Your Law Firm Should Steal This Venezuelan Restaurant's Marketing Trick

YPM POD 105 - Stand out or fade away: Marketing

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Richard James: [: 00:00:00

Richard James: Standing out is not a bad thing. Creativity actually has its place.

Richard James: If you want to stand above your competition, you don't want to be predictable.

Richard James: Don't be like everybody else.

Richard James: ~Hey, law firm owners, do you want to know the secret to success when everybody else is going this way? I want you to go this way. ~

Richard James: ~Market in a way that's different from all your competition and you'll stand out. ~

Richard James: ~If you want to stand out, ~be different.

Richard James: Look, you don't need to be loud and flashy to stand out. But if you just do what everybody else does, you're gonna be bland and you're not gonna get noticed.

Richard James: Is it possible for a law firm to learn better marketing skills from a Venezuelan restaurant?

Richard James: So let me tell you a quick story. I was. And my wife, my East Coast Italian bride. That's my ECIB. Her name is Maria.

Richard James: We were out to Chicago. 'cause our youngest son, who is also in our business now, has decided to live in Chicago.

Richard James: Mom and I took him out there and, spent the day putting together furniture and taught him how to put together furniture, which was great.

rt of Chicago, so we decided [: 00:01:00

Richard James: So we got, Google out and we found out where this restaurant was and we started walking towards it. And as soon as we get there, we can instantly tell where it is because outside of this restaurant, there was a couple of things that made it stand out.

Richard James: the first was this big balloon, man, when you go to the used car dealership and you got that big balloon man going like that.

Richard James: Many of you might not wanna put that in front of your law firm. I get it, but maybe you'd be wrong. then he had built an outdoor cafe when the pandemic was going on, eating outside was necessary, but he did such a nice job with it, and it was so colorful that he left it there, even though the pandemic is behind us.

Richard James: In addition, in the nice, spring weather and summer weather, it allows for more patrons to be able to eat at his restaurant because the inside is somewhat small.

Richard James: When you, walk inside, there's not a square inch that is not decorated in some colorful, Venezuelan way.

ver been to Venezuela, but I [: 00:02:00

Richard James: On the walls where pictures of people eating their food and testimonials written by real humans, and they're plastered all over the walls in very colorful way.

Richard James: One of the most telling parts was in the very front, of the counter when you walked up.

Richard James: There were two computer monitors, The top one showed their specialty, which was their fried chicken, and the bottom one showed numerous. third party recommendations from influencers and the news. they were showing you when you walked into the restaurant that you've chosen the right place because they're famous for this fried chicken. famous for ARPAs, and they are known by local influencers and new stations for showcasing them as the best Venezuelan food in all of Chicago.

Richard James: And I thought to myself, man, there's some lessons to be learned here.

an see what I was seeing, at [: 00:03:00

Richard James: lemme point out a couple of things.

Richard James: So the first was that they dared to be different.

Richard James: So where restaurants don't oftentimes put the big balloon man out there, they did. and it blended in from a color perspective with the color palette.

Richard James: They also didn't just build a boring outdoor seating. They built a very colorful outdoor seating, and they were retrofitted with comfortable chairs, it looked like an inviting place to sit,

Richard James: now everybody that drives by, if they're in that neighborhood or they walk by, this guy gets their attention.

Richard James: Now, how does that relate to a law firm? most law firms, first of all, if you go to the firm and drive by, it usually says the name of the law firm like Smith and Miller, or Bean in Jones.

Richard James: It doesn't say what they do. It doesn't clearly articulate the practice area that they're in.

e right now, are not. having [: 00:04:00

Richard James: I was 25 years old when I bought the funeral home. I remember my grandfather before he passed away telling me, Richie. that's what he called me. he said, we'll have hundreds of people walk in the funeral home and see these beautiful drapes that cost me $25,000 to put up. He said, but we have thousands of people that drive by the outside of the funeral home every single week.

Richard James: The outside needs to be perfect at all times. when I bought the firm, I remembered that. Interestingly enough, I did have to replace the drapes and it cost me almost $40,000. But the outside, the landscaping, the signage, everything that we did cost me probably significantly more than that including the maintenance that had to be done on a daily and a weekly basis to keep it looking perfect.

Richard James: And that's because we understood that we had a brand that was known by everybody that drove by. They saw it and they realized,

They take very good care of [: 00:05:00

Richard James: We built a law firm in Phoenix. We would have the team go out and police the trash all around the building, because we didn't want any of our prospects walking in and seeing trash around.

Richard James: We would make videos of how they could get to the office, and we would show them exactly where to park and how to get into the elevator and how to come up to our floor

Richard James: we tried to stand out wherever we could. When we had the monument, we made sure the sign said bankruptcy center.

Richard James: we did what was required by us to do through the Bar Association And highlighted the word bankruptcy. We put a sign out offering a free copy of our book on the busiest corner in our neighborhood. So as people were driving by, they saw one of those tent signs. Did it require somebody to go out there and put it up and put it down every day? It did. Did it bring us in traffic? It did. Our walk-in business was significant.

Richard James: We thought about how to market our firm in a way that was separating us from the competition.

there were several other law [: 00:06:00

Richard James: Every time they saw me, they asked me what we were doing differently than them, and my answer was oftentimes, just look around.

Richard James: ~They didn't get it. I remember meeting with a client once, he owned a law firm. He was in Bakersfield? No, yeah, it was Bakersfield, California. he said to me. if you can fix this, and you tell me what I have to do is stand on the corner in a clown's outfit. That's what I'll do. I didn't make him stand on the corner in a clown's outfit, but he was willing to do whatever was required and he wasn't gonna get caught up in tradition. ~

Richard James: I understand that you feel like you have an image to uphold. I understand that you want to be professional, and I'm not necessarily suggesting that you put the floppy balloon guy's arms out in front of your building,

Richard James: but I do suggest you start thinking outside the box and don't act like everybody else when it comes to what your curb appeal is and what people are seeing as they're walking or driving by your building.

Richard James: The next thing I wanna talk about is what we saw when we walked in. So he micromanaged our senses. when we walked into the place there was this overwhelming aroma of amazing food.

Richard James: Sure, it's a restaurant, but something about the olfactory senses, the nose, the smell, has a massive triggering system for, humans.

Richard James: And so when we built the firm in Phoenix. We actually made homemade cookies every single day. ~Every now and then somebody burned one that wasn't so pleasant, burnt popcorn in the office, But when people were coming into the office most days, they smelled very pleasant smell of homemade Otis Spunkmeyer cookies, and we'd put them out on the plate every now and then and let people have them. ~

Richard James: we also [: 00:07:00

Richard James: when kids would come into the appointments, we had things for the kids to do, whether it was movies to play or we had extra sketches and we always had our testimonials running on the monitors.

Richard James: Not, the local news where our competition was advertising on the TV stations.

Richard James: So we micromanage that client experience.

Richard James: This restaurant did the same thing. They had their testimonials all over the wall. By the way, did you know that you can take a Google review, or a client testimonial put their picture and blow it up and have it printed online and make a canvas print out of it? That's what we did, and the walls were lined with testimonials from our clients. The walls were lined with testimonials from people who were very satisfied with this person's food.

Richard James: You knew that it was very possible that you were gonna have a great meal between the way that it selt, the way that it looked, the way that it read, and the overall feeling of the place. It was very welcoming.

wearing a uniform. the most [: 00:08:00

Richard James: He lit up the room when he smiled at you, ~and I think it was his mom who worked in the back. I couldn't be sure but I'm pretty sure it was his mom.~

Richard James: ~And when she came out, she smiled too. ~

Richard James: So the question is. Can you train your staff to at least smile? Even if you have a virtual firm can you smile rather than look like you're hating what it is you're doing? Can we give a great attitude and come across in a way that's appealing?

Richard James: Now the biggest part of what I wanna point out, which would be the third thing I wanna point out, is what I call the celebrity factor.

Richard James: in our world, we teach attorneys to create authorship, celebrity and expert status. if you're in our program, we actually write a book. For you so that you can be an author and then that positions you separately from your competition.

Richard James: And then because you put things out there in either your newsletter or advertising the internet, television, what have you, you then become a celebrity.

Richard James: And when you put authorship and celebrity together, people assume you're an expert. ' cause you wrote the book on the subject.

, I've written four books on [: 00:09:00

Richard James: Of growing a law firm. Many people have come to us because ~they believe I was an expert because~ I wrote a book. ~Now I wanna be clear there's something different from a book than there is an ebook. I had a book and sent my mom an e-copy of it. The first one, didn't take me long to write. But then the book that took me a while to write, I actually had her help me edit it I sent her a copy. And she said, oh my gosh, my son is an author. I said, but mom, I sent you my first book. She goes, oh, that was just an ebook. This is an actual book.~

Richard James: There's something about a printed book that makes a difference. using a book will help you become an author, celebrity, and an expert.

Richard James: But let's say you don't have a book. Is it possible to get your law firm interviewed by the local news station or get a local influencer that may be going through a legal challenge that you can help them or a family member with, and that in return they can give you some good pr, including a testimonial video that you can play. In your office on your website on your social media or during your consultations or your onboardings with clients so they know they're in the right place? The answer is yes.

Richard James: ~The way Jamie Miller did that he's a bankruptcy attorney, out in Milwaukee, was that he was already advertising on tv, but then when he started offering a copy of his book. He had a local television station do an interview for him. they interviewed him about the book, and then he gave away free copies of the book. Jamie went from getting about three leads per every ad to 30 leads for every ad He went from getting three appointments for every one of those leads in the old way of doing things to getting nearly 15 appointments, a five x number of appointments just on the very first ad, and that was because he took advantage of the authorship, celebrity and expert status.~

Richard James: ~We talk about ~

Richard James: this Venezuelan restaurant did the same thing. With all that in mind, can you imagine if we sat down to eat the food? and the food was terrible. It wouldn't have mattered, would it? All the work that they did to promote themselves would just have sped up the pace at which we found out they weren't very good at what they did.

d so I've got good news. The [: 00:10:00

Richard James: We thoroughly enjoyed the meal.

Richard James: What does this mean for you if you don't return client calls?

Richard James: If clients give you less than satisfactory reviews because of the way that you serve them.

Richard James: if you don't make them feel good and feel like they're in the right place, or your staff is less than amicable with your clients.

Richard James: What you're gonna find out is that you too, if you're good at marketing and do the things I told you to do, are just gonna speed up the pace at which everybody figures out you're not very good at what you do, which unfortunately is gonna spread like wildfire.

Richard James: If you are going to execute this plan and you want it to work, you have to have in place. Excellent client satisfaction

prowess, as it does have to [: 00:11:00

Richard James: Micromanaging the client experience in the ways we discuss today and others.

Richard James: Those are the important things you have to do to make your client feel good about who you are.

Richard James: If you do those things and you take my advice about willing to stand out, you're gonna find you speed up the pace at which clients find out who you are, and they tell their friends and relatives about it,

Richard James: then you're gonna start to see the flywheel of your business. Turn and turn.

Richard James: If you'd like to learn more how to stand out from the crowd, maybe create an authorship celebrity expert, micromanage the client experience, but you're not exactly sure how, visit us at the law firm secret.com and we'll be happy to walk alongside you and help you build your firm. One marketing system at a time.