by Jennifer Rosinski
To bring on new clients and make more money, legal marketing
needs to focus on the value it can offer clients, not legal jargon
that emphasizes practice areas and experience. That was the
common-sense message from Dustin A. Cole, a nationally renowned
legal coach who presented a three-hour marketing class.
"We're no longer in an economy of abundance. We're now in an
economy that's rising from the ashes," said Cole.
Ensuring success during this tumultuous time takes an approach
that may be foreign to most attorneys: packaging what you can offer
into a value-driven message, Cole said. A family law attorney is
not a "divorce lawyer," but someone who "helps people through
difficult family times." Cole said attorneys need to alter their
approach in addition to considering all of their prospects,
increasing visibility and adding referral sources by networking and
building friendships.
The method worked for Alan J. Klevan, who operates a firm with
his wife in Wellesley, and Jay Shepherd of the Shepherd Law Group
PC in Boston.
Cole helped Klevan develop a plan to leave his old firm and
start his own practice. "Within six months, I doubled my highest
salary at the law firm," Klevan said.
Shepherd credits Cole with assisting him in "building an
enterprise" rather than succeeding at a job. Shepherd's goal was to
free himself from the billable hour - which he did four years ago.
"Since working with Dustin, I've literally tripled the firm's
revenue," Shepherd said.