By Conrad Saam
Special to the Legal Technology Blog
Picture yourself in the produce aisle. You are selecting individual oranges from a large bin, carefully sorting through them to find the fruit that is most round and orange. Amazingly, the color of an orange has nothing to do with its flavor. In fact, growers pick an orange at the height of its ripeness -- when it is still green -- and then treat the orange in various ways to evoke and even enhance the orange's color.
What do oranges have to do with lawyers?
Almost every consumer who selects legal representation uses an approach and rationale similar to that of our orange purchaser. Prospective clients have such difficulty determining the quality of a lawyer that they look for signals regarding the lawyer's likelihood of success in handling their legal matter -- and like it or not they make snap judgments based on those signals. From a lawyer's viewpoint, those clues may be relevant -- years of experience or success in a famous case -- or completely erroneous -- a glossy firm brochure and a set of well worn leather books on a mahogany bookshelf.
But here's the rub: The lawyer's viewpoint does not matter. Lawyers don't evaluate their "orangeness," prospective clients do. Now, I have had many good attorneys scoff at this notion. I hear this all the time: "I do good work and the world will know it." But if prospective clients are consistently going to your "oranger" competition, then the world will know a whole lot more about your competition. They will have more clients, more work and ultimately broader recognition.
Let's test this hypothesis by considering Michael, who had three drinks at dinner and who was pulled over for not signaling when changing lanes. He failed the field sobriety test, but was never given a blood-alcohol test and therefore is certain he has a case. Michael works for UPS which has a zero tolerance policy for drunk driving -- so he desperately needs this to go away.
Michael first visits attorney Bill Montgomery in an immaculate conference room. Bill's secretary brings him a glass of Perrier. Bill walks in, clean-shaven, weilding a firm handshake and sporting a Brooks Brother's suit. They talk about the case for 10 minutes; as Michael is leaving, Bill hands over a copy of New York Magazine's Best Lawyer edition -- in which he is prominently featured.
Michael heads off to his next appointment to meet attorney Jennifer Billings at a Starbucks down the street. Jennifer arrives 15 minutes late in a 20 year old Buick; she's wearing jeans and a t-shirt, fails to offer to pay for his espresso, and takes notes on a ratty spiral notebook. Who would you choose? Ten times out of ten, the Michaels of the prospective client world will choose lawyer Bill. Why? Because Bill is the orangest orange.
So what is your "orangeness"? Is it your conviction rate? Awards you've received? Your law school? Maybe it's all of the above. Whatever your orangeness may be, you must identify it and market it. In the court of first impression (and client acquisition) it is often as important as doing good work.
I've taken the orange example from Harry Beckwith's book, "Selling the Invisible." I strongly recommend it for anyone marketing a legal practice. And the next time you are buying oranges, think of the lawyers you compete with for business. Who is the orangest orange?
Conrad Saam is the senior marketing manager at Avvo. Prior to Avvo, Mr. Saam's experience includes numerous awarding-winning interactive projects for clients including Disney, Nickelodeon, Lego, MTV, Ford, Macromedia, Microsoft, Kraft Foods, AOL, McDonalds, Mattel and Napster. He is a sought after speaker on interactive marketing and has been featured in publications including USA Today and The New York Times.
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