“Building your brand” has become a popular way of describing marketing yourself as unique from your competitors. It is tossed around liberally by the MBA crowd, but it also can be very useful in a law career. It is the logical companion to networking, and you know that networking is critical to becoming successful as a lawyer. Here’s how professional branding works.
A professional brand is necessary to gain the trust and business of clients and to establish relationships among colleagues. It is that “sine qua non” that will set you apart from the competition. It is the easy conversations that you have with people that make them believe that who they are and what they have to say truly interests you. That will not be achieved if you are looking over their shoulders to see who in the room might be more advantageous for you to meet. It is the connections with people that you willingly make and which send the message that they are valuable people to know and that you can be trusted. It is the time that you spend talking about a colleague’s case without asking for a billing number. It is the little things that mean a lot.
All of these things paint a profile of a person who others want to spend time with and do business with. Your brand becomes a positive one, and it will set you apart from so many of the negative brands of those who provide the same services. Soon your phone will start ringing with prospective clients and colleagues, who want to collaborate on a case or offer a referral. Your efforts at professional branding will pay off in spades.
More on professional branding in the next blog. Be there!
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