Marketing Is Not A Dirty Word
Posted by Dave Seeger, Associate at Legal Futures Associate SIFA Professional
Seager: Financial advisors have gone through this process before
Having worked, even if indirectly, with lawyers since the 2000s, I often hear that lawyers consider the word "marketing" a dirty word. The word might be considered more similar in trade to another suspicious expression "sell".
In fact, before Retail Distribution Review professionalized my industry and the Legal Services Act opened up legal services to new entrants and competition, lawyers probably thought marketing was something a financial advisor could do!
I wish financial and legal advisors were in a different position today, but I also think law firms have a lot to learn from fellow financial planners.
But first, I think it's worth considering why lawyers have been against blatant marketing for so long.
Of course, there has been a ban on advertising for some time, but its origins may lie in an innate belief that professionals such as lawyers, accountants or even doctors should not advertise their services: customers come to us.
On the other hand, suspicion in marketing may lie in how it is seen or described. Take, for example, the definition from the Oxford English Dictionary and you can understand why lawyers might not want to get involved: “Marketing is the act or activity of promoting and selling goods or services. including market research and advertising.
For highly skilled closed industry professionals who consider legal advice their specialty, you can understand why "promoting or selling a product or service" can seem like a rather complicated, inappropriate, or even unnecessary expense.
Lawyers today aren't working in a closed market, they're just competing with other attorneys, so obviously there's price review.
In my opinion, after telling qualified financial advisors how to market my company as an attorney's partner of choice for years, Oxford's definition is not only out of date, it's also inaccurate. Perhaps even more resonant is this: "In the 2020s, marketing should be the art and strategy of educating potential customers on how your service can help them."
Isn't that the core and idea of the Attorney Transparency Initiative?
Transparency is designed to encourage effective communication in plain language about your core services, who will provide them, and at what cost. Is this any different from teaching prospects how your service, such as marketing, can help them?
The clarity and ability to promote your company, as well as the professionalism and quality of your lawyers, should be used to your advantage. Your website is the main storefront for this subtle marketing.
We all know that more and more clients in need of legal advice are choosing to start their search online. In short, your potential customers NEED you to sell them something.
Marketing in 2022 is not a dirty and corrupt practice; it is an important feature of commercial practice.
However, perhaps more important than marketing to new clients is improving the way your company sells products to clients, perhaps clients who have previously purchased services from your company or perhaps from individual lawyers within the company.
It's also worthwhile, and even appropriate, to mention that your old presumption that customers don't want to be sold is close to true. However, they want to know what services they might need and want to buy them. The differences are subtle, but when it comes to professional advice, they are important.
It is in this area, in 2022, that I would respectfully suggest that a friendly conversation with the financial planning firm you work with and refer clients to can help.
I suggest this for three reasons, all of which have to do with the position of the legal services industry relative to the financial planning profession.
First, financial planners have strong relationships with clients because they execute plans based on goals and aspirations.
These plans will change as circumstances change, so financial planners simply need to maintain a regular dialogue and open channels of communication with their clients. (Importantly, they will continue to have the opportunity and reason to refer general customers to comply with legal requirements.)
Second, the desire for transparency has been around for a long time in the financial services industry, so using plain language in client and website marketing should become second nature to your financial planning partner.
After all, clients don't want retirement explained to them, they want the lifestyle you can potentially offer in retirement. The same applies, for example, to setting up a trust. They are not interested in the technical details of a type of trust, but in how you can ensure that the client's beneficiaries receive money in a timely manner and in the most tax-efficient manner.
Third, the financial planning profession has gone further in its journey with customer relationship management (CRM) systems than the legal services industry.
CRM is the best and most effective way to promote new services or products that may be of interest to existing customers or customers who may only purchase one service from your business. Again, this is not about using technology for sales marketing, this is about teaching about other services that, based on your current knowledge of the customer, may be of interest or need.
All our professional SIFA members here will be happy to share their experiences above.
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