Coach's Corner: Target Markets: if You Are Practicing Without One, You Are Lost in the Sahara Without a Gps!

• Publication year: 2017
• Author: By Eleanor Southers

Coach's Corner: Target Markets: If You Are Practicing Without One, You Are lost in the Sahara Without a GPS!

Eleanor Southers is a Professional Legal Coach who helps attorneys at all stages of their careers to become more successful and contented. Working one on one, Ms. Southers guides attorneys to uncover and fulfill their goals. She can be reached at esouthers@aol.com or her website: www.southerslaw.net.

By Eleanor Southers

AT A RECENT SEMINAR FOR LAWYERS, I MENTIONED THE IMPORTANCE OF KNOWING YOUR TARGET MARKET. THE RESPONSE I GOT WAS "WHAT IS A TARGET MARKET?"

Since this is the basis of all marketing, I thought it would be appropriate to spend some time talking about what is a target market and how to locate yours!

A TARGET MARKET IS FIRST OF ALL:

• The people or entities that you have identified as the ideal client for your firm.
• It is your best referral base.
• It is the focus of your marketing and where you will spend energy and money to cultivate.
• It is also those sources that have the best possibility of directly becoming your client or referring clients to you (known as your "Gatekeepers").
• A well-defined target market limits the number of cases you don't want and increases the number you do want.

HOW YOU DEFINE YOUR TARGET MARKET:

• Start with your mission statement. What needs are you filling for potential clients? Say for instance your mission statement is: Providing exceptional service to people who have been injured on the job, while maintaining the highest professional standards, then your target market is people who have a work injury, with the expectation of those who might be a bit shady or not being truthful.
• Now let's change that to Providing exceptional service to people who are seriously injured on the job, etc. Can you see that you are limiting yourself to only seriously injured clients? With the change of one word, your target market is now narrower.
• A clear, clean and precise mission statement is necessary to define your market.

HOW DO YOU IDENTIFY THE ACTUAL TARGET PEOPLE TO WHOM YOU WILL SPEND YOUR MARKETING TIME AND DOLLARS ON?

• Your best referral base is your old clients. They are within your target market because you have been able to help them.

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• The next best referral source for many practices is other lawyers. Perhaps you do cross referrals with these lawyers. Other lawyers refer to you because they have a clear idea of what you do and that you are ethical and very competent. They also know you would support and refer to them if you...