DUI, Divorce, & Bankruptcy Attorneys Being Interviewed - What Would You Want to Know to Sell To Them

by TheShark

Posted: 12 years ago 16 replies

OFFLINE MARKETING

Hello,

One of the Warriors has been bugging me for several months to interview several of my offline clients...He finally convinced me with a pretty good bribe (not good enough to interview my personal injury attorneys, but pretty good).

My question to the other warriors here that actually sell offline or want to sell offline to Attorneys (specifically a drunk driving defense lawyer, a divorce lawyer, and a bankruptcy lawyer) - what questions would you want answered?

I may answer a few myself currently owning a firm with several offices - but I figured if I am going to allow them to be interviewed, I might try and see if there are any burning questions. Keep in mind....

No questions about personal cases (I'm going through a divorce and how do I get custody...)

These should be questions what would be helpful to your businesses of selling to attorneys marketing (Internet, Mobile, offline, anything)....

I promise I will post part of the responses here.

TheShark

#attorneys #bankruptcy #divorce #dui #interviewed #sell

TheShark 12 years ago

Claimed for future reference.
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John Durham 12 years ago

Its as easy as this... ask them how much a customer iss worth to them , and show them how only a handful of leads can bring an roi.

You dont sell attorneys anything but leads. Be realist5ic, tell them it could take 6-8 weeks to start working, but surely they will get enough leads to justify the cost... that is "Unless you want to pass this up and have some guy down the street come and tell charge you 3 times as much for a bunch of bells and whistles.

All you need is a five page site and a form with a strong call to action, a few back links and content full of longtail keywords that cater to your very specific market.

Even a small peice of the market and a few leads will cover their entire yearly cost for your services. Thats why attorneys are easy to me.

"Unless you want to buy the hype".

Attorneys dont like hype...position yourself as the opposite of the hypers. They will love you for your conservative estimates and down to earth common sense.

Hope this helps.
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- TheShark 12 years ago
  
  John,
  
  I appreciate the content you wrote and what I'm trying to do is give the people that have questions for real attorneys a chance to get them answered. I know it's easy for you and I to sell to attorneys, but for a lot of people, they may have actual questions.
  
  Also, you have to be careful, the minute you start talking "customer" to me - while saying you are good at marketing attorneys online - I tune out, because I don't have customers, I have clients. I know you mean the same, but it mentally tells me that you may or may not know what your doing for me. Just a thought. You may be the best there is, but I immediately start to distrust what you are selling.
  
  TheShark
  
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Stranger Danger 12 years ago

Originally Posted by TheShark

One of the Warriors has been bugging me for several months to interview several of my offline clients.

Which warrior? Where is he/she?
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- TheShark 12 years ago
  
  Although not really a question for the attorneys. To answer your questoins, it was Bob R. (not sure his handle here).
  
  We meet in October at the Atlanta event, and then again in Fort Lauderdale last weekend. But looks like a dead thread anyway. Not sure why it matters, but there you go hope it helps with whatever project you have going.
  
  TheShark
  
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  The Sales Guy 12 years ago
  
  I for one, happen to think this is a GREAT idea for a thread!
  
  About 60% of my clients are Attorneys. Been selling them for years. I have a pretty keen insight into how they work and what their "hot buttons" are.
  
  ALL of the Attorneys I've sold have been via the telephone. That is the only way I sell. 95% utilizing a one-call-close, and very rarely, a two-call-close.
  
  I wouldn't say I need this information, again, Attorneys already make up a large part of my business, however, here's two good questions to ask...
  
  1. What is a typical average monthly/yearly advertising budget for these providers?
  
  2. When is the absolute best time to reach them (day & approximate time), when they are least busiest and I'll have their undivided attention?
  
  Thanks for putting this up. I can't see why more folks aren't chiming in with questions. Especially those that are newer to the sales game. Attorneys - like Dentists and other professionals - have heard every pitch in the book from salespeople. Any bit of information to give us sales guys the edge is what it's all about. Even for a veteran like myself
  
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Stranger Danger 12 years ago

Sorry, Shark, no offense to you, but I am just getting burnt out on this forum, in general. There are a lot of good people here...and there is a TON of good information...but there is also a lot of PUKE that we have to wade through, and it just gets old after a while.

I have seen too many threads start out like this, where the true intent was to ultimately build a list, as a pre-launch thread to another IM product and/or to fish for free information - to either build a list and/or to create another IM product!

My thinking is, if your friend is a member of this forum, he should be involved. He should be here posting his questions. At the very least, you could post his questions and save us the time in the event that our questions are similar etc.
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beeswarn 12 years ago

Originally Posted by TheShark

Hello,

I promise I will post part of the responses here.

TheShark

And the rest in a new WSO (priced at only $7 for the first 200 who buy) right?

I used to say I could see them coming, but now I can smell them coming.
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TheShark 12 years ago

Stranger Danger - no problem - I'm actually looking at trying to get some questions answered for the group. Although your post numbers are higher then mine, you may want to look at my join date AND prior posts I've done. As to list building, that is VERY easy to do and why trick people. I'd just do a free WSO with a few hours of video.

TheSales Guy-Answering your questions (I'll be better than the 3 that are being interviewed on these two questions since I run 6+ offices).
1) I think you mean budget for these providers, you mean either marketing budget or internet marketing budget....reframed that way I'll give you some examples - also, I know the three won't get that intimate in terms of their personal numbers (egos).
First, as to all 3 areas - depends on the city, number of staff, etc. Having given you a general answer - here is more specific
Good DUI attorney, medium volume single or duel county practice - population based about 300k to get clients from, about 4-5k a month in California.
Divorce Attorney - about 3k (the marketing is different)
Bankruptcy - VARIES Widely because of massive differences - BK mills vs. BK boutiques. BK mills - 15k EASY for a 300k population, boutiques, about 3k (FYI- Side note, the Boutiques are usually more profitable in the long run for both the attorney and the provider).

Quesiton 2: You'll never have a good attorneys undivided attention (most of us that do cases are constantly thinking about solutions to our client's problems). With that said - 3 things come into play
a) Type of Practice
b) Location of Practice
c) Staff hours
Here is an example to help:
Let's say you are targeting a DUI Attorney in Butte County California for a rent a site model.
You'd AVOID Friday mornings (that is when they are all in court) - OR maybe you wouldn't because you want to find the struggling one. But if you call a busy office, you'll piss off everyone because the attorney is in court, while their staff is helping them back at the office - transferring calls, forwarding late documents to the attorney, etc.
You then take into account that DUI attorneys are notorious procrastinators so don't call on Thursdays...they are getting the last minutes documents and calls relating to their Friday cases.
Then you remember that most DUI arrests occur over the weekend, so Mondays are bad, because new client calls come in the most for fresh arrests.
So now you know Tuesdays or Wednesdays.
Time - early morning usually bad, all the messages from the night before need to be dealt with. So, let's say late morning things clear up. So for Tuesdays or Wednesday, late mornings might be the best. Lunch time is a wild card, some attorneys let their staff go during lunch and answer the phones themselves. If all closed at lunch, then right after lunch bad because returning lunch time calls. So that leaves the conclusion...
Best odds for DUI attorney, Butte County California, late mornings, but don't hold them from their lunch (we get cranky without food and for some of us...drink-but not me)....and a lot of DUI attorneys like to go home early if everything caught up...
Sorry, I digress...Best time DUI Attorney (Type) Butte County (Location/Jurisdiction), probably 10:30-11:30 Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons.

Hope that helps.

Certain Counties have court everyday - or private attorney matters only on some days - or all types of a particular matter only in afternoons.

TheShark
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TheShark 12 years ago

Beeswarn,

Actually, I don't see anything wrong with that - but here on this thread, it was meant to help people and I see your post as really not helping people - I've been on the forum a lot longer and I'm a lot more jaded.

I was going to post the answers to all the questions asked here on this thread here, it would bad reputation to ask for questions, then say pay for them ( I personally think it would hurt a WSO)- I was only going to post part of the questions Bob asked here as well (it's not fair to Bob to post all his Q & A's here since he basically bribed me for access to a few of my clients). Doesn't seem like there is a demand at all for this information anyways - I'm actually shocked after the number of people at the events cornering me and asking me advice on how to market to attorneys answered by actual attorneys.

Good luck - I won't continue monitoring since there appears to be no demand. To TheSales Guy - thank you for what I thought were pretty good questions - I hope you got something out of the answers.

TheShark
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- TheShark 12 years ago
  
  Question presented to me privately because of this thread (even though not monitoring, since it was caused by this thread I think it's only fair to post it here):
  
  I sent this one to all three attorneys and their response was exactly the same in substance.
  
  Question: Do you respond to the highly customized video emails that are sent? and if you haven't seen them, would you if sent?
  
  All three (DUI, Divorce, and Bankruptcy) attorneys responded with a resounding No. They are all afraid that the link is either a phishing scam or virus. Side note, 2 of the three had been sent (repeatedly) emails asking them to watch a video with a youtube link, but would not click it.
  
  My side note (for anyone that cares) - if you are going to make a highly customized video and not just generic, spend the extra $1 and mail it on a CD or DVD, 2 (the DUI and the BK, but not the divorce attorney) commented that they would be much more likely to view. The divorce attorney said nothing goes in her computer from someone she doesn't know.
  
  TheShark
  
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Stranger Danger 12 years ago

If the state in which they practice prohibits them from paying for leads, what solution(s) do they recommend/prefer?

If they were actually interested in receiving more work, how would they prefer to be contacted, with what medium and in what way?
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- TheShark 12 years ago
  
  StrangerDanger-I've forwarded them the questions along with a few more of Bob's.
  
  My own personal response to your lead comment - that is correct, can't pay for leads, however, there may be a new loophole under some rulings that came out relatively recently. It's state by state specific, but most of the states ruled the same way - that under certain circumstances it may be okay...BUT, very specific circumstances. I'm actually doing the research for my own business model.
  
  I'll let them respond to the actual questions and post here when all three do.
  
  TheShark
  
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  TheShark 12 years ago
  
  Okay, got the responses to:
  
  If they were actually interested in receiving more work, how would they prefer to be contacted, with what medium and in what way?
  
  DUI - "Not by F^%&ing email - I've had to practically turn my email off from all that spam sh*t. Mail is fine, and if they want my time they'd better be willing to pay for it."
  
  Divorce - "We pay attention to email - I haven't seen my email in years, my paralegal opens it for me and I don't take calls from people that I don't know. Guess that leaves mail or in person".
  
  Bankruptcy - "I don't mind phone calls if they are honest, but if they pretend to know me or be a client they do not get a good response from me. Lately I've had a lot of people come to my office without an appointment wanting to see me - like I've got nothing better to do - at least let them make an appointment with my office manager."
  
  Another question that was answered - Where do you get the best return on investment of your marketing dollars? The summary (but remember they are all clients of mine - so probably biased) - 1st - keeping in touch using the CTAS system (basically a structured referral program to past and potential clients that have already dealt with the office - newsletters, cards, etc) and 2nd - internet - mainly google places. Finally the DUI attorney is big into direct mail.
  
  Hope you got some value out of this. Not a lot of views so I'm going to kill it off.
  
  TheShark
  
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  Stranger Danger 12 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by TheShark
  
  Mail is fine, and if they want my time they'd better be willing to pay for it.
  
  This is an interesting comment. I wonder what it means, exactly...
  
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  TheShark 12 years ago
  
  What he means by it I don't know -
  
  I can only can speculate from my experiences. I have about 5-10 "local in my geographic area) people a week try to get appointments to sell me on tv/radio/internet/magazine/newspaper advertising - yes-every week (and that's just in my main office). Many try and mislead me or my staff to get the appointments. The attorney who responded to the question is in bigger city than I am, so I can only imagine what he goes through. I'd say, as a group, we are getting sick at the high number of people that want our time to make them money - seldom does anyone present real benefits to us-most just want our money without providing real value-the few times I've said yes myself to meetings the person knew nothing about my business or how they could specifically make me more money than I spent with them.
  
  TheShark
  
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