Are you now reading this post because I used the word “sexy” in the headline?  No matter, because the fact is that you are now going to learn about how something you do every day is sexy enough to help you sell your legal services to new clients.

That sexy thing is education. 

My post today was inspiring by another one by John Jantsch over at his Duct Tape Marketing blog, where he talks about the importance of education in building trust.  And once you build that trust, it is easier for you to sell your services, even at a premium.

As John so rightly notes:

Some people may actually take the information you share and figure they can take the DIY path, but I’m guessing those folks aren’t your ideal prospect anyway.

What I know is that some other people will conclude that you actually do know what you’re talking about and further, what you just explained is a whole lot harder than they imagined and would you please now charge them a premium to do it for them.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is sexy!

There are many ways you can employ education to build trust with prospects, including:

Your blog – create valuable content about the problems facing your prospects and then tell them how to solve those problems (beyond “see an attorney”).

Speaking engagements – you want to get before groups of prospects, not just other attorneys.  You can either host informative seminars yourself – doing it online is easy these days – or team with a good referral partner who serves the same target market you do and have them host a seminar with you as the guest speaker.

Free reports – trade your knowledge for a prospect’s email address so you can continue the relationship.  Populating your website and blog with offers for a free report that directly addresses your prospect’s problems helps you build your email list while you build trust.

Your knowledge is an important tool in your legal marketing arsenal that is too often overlooked, but properly deployed, it can gain you a greater number of qualified leads who are predisposed to do business with you.