22 Jan 4 positioning tips for law practices

More and more practices are specialising and differentiating themselves in new and innovative ways. Clearly positioned practices can charge higher fees, attract clients from broader geographic areas and can engage in more focused, more cost-effective marketing activities.

As I’ve discussed before, the legal services market in Queensland is entering a stage of 2nd level differentiation where ‘specialising’ in just one of commercial / criminal / family / PI may no longer be enough: increasingly practices need to specialise within these disciplines to give increasingly sophisticated clients a reason to choose them over their competitors.

Re-boot your practice! – Brisbane, 16th March  Giles Watson is running a half-day Brisbane masterclass event on positioning, strategy and incorporating the latest and best practice into your business model. Register at  https://www.gileswatson.com.au/event-list/

So, is your practice clearly positioned to its best advantage? Here are some tips on the challenge:

Strategy first, language 2nd

Effective positioning requires more than just developing some new words for your website and LinkedIn profile. The words and language should only come after the development of a clear practice strategy about where the practice is heading (positioning by the way is much more about where the practice is heading rather than where it is or has been).

The strategy process should include extensive analysis and discussions re internal competitive advantages, profitability, competitors, market opportunities, referral sources and opportunities and more. Skipping this and moving straight to new website language can lead to false starts, market scepticism or other challenges.

Go narrow

Broad positioning = no positioning. Risk-averse law practices are instinctively shy of reducing or diminishing their list of published and promoted capabilities as they think this risks losing substantial amounts of work. Increasing client sophistication, however,  means that clients will walk away if you don’t give them a reason to choose you.

Aim to position yourself as specialising in an area that is narrower than your market. Your claim of expertise should be smaller than your capabilities. Although it seems counter-intuitive, this builds credibility and can actually lead to more work outside of your stated specialisation. You become a ‘go-to’ practice and clients actually want you to help them with work outside of your stated focus. So go narrow: get more of the high value work you love – but also expect lots of additional work to fall in your lap as a result of your high-credibility, ‘go-to’ status.

Expertise first, brand 2nd

As lawyers, people are buying your expertise first and foremost. Positioning should therefore focus first on positioning in respect of your capabilities and services before ‘softer’ or subsidiary issues relating to service or approach. It is expertise and capabilities that influence the ‘core’ product you are delivering – and when clients understand that your services are not a commodity (which is another benefit of clear positioning messages) – this becomes the most critical buying criteria.

It is very very difficult to differentiate your practice in relation to service and delivery issues. Almost every practice claims to either deliver superior client service or put clients in control of costs – resulting in extensive client cynicism. These issues can be a good 2nndary differentiator but positioning should primarily be about the core product and capabilities.

Live your claims

Agreeing and promoting your positioning strategy is the start not the end of your journey. Once you have made your claims, you need to justify them through consistent actions and behaviours. This extends to the people you hire, the work you accept, the peers you associate with, the training you offer your staff, the blogs you write and everything else. Without all of this, clients will grow sceptical of your claims and the positioning strategy will fail.

Re-boot your practice! – Brisbane, 16th March  Giles Watson is running a half-day Brisbane masterclass event on positioning, strategy and incorporating the latest and best practice into your business model. Register at  https://www.gileswatson.com.au/event-list/