The uniqueness of the law firm. Text and prototype for the landing page (lawyers and attorneys). Prices for the provision of legal services to legal entities, the most common services

The legal business is developing rapidly in Russia. More and more lawyers and attorneys are faced with the need to attract clients professionally. In this book, you will find many useful ideas on how to develop strategies and tactics for attracting clients to legal practice. The book is written in a simple and understandable language, based on the practical experience gained by the author when working with law firms and lawyers in Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan. The author of the book is a marketing expert legal services, member of the American Association of Legal Marketing, President of the Russian Association of Legal Marketing, Managing Partner of the international consulting firm Legal Marketing Laboratory. The publication will be of interest to private lawyers and attorneys, heads of law firms.

A series: Dmitry Zasukhin's legal marketing laboratory

* * *

company liters.

Chapter 3. Formation of strategy in marketing

In the previous chapter, we covered basic marketing strategies. Now let's figure out how to form an overall strategy.

3.1. Strategic Marketing. Your practice in five years

Imagine falling asleep. You have a dream, in which you see your legal practice in five years.

Describe what you see:

What clients do you serve?

How do you attract them?

What services do you sell them?

How many employees are on your team?

What is your personal role in the team?

How much do you earn?

These are not just questions. These are the questions that shape the strategic view of your legal business.

My practice as a consultant shows that most lawyers do not have a strategic (for 5-7 years) view of practice, a clear and concrete vision of what they will be doing.

Where does this lead?

There is a good proverb: "There is no tailwind to a ship that does not know where to sail."

In practice, it happens like this. We are starting to work on attracting clients in the direction of "Auto Advocate". We make a website, launch an advertisement, a client has gone ... and the lawyer says: "I'm not interested in this." The result is a lot of waste of time and money.

Can this result be avoided? Yes you can! Try to daydream as described above. Draw a strategy. Imagine your ideal future in 5-7 years.

Remember! The more detailed you draw your perspectives, the easier it will be to move towards your goal. You will reduce resources and go your way in business much faster.

So, you have formulated a strategic vision of what and how you will do in the legal business. You clearly know who your client is and what services you will sell to him. What's next?

We must find our distinctive features. Let's get down to it.

3.2. How to formulate your competitive advantage?

To begin effectively attracting customers, you must articulate a competitive advantage.

There is a technique in marketing called USP (Unique Selling Proposition). USP is the answer to the question "Why should I turn to you?"

How to find your USP? After all, legal services are so similar. The strategies below will help you.

Effective principles of USP formation.

The principle of the microscope. Review your legal practice in detail. What is your peculiarity? What attracts your customers?

I must warn you that it will be difficult for you to look at your business from the outside. Ask someone. May you and your practice be appreciated. Conduct a customer survey. Let them explain why they chose you.

After analyzing the legal activities of our clients, we found the following USP:

Free preparation of statements of claim.

If we lose your trial, we will refund your money for the services.

Conducting independent legal investigations.

Collegial solution of issues.

Narrow specialization (for example, legal services for dentistry).

Many of you will say, “What are these benefits? Everybody does it! "

Remember! USP does not mean that none of the competitors do the same service. USP works if none of the competitors SPEAKS about it in their ads!

Bouquet principle... This principle presupposes the combination of the incompatible.

Practical example.

One of my clients did the following: in the office where she received, a psychologist began to work in the next office. Her clients began to go through two stages of conflict resolution: psychological, and then legal. As a result, she gained fame and her services became unique.

Think about how you can complement your service? What to combine with?

Pseudo-USP, or coming up with advantages.

Have you gone through all the options and do not know how to distinguish yourself from your competitors? Try to come up with your own difference.

There are plenty of such examples in product marketing. Look at the composition of the Laska laundry detergent. The magic of color ”and“ Weasel. Magic of black ": two products, and one composition. You can also remember Nivea, which released a series of products with silver molecules, while everyone knows from the school chemistry course that there are no molecules in silver: it consists of ions.

How do you come up with a distinctive feature that will draw attention to you?

Analyze our laws from a marketing perspective. It's just an unlimited treasure trove of USP wording. For a lawyer, for example, the following is appropriate:

We guarantee never to testify against you, no matter what you tell us.

We adhere to a code of professional ethics.

We will never take a position contrary to your will.

One powerful strategy that will differentiate you from the competition is specialization. Let's figure out the details of how to use it for marketing purposes.

3.3. Choice of specialization

In the Russian legal business, specializations are usually distinguished according to such a criterion as the area of ​​law. Someone specializes in criminal law, someone in family law, and so on. This is quite logical for professionals: you cannot be an expert in everything, you need to choose one thing and concentrate on it.

Does legal specialization help to attract clients? Undoubtedly! There is a lot of competition in the market, and it is easier for a client to choose a specialized lawyer.

The problem with specializing in law.

Type “arbitration lawyer” in Yandex and you will get dozens of answers, type “auto lawyer” - there will be even more answers. Among such a variety, it is quite problematic for a client to choose a specialist for himself.

Client specialization.

"Advocate for Dentists". Don't believe me? Please: http://www.dvplaw.com/.

"A lawyer for male fathers"? No problem: http://www.cordellcordell.com/.

Why does client specialization work?

Each of us considers himself unique in his soul, not like the others. Try to compliment a woman that she has a dress like your friend, and a man that he drives a car, like half of the city. At least the person will be upset.

Despite the belief in our uniqueness, we love to be related: we are looking for people who are similar to us in religious beliefs, sports and professional interests ...

It is on this cocktail of kinship and uniqueness that the strongest marketing technique is built - CUSTOMER SPECIALIZATION.

Dentists see their legal problems as special; male fathers think that their divorce process requires special knowledge and skills.

What is the advantage of specialization in the client for a lawyer?

Ease of attracting customers. When you know exactly who your client is, it's easier for you to reach out to him. Professional forums and communities, social networks... The modern Internet provides dozens of ways to segment customers.

Competitive advantages. Expert status in your niche is a very powerful weapon. People want to work with experts. Expertise by type of client is understandable to them by nature. Let me remind you that we consider our problems and the problems of our community to be genetically unique.

Reduced advertising costs. All lawyers and advocates love word of mouth, but no one uses it on purpose. If an expert lawyer appears in the community, for example among dentists, the community will spread information about you instantly. Remember how women convey information about good hairdressers by word of mouth?

Which client to specialize in?

So you are planning to specialize in a certain type client. One of the most important conditions for success is choosing a promising client niche. Let's consider two main characteristics.

There must be money in a niche... A client may need you three times, want to cooperate with you, but if he has no money, everything is pointless. How to decide whether there is money in a niche or not? Look for indirect symptoms. Where is the client's business advertised? What office is used? Are there many staff? What is the average bill for a service? With this little analysis, you can figure out if the client can afford your services or not.

By the way, when analyzing the legal services market in Russia, I do not find specialized lawyers defending dentists, restaurateurs, owners of car services and car dealerships. But these niches have significant financial resources.

The client must be in need of legal services. Does the client have legal problems? How does he solve legal issues now? The client should need your services, be psychologically ready to outsource legal services. Take the civil service, for example. Perhaps hiring your company to provide legal services to some government agency would be 10 times more profitable and efficient than keeping specialists on staff, but alas ... bureaucracy is stronger than efficiency.

End of introductory snippet.

* * *

The given introductory fragment of the book Legal marketing. How to attract clients to lawyers and advocates (Dmitry Zasukhin, 2014) provided by our book partner -

The work of a specialist who provides assistance to organizations is focused on a full list of tasks within the legal framework that a company may face. Legal aid legal entities will be effective at all stages of the company's existence on the market - from the moment of opening the company to the moment of liquidation of the business.

Legal services for legal entities in Moscow at the initial stage

• Consulting on the choice of a business entity and the taxation system;
• A full list of services for registering a business with the tax office;
• Collecting the necessary documentation for registering a business;
• Representation of interests in the tax office in case of refusal to register a business;
• Assistance in opening a bank account for a legal entity;
• Drawing up the charter, keeping minutes of meetings;
• Assistance in obtaining the necessary licenses and certificates;
• Assistance with inspection organizations on the issue of obtaining permits for business activities.

It is important to know: why is legal services to legal entities a necessity at the initial stage? Bureaucratic delays can cause delays or rejections - tax office may not accept the application due to a minor error. This will cause downtime and financial losses for aspiring businessmen.

Lawyer services for legal entities at the stage of entrepreneurial activity

• Maintaining internal company documentation - personnel, labor, financial;
• Checking the legal purity of contractual documents, drafting documents at the request of customers;
• Mediation service, support of transactions and agreements with counterparties and partners;
• Escort foreign economic activity, as well as foreign economic contracts;
• Breaking contracts and agreements, recognizing certain positions of them as invalid;
• Conducting work on the collection of receivables, debts under loan and leasing agreements;
• Representation of interests in tax, customs, migration services;
• Accompanying on-site inspections from state bodies, appealing the results of inspections;
• Assistance in blocking a current account;
• Assistance of a lawyer to legal entities in transactions with shares and shares of the company;
• Legal services to legal entities on external financial management of the company, development of corporate management schemes, cost optimization;
• Checking the legal purity of real estate objects, machinery, equipment;
• Maintenance of various structural changes in the company.

It is important to know: the services of a lawyer for legal entities in Moscow are necessary for every transaction carried out - if transactions are carried out with finances, documents, property. Such an approach will allow you to protect yourself and avoid possible legal consequences. The specialist will check how the future operation meets the legal requirements and whether it carries risks for the company.

Legal assistance to legal entities in Moscow in court proceedings

• Conducting comprehensive pre-trial work aimed at resolving a problem situation;
• Drawing up a pre-trial claim, a response to a claim;
• Conducting business correspondence or negotiations on settlement issues;
• Collecting the necessary documentation and drawing up a statement of claim to appeal to the judicial authority;
• Disputes with government bodies regarding fines, overpayment of social contributions;
• Conducting labor disputes with employees of the organization;
• Provision of services by a lawyer for legal entities in corporate disputes, raider seizures;
• Representation of interests in disputes between co-founders, shareholders of the company;
• Work in the judiciary in disputes with counterparties regarding debts, non-fulfillment of the terms of cooperation;
• Bankruptcy of legal entities.

It is important to know: at the initial stage, you can always get a free legal advice for legal entities in all organizations that are represented in our rating. To do this, you need to contact the company or call representatives by phone. This will help you decide whether to continue working with the company and seek legal advice. Assistance can be provided on any issues, including in the form of legal advice on the sole proprietorship.

Cost of legal services for legal entities in Moscow, average

Starting a business in any field, it is important to find and formulate the benefits that the client will receive by contacting you (this will be the USP - a unique selling proposition). If not, you are no different from other companies. In this case, you will have to compete on price - dumping, losing profits.

Surprisingly, this simple and free promotion tool is not used by most business people. There is a chance to bypass them already at the start! To inspire you, we have selected 13 examples of USP of Russian and foreign companies that were able to stand out from the general background and succeed.

And how are they? 5 best Western USPs

Avis car rental service

“We are # 2. We're working harder "

("We’re number two. We try harder").

A great example of how you can turn a disadvantage into an advantage. For many years the Avis company worked in the shadow of a more successful competitor - Hertz, which positioned itself as the number 1 on the market.

FedEx delivery service

"When it should absolutely be delivered tomorrow morning."

("When it absolutely, positively has to be there overnight").

This slogan is no longer used by the company, but it is still cited as an example of the correct USP. FedEx assures customers that their shipment will arrive safe and on time.

This phrase combines two advantages: the promise of cargo safety and high speed delivery (overnight). Unfortunately, the company's management subsequently abandoned this slogan, replacing it with a less “strong” one that did not contain competitive advantages.

M & Ms

"Melts in the mouth, not in the hands"

("The milk chocolate melts in your mouth, not in your hand").

Original: Flickr

An example of how a fancy USP can attract customers. Thinking about how important it is not to get dirty when you eat chocolate, M & Ms has created candy in a special dense shell.

Conclusion - if this or that characteristic is important for your customers, feel free to use it as competitive advantage... No matter how silly or insignificant it may seem.

DeBeers Corporation

"Diamonds Are Forever"

("A diamond is forever").

This slogan has been used since 1948 to the present day, and was recognized by Advertising Age magazine as the best slogan of the twentieth century. The idea is that diamonds, over which time has no power, are the perfect symbol of eternal love (not without reason they are the ones that adorn many wedding rings).

Domino's Pizza chain

"You will get fresh hot pizza in 30 minutes or for free"

("You get fresh, hot pizza delivered to your door in 30 minutes or less or it's free").

This is a rather long slogan, but it can serve as an example of a good USP, because contains a guarantee. The conditions are described very clearly, customers understand what to expect from the company.

Unfortunately, Domino's stopped using this slogan, because drivers who tried to meet the allotted delivery time violated the rules road traffic and provoked accidents with a tragic outcome.

How are things going with USP in Russia?

We are in Directors Club For example, we don't just sell ads. We guarantee getting potential clients through the use of native advertising. This USP contains two killer arguments at once: a guarantee of the result and an explanation of how it will be achieved.

Taxi service

A Moscow-based company increased sales by 380% by hiring female drivers. Many ladies would prefer to get into a car driven by a woman; they would rather decide to send a child to class with her. In addition, women are less likely to smoke and violate traffic rules, which turned out to be of fundamental importance for many clients.

Carrier

Stating "We always have sober movers"(and in line with this slogan), the company has dramatically increased its customer flow. Those who used to be afraid to entrust fragile or valuable things to the drunk "Uncle Vasya" happily dialed the number of responsible workers. It was in the early 90s, since then this "trick" has been adopted by many companies, but the pioneers managed to profit from their idea.

Bar

One of the drinking establishments in St. Petersburg has increased the number of visitors at minimal cost. A screen was hung in the hall, on which they began to broadcast sports matches, and for each goal scored by the Russian national team or Zenit, a glass of vodka was poured out for free to all those present.

As a result, those who used to root for their favorite team at home started going to the bar and bringing their friends with them. The cost of buying vodka and a screen has paid off many times over.

Laundry

The management of the laundry found a seamstress who needed custom tailoring orders. Returning clean clothes to the client, the administrator pointed out the existing shortcomings (a zipper opens, a button comes off, etc.) and offered to fix them free of charge.

The majority, of course, agreed. After the renovation, things were returned in a package containing the seamstress's business card and a catalog of clothes that can be ordered from her. The cooperation turned out to be beneficial for both parties: clients passed information about bonus laundry services to each other, and the seamstress provided herself with orders.

Construction company

One of the teams that started in a competitive market without a budget came up with an excellent USP. An ad was placed on advertising sites: "Remove old wallpapers for free!"... 80% of clients who ordered this service subsequently invited builders to repair their apartment. These people have already demonstrated their accuracy, accuracy and reliability - why waste time looking for someone else?

Examples of USP from B2B sphere

Typography

A company from Nizhny Novgorod opened in its office business card museum famous people ... Businessmen played on the public interest in the lives of the rich and famous. As soon as the information about the exposition was disseminated, the order flow increased 5 times!

The media became interested in the museum, they began to publish reports about it, and the need for paid advertising disappeared.

Recruiting company

The management thought about how to stand out from the background of numerous competitors. And offered a unique service - rent of employees. Need a courier for a few months? No problem! A designer for a couple of weeks? We will pick it up!

As a result, appeals from businessmen who do not want to waste time looking for freelancers or registration / subsequent dismissal a specialist needed for a short time.

Kommersant and the LegalPractice.Ru project publish the results of an annual survey of legal business in Russia. Based on the analysis of information provided by market participants, we represent 50 leading law firms providing services in the territory Russian Federation, as well as a ranking of law firms that have achieved the best performance in key areas of legal practice.

Dmitry Ivanov, Maxim Chernigovsky

Research methods

The research was conducted by the method of in-depth questioning of the heads of law firms about the results of the firm's activities in 2015 and the current state of the firm. The research questionnaire was specially developed by the LegalPractice.Ru project.

The survey was open to all law firms, that is, any lawyers, bar associations, other legal entities or groups of companies operating under a single brand and providing professional legal advisory services, including legal representation. Information about the study was disseminated through the media, social media and direct mail. The mailing list for direct mail was compiled from open sources, including Russian and international directories of law firms, publications on ratings in which Russian law firms, as well as search queries on the Internet.

The information obtained from the questionnaires was checked by sending a clarifying request to the respondent, as well as using open sources, in particular through the SPARK system, the respondents' own Internet sites, as well as data in the media. If, as a result of the check, there were discrepancies or errors were found, the questionnaires were corrected.

In a number of cases, respondents did not provide the information required to include a firm in the rating. If the researchers had reasonable assumptions about the possibility of including a company in the rating, the researchers independently collected information available from open sources. This year, an exception was made for companies that did not provide information to participate in the rating, and according to data from open sources, showed a negative trend in key indicators... We understand that the financial difficulties of such law firms should not be compounded by our publication. I hope that in the future their performance will improve and these companies will return to cooperation.

We also understand that our resources are insufficient for a comprehensive study of the Russian legal services market, and we ask representatives of law firms that were not included in the rating for other reasons to understand the need to contribute to the study, including timely and complete provision of the necessary information.

Calculation method

To rank law firms, an integrated indicator was used from the revenue received in 2015 for legal services provided, as well as the number of lawyers (including partners) with correction factors depending on the grade (partner, advisor, senior lawyer, junior lawyer, etc.). Given that in most cases, respondents provided data on their revenue on a confidential basis, this data is not published. In cases where respondents did not provide data on revenue, we independently did expert judgment the respondent's estimated revenue based on the number of lawyers in the firm, as well as the effective hourly rate of law firms of a similar level business reputation and market segment.

The size of the firm's revenue demonstrates the demand for the firm's services in the market, its competitiveness among other law firms, and the high value of the results of services for clients. The indicator of the number of persons providing professional legal services on behalf of the firm demonstrates the ability of a law firm to attract qualified personnel and financial sustainability a firm that allows you to maintain a payroll for lawyers.

Rankings for certain areas of legal practice

In general, the industry rankings retain the monetary approach to identifying the leading firms in certain areas of practice: to select the best industry practices, the proceeds of a law firm in this practice were assessed, as well as data on the size of cases ("the price of the issue" that was decided by the law firm for its client) ... Researchers believe that clients will only entrust the most expensive and commercially important cases to the best and most trusted advisor. The complexity and uniqueness of the case, as well as the participation of the firm or the firm's lawyers in international rankings were taken into account as additional criteria. Only data on revenue and cases that were completed in 2015 were analyzed.

results

1. Due to the confidentiality of the data provided by our respondents on the amount of revenue and other indicators of the firm's performance, we will not comment on how successful the work of specific respondents was in comparison with what was done in 2014. We will give only general data. The average revenue growth of the largest firms participating in the current rating over the past year is 18.8%, however, individually, the growth rate of individual firms ranges from 1% to 70%. In general, the financial year for most firms ended well, but in dollar terms, the revenue figure fell by half.

There are also law firms, the amount of revenue of which, in comparison with the one received a year earlier, also decreased in ruble terms. The maximum drop in revenue is 36%. But compared to the performance of some of the firms that declined to participate in the ranking, this is not so bad.

2. The number of lawyers in a firm affects both the cost of its services and their volume, and, accordingly, the absolute amount of revenue. Revenue growth in the range of 30% to 70% is attributed to firms with a staff of 30 to 35 lawyers. The researchers note that there was no significant increase in the number of lawyers in these companies in 2015. The researchers believe that the reason for the increase in the efficiency of the work of lawyers is the high activity of partners and associates in finding new clients and organizing work on client projects.

3. We note that the number of lawyers is not always a guarantee of a significant amount of revenue. There are firms on the market with an income of over RUB 50 million. for one lawyer. Of course, these are unique cases that do not form a typical situation.

5. Despite the fact that we do not make any discounts to regional law firms, there is an obvious increase in the number of nominees, whose headquarters are located not in Moscow or St. Petersburg, but in other regions of Russia. Intensifying competition pushes clients to search for relatively inexpensive, but no less quality services from regional law firms. We hope regional players will consolidate achieved success and will show even more outstanding results next year.

More details

Top 50 law firms in terms of revenue from the provision of legal services in the Russian Federation

International commercial arbitration

Commercial disputes

Corporate disputes

Bankruptcy

Corporate law and support of mergers and acquisitions

Real estate and construction

Infrastructure and PPP

Tax disputes

Tax consulting

Criminal practice

Banking and finance

Antitrust Disputes and Consulting

How to attract clients to lawyers and advocates who are just starting their professional career? How not to burn out and create a truly successful business? One of important points- this is a skillful promotion of your own company, active attraction of clients. Let's consider the basic tools of legal marketing.

Own site

Now almost all companies and firms have websites. Moreover, a legal organization cannot do without it. To make the resource as informative and useful as possible for the client, first put yourself in his place. Think about what first of all worries the person who comes to your site, and post this information on the home page.

A clear structure is also important - a person should not wander and waste time in search of what is needed. Design is another aspect that deserves special attention. It is desirable that the stay on your site is aesthetically comfortable for the potential client. Place beautiful pictures in good quality, make the text large enough for readability.

Think over the content. You can limit yourself to the most necessary: ​​information about services, employees, benefits, customer reviews. However, on such a site people will not stay long. Therefore, it is worth taking care of posting interesting and at the same time selling articles on various legal issues.

Well-written content and a well-designed website are a great way to attract clients to a law firm.

Email promotion

No, this is not spam, as you might think. This is communication with an already accumulated client base through Internet correspondence. Let's say a potential client visits your website, gets interested and subscribes to an e-mail newsletter. While reading your letters, a person should gradually become convinced of your professionalism and receive really valuable information, otherwise the mailing will go to spam.

It is important to understand the scale here: it makes no sense to send something to just five subscribers. But if the "hot" base has already reached the mark of at least one or two thousand, then you can (and even should) try.

By the way, e-mail communication allows you not to lose contact with old clients. When they receive your letters, they continue to remember you, and at some point they will certainly ask for help.

Hosting an event

The event can be of several types:

Webinars are online conversations. It is necessary to choose a suitable platform, decide on the time and notify the participants.

Seminars and round tables are meetings in reality, offline, and therefore they require more thorough preparation. You need to find a suitable hall that can accommodate everyone, think about what the guests will do during the break, etc. The likelihood of clients contacting you after such an event becomes significantly higher.

Lead generation

As you can see, there are ways to attract customers to legal company a lot, and it is quite difficult to engage in all these types of activities without interrupting legal practice. Therefore, it would be more logical to contact lead generation specialists. Professionals are looking for potential clients who are ready to use your services and provide you with their contacts. And then you get into the business, and it depends only on you whether the client decides to use the services of your company.

One of the most important advantages of lead generation is that, if you wish, you can specify specific parameters of future customers: age, topic of treatment, ability to pay, etc.

Now you know how to attract clients to a law firm. Only an integrated approach guarantees a stable result. The more promotion channels you use, the more effective the result will be.