Some thoughts on an Estate Planning Attorney Generating Business in Today's Economy
I'm going to take a little detour from writing about estate planning to write about being an estate planning attorney, and different ways that I find clients and generate business. This post is a modified response that I wrote to the Solosez Listserv. Solosez is an email discussion list hosted by the American Bar Association for attorneys who are either solo practitioners or are members of small firms. Not just estate planners, and not just Florida attorneys, but attorneys all over the country and the world, practicing in all fields. It's a great resource for the solo practitioner, and a warm and supportive community.
Earlier today a colleague posted the following message:
"Does advertising in bulletins, Yellow Book and Mailing etc. work? I am
advertising in three different church bulletins for 6 months now and I
have not received a single client. I have also mailed 100s of
postcards but nothing from that either. I am giving up on advertising.
Is their a best way to advertise estate planning practice?
I am so confused and lost.
Help!"
While I am not going to print his name, for the purpose of this story it is important to know that he has a very Indian (from India) sounding name. I responded to him and I ended up liking what I wrote, so I thought I'd copy it here. The only change I'm making is to redact his name, and some slight spelling or grammatical fixes.
"I'm answering your questions in the order you presented them, but the most important thing will be number 3 below. So you might want to skip to that.
1) The yellow book works for PI attorneys, not for estate planning. I'm not looking for the type of client who looks for an estate planning attorney in the dead tree yellow pages. They aren't going to be willing to pay me what I want to be paid. Plus, anyone who looks for an estate planning attorney in the dead tree yellow pages instead of either going online, or getting a referral from a friend or colleague is going to be extremely unsophisticated. Again, not the type of client I'm looking for.
Plus, the dead tree yellow pages themselves are on the endangered species list. I don't know anyone who uses them for anything. (Yes, I know there are people here who do). Place your money elsewhere.
2) You mailed postcards to who? Random strangers? Are you allowed to do that under [State] law? You need to build your personal address book and database. Make notes about every single person and send them personal communications every now and then. All of these people should be people you have some sort of contact with.
3) Network, network, network. Did I mention that you need to Network? I just looked at my calendar and I have EIGHT different networking events, or personal one on one lunches or meetings this week. Join networking groups, referral groups, chambers of commerce, social, charitable, cultural, etc., groups. Go to everything. Talk to everyone. Never be without your business cards. Follow up with people. Send people random emails asking how they are doing. Stop looking for clients and start looking for referral sources. You want people to be comfortable referring you business, and they only will be once they get to know you.
4) If you're going to advertise, might I suggest targeted advertising? I may be going out on a limb here, but with a name like [Indian Name] I am going to assume that you are not a White Anglo-Saxon Protestant from Boise. Fair or unfair, there is still racism or at least culturalism in our society and until people know you, you aren't going to get any bites by putting an advertisement in the back of a church bulletin. How big is the local Hindi community? Why don't you, for starters at least, market solely to the Hindi and other Indian community. Go to all the events, place advertisements in their cultural and religious bulletins. People like working with people like them. I'm not asking you to pigeonhole yourself, but it's a start.
5) You got to be online more. Blog. Tweet. Interact on this and other listserv -- I've gotten some nice business from Solosez.
6) Did I mention that you have to Network?"
I have to admit that sometimes following my own advice can be difficult. There are only so many hours in the day and I have to do actual work for my clients too. But I think that the above is a good roadmap to establishing a successful estate planning practice.
Hmmm.... Maybe I should give up being an estate planning attorney, and instead teach other attorneys to do the above.
Nah.
I have to say I totally disagree. And not based on what I "think" but rather on what I KNOW we have accomplished for many of my Members all over the Country. And I'm not even a big advertising fan to begin with. But it does work if you do it right. So here are my responses to your responses in the same order:
1) In my experience most of the ads in the phone directory are crappy ads. That's why they don't work. I've had Members who do estate planning generate hundreds of thousands of dollars of profits with the right kind of ad. You can find some great estate planning clients. The problem is most lawyers advertising in the phone directory never studied direct response advertising. And no-one at the phone directory knows what they're talking about. And all they care about is getting paid, not your ROI on the ad you buy from them.
2) I agree with the critical importance of building your list. But you CAN make a strategic postcard campaign pay-off big time. Notice I said "strategic". Part of the strategy with a postcard campaign is to recognize and EMBRACE that you cannot expect to go from postcard to sale in one step. That's just going to set you up for failure & disappointment. And worse, you may end up writing off the value of postcards. Sort of like eating really bad french fries & saying you don't like french fries before you've tried them done right. Ummmm, french fries :-)'
3. I agree with your point #3) But again, just because YOU apparently know how to network effectively doesn't mean it's going to work for everyone else. Unfortunately most people are naturally pretty bad networkers. And lawyers are no exception. In fact we're naturally pretty bad at it. But you can learn. Bob Burg has a great book called "Endless Referrals" that I've used to helps thousands of lawyers become master networkers. I highly recommend it.
4. I agree that there is a ton of racism. Hey, you can be p.c. or you can be realistic. However I disagree that just because someone has an ethnic name and appearance they are automatically excluded from dominating a market. I didn't read the original post so I may be at disadvantage on this point but I'd actually DISCOURAGE an Indian lawyer from targeting Indian clients. It's patronizing & it will back-fire. For lots of very practical reasons. The quickest way for an ethnic minority to dominate a market is actually to go in exactly the OPPOSITE direction. Again, not "theory" 10+ years experience working with hundreds of ethnic minority lawyers. One of our Members has a last name "Hussein" and he was doing real estate in Texas. And we helped him turn that into a huge marketing advantage & he kicked-ass. So yes, you have to accept reality but you don't have to give up because of it.
5. I would DISCOURAGE most lawyers who are struggling from spending too much time on the listserves. Why? Because it tends to be a bad influence being around a bunch of lawyers who are also struggling. Instead you have to surround yourself with lawyers who are doing great. And be encouraged, motivated, inspired by their success. Join a coaching group. Mine or someone else's. Start attending your local Dan Kennedy Chapter meetings. Get yourself into the company of winners & entrepreneurs.
6) I refer back to #3 above.
RJON ROBINS
www.How To MANAGE a Small Law Firm.com