Attorney marketing is necessary for success at every law firm and becoming more necessary every day. Unfortunately, many attorneys feel that they do not have the traits, expertise or experience in lawyer marketing to launch a successful campaign. You may have felt overwhelmed by attorney marketing in the past or even now. Or maybe you think that you need some sort of extraordinary people skills, imagination and/or outstanding copywriting skills to be a great at lawyer marketing for your firm. Well, the good news is that you are wrong.

There are essentially six traits that you must have to be a good at attorney marketing, and I think they will surprise you. The fact is that most marketing takes place with some tried and true methods over a period of time, rather than in stunning bursts of specialized skills all at once. Lawyer marketing is not an exact science, but it does require some initial ingredients to work well. So if you have the following traits or believe you can cultivate them, you are well on your way to becoming a great attorney marketing asset to your firm:

* People Person. Have at least a low average interest in people rather than things. If you are a lawyer, you probably have at least a cursory interest in people. People buy people first then products and services. Prospects convert out of relationship and referral sources refer out of relationship first and all other reasons second.

*Patience. Remember that most events in lawyer marketing happen over an extended period of time. Tested methods of attorney marketing usually require consistent, persistent and well-targeted action over time to get the desired results. You may think that you will launch a new campaign and get people beating down your door right away. And while this may happen occasionally, if you dont have the patience to wait for the real long-term results of your attorney marketing efforts, you will become frustrated and quit before you see the benefits of your labor.

*Imagination. Now, most people think they are not creative. Or if they think of themselves as creative, they limit their abilities by placing them in certain categories. You might be a great poet but not a great artist. Or you might be good with words but have no idea how to arrange images in an advertisement. What you may forget is that everyone has some sort of imagination. The point isnt to come up with fantastic attorney marketing ideas that no one else has ever thought of, but instead to put yourself in your clients and referral sources shoes and see what you can do to satisfy their needs. That is the type of imagination you need.

*Confidence. You need to be somewhat strong-willed when other people approach you about your attorney marketing ideas. You will certainly have critics; it happens to even the best marketers. So you need to be able to stand your ground and defend your decisions and stay the course until the data tells you otherwise.

*Generosity. Having a what goes around comes around attitude toward lawyer marketing. Remember that what you give out in this world often will come back to you. When I give you something free or something that is added on to a service that you paid for, you are more likely to see me as someone on your side and come back to me in the future. You are more likely to make a profit if you are willing to give something away first.

*Aggression. No, I dont mean a good right hook. What I mean by aggression is the quality of a willingness to compete. You can out-market your competition. Notice I did not say out spend your competition. If you are not willing to get out there and compete for the clients and referral sources that you want and deserve, you might as well not do attorney marketing focusing instead on being a legal technician.

With these six qualities, the right information, and implementing that information attorney marketing becomes a breeze that will bring good clients in on a consistent basis and you will prosper. If you are missing one or two traits all is not lost. You can design a lawyer marketing plan that will work for you and over time you can develop the missing traits. So success is in reach for everyone is the good news.

Henry Harlow

Trainer?Consultant?Coach in Business and Marketing Skills for Attorneys

Henry Harlow has worked with well over 500 attorneys (almost all in individual consultations by telephone.) Henry worked for 6 years in a nationally known training and development firm that works exclusively with attorneys improving their marketing and practice management systems.

Over 40 Years in Consulting, Training and Management:

Henry has over 40 years of experience doing consultation, training, management, marketing and administration for small businesses (owning several), professional service firms, hospitals, and major corporations. One of the small businesses that he built and sold was a psychotherapy practice with 6 locations seeing 400 to 500 clients weekly at the time of the sale.

He has managed marketing operations with ?marketing on a shoestring? budgets as well as marketing budgets over $1,000,000 annually. He has managed organizations with a few employees and organizations with over 70 employees.

Henry has been a consultant to Fortune 500 companies on personnel issues, organizational development and risk management issues. He is a Certified Guerrilla Marketing Coach and a licensed facilitator of Get Clients Now!

Academic Training and Licenses:

Henry?s academic training includes a bachelor?s degree with majors in psychology and business as well as a master?s degree in psychology. He is licensed as a psychotherapist with several national counseling certifications.

Interests:

Henry lives in Winter Park, Florida, which is a suburb of Orlando, Florida. Henry is married to Joanne Burger with no children by choice and one cat. His primary interests these days outside his relationship with Joanne are dining out, travel, current events, movies, recreational reading, microcredit in the third world, trading stocks, natural health care, and meditation. He works out 4 to 6 times each week to stay in shape.

Henry works from his home office providing training, consultation and coaching services that teach attorneys how to increase their revenues while they reduce their work hours.