When we develop our marketing plans, we position ourselves relative to our competition. We look at the websites of other firms. We pay attention to their office locations, reputations, printed material, and whatever else we can learn as we gather marketing intelligence.

Our marketing task is to differentiate ourselves from the competition. Why should someone hire us if they can hire them? What’s the difference?

That’s a great approach, except for one big problem.

Take Off Your Blinders…

When you take that approach, you’ve got to identify the competition. If you misidentify the competition, then all of your effort is wasted.

For most of us, the competition isn’t the other firms. For most of us, the competition is the force at work that results in increasing numbers of clients doing the work themselves.

The document preparation services aren’t the competition. Sure, some small percentage may hire a service to help them with the forms. But, for the most part, they’re doing the work themselves. They aren’t comparing you to another law firm. They’re comparing lawyers to doing it without a lawyer, and “without a lawyer” is winning.

That’s been true for a long time. Visit any courtroom, and you’ll find people representing themselves. It’s the majority of people, not some small minority, who have elected to do the work without any help.

And Lead These Horses (Prospects) to Water

If the majority of people going to court are doing it by themselves, then imagine how many are drafting their own wills, negotiating their own leases, or putting together contracts for their businesses. How many are negotiating discharge agreements with employees? How many are handling the formation of their businesses or even the acquisition of another business?

Let’s face it, for most of us, the competition isn’t another lawyer. The competition is the client’s desire to do this without the expense, hassle, or complexity of bringing in a lawyer.

You can develop your marketing and go head to head with someone with a small share of the market. That’s an option. The better choice, however, would be to head toward the bulk of the market: the people who are acting now without hiring a lawyer. If you can gain the trust and the business of even a small percentage of those folks, you’ll have the busiest practice in your market.