My friend Chris tells me that no one ever really wants to talk to an attorney until it's necessary, and I suppose he's right. I hadn't seen him in almost two months, and here I was, asking for his advice when it came to personal injury attorney business building. He's one of the best in the business, and was happy to hear me say so, so he offered to clue me in on a few different things.
The first thing that Chris told me was that even if they aren't thinking about you until they need you, that you need to really put yourself out there. Part of being a successful attorney, at least in terms of how you get people to pay attention to you, is through good publicity and making sure that you are someone who's name springs to mind when they are are in trouble. It's true that you have to hustle a lot just to make sure that this happens, but that's not necessarily a bad thing.
Chris stated that the first thing that you needed was a website. That can be the entire foundation of your personal injury lawyer attorney business building plan. His own site was put together by professionals.
"If you want it done right," Chris told me, "hire professionals to do it. You don't want to throw up a page that makes people think that you're sloppy or don't have the cash to pay someone to do it for you." I grinned at the thought of Chris, in his nice suit and well-situated office, being someone who didn't have the extra cash, but he kept going. "A lot of it is all about first impressions, and like they say, you only get to make one, so make it count."
Chris has also spent a fair amount of cash in terms of advertising his business on the billboards and buses near where he lives. I even saw one driving into town, and it really did make an impression.
"You never know when someone's going to need you," he stated. "I get a lot of calls, and there are plenty of people who need personal injury representation that don't even go online. Always make sure that you have all your bases covered, and don't skimp when it comes to good advertising."
Along in the realm of internet advertising, Chris also publishes a fair amount of articles on article archive sites. I asked him if this didn't mean that he was giving away legal advice for free, but he quickly corrected me.
"Free advice, if it's good advice, is something that's great to put out there. It shows people that you know what you are talking about, that you're nice enough to put it out there, and that they can get in touch with you easily using the link at the bottom."
If you are looking into personal injury attorney business building, you'll find that Chris's advice can go a long way. Make sure that you bring your clients to you; don't wait for them to get a clue!
David Ledoux is an author, speaker, trainer and mentor to entrepreneurs. His newest report The Small Business Death Sentence can be downloaded for free at [http://bigmoneyfreetime.com]
