lawyers as relationship builders
I really enjoy reading Andy Havens’ legal marketing blog. He always gets me thinking about ways to connect with existing and prospective clients. In this recent post he remarks that lawyers are “often amazing relationship managers” which, he says, “makes them fantastic experiential marketers.” For the uninitiated (like me), Andy states this basic tenet of experiential marketing: “people remember personal experiences much more strongly than broad-band media productions or celebrity sponsorships.” He goes on to credit the ways lawyers forge the bonds that translate into long-term relationships with clients: “They know their clients' businesses inside and out. They understand their industries. They ‘get it’ when the business climate changes. They keep an eye out for their clients' competitive issues. They are proactive. They don't play ‘yes man’ games, but will sometimes risk losing business in order to do the right thing.” I find these insights very interesting and somewhat perplexing. I regularly speak to groups of lawyers about optimizing their skills, success and satisfaction in the law. During the interactive presentations, I ask them to identify the biggest hurdles to achieving these three goals. Invariably, they rank the same impediment at or near the top of the list – an inability to engage clients or client referral sources. And by this they don’t just mean an inability to go out and find such prospects. Rather, both veterans and newcomers admit that they have a hard time connecting with people as people. They’re severely lacking in human relations skills. I venture that, without these core relational skills, it’s simply impossible to create the client bonds, enduring relationships and positive consumer experience that Andy refers to.
