog will provide you with FREE marketing and business strategies for your law firm or company that will help you stay ahead of the curve and in business for a long time. I have accumulated this knowledge by spending the last 10+ years researching and marketing to litigation firms and working with litigation firm vendors and have learned how top organizations get there and stay there. I have also spent countless hours researching the Web, reading marketing and business books and newsletters on innovative marketing and operational strategies that have made Fortune 500 companies successful and applying this knowledge to gain competitive edge in a small to mid size business environment.

Sorry about the dramatic first paragraph, but it was necessary to illustrate my first marketing tip.

Tip: When communicating to clients or prospects verbally or through marketing messaging, it's not just what you say, it's how you say it.

FREE and FEAR.

In the paragraphs above, I invoked these 2 very basic, but incredibly effective marketing tools to get and keep your interest. If you look on the Internet, there are millions of examples of companies offering free services to get your interest, knowing they will benefit from their relationship with you long term by offering value today in exchange for the chance to gain your trust. Yahoo is a well-known example of this. They provide free e-mail, calendars, customizable content, games, etc... knowing that the relationship will result in later revenue from premium mail services, web hosting, advertising, etc...

As a plaintiff's lawyer taking a case on contingency, offering a FREE consultation explicitly is a must in all communications. One should not assume that the claimant knows this. It's easy to lose focus on other messaging differentiators and forget this critical element.

Most defense law firms looking to grow their business rely heavily on relationships, speaking opportunities and similar face to face tactics to generate a majority of their new business. However, in such a competitive space, where most firms are offering comparable services, sometimes at fixed prices set by insurance companies and using similar marketing tactics, why not try something different? Consider inviting clients and prospects to a free periodic webinar that highlights legal trends in your area of expertise. Most insurance company decision makers are used to interacting with vendors via the web and are likely to be open to getting valuable information from you. This is a good excuse to pick up the telephone, introduce yourself to the decision maker and offer them something you know will be valuable to them, while positioning yourself as a subject matter expert in a particular area of law. (It also shows that you are technologically progressive).

Litigation vendors, you also have numerous of opportunities to use FREE in your marketing. Free trial of a case management system, free demo CD, waiver of an application or other fee for a first financial service customer, free tie just for getting measured for a suit - you catch my drift...

Ok, now for my favorite FEAR. Good marketers know that appealing to emotion sells and arguably, no emotion sells like fear. If you can pinpoint a customer's fear and address this fear with your service, you will considerably improve your results. Think of some recent tv ads for cars that highlight special financing, or car features and contrast these to ads where a car is pummelled only for the driver to remain unscathed. Which of these do you remember most vividly today? Easy one, right? Another brilliant example is IBM's "No one ever got fired for buying IBM" campaign.

The same marketing principles apply to your business. As a plaintiff's lawyer, think of your prospective client's fears. What is even stronger than an ad for a law firm showing high verdicts and strong subject matter expertise? How about, one that addresses the fear of picking the wrong law firm and possibly losing the case, or achieving a poor outcome? Top marketers will elicit this fear, then put the prospect at ease by using testimonials and proven results to highlight why their firm is the first choice - right before offering a FREE consultation. Of course, it goes without saying that delivering a stronger communication should never cause an ad to cross the line into the realm of blurry ethical practices.

In a defense firm setting, it pays to understand your client or prospect and their unique fears. Listening to and understanding to the specific pain points of your clients and prospects is key. A barrier to working with your firm may be the fear that the in house employee will be the one making the decision to switch firms and doesn't want to risk getting burned in the event a case does not go as expected. If this is the case, maybe it pays to earn your client's trust by explicitly asking for smaller, low severity cases first, where you can demonstrate your capabilities and put the client at ease.

For litigation vendors, consider the impact on your lawyer client's referrals when using the wrong structured settlement company, a situation where the wrong recommendation of a medical expert proves disastrous, purchasing technology only to discover that the support fees are not reasonable, or the risk of using a search engine optimization company that does not have the expertise to deliver return on the client's dollars.

You may not remember much of what you read in this blog in a week, but I can bet that you will certainly recall that the claim industry is shrinking and that you can return to this blog for free marketing advice that you can apply to your litigation or litigation vendor business. Always consider how any marketing communications can be strengthened to invoke stronger emotions and think about creative ways to use a variety of "free" marketing tactics toward profitable outcomes, when you are courting a client and looking to develop trust.

I hope you found the tip interesting and relevant to your specific business and I will continue to share marketing and business insight, as it applies to the litigation industry. This post just scratches the surface and I hope to eventually start responding to specific questions and have litigation industry leaders share their business insights that can help you succeed. Please feel free to e-mail me to share feedback or suggest discussion topics.

During the next post, I plan to explain what I know about the shrinking claim industry, how I know this and share some interesting things you may not know regarding insurance companies.