How lawyers can earn more business_ a lesson in legal marketing with Alistair Marshall

I'm thrilled to share the latest guest on the Marketing Tales show, who joined the podcast all the way from Sydney, Australia, to convey his insights on how to best market a business in the professional services industry, particularly law firms. Alistair Marshall earned his degree in Monetary Economics from the Chartered Banker Institute in England and worked several years in sales in the UK before starting his consultancy business to help law firms market their services.Alistair started helping professional services companies like law firms because of the need he saw due to a lack of business development training offered at law schools. "If you have a marketing problem, you can't get meetings with prospects or referrals," he says. "If you have a sales problem, you can get a coffee meeting with people, but you can't close them."Alistair has enormous empathy for lawyers trying to grow their practice who have never been taught how to do it. He says the success of a professional services business depends on two things: Operational Competency x MarketingMeaning how good you are at what you do multiplied by how good you are at telling people about how good you are at what you do. The best way to start marketing your professional services firm, Alistair says, is to focus on your digital footprint because today's digitally empowered buyer won't buy anything without first googling someone. Your website or legal directory profile is your salesperson who works 365 days a year and never takes a day off. The second part of standing out in a saturated market is focusing on a specific practice area. "No one hires a generalist in 2023," Alistair explains. "Industry specialism prevents you from becoming redundant because people prefer a specialist over a generalist." And the third part is the importance of networking. Alistair calls it "to eat your way to success." Imagine scheduling 2-3 external meetings a week with prospects and referrals. That's up to 150 meetings a year, and good things happen when you go and talk to people. If that's too big of a time commitment, start with 2 hours a week.Alistair recommends Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday, preferably around lunchtime, to get out from behind your desk and meet people. A recent research study of 150 law firms conducted by Alistair reveals that most businesses with perfect-profile clients were closed during one-on-one meetings. Alistair recommends lawyers meet with the following groups of people: Five existing clients to gain ongoing businessFive prospects to build relationships and trustFive referrers who can help you gain new businessTo learn more about how to market your legal services, follow Alistair on LinkedIn and listen to this week's complete episode of the Marketing Tales Show on YouTube. It's loaded with valuable insights. Check it out.Until next time. ✌️