The Visible Lawyer (eBook)

Executive summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi

About the author . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xvii

Part 1: The theory of visibility

Chapter 1: Where do you need to be visible? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Building brand cameos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Building brand cameos into an effective personal visibility plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Choosing the most productive marketing options for you . . . . . . . 11
What do you know now? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Chapter 2: How do you achieve a consistency of visibility? . . . . . . . 15
Little and often . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
The ‘marketing mix’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
How do you turn visibility into interest? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Creating a solid and attractive client value proposition for your firm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Creating a personal value proposition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
How do you make sure your (firm’s or personal) value proposition is in line with what your clients want? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

Part 2: Visibility in practice – How do you create visibility?

Chapter 3: ‘Intelligent marketing’ – Practical marketing activities that really do create visibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
What is ‘intelligent marketing’? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
What is the difference between ‘intelligent marketing’ and ‘tick-box marketing’? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Ten low-cost/high impact business development strategies that really work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
The proven three-step implementation model – Confidence, focus, action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

Chapter 4: How to stay visible to what you’ve already got . . . . . . . 47
Change your mantra from client management to client development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
10 client development strategies that really work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
How to grow your existing client relationships . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

Chapter 5: Don’t just stay visible to clients, stay visible to referrers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Why referrers are as valuable as clients . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
How do you build a referrer relationship model that really works? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
How do you convert your relationships into work? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74

Chapter 6: How do you create the visibility that wins new clients? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Make sure your firm is visible to potential new clients . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Get your web presence right . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
Adopting a sector strategy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Choosing the right sectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
How do you build an effective sector team? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92

Part 3: Mini-masterclasses

Mini-masterclass 1: Networking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Five things to remember so you establish the right mind-set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Five ways to get the very best return from any networking opportunity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
Four ways to plan the conversations you’ll have . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Five things to remember once you’re in a conversation . . . . . . . . . 103
Ten ways to follow up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
Five alternative ways to network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108

Mini-masterclass 2: Presenting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
Five facts that will help you get into the right mind-set to present . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
Eight ways to make sure your presentations actually deliver a tangible return . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
Seven ways to inject more impact into your presentations . . . . 115
Five physical changes you can make to your delivery to immediately improve your presentations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
Two ways to follow up and make sure your presentations turn into instructions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
Ten ways to avoid ‘death by PowerPoint’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
Eight ways to improve attendance at your firm’s seminar programme . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123

Mini-masterclass 3: Writing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
Three reasons you must engage in writing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
Seven potential publishing platforms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
Three things to remember when you’re writing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
Three ways to conquer writer’s block . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137

Mini-masterclass 4: PR – Become an industry expert . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
By Sharon Cain, managing director of Quest PR and former
BBC and Sky TV journalist
Harnessing the tools to become a thought leader acrossPR and social media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
Tips on maximising value from the PR tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
Harnessing the tools to become a thought leader . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
Achieving the joined-up formula for success . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152

Mini-masterclass 5: Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
Which seven things do you need to research? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
What are the 11 best sources of information? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
What are the four golden rules for any researcher? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
The final word: What gets measured gets done . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
How to set objectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
Measuring yourself . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
Multiple measuring (and motivating) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174