What’s Your Excuse for Not Having a Law
Firm Marketing Plan?
By Stephen Fairley,
CEO, Rainmaker Institute
Here’s what a law firm’s lack of a
marketing plan tells me:
You only plan to practice for a year
or two. Having a law firm marketing
plan increases your chances of survival
over the long haul. A solid, well-planned
guide keeps you from making serious
mistakes that can quickly sink your
business.
Two-time international bestselling author,
Stephen Fairley is CEO of The Rainmaker
Institute, LLC, the nation’s largest law
firm marketing company specializing in
marketing and lead conversion for small to
medium law firms. Over 18,000 attorneys
nationwide have benefited from learning
and implementing the proven Rainmaker
Marketing System. Over the last 16 years,
he has become a nationally recognized legal
marketing expert and been named, “America’s
Top Marketing Coach.” He has spoken
numerous times for over 35 of the nation’s
largest state and local bar associations and
has a large virtual footprint with his highly
successful Rainmaker legal marketing blog
and has over 200,000 followers on Facebook,
Twitter and LinkedIn. For more information,
please visit www.TheRainmakerInstitute.
com or call 888.588.5891.
T
here are many excuses for not
having a law firm marketing plan,
but I have yet to hear one that I
would buy into. You don’t have the time
to put into planning the future of your
firm? You don’t know how to write one?
You will get around to it “some day” but
that day never comes? Is this what you
are telling yourself?
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CONSUMER BANK RUPTCY JOURNAL
You like to fly by the seat of your
pants. Creating a solid business plan
provides structure and a context for
everyday activities, while helping to
fit daily activities into the context of a
larger, more strategic plan of how you
are going to grow your business.
You like to bury your head in the
sand. Staying on track amidst the
day-to-day distractions and assessing
opportunities to see if they fit with your
long-term goals is another way that a
comprehensive marketing plan can
help you stay on track.
You have plenty of money to throw
around. By knowing your financial
costs and risks ahead of time, you
can more effectively plot your growth
strategy and manage your budget.
You like to follow the crowd.
Emulating someone else’s business
model simply because you don’t want
to devote the time and resources
to developing your own law firm
marketing plan is fraught with a number
of dangers. For example, if you copy
someone else’s business model,
you will likely wind up copying their
mistakes as well. You can also miss
opportunities that are perfect for your
business because of your distinctive
experience, knowledge, background,
location, or target demographics.
Summer 2017
You don’t envision any future for
your firm. In the end, your business
will be driven by your vision — and the
process of developing that vision is
critical to your business success.
You like operating in a vacuum. It is
crucial to set up measurable objectives
in advance so you are able to compare
your results against those objectives to
learn where you succeeded and where
you fell short. If you don’t know where
you are going, how will you know when
you get there?
If the law doesn’t work out, you can
do something else. Being committed
to growing your business starts with
laying a good foundation for that future
growth, with clearly delineated steps
for those in the organization to follow
so they can contribute to your success.
You can fix this by investing just two
days at a Rainmaker Retreat, our law
firm marketing seminar. Here are the
upcoming dates:
August 18-19, 2017 — Las Vegas, NV/
Four Seasons Hotel Las Vegas
September 15-16, 2017 — Atlanta,
GA/The Ritz-Carlton Atlanta
October 13-14, 2017 — Dallas, TX/
Hyatt Regency North Dallas
November 10-11, 2017 — New
Orleans, LA/Royal Sonesta New
Orleans
December 8-9, 2017 — Los Angeles,
CA/The Ritz-Carlton Marina del Rey
Stop making excuses and creating
reasons to fail. Register online now for
a Rainmaker Retreat or call 888-588-
5891 for more information.
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