So much of current marketing in professional services is frantic - and ineffective.
Help-wanted ads cry out for those with contacts in established media, track records in social media and the ability to be out there glad-handing. This is especially the situation in all-size law firms. Those needing to develop new business have pored over Bloomberg's marketplace survey. They get the message: Differentiate through branding.
That may or may not bring in new business as well as reduce client churn.
What has been effective from the get-go is this: Doing favors.
Power brokers have frequently operated behind the scenes. Some shun plentiful media coverage. They aren't very social.
The classic example was the urban machine politics of the 20th century. In Hudson County, New Jersey, the Frank Hague machine was highly integrated. All in the loop had the capacity to do favors. In return, the recipients behaved in expected ways.
The favors most sought after ranged from jobs to not being arrested. The happily employed and the non-jailbird would buy their fish where the kingpins in the Hague machine directed. End of story.
Lawyers needing business or to hold on to the clients they have should figure out what favors they can grant. It could be as simple as a recommendation to a nursery school that the Smith's daughter would increase the diversity in X and Y ways. On a more complex level, it could be confidential pro bono advice to the chief executive officer of a mid-size business.
Master players in the Favor Game know to monitor their worlds for signs of distress. The professional needing help is not operating from a position of strength. Few will rush in and provide whatever. That's the ideal point of intervention for leveraging the magic of doing a favor.
Recently, two very successful colleagues in communications were in outplacement. They had lost their big jobs. Their age was against them in landing comparable ones. I parachuted in with what I had found out was effective in positioning and packaging aging professionals. Now the they are back to work, they refer assignments to me.
It's all too human to avoid those in a pickle. But they are the ideal sources of new business in the future.
In brainstorming for how to develop new business for the law firm, figure out what favors can be granted and to whom.
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