By: James M. Brown, Esq.
Pharmacists are intimately aware of the details of many of their customer’s lives. They know who has been in an accident; who is out of work; who has lost insurance; who has a disabling disease; who has a contested Worker’s Compensation claim and who is dissatisfied with their attorney. The pharmacist in your market can be great sources of referrals if you market yourself to them. I don’t mean put your firm name on the bags their medicine goes in. That’s expensive, and, to the best of my knowledge, has not proven itself to be a proven cost effective method of bringing in great cases. Getting to know a lot of pharmacists, on the other hand, can be a great way to get good cases referred to your office. Even pharmacists in the large chain drug stores will refer a customer to you if they know you or know of you and feel you can provide proper representation to their customer. The small local pharmacies (not that there are many left) and compounding pharmacies often put business cards or brochures of attorneys in a display rack somewhere near the pick up counter. Talk to the pharmacist about this. You want to be visible. To do this with the local pharmacist they only want you to refer customers to them. If you are representing someone on a clear liability case or a Worker’s Compensation case refer them to a pharmacist who will refer clients to you. That pharmacist can bill the Worker’s Compensation insurance carrier or will willingly wait for the case to settle for payment on prescriptions. Pharmacists need continuing education credits. Some of these have to be “legal.” Find out who is in charge of the programs for the chain drugstores and offer to speak. You can talk about Malpractice, Worker’s Compensation, Medicare part D, stories you hear from clients about why they do or do not like their pharmacists that may have legal implications and any other issues you can talk about which can impact a pharmacist. Offer the same speech to an organization that provides continuing education credit to independent pharmacists. When you make your presentation, bring a bound folder with copies of any applicable law you are talking about, your firm brochures and your business cards. Every attendee should get three brochures and five business cards. It is important at your presentation that you provide examples of how people are misrepresented in your area of law. Tell them what a client should expect of their attorney. Let them know that you would be pleased to provide a free consultation to any of their customers about their legal issues. It disturbs you to see how many people have attorneys rushing to the hospital to sign them up, refusing to have anyone in the office return their phone calls or treat them with the respect they deserve. It takes practice to make this sound like something you are sharing with them rather than a hard sell to get them to have everyone they come in contact with call you. When you have it down just right you may need an extra incoming line for all the calls you will receive.
About the Author:
James Mitchell Brown, Esq. is the nation’s leading consultant for contingency fee law firms. He consults on marketing plans; crisis management; business plans; office efficiency; buying and selling practices; retirement planning and most other issues regarding a practice. He can be reached at jim@attorneyconsultants.com
Attorneys – Check it Out!! LET STEVEN HEISLER, “THE INJURY LAWYER”, AND THE LAW OFFICES OFSTEVEN H. HEISLER BE YOUR GO TO INJURY ATTORNEYS IN THE STATE OF MARYLAND. If you have a client who has been in an accident, job injury, or any other type of injury in Maryland, don’t hesitate to call or email Steve personally to discuss. Steve has received referrals from numerous attorneys throughout the United States and will gladly provide references. sheisler@injurylawyermd.com410-625-4878 (HURT)877-228-4878 (HURT)www.theinjurylawyermd.comCell- 443-854-2471
Quick TipBy: David Ward, Esq.In the 1960s, Los Angeles based Adee plumbing began running TV ads featuring an actor who asked, “Who knows what danger lurks in your plumbing?” It was a play on the 1930s radio show, The Shadow, that opened with an announcer asking, “Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men?” In the TV commercial, the answer was “Adee do”. That ad, and others using the same concept and catch phrase, ran well into the 1980s. Two things. First, in your marketing, look for ways to piggyback on ideas and themes that are already in your market’s consciousness. It’s a simple and effective way to help your message be understood and remembered. DUI defense lawyer Myles L. Berman does this in his long-running commercials that use the tag, “Because ‘Friends don’t let friends plead guilty(TM),” playing off the Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) slogan, “Friends don’t let friends drive drunk”. There’s an added bonus here because of the obvious tie-in with drinking and driving, but you could use this idea no matter what your practice area. A family law attorney, for example, could use, “Because friends don’t let friends get married without a prenup.” Okay, maybe not the best, but you get the idea. Second point: when you have something that’s working–a tag, a commercial, a presentation, or any kind of marketing message, resist the urge to change it. Yes, even after thirty years. You may be tired of hearing or seeing the same thing, but that doesn’t mean your market is tired of it. It makes no sense to throw away something that’s been working well for a long time. Test other messages or ideas, headlines, and offers against it, to see if something else works better, but make sure it does before you change it.Who knows what danger lurks in your legal marketing? That would be me.
About the Author
David Ward is an attorney and marketing consultant to attorneys. His website is The Attorney Marketing Center where he offers a free newsletter about marketing, productivity, and personal development.
You can learn more at: http://attorneymarketing.com
That’s it for this week. I’ll have a brand new issue for you this time next week. Also, if you have any questions or comments about the content in this newsletter please email me at sheisler@injurylawyermd.com ~SHH
