Don't wait for clients to land on your desk

The summer is all about festivals – for others – a family vacation, but for us, the summer of 2014 has been all about The County Show.

Always popular here in Hampshire, county shows can range from small village gatherings to humongous enterprises that take over acres and acres of land. You can expect to see animal parades, live performances, go on rides or buy agricultural produce. So what on earth would a firm of solicitors be doing there? Well, quite a lot actually.

This year we pioneered a new initiative to achieve what sounds like a pretty straight forward objective – ‘getting out of the office’. I don’t need to tell the people reading this article how in the past, members of the legal profession have always felt safer behind their desks, but times have changed.

The next generation of lawyers are not only willing to go out and meet people, but are prepared to go beyond the standard business networking groups. During the summer, our staff put on trainers, wellies or walking boots and branded polo shirts, and stood in fields, farms and country parks in front of our branded gazebo.

The purpose of the exercise was for us to be seen and to engage with people. We obviously couldn’t expect people to go through their wills, discuss their marriages or go into detail about property issues while on a family day out, so we just wanted people to notice us and what we offer.

So how did we do it? Step forward ‘Eric the Owl’; a handy foam character that is really just a stress reliever. We branded him for our 50th anniversary, handed him out and ran a competition where people took a picture of Eric on their summer holidays, and emailed them to us for a Facebook gallery. Eric has been to Canada, Dubai, Australia and all over Europe.

We had no idea little Eric would turn out to be such a star. People were coming up to ask how much the little owls were and walked away thrilled when we gave them away for free. Looking back, perhaps we should have sold them; I had no idea there was such a profitable market for stress relief owls.

Eric also appeared on our children’s colouring table
which was constantly busy, while adults were asked to take part in a competition that helped us collect data (we always gave the option to opt out of receiving more information, but very
few did).

Of course, we had the usual staples of pens, balloons, lollies and bags of literature for people who expressed an interest in legal services, but tried not to be too pushy. It was amazing how many times a light, convivial conversation would lead naturally to conversations about property or wills.

Though I personally championed the initiative, even I was surprised by the lasting effects of our ‘summer tour’. Many people have told me they saw or walked by the stand at events. I suppose it’s like any other relationship; you don’t ask for your date’s hand in marriage on the first date – it’s always better to let the first meeting naturally lead on to a second, and so on.

So my advice to law firms is simple – just get out there and be a visible part of the community which you serve. It’s actually quite a lot of fun. SJ

Action plan: getting out and about

• Don’t be too picky: you can spend hours procrastinating, debating and looking for evidence as to whether a particular event is worth the trouble. Once you’ve given an event some thought, asked some questions about it and applied common sense, just go for it. It’s much better to reflect on an event afterwards. Personally, I like to involve staff and apply their input (which translates into great enthusiasm).
• Have realistic expectations: no one is going to sign up as a new client there and then. That is not the point. It is about profile raising, being seen as approachable, part of the community and simply engaging with people. 
• Have a few gimmicks: these include competitions to collect data, fun activities for children and give aways.
• Manage the aftermath: make sure staff know to listen out for any mention of event attendance in their dealings with clients. It will help steer future activity.