This book is being written one chapter at a time and then published to our blog, just as we do for our clients in the Authority Chapter Plan. To read the rest of the Authority Philosophy book, please click here.
The number one rule of referrals is this: the person making the referral does not want to be embarrassed. They will go with the bland, sure thing over the more talented wildcard. Perhaps as they should.
When you make a referral, you are lending your reputation to another. This is true whether the one making a referral is a colleague or AI. That’s why being an authority, and being perceived as an authority, is the key to receiving referrals from humans and machines alike.
Being ethical, and being perceived as ethical, is extremely important in obtaining referrals.
The Current Trust Deficit in Legal Marketing
As an attorney, you are judged based upon your marketing. Effective legal marketing teaches the public who you are, for better or worse. Ineffective legal marketing, which most legal marketing today is, only serves to further commodify your business. As you know, I deem most legal marketing “sludge marketing,” creating toothless noise at best and ethical problems at worst. Your legal marketing may play a key role in why you’re not maximizing potentials. Why? Because it tends to erode professional relationships.
The Authentic Alternative
Authority assets such as books, interviews, podcasts, videos, and the like help show what you know, who you are, and what you believe. This is powerful; it is also ethical. You are not making false claims or promises, you are simply showing your authority through authentic means.
Unlike PPC or SEO, you are building real assets that demonstrate your authority. Do not underestimate how important this is in gaining referrals. Your Professional Philosophy acts as the foundation for such marketing. The compound effect of ethical consistency over time builds not only your practice, but your reputation. This is how virtuous circles are forged.
Professional Standards as Strategic Positioning
Do you know any attorneys who view the rules of professional responsibility as more a matter of minimal compliance? I recognize that as lawyers we are often charged with finding the gray area in rules, or as Gene Hackman’s character Avery Tolar admonishes Tom Cruise’s Mitch McDeere in the film The Firm, based on the John Grisham novel: bend the law “so far as you can without breaking it.”
But high ethical standards are a point of differentiation. It’s a long term play, in a world that often seems hellbent on chasing short term ones, but it’s highly effective. Being ethical in the law is not only the right thing to do, it is simply good business.
The beauty of building authority assets is that you can market your law firm while preserving dignity and ethics. There are no gray areas here to consider, just educating the public and bolstering your authority. In this way you move beyond minimal compliance to aspirational excellence.
The Four Standards of Ethical Authority
- Competence: Demonstrated expertise and continuous learning.
- Integrity: Consistent alignment between values and actions.
- Transparency: Clear communication about capabilities and limitations.
- Service: Client welfare about personal gain.
These standards go above and beyond the mere rules of professional responsibility. They set forth a framework of aspirational ethics.
The AI Age Ethical Imperative
Ethical standards will become ever more important (and valuable) as AI handles routine legal work. In this way, human judgment and moral reasoning will be seen as irreplaceable assets. That means we are entering a period where ethics will become a competitive advantage rather than a constraint, which will serve nicely in humanizing lawyers and changing how we are viewed by society.
That also means that relationships and relationship building will become ever more important in business development.
The Relationship Ecology
The Pareto Principle provides that 80% of consequences often come from 20% of efforts. Said another way, the other 80% of efforts create only 20% of the results.
It’s no different in professional relationship building. 20% of relationships generally generate 80% of referrals.
But it takes effort to begin to find that magical 20%, and that comes from developing authentic relationships with other attorneys. People refer to those who they like, those they believe are competent, and those they believe are ethical.
And of course, your marketing need not be limited to other attorneys. Depending on your practice area, there are many great professionals that you may be able to form a cross-pollination of referrals with.
More specific advice on marketing is beyond the scope of this book, the primary takeaway is this: network in a way that is both ethical and consistent with your Authority Philosophy.
Ethical Marketing that Attracts Quality Referrals
Content that demonstrates professional philosophy rather than just expertise is twice as powerful. If you can infuse that content with you biography, then it becomes 2.5x a powerful. I say that because your philosophy is twice as powerful as who you are. There are some exceptions, perhaps, for those who are famous I suppose, but even then most people are not drawn to the facts of a famous person’s life but to their philosophy.
Thought leadership on professional responsibility issues is useful, not only for the profession but for yourself, and how the market perceives you. Teaching CLEs and ethics and writing articles are great ways to demonstrate this.
Moving closer to home, your website should reflect your values and ethics. As should your “socials.” What are online reviews such as Google reviews but tiny data points demonstrating how you show up?
The 90-Day Referral Relationship Audit
Now is a great time to examine where you referrals come from and their value to your firm.
Step One: Current Referral Source Mapping and Analysis – For each of the clients you have received over the past 90 days, list where they came from (if known), who the referral source was, the value of the case, and whether the client has been an “A”, “B” or “C and below” client thus far.
Step Two: Assess the Quality of Your Current Relationship with the Referral Source: In other words, how well are you currently getting along with the referral source? How long have you known each other? Have you met up recently for lunch, collaborated, or spoken with one another? Determine if anyone is consistently sending you great clients and if anyone is consistently sending you unaligned clients.
Step Three: Professional Reputation Baseline Establishment: Take some time to determine, as objectively as you can (or hire someone to come provide you with an objective opinion) about how your law firm is perceived by the market place. Consider how you can improve.
Step Four: Ethical Standard Evaluation and Gap Identification: Take some time to determine, as objectively as you can (or hire someone to come provide you with an objective opinion) about how your law firm is operating regarding ethical standards. Find any gaps and determine how you can improve.
During the next 90 days, create a cadence of professional courtesy and communication standards, and ensure that your staff complies. Create client excellence systems to ensure you and your staff exceed expectations. Maintain peer relationship maintenance routines, and contribute to the community and in service activities. In this way, you will not only ensure the strictest of ethical requirements, but position your law firm for the type of marketing that builds reputations. And over time, firms.
Conclusion
In the age of AI, being ethical will be more rewarding than ever. There will always be those who seek to skirt the rules, but most attorneys desire to be ethical. By marketing ethically and developing an Authority Philosophy, your firm can build itself up without selling out.