There are more than 450,000 legal practices throughout the United States that employ over 1.3 million lawyers.
Clearly, your future clients have a lot of lawyers to choose from to help them with their legal needs.
How do you help your legal practice stand out from the competition? How do you attract clients and show them that your practice is the best one for them?
There are lots of different client acquisition strategies you can utilize to keep your legal practice thriving.
Listed below are ten great sales prospecting tips for lawyers trying to grow their practice.
1. Schedule Time for Sales
If bringing in more clients to your firm is a priority for you (and it should be), you need to make sure you’re setting aside time for it on a daily basis.
You can’t expect to see great results if you only work on your sales and marketing strategy when it’s convenient for you.
Block off time to pick up the phone or reach out via email to get to know and connect with potential leads.
2. Anyone Could Be a Client
Remember that everyone you meet has the potential to be a client. Many lawyers struggle to establish and maintain because they forget this important fact.
The person you see every day at the coffee shop? They could be a client one day.
The person you met at a party last week? They might need a lawyer in the near future?
Whenever you meet someone new, make it a point to talk about your practice and give them your card.
Remember to always be polite and professional, too — you never know who’s watching.
3. Identify Your Target Market
If you want to attract clients to your legal practice, you need to think carefully about the ideal clients you want to attract. Sit down with your marketing team and figure out who your target market is.
After you do this, when you’re promoting your law firm, you can make informed decisions about where you’re going to share ads and which type of people you’re going to reach out to.
4. Ask for Referrals
Don’t be afraid to ask for referrals from past clients. If they’re satisfied with the service they received from you, they will likely be more than happy to talk up your legal practice to their friends and family.
The best time to ask for a referral is right after you’ve finished working with someone (ideally, someone whose case you just won). They’ll have positive associations toward you at this time and will be more inclined to share information about their experience.
Remember to keep in touch with your past clients, too. Check in on them every one in a while to see how they’re doing and let them know that you’re thinking of them.
5. Become a Resource
A great way to draw in new legal clients is to become a resource for folks in need of legal advice.
By publishing helpful content on your blog, on social media, or on a YouTube channel, you can establish yourself as an expert in the legal field and become the person people think of when they’re presented with a legal challenge.
You’ve spent a lot of years collecting knowledge about the law — why wouldn’t you share that knowledge with others?
6. Use Social Media
If you want to work on becoming a resource to current and potential clients, you need to make sure you’re using social media on a regular basis.
Having an active presence on the most popular platforms — Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, etc. — will help you reach a wider audience and build your legal practice’s brand.
7. Network, Network, Network
It’s great to try and build connections with people wherever you go, but it’s also important to attend events dedicated to networking. Attend conferences on a regular basis, and consider joining a local professionals group.
These events and groups provide you with opportunities to meet and learn from other professionals. They allow you to get your name out there and expose yourself to people who might need a lawyer one day (or who might have friends who need a lawyer).
8. Follow Up
After you’ve met someone new, be sure to follow up with them as soon as you can. Call them on the phone, send them an email, or reach out via LinkedIn and let them know that you’re thinking of them and enjoyed meeting them.
This is a great way to solidify connections and make yourself stand out.
People will be much more likely to contact you in the future if you’ve followed up and made an impression on them.
9. Stay Organized
If you’re making use of online tools to bring in new clients, you need to have a good system in place to keep track of the clients who find their way to you through these online tools. Make sure you have a good client management software that will help you monitor who’s interested in your practice and how they learned about your services.
10. Work with a Professional
Finally, don’t be afraid to work with a professional.
According to this site, hiring a professional marketing team can help you find new clients who are ready to work with a lawyer like you.
Legal marketing agencies have all the tools you need to reach out to your target clients and make sure they know where to find you.
Learn More Sales Prospecting Tips Today
As you can see, there are tons of different sales prospecting strategies you can use when you’re trying to bring in new clients to your law firm.
It’s easy to feel overwhelmed or stressed out, especially if you’ve recently experienced a dip in your clientele. If you keep these tips in mind, though, you’ll have a much easier time attracting new clients.
Do you want to learn more about selling your legal practice and yourself as a lawyer?
If so, we’ve got lots of helpful articles for you to check out. Head to the of our site today to start learning.