Do Something! Identify the Pain

Lawyers frequently complain about clients that come to them too late, after the damage is done. Or they insist that they have difficulty attracting clients because their practice focuses on planning, and most people won't plan unless they're forced to. Or they complain that there's too much competition and that other firms are gobbling up their clients.

Although planning ahead sounds like a great idea, in a tough economy, few people are going to be motivated to spend money to plan. Most of your clients probably don't even take care of real problems until they're really worried about them, they're costing them money, or they're so sick of them that they can't stand it any more.

So how do you combat those problems, particularly in this economy, when clients are looking even harder at every dollar they spend? The answer begins with identifying the client's pain.

Do you know what kind of pain your clients are in? Since you already know that your clients aren't likely to take action or spend money until they're hurting, identifying what causes them pain is a good way to figure out how to market to them.

Make it real. Even if the client hasn't reached their pain threshold yet, if you know what they're worried about, you might be able to get them to take action now by telling stories or using examples that demonstrate what might happen to the clients if they don't take action.

Strike while the iron is hot - offer a solution. When you get the client in touch with the pain, whether it's pain they're feeling now, pain they've felt in the past and don't want to repeat, or pain they want to avoid in the future, that's the time to offer them a way out and show them how you can help.