I was with one of my clients the other day and she said she had some news that would please me, and she was right. She had that morning received instructions from a new client who had obtained her details from……. a brochure in a friend’s house! Now for the negative people out there you might say the referral may have happened in any event. Possibly, but the brochure made it far more likely to happen.

The reason this story pleased me was because when I started working with the client they had no promotional materials aside from their website. I see this more and more with law firms and it always amazes me. Brochures were the marketing staple of a law firm for many years. Somehow though, I think maybe because of websites, less and less solicitors have brochures to promote their services. Now I know that this is completely insane, but clearly a lot of solicitors do not know this. Let me explain why you must have brochures.

The Cost Of Your Services

The cheapest proper legal service is probably around £100, for wills (any less then you should consider your options – it might be easier to sell 100 coffees a day than one under priced will so perhaps a coffee shop would be a better option (with a better margin too)). So if you expect your new clients to part with £100 plus, should they not be able to read about you and find out why you should be their firm of choice before contacting you?

Your Competitors

For the reasons I have stated above (insane as they are), most of your competitors do not have brochures to send to their prospects. This makes it even more compelling for you to do so.

Convert More Clients

If you receive any client enquiry I strongly advise you to send a printed letter (not just a lazy email) outlining the services that you discussed with the prospect on the telephone. This makes a MASSIVE difference in terms of improving your conversion rate for turning prospects into clients – Guaranteed. (This is why I have written my Sales Process ToolKit so if you need help converting more clients buy that). However, when you send your letter, if you enclose a brochure at the same time your client is even more likely then to choose your firm over your lazy competitor who has only sent an email and not included any brochure. This is how my client generated her new instruction.

One Referral Pays The Print Run

The next argument is that brochures cost money. Yes, there is no denying this point. However, if you treat brochures as you would any marketing activity, i.e. in terms of return on investment, this argument is soon removed. One new client from a print run of 1000 brochures covers the cost of your brochures. After that, any new clients put you in profit. Now if I were to say to you for every £1 you give to me I will give you £5 back, you would keep on giving me pound coins all day long would you not? This is what brochures do for you, but only if you have some and then only if you send them out regularly (get them out from that box in reception).

Excuses…

Many businesses will keep closing in these tough ongoing times. The recession may be over but with uncertain politics and people simply being far more cautious of spending these days (and debt being harder to obtain) it will be tight for some time yet. The solicitors that survive and prosper will be the ones that take more time marketing their services. The ones that close will be the ones bemoaning the changes that this industry faces and doing nothing except sitting in their quiet law firms waiting for clients to walk through the door. In my experience that is the two types of law firm out there at the moment. I urge you to choose the survivers option.

Promotional Paragraph Warning (Do Not Read If Offended By Someone Offering To Help You!)

You can see above that I believe brochures are essential for promoting legal services. The purpose of my business is to help solicitors to sell more of their services. This is why I created my LawKits range. Now I put the warning on this paragraph because I do not want you to discount what I say above. I really do not care whether you buy your brochures from me or elsewhere, but I do care that you have some asap. If that is from me, all well and good, but make sure you have brochures for your services. Tesco/Co-Op law will, so what does that tell you? Do they spend money if they think it does not work? Click To See LawKits Range.

Author: Nick Jervis