In Business Quest, Law Firms Hire Image Coaches and Marketing Mavens
Philadelphia image consultant Sara Canuso has expanded her business to include lawyers badly in need of makeovers.
Since she began to target lawyers as clients in January, Canuso has consulted at five law firms and has scheduled visits at three more, the Wall Street Journal reports. She offers a three-hour seminar on body language and how lawyers should dress for clients and jurors. “Within seven seconds, someone is going to decide whether or not they want to do business with you,” she tells lawyers.
Law firms hoping to hold onto or expand their business during the economic downturn are welcoming the help. The story cites a February survey by BTI Consulting Group of 120 marketing directors of large law firms. The study found 70 percent were planning to provide more marketing coaching to lawyers.
Brooks, Pierce, McLendon, Humphrey & Leonard in Greensboro, N.C., is spending money for marketing help. The firm hired consultant Tom Kane, who advised one lawyer to have coffee with one client and to send a get-well card to another. The lawyer, Ed Turlington, told the newspaper the advice worked. The coffee-meeting client called Turlington about work in a new practice area.
One marketing expert benefiting from the business focus is Larry Bodine, a suburban Chicago law firm business-development consultant who once served as editor and publisher of the ABA Journal. He told the Wall Street Journal he now has 60 lawyer clients, compared to 20 in January. “Business development is not something taught in law school,” he told the newspaper. “Basically you spend three years reading appellate court opinions and you don’t learn anything about building a clientele.”
