Question

Topic: Strategy

How To Market To Professionals

Posted by Anonymous on 7/24/2009 at 10:14 AM ET 50 Points
We provide business support services (not IT). Our sales team doesn't think that telemarketing work with lawyers. They also don't believe in 'white paper'. I would like to gather some ideas/tips on effective ways to qualified leads from the prospective lawyers. Will a seminar be a good platform?
Any recommendation on a b2b marketing book? preferably with case study and practical examples.
Thanks.
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RESPONSES

  • Posted on 7/24/2009 at 10:23 AM Member
    Can you give us some more information so that we can help you? You said it's not IT, but what do you provide? Billing? Office management? Legal secretaries? Transcribers?

    Lawyers probably won't respond well to telemarketing, but they do read (a lot). Whatever you give them, it better be worth their time, as they are a tough audience and extremely time-conscious.

    Tell us more about your service (what it does, what problem it solves, why you're different) so that we can do a better job of helping you.


    Jodi
  • Posted by CarolBlaha on 7/24/2009 at 10:28 AM Accepted
    I'm a big believer in box lunches and seminars. Lawyers like many other professionals need continuing education credits to keep credentials current. Holding a non commercial, educational seminar -- highlighting your expertise at their office will get you infront of a room full of lawyers- each and every time.

    Go where they go, join and participate in their trade orgs. Joining alone won't help, but serving on a committee - chairing is better has always been a part of my marketing plan.

    Telemarketing as phone sales isn't effective, but a targetted cold call, selling the appointment and only the appointment does work. Mine your biz journals -- when you call, make it as personal as possible and you will get in the door. I always say, if I didn't cold call, I'd be living under a bridge.
  • Posted by ilan on 7/24/2009 at 10:32 AM Member
    There are no cookie cutter solutions to your problem.
    You have to know your clients very well to market to them, you are in a one on one situation. Books are no help!
  • Posted on 7/24/2009 at 11:34 AM Member
    I agree with Carol (think this is the 478th time), in regards to cold calling/opportunity qualification.

    As in the particular case of law firms, I've seen several successful calling programs executed here, for a variety of clients.

    The common recipe for success that they shared was:
    Call the Partners
    Demonstrate a real and tangible cost savings
    Rinse
    Repeat

    Your sales team's hesitation is valid; If you can't articulate how you'll increase their billable hours or decrease their cost of business, you'll be dead in the water pretty quickly. Do so however, and you'll have a very captive audience who can act quickly on buying decisions.

  • Posted by telemoxie on 7/24/2009 at 2:18 PM Accepted
    as a general rule, I would say that professionals tend to listen to their peers. Doctors listen to other doctors, engineers listen to other engineers, and attorneys listen to other attorneys.

    Do you have testimonials and case studies which quote other attorneys? If you do a brown bag lunch, could you get a happy user (an attorney, preferably a partner) to make the presentation? Does your sales literature include quotes from attorneys? Can you provide incentives for your users to refer you to other law firms? Do you regularly survey your customer base to make sure your users are happy, and to identify new reference sites, and to better understand their perspectives on your product? Can you assist an attorney in making a presentation to an industry trade group?

    regarding a good book to read, I would suggest, "Selling to VITO”
  • Posted on 7/26/2009 at 8:03 AM Author
    Thanks Carol for confirming my ideas about the seminar. We also think that having the law society endorsing the seminar (i.e. award continuing education credit) will certainly boost the seminar attendance.

    However, we are also concerned that those who attend might not be the one who require our services (not all types of law firms will required the kind of services we provide). Moreover, we want to target only the Partners. Any suggestion how we might overcome this?

    I really like your suggestion about serving in the committee of trade orgn. I am going to raise this one with in our next meeting.

    Thanks!
  • Posted on 7/26/2009 at 8:12 AM Author
    Andy, thank you too for confirming the seminar idea.

    Will we find the business manager of a law firm in their marketing department? Or should we contact their training department.

    Thanks!



  • Posted on 7/26/2009 at 8:18 AM Author
    tdolan,

    Any tips how can we get pass the operator and the secretary to the law firm partner?

    We thought of engaging a call centre to do the telemarketing. However we are not sure about passing our leads leads to them. Or does call centre already about the leads?

    How does it work in 3rd party call centre?

    Thanks
  • Posted on 7/26/2009 at 8:25 AM Author
    Telemoxie,

    I like your prompting questions. Most answers are 'no':(
    Those things you mentioned could be applied in my co. Will definitely raise those points in my next meeting.

    Thanks!
  • Posted by CarolBlaha on 7/26/2009 at 2:31 PM Accepted
    Just because you create a seminar doesn't mean you have to offer it to anyone and everyone, I have done them for the A/D community. And if I didn't think they'd be a prospect for my product-- I didn't offer to present it.

    Gear your presentation to the partners and partners only. Your synopsis should include not just the topic, but the target audience the seminar is geared for.
  • Posted on 7/28/2009 at 10:59 AM Author
    Thank Carol & Andy.
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