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Power Niche Marketing: Every Client And Every Customer Is Different

Sorry, but there's no single magic marketing bullet that will work for all clients all the time.

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One lesson that seems obvious but really is not at all is that every client is very different in its desires for legal representation. There is therefore simply not a one-size-fits-all solution to marketing. Marketing is a wonderful area to work in for that reason: you can craft and create all sorts of ideas and see what works. And always remember that no matter how much you think and prepare, you are not playing with widgets; you are dealing with human beings. You have to be open-minded and flexible, or you will end up failing too much.

If you are like most people – including me – you probably hope to find that something – that special thing – that you could do that would work like a magic marketing bullet.  It would be a consistent solution in your marketing pitch that you could use all the time that would result in a pile of clients pouring in the door.

But – alas – that is just not how it works.

Law, especially, is a “personal” service business. There is, therefore, a “person” that is being serviced by your legal work. And because of that, each client and each customer is different and wants different things from you.

Let me try out an example. Let’s pretend you are seeking to bring in a client for real estate transactional work. You launch into your pitch and maybe say you are a really great negotiator and you can achieve great results at the bargaining table. After your eloquent and convincing pitch, however, you learn that this client really likes to do the negotiation himself, and just wants lawyers to just document the results of his negotiations. Oops!

Or maybe you tell the client at the pitch that you are super careful on documentation and nothing ever gets missed. But then the client mentions that he just can’t stand “overly detail-oriented lawyers.” They drive him crazy. He doesn’t believe in the documents anyway, and he just likes to get deals done. Oops, again….

You get my point. Clients want different things from their lawyers.  Admittedly, an effective marketing strategy logically has a “default style” if you really have no idea what the client wants. I urge that your marketing style should be very flexible, however, so you can tailor the service you deliver to be the kind of service that the client seeks.

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Notably, what I am saying here in this article does not necessarily apply to things like data analytics and marketing campaigns that literally go out to hundreds of thousands, or even millions, of customers. I recognize that sometimes these concepts can be hugely successful, but that is not within the scope of my expertise.

To conclude, there is not going to be a single magic marketing bullet that will work for all clients all the time. Accordingly, I urge you to become a student of marketing in order to be successful.

Bruce_StachenfeldBruce Stachenfeld is the managing partner of Duval & Stachenfeld LLP, an approximately 70-lawyer law firm based in midtown Manhattan. The firm is known as “The Pure Play in Real Estate Law” because all of its practice areas are focused around real estate. With more than 50 full-time real estate lawyers, the firm is one of the largest real estate law practices in New York City. You can contact Bruce by email at thehedgehoglawyer@gmail.com. Bruce also writes The Real Estate Philosopher™, which contains applications of Bruce’s eclectic, insightful, and outside-the-box thinking to the real estate world. If you would like to read previous articles or subscribe, please click here.

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