I recently got one of those emails that are the kernel of referral work. This one said “Does anyone know an attorney in [name of City] that does estate work?” I realized I was missing key information. So I sent a reply to the sender saying: “What kind of estate work? Complex estate work? Routine drafting of wills?” When I gather this sort of information I’m looking to match a person who needs a particular type of legal work with someone who I believe is well-suited to handle the work. Generally, you wouldn’t want to refer someone with a routine estate planning problem to a large law firm that handles mostly complex estate planning (Can anyone guess why?)
I figured I’d start by assuming that the reply E-mail would come back and say it was routine so I decided to contact a law blogger that I know in city that I was being asked about. I navigated that person’s site, but it was hard to find a phone number I could use. Not good.
When I finally found a phone number I called. Nothing happened. I called again, and after a strange silence I got a message that said they were on vacation. Except that the dates of the vacation were now past. Hmmm, can’t update the answering machine message after vacation? Okay, I’m not going to go out of my way to refer work there.
Marketing is something that requires attention to detail. You want to make it easy for people to find you. ‘Nuff said. I’m off to make sure that my weblog has my phone number in a my bio page, and if it doesn’t I’m going to add it. Hey, I’m not saying I don’t have some things I could do better too.
P.S. If you're a practicing lawyer, check out this Law Practice Assessment . After answering a few questions, you'll get detailed recommendations for improving five key areas of your practice.
