Boom or Bust? SMART Legal Marketing Protects Law Firms

Maintaining an aggressive business development program is an attorney's best antidote to prevailing economic uncertainty.

It's been a tough week on Wall Street with stocks down about 4%, and there is some dissension coming from the Fed about the future economic outlook. Whatever direction the economy takes, law firms should continue to be very focused on business development to enhance their chance for success.

If your law firm does not already have some form “SMART” (specific, measurable, achievable, repeatable, and timed) sales process, now is a good time to refocus your efforts. Here are just a few of the many ways to sharpen your business development efforts:

1. Clearly define your ideal client. For example, you might be targeting high net worth families with children in a certain zip code or medical offices with 10-25 employees. Whatever the case, be as specific as possible.

2. Maintain a prospect list that names names. Clearly identify who you want to go after.

3. Establish your selling strategy. What is step 1, step 2, etc. to go from finding a prospect to closing the sale? Once you have the steps, measure and monitor prospects as they go through the process.

4. Repeat - keep prospecting, keep selling, generally keep working your list. You will want to successfully repeat this sales process over and over for maximum results.

5. Establish timeframes for your business development efforts to keep the process moving.

The advice of @RainmakingLady is never stop marketing!