When we're looking to grow our businesses, it's a good idea to look outside of our particular industry or niche to see what the best practices are. This strategy can illuminate avenues we might never have considered and new ways to differentiate brands.
For personal injury attorneys, however, this can be a challenge. The PI industry is uniquely specific in many ways and so applying sales, marketing or lead generation techniques from other industries isn't immediately intuitive. After all, what's a publishing house or a traffic and conversion service got to do with the motorcycle accident injury niche? Just about everything, according to Roland Frasier, our guest on The Rankings Podcast!
Roland has grown and sold numerous hugely successful companies for anything from $3 million to $4 billion and is the Founder of 5 of INC's fastest-growing companies. He's made a career out of shrewd acquisitions and cross-market competencies, so he's a great source of inspiration for attorneys looking to grow their firms.
Roland laid out what he'd do in your position on our podcast. So here's the rundown of how to grow a personal injury firm the Roland Frasier way:
#1 — Set Your Target
To kick the Roland Frasier methodology into action the first thing you'll need to address is leads. Every firm wants to get more clients. Start by narrowing down on your core business, pulling your client data, and assessing:
- What is my firm's specialty?
- Which niche gets the most inquiries?
- What kind of cases are the most profitable?
You should then do a quick market scout to understand who are the leading competitors in that field. You'll need to keep them in your crosshairs as you drill down into the niche.
#2 — Influence The Media
Roland's next step for growth is to assess who has already aggregated the attention and eyeballs of your ideal client profile. And then... you buy them out!
Let's say you've realized that motorcycle accidents are your biggest earners. When you start to think laterally, there are numerous acquisition avenues that you can start to influence in order to get more leads. Including, but not limited to, social media profiles. For example:
- Facebook motorcycle groups
- Instagram channels for motorcycle fans
- Podcasts
- Newsletters
All of these and more can be purchased. Ok, so you're not going to buy Harley Davidson's Instagram channel, but small, popular, local channels are perfect.
Once you have podcasts, shows, events and groups, and a dedicated team creating content, you can start to propagate your message through the media. The type of content you post is critical, as Roland explains:
"Don't write "Hey, been injured on your motorcycle, call me!". Instead, try "Hey, know your rights! Here's the story of what happened and people ride up on your tail and don't realize, so here are some ways to get the space that you need to be safer"
Once you've built that content marketing program across all of your media, you'll automatically be the top of mind choice when an accident occurs.
#3 — The Referral Infrastructure
Referrals for personal injury attorneys are often funneled in by previous clients. That said, referral sources are notoriously hard to measure and equally difficult to influence. Of course, Roland's found a way around that! He suggests making a list of what the biggest referral sources might be. And get creative with it!
"I know that like EMT are a source of referrals. So you don't have to chase the ambulance if the ambulance says, "Hey, you've been hurt, if you need any help call, Joe"
As long as it's legal and ethical, you can make just about anyone into a paid referral source. Ultimately, this is about getting in front of your select group of people in a way that you can provide value to them.
#4 — Buy Up Related Products & Services
Next up, you need to get back on the acquisition train and start thinking about the products and services that your motorcycle accident victims might need. For example:
- A court reporter
- A physical therapist
- A rehabilitative surgeon
And then, you guessed it, you buy them! Your clients require these services anyway. If you provide them with a recommendation for, say, a physical therapist that you have an ownership interest in it's just another way of boosting your brand.
#5 — Consolidate Supply & Distribution
You've already got your leads from acquiring media, and you've got your infrastructure through team and resource acquisition. The third acquisition type for ultimate growth is through consolidating your supply and distribution chain to increase margin. Buying up additional products and services and creating cross-sell opportunities is a surefire way to boost revenue, profits, sales, and customers.
Consider the services your firm is already using. For example, if you're buying content services from a digital marketing agency — go buy them! You'd be your own best customer! Perhaps you'd then bring their services in-house and offer them to other people too. Other examples include court reporting services, perhaps a 3D modeling service that creates accident scenes; anything and everything is a supplier with potential for acquisition.
#6 — Boost Your IP Assets
According to Roland, acquisition in terms of IP assets is one of the easier ways to increase your business. Take your motorcycle-related media and investigate potential content sources you could purchase. Perhaps there's a goldmine of motorcycle safety blog posts or a website that reviews vintage motorcycles. By acquiring this content, you'll have a huge body of content related to motorcycles that you can use to cross-promote with your other purchased media, as well as expanding your content marketing channels.
"So, now I've got all of the leads and infrastructure and margin and cross-selling opportunities that I want and THAT is how I grow a PI business."
