Here are five sales tips to shortcut the effort and to put some oomph into your marketing efforts!
1) Promote Your Specialty
Whether it is corporate, contract, family or small business law make certain that all of your profiles outline your specialty. Use key words so that Search Engines will pick up your profile when people search for the particular problem they need to solve. Create a bio that you can use on all of your social networks and marketing materials.
2) Use Hootsuite to manage your social media
Hootsuite is a free website that allows you to schedule your Tweets and updates on all of your social networks at one go. If you have written a blog article you can create an unending series of compelling posts with links to the article on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and more with one post on Hootsuite. Hootsuite even shortens your web link so that it will fit nicely into the 140 characters allowed by Twitter. This means you can spend a few hours on a Sunday afternoon and schedule all of your updates for the entire month. You get consistency and don’t need to remember to update all day long. Hootsuite also has an auto-schedule feature, which will spread out your posts evenly through the day. Make certain to complete your LinkedIn profile as LinkedIn profiles are highly ranked and quickly come up in most web searches. LinkedIn should become your main online profile – get it right!
3) Write A Blog
The search of legal questions ranks very high on search engines. Writing a series of blog articles on your specialty will garner lots of hits and lots of exposure for your personal brand. Write articles between 450 – 500 words in length. Include your keywords repeated; naturally, at a rate of about 3% will make your article highly searchable. Make certain that your blog post presents you as professional, expert, and approachable. Avoid use of jargon or highly technical words. Create a strong bio that highlights your expertise with a great professional photo. You should use the same photo on all of your social media profiles, as your photo will become part of your brand.
4) Don’t Network, Speak!
Networking is the first choice of most lawyers but my recommendation would be that instead of shaking hands and handing out business cards speak at networking events! At most you can connect positively with between three and five people at any networking event. If, however, you speak at the same event everyone attending will know who you are and your legal specialty. I will tell you a public speaking secret. Most professional speakers only have one speech and give that speech over and over again for years and years – just like a West End show! Work with a speaking coach and develop a strong 20-minute speech and then promote the fact that you speak on all of your promotional materials. Put the word out that you will speak for free at events. It will take a little time but you will speak more and more as you get better and better. Over time, video the speech and upload it to Youtube. Focus your efforts and you will get better and deeper results. Invest in a professional speaking coach and the payback will be bigger and faster!
5) Manage Your Pipeline And Learn To Close!
All of your marketing efforts will slowly begin to create a stack of business cards, connections and face-to-face business meetings. Once you make a connection begin the process of farming that connection. Create a central contact list, make sure you connect on LinkedIn and that you follow all of your connections’ social networks. Create a monthly e-newsletter and keep the connection strong. Keep on your contacts radar, the time will come when they will need you or will recommend you to a friend. When a contact does reach out for legal help be certain to close. Develop a presentation of how you can help your clients and why they should begin doing business with you today. Closing is simple – simply gently confirm that they are ready to move forward with you and then ask for a signature or retainer.
Selling is a science and anyone can learn to sell well. Developing a solid sales process will bring success! I regularly teach lawyers how to sell better and my experience is that lawyers do develop quality-selling skills – fast!
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