How Buyers of Legal Services Select a Law Firm, Part 1 of 3
Friday, December 21, 2012

The things companies go through in their decision making process are the same ones individuals make when they need to hire a lawyer.

A recent Hinge Marketing study entitled Professional Services: How Buyers Buy sought to answer two critical questions:

What do buyers of professional services really want?

What are the best ways to expand the relationship and get referrals?  

The researchers conducted in-depth and one-on-one interviews with a carefully chosen group of 137 buyers from public, private and governmental agencies.

When asked about how providers of professional serves could do a better job of marketing, buyers painted a very clear picture. Many of the participants said they didn't want to be "sold to."  

They felt they already had a decent understanding of their particular situation, what they really wanted was a credible expert to sit down with them and lay out practical, realistic solutions. "Show me what has worked before" was a very common response.  

There were 7 other specific things buyers focused on with regards to how they could be better marketed to: 

A personalized understanding of their situation is critical. The key take away here is: do your homework! Before targeting a company be sure to understand their current challenges.
 

Do not give them a high pressure sales pitch, it only turns them off. The larger the company, the longer buying decisions take and the more people who must be consulted.
 

They want to see relevant case studies. This was a major selling point to them. Buyers want to see if you have worked with similar situations, what you did to resolve the legal issue, and what the results were.
 

Buyers want to see a detailed solution presented. There is some risk here that they will take your detailed analysis and solution and try to either do it in house or give it to a cheaper competitor, but buyers want to see if you understand all the issues and are able to realistically address them.
 


Please also see: 

How Buyers of Legal Services Select a Law Firm, Part 2 of 3 

How Buyers of Legal Services Select a Law Firm, Part 3 of 3  

 

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