I recently gave a presentation  to lawyers in a firm titled: Client Development 2014 and Beyond. After I finished a lawyer who had just been promoted to partner came up and said:

The one part of practicing law I don’t like is marketing. I don’t want to feel like a “used car salesman” hustling someone for business.

I told him that if I believed marketing for lawyers was hustling potential clients for business, I wouldn’t like it either. Selling legal services is counter-intuitive. The harder you try to sell, the more a potential client will think you are focused on yourself not on helping them.

Clients do not want to hire lawyers who are “needy” or “greedy.”

I told the young partner that I never asked for business. I always focused on being the most valuable resource to help clients. Approaching marketing that way meant that potential clients sought me to help them.

I hope you do not view marketing as hustling clients. That is no fun and more importantly is unproductive.