At our Rainmaker Retreat in San Diego last weekend, I was asked a question that comes up frequently during our legal marketing seminars:

If I niche myself don’t I risk losing clients?

One of the biggest misconceptions is if you market like a specialist and niche your legal practice, your business is going to dramatically diminish. The truth is, when you niche your legal practice you speak and communicate more powerfully to your ideal market than if you say you can help anyone and everyone.

Of course, there may be a few prospects you will no longer reach…but because you are stating a compelling reason why your ideal target should do business with you, the firm will begin to attract your ideal target market more powerfully.

This is exactly what you want. You want to attract the people or companies that are most likely to do business with you initially, repeatedly and at the highest profit margin.

Think about this: if you were looking to find a surgeon for your child’s problem, would you hire the general surgeon or would you look for the surgeon who specializes in children’s surgery and deals specifically with the type of surgery your child needs? The same process happens when someone hires an attorney.

In addition, if you don’t select a niche, you shoot referral sources in the foot. If you say you can handle any type of legal situation, why would an attorney who does not do the type of law you do send you a client if they know you won’t possible refer a prospect back to them because you tout that “I can help everyone”?

As you look toward owning a niche, remember this: you can’t go after a niche that is so small you won’t get the volume of business you need. So make sure you are aware of how many potential clients are the in the niche you are selecting -- if it is too small, you must widen it or select an additional niche.