Law Firm Marketing for an ADR Practice

By Diana Mercer, Esq. of Peace Talks Mediation Services, Inc. in Playa del Rey, CA.  She can be reached at (310) 301-2100 and Diana1159@aol.com  This article is based on her presentation to the Litigation Section of the American Bar Association. © 2008.

Most people who get into mediation or other ADR services don’t do it because they love to market their services.  For many of us, marketing has a pejorative feel to it; marketing feels unprofessional for a professional service industry.  Yet, because so much of the public is unfamiliar with the types of services that ADR practitioners offer, and with less support from litigation attorneys than we’d like, we need to find an authentic, comfortable way to market our services and mediation programs.

Developing Your Signature Style

For most of us, it’s been a long journey since we resolved to become peacemakers. Once you open your office it doesn’t take long to learn that clients don’t magically appear.  The question is how to make our commitment to peacemaking feel as authentic for our prospective clients as it is for ourselves.  How can we design marketing plans that convey the benefits of mediation and our own sincerity in a way that is also designed to sell our services? 

Developing your signature style and discovering your own identity as a mediator are the key elements to begin your marketing.  After that, marketing falls into two categories, one of which works and one of which doesn’t:  spending lots of money (doesn’t work) and spending lots of time (works really well).  Chronologically, you also divide your time into two categories:  finding new prospective clients and making sure they become actual clients.  The trick is to be yourself while marketing and how to choose marketing techniques that will work for you and your practice.

Build on Your Strengths

For your marketing to work, you have to know who you are as a person and as a professional.  Be honest with yourself about what you like to do and where you shine as well as what you don’t like to do and where you’re not at your best.  If you hate networking at the Chamber of Commerce, you’re not going to come across in the way you’d hope by doing it anyway, so you’re wasting your time.  If you love to write articles but hate public speaking, focus your time and talents in writing.  If you think you hate all kinds of marketing, remember that waiting for the telephone to ring isn’t an effective client generation tool.  Maybe it’s time to think about dropping the private practice idea and start thinking about joining a corporate HR department or teaching.  Out of the different ways to market, pick only those which you’ll actually do and follow through upon.

Some lawyers feel like marketing is selling out. Your marketing plan should never feel unprofessional.  Using public speaking to tell consumers about the benefits of mediation is a public service, and if your speech is sounding too much like a sales pitch, then revise it.  Writing articles about skills that people can use to lessen the conflict in their lives is also a public service.  Introducing yourself to others in related fields who could make referrals to you provides a service both to those professionals and to their clients because you’re a quality practitioner who will do a good job with their case. When you market authentically, you help others while growing your practice.  Stop and rethink your approach if you’re feeling uncomfortable with your marketing message.  Marketing at its finest is genuine and holds value for those to whom you’re marketing.

Your Elevator Speech and Mission Statement

Have a clear vision of what you do.  You can’t encourage people to participate in mediation if you can’t explain what it is.  And let’s face it, mediation isn’t easy to describe in just a few words.  The first step is to develop your Elevator Speech:  a one or two sentence explanation of what you do.  It’s called an elevator speech because you need to be able to finish it by the time an elevator takes between floors.  Examples: 

• "I help busy lawyers like you settle cases."
• "I help people get divorced without losing their shirt or their sanity."

How can you describe your practice in just a sentence or two?

Next, expand your elevator speech into a Mission Statement, and think about your Brand.  You may never be Coca-Cola, but your practice and services need an identity.

For example:  Peace Talks Mediation Services is dedicated to providing a constructive, forward-thinking and peaceful ending to relationships.  Marriages may end, but families endure forever.  We provide a confidential, efficient and impartial atmosphere to help people resolve conflict and to create solutions with integrity and dignity for everyone concerned.

You may or may not share your mission statement with clients, but you need it in order to have a direction in your practice. You wouldn’t leave on a trip without a map, and you shouldn’t have a practice without a mission, either.

Your Brand is what you stand for, the kind of services that you provide, and your signature style.  For example, your Brand may include:

• Honesty
• Trustworthiness
• Commitment to client education and service
• Going the extra mile
• Commitment to the profession of mediation

Practically speaking, your brand exemplifies your values in your practice.

Be prepared to discuss your practice in terms of value, benefits and results for clients.  That’s all they care about:  value, benefits and results.  The good news is that mediation is full of value, benefits and results for clients.  Brainstorm a list of what you perceive these to be. You’ll use this list when you talk to clients about mediation.

Choosing Where and How to Market

Specialize.  It’s easier to market that way.  You can accept any kind of case that comes into your office, but you’re only going to market one or two specialties. You’re also going to pick your geographical area.  Marketing every service to everyone everywhere is too difficult and expensive.  The more you define your services, practice areas and geographic area, the easier it is to market.

It’s counter-intuitive, but as we’ve narrowed our services our income increased.  In 2005 gross income increased 25% yet we cut back on the services that we offer.  The less we do, the more we make.  It makes sense when you think about it, because the less you do the easier it is to describe what you do, including the value, benefits and results, and the easier it is for clients to conclude, “yes, this mediator can help me.”

Likewise, it’s important to define your mediation style.   Do you generally practice in a more narrative, evaluative or facilitative style?  Can you explain to clients how you do what you do, and why you’ve chosen to practice the way you do?  What about the other styles do you include in your practice, and what parts don’t work given your mediation style?  Being able to articulate why your particular mode of practice works will help clients have confidence in you and in your practice.  Mediation Career Guide, by Forrest S. Mosten (Wiley Jossey Bass 2001), has some great chapters on developing your signature style.

Getting Started

You’ll learn about marketing your mediation practice with a combination of trial-and-error and professional advice.  Hopefully, this article will help you avoid some expensive lessons.  A marketing approach that worked in your previous professional life might not work for mediation and just because it worked for someone else doesn’t mean it will work for you.  My best investment was using an ADR marketing consultant.  It cost money, but it saved both time and money in the long run.  Individual consultations helped me to develop marketing plans that feel authentic, professional, and comfortable to execute.  A few good books were also helpful:  Essential Guide to Marketing Your ADR Practice, by Natalie J. Armstrong (Golden Media Publishing 2001); Selling the Invisible:  A Field Guide to Modern Marketing, by Harry Beckwith (Warner Business Books 1997); Guerilla Marketing: Secrets to Making Big Profits in Your Small Business, by Jay Conrad Levinson (Houghton Mifflin 1998); and Marketing Without Advertising by Michael Phillips and Salli Rasberry (Nolo 2003), were all good starting points.