The question to ask yourself is “who is the best (corporate, employment, tax, litigation, PI, etc) lawyer in your market?” The fact is that person may or may not be the “best.” Frankly, it doesn’t matter. What does is the fact that the perception (in your mind, and probably the marketplace) is that s/he is the best – or at least the best known.

Thanks to my friend Trey Ryder, who shares with us in his latest newsletter his views on four marketing laws based on Al Ries and Jack Trout’s Positioning: The Battle For Your Mind. I, in turn, will briefly recap the four laws over the next week.

The first is the Law of Perception. As Trey tells us, those lawyers who think (and act) on the assumption that they beat out the competition in the business development game based on the quality of their services, are making “a costly mistake.” Rather, “[M]arketing is not a battle of services, it is a battle of perceptions.” And that concept, we are reminded, is called “positioning.”

So, the next questions are: “How did this perception evolve?” and “What can you do about it?”

The answer to the latter question also answers the former. By creating visibility and credibility through the implementation of business development strategies, such as: 

• Making speeches
• Writing articles
• Creating publicity about you and your practice
• Giving interviews and press releases to the media
• Being active in organizations in your marketplace (business/civic/cultural)
• Networking

…and doing as many of the above as you can as often as you can. You cannot be perceived as the “best” if you aren’t visible and active.

Next: The Law of Leadership