The one competitor no attorney can afford to ignore
Marketing legal services can be cut throat. And yet I often write that while attorneys should keep an eye on their competition, they should not dread them. Competition makes us better lawyers. It educates and expands the market for our services. And it provides us with a way to convince prospects to choose us by showing them how we are uncommon or better.
But there is one competitor that no attorney can meet the expense of to ignore.
This competitor is stealthy. If you aren't careful, he will go quietly clients from under your nose and you will never know it. There is no competition more powerful, or more deadly than this one, and you need to be prepared.
Who is he? He goes by several names: apathy, indecision, and dread.
Your largest competition isn't the other attorneys in your market. Your prospects have another option, as Seth Godin reminds us: the option of doing nothing.
You may do a excellent job of showing prospects why they should choose you as a replacement for of any other attorney, but you must first show them why they need to hire any attorney. If they don't see the need or their fears preclude them from making a choice, you've lost the client, just as surely as you would had he hired the guy down the street.
The excellent news is that you can defeat this competitor. Make sure your prospects know the risks of doing nothing and the benefits for making the right choice. Tell them the facts and share the tales.
Once they know why they need to hire an attorney and are persuaded to do so, then show them why the attorney they hire should be you.