At our first meeting, Jack wanted me to immediately explain to him the specific marketing tactics that I use in my own practice.  I told him that before we did so we first needed to do some work that is more fundamental than that.

I asked him questions about his goals and objectives and about his values.  Why was he starting his own practice?  What EXACTLY did he want it to provide him (a lot of money is not a sufficient answer)?  Initially he questioned why we were discussing those topics when what he was looking for was marketing advice.  But, he quickly understood that it was important to establish the WHY before we got into the WHAT and the HOW.

Over the course of about an hour, Jack got very clear on what he wanted out of his law practice, and how he wanted his practice to serve his life.  We set specific objectives related to revenue and profit, staff and clients.  We discussed how much time he wanted to spend in the office and other quality of life issues.  He commented that he had not really thought about those issues before and that it was empowering to think he could actually choose how much he would work and what type of autonomy he would have.  But, he confided in me that he questioned whether he could actually create a practice that would allow him to meet these objectives.   I promised him that he could and that he and I would do just that.  He had taken a huge step in that direction by just getting clear on these important issues.  Many lawyers never do.

It reminds me of this famous scene in Alice in Wonderland:

“Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?”
“That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,” said the Cat.
“I don’t much care where –” said Alice.
“Then it doesn’t matter which way you go,” said the Cat.

The same principle applies here.  Without getting this type of clarity, then it really doesn’t matter which direction you go in your marketing efforts.

Jack left our meeting with a one page summary of his one and five year revenue and profit goals along with a clear vision of what his firm would look like in terms of his ideal clients, the makeup of his staff and even the physical environment of his office.  Additionally, he had written statements related to the number of hours he would (and wouldn’t) work and statements related to the contributions he would make through his firm to his family, his clients, his staff, and his community.  It was actually kind of fun to see him get so excited.  Jack wasn’t the type to show much emotion, but clearly this type of reflection had given him further impetus in launching his new firm.

Once we had taken care of that important task we were ready to get into some strategic thinking about his marketing plan.  We needed first to think strategically before we got into specific marketing tactics.

I explained to him that we needed to get clarity about three big issues before we were ready to proceed to specific tactics.  But, they would have to wait until our next meeting.

Coming Next: Lesson 2 – A Strategic Foundation