Finding Nemo?

‘They seek him here, they seek him there. Those Frenchies seek him everywhere’ (Baroness Orczy, ‘The Scarlet Pimpernel’)

Like most lawyers, I’m not a big fan of marketing so I recently decided that I needed help from someone who was. I posted the project on PeoplePerHour and eventually hired the wonderfully patient and ever helpful Jose Jimenez. To my surprise there were 30 plus applicants. Jose was the one who had done the research (and wasn’t too scary).

Being a sole practitioner there never seem to be enough hours in the day as it is (by the time you’ve sorted your own paperclips and taken out the recycling). This meant that I didn’t fancy Jose’s chances of rolling this rock up the marketing hill but, to his credit, he’s stuck with it.

This is what Jose had to say on the subject of how potential clients find you (which was practically the first thing he asked me):

‘Knowing how your clients find you can be very valuable. You should always ask your clients how they came to contact you as you can use this information to evaluate and tweak your marketing efforts. With Ann’s assistance I was able to gather the following information. I’d just like to add a disclaimer here because this is based on a small amount of research and is by no means extensive. What would be interesting, however, is your point of view and feedback by way of a comment.

A client starts off with an issue or problem they would like to resolve. A referral from a trusted source is quite often what people look for initially but if none of your friends or network have ever needed to use a tax lawyer, what are the options? Google is of course one of the main sources of information that people turn to. After carrying out a Google search using the term ‘tax lawyer’, Contact Law, a free referral service, is the first result that appears. It is followed by a list of lawyers, in the London area that incidentally shows Ann’s listing.  In third position is the Law Society.

When speaking to one of Ann’s clients regarding his experience of looking for a tax lawyer he mentioned the Law Society but he wasn’t impressed with the quality of the information he received (Ann: No surprise there then). He went on to say that he found Ann’s website on Google and from that followed a link to her profile on LinkedIn to help with the decision-making process. This eventually led to him becoming Ann’s client.

How do your clients find you?

In September 2012 I posed this question on Ann’s behalf to lawyers (across all practice areas) in the Law Society Group on LinkedIn and here is a list of the sources and methods employed:

• Referrals
• Repeat business
• Networking
• Blogs and articles
• Twitter
• Website
• LinkedIn
• Books
• Speaking engagements
• Courses

Many of the respondents used quite a few of the above methods so it’s clear that relying on one or two sources isn’t going to be as fruitful as spreading the net as far and wide as possible. This allows potential clients to find your details more easily. One other point I’d like to make relates to establishing trust and credibility. It is important to convey this to potential clients as this is likely to be one of the critical factors in the decision-making process.

Thanks for reading and if you have any feedback regarding the ways in which clients find lawyers or would like to share your own experiences, please leave a comment below.’

Well that’s what Jose found out.  Jose was also the one who persuaded me to sign-up to Twitter and I’ll tell you about how that’s going another time.

Jose can be contacted here. I can recommend him highly.  Alternatively you can live with a London cabbie as I do and rely on him for your marketing effort:  ‘My partner’s a top tax lawyer.  She’s blindin’.  Here’s her card.  Give her a bell.’  That works too.

Tax lawyer specialising in business tax, SDLT and VAT