(From www.lawyerist.com)
Are you attracting the type of clients you want?
Or better yet, do you believe attracting such clients requires a five-figure marketing budget and an enormous time commitment that you simply cannot afford spare?
Well I am about to share with you a foolproof, 5 step system that will have you attracting your ‘perfect clients’ in no time.
And kiss goodbye the false belief that you need a massive marketing budget to make it all happen either, because you can do everything on this list without spending a dime.
Sound enticing? Here are the steps.
Step 1: Identify the problem you love to solve, tirelessly, even without pay
The day you recognize what you love to do as it relates to the practice of law, you will have recognized your purpose in life and retirement will be an obsolete concept. Furthermore, the day you commit yourself to aligning your income streams with that thing you love will be the day you “retire” no matter if you are 65 or 25.
In my case, I will be helping people share their creativity with the world through entrepreneurism until the day I die. I cannot NOT help those people. What could you do until the day you die, happily, and for free if push came to shove?
Step 2: Create a product or service offering to solve that problem
You have to “package” your passion into something people can repay you for. Notice I did not say “pay you for”, I said “repay” you for. You MUST provide value first. This may even require you putting your product or service out there for free initially (see the next step) and shifting the risk from the client to you, the service provider up front.
If you have a service offering, do your absolute best to steer clear of hourly billing. Hourly fees are lose-lose, as you only end up trading your life for a few bucks. It is a bad, outdated, shortsighted metric of value. If you can build in some continuity, such as a monthly flat fee for your services that lasts for a year, then do it. Trade a long-term relationship for a higher project fee every time you can.
If you have a product offering, price it to move, but at a profit. The key to success is to make a lot of people a little happier, at a profit each time. Again, if you can build in some continuity, do it.
Step 3: Convey value to your ‘perfect clients’ free via your blog
First, let me start by saying that there is no excuse for not having a blog. None. You can have one set up for free inside of 10 minutes. Just go to http://www.wordpress.com. If you have 20 minutes, you can get your own domain name and have a wordpress blog set up in your own name or brand, like http://houchinlaw.com , http://www.spacebetweencenter.com or http://kevinhouchin.com . It does not take a technical genius, it only takes a bit of passion for your message (which should not be a problem if you took step one seriously).
Once you get your blog rolling, sit down and imagine the perfect client sitting across from you in your plush office. What questions do they ask? That’s a blog post. What do they fear? Each of those fears is a blog post. What gets them jazzed? Each spark of enthusiasm is a blog post. What just made YOU happy about the progress toward solving the problem from step 1? Blog post.
Are you starting to get the picture?
Remember, your perfect clients are frantically searching Google for answers because they are afraid of wasting money on a lawyer who cannot help them. At this stage of the game, what is valuable to your ‘perfect clients’ is good, quality, content that demonstrates you understand their problem and you have the ability to help them fix it.
And I am not talking about offering prospective clients dry, legalese-heavy posts littered with footnotes and case citations either.
Instead, use your blog to have a straight-forward conversation, as though you were engaging someone during a consultation. Then once you finish providing this information of value, use your site to share how people can REPAY you for providing such valuable content by hiring you for your services or purchasing your products – maybe even both – as we will discuss in step 5.
Step 4: Let people know where they can find what you’ve posted on your blog
This is where social media comes in. You know, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and if you are a video-savvy person, YouTube. These are speed-networking-on-crack and blow the roof off of conventional media outlets. Sure, you will want to submit your great articles to major publications, but get the quick stuff out quickly – via your social media networks. Provide value and share the value. Your blog is the hub. Media outlets are the spokes. Almost all of the good ones are free. Again, no excuses.
Step 5: Allow people to hire you to help them solve their problem
If you have thoughtfully, sincerely, and regularly completed steps 1-4, your perfect clients will find you. They will ask for your products and services. You just need to give them a clear avenue to do so. Too many people say “I am just doing this for fun” and fail to create an income stream from their passion or hobby that will allow them to escape the day job and “retire” doing what they love.
But if you take just these few steps and practice them regularly, the income streams will appear and you will be able to focus as much time on them as you want. You will “retire” well before your 60s because what you do for a living will be aligned with ACTUALLY LIVING. What could be better than that?
see:
http://lawyerist.com/attract-perfect-clients/