I have been thinking again again about what Shoosmiths were doing with their marketing effort at our local town fete, and what it had in common with the will writers marketing approach that I blogged about last week. The key thing for me is that they both went where their clients were. And it got me wondering – how else can you do that? What opportunities are out there to make yourself more easily accessible to potential clients?
Competing with the Emerging Legal Brands
I think there is an opportunity to fend off competition from the emerging legal brands by creating a tie-up with local businesses. Let me explain…
Big corporations like to offer lots of on-site services to their employees. When I was at Microsoft there was a creche, dry cleaning service, DVD rental, IFA, doctor and masseur on site. Inside the confines of many other corporate offices you will find a Starbucks or Costa Coffee, a hairdressers, gym, bank and much more. What’s the point of all that? For Big Corp it’s about keeping people at their desks longer. For employees it’s about convenience.
So how about onsite legal services?
Maybe next time your are negotiating terms with one of your corporate or small business clients, and they are pushing back on fees or asking for alternative billing arrangements, part of your negotiation could be about access to their employees in some way. Maybe you could offer monthly free legal advice clinics in the client’s offices, or perhaps you could offer special discounted rates to their employees. There are probably lots of other ideas you could come up with, just make sure that your offer provides value to both you and their employer in some way.
What do you think? What other opportunities are there for going to the client rather than waiting for them to come to you?
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