After two full days at your Legacy Ranch strategic planning retreat, what happens on Day Three?
(For more on Days One and Two, see Strategic Planning Retreats at Legacy Ranch: A Very Personal Experience and Strategic Planning at Legacy Ranch: Focus Forward.)
While every retreat is different and every firm has different goals, often our clients will spend the morning of Day Three working on their brand story video. James Campbell and Mike Campbell collaborate on this process, which really started back on Day One.
But Day Three is when the magic happens!
Since James is the master storyteller, I’ll let him describe the process.
3 Big Brand Story Questions
- What compels a human being to hire you?
- What makes you the better choice?
- What is your unique value?
We have asked these three questions to every estate and elder law attorney that invests in a private firm retreat. In fact, we ask these same questions at various stages of their experience. We find that their answers are drastically different by the end of Day Two.
Top 5 Initial Answers:
- Peace of mind.
Our firm provides clients with peace of mind. - Holistic approach.
We look at multiple aspects of the clients financial and tax strategies. Very comprehensive planning. - Focused on long term relationships.
We don’t just sell documents. We focus on lasting relationships. - Customer service and communication.
We provide great customer service and clients love our staff. - Board certification (expertise etc).
I also went to law school and I’m a member of a national organization of attorneys.
Literally every client gives these answers on Day One. Would any of these make your list as well? Maybe all of them? Now, I’m not saying there is anything wrong with the Top 5 answers. I hope they are all true. But let’s be clear, if you are marketing yourself with those messages just understand that everybody else is too.
Let’s evaluate the questions a bit before we go too much further into discussing your unique value.
What Compels a Human Being to Hire You?
Remember your prospective clients are human beings. They have hopes, fears, problems and goals. They have deadlines and responsibilities. Why would an actual person hire you?
What Makes You the Better Choice?
Do not ever forget that your clients, prospective clients and referral sources have choices. AND they are being consistently persuaded to choose someone else. Why would they choose to hire and stay with you?
What is Your Unique Value?
Your answer to this question should help better answer the first two. Your Unique Value lies in your individual experiences as well as your firm’s mission and core values. The reasons why you provide peace of mind. Why you have a holistic approach. Why you spent the time and energy for a board certification. Your experiences are relatable. Relatability leads to trust. Once people “feel good” about you, your brand and your core values, they “feel good” about hiring you.
Telling your brand story at a private firm retreat is as much about discovery as it is strategic planning. Once you have discovered your story and told it through emotionally compelling video, your marketing takes on a whole new life. Competition no longer exists because you provide a service and unique experience no one else is able to provide.
What's it Like?
What is it like to work this closely with your team and discover your own story? While for some attorneys this does not seem like a difficult process, for others it can be quite intimidating. Attorneys tend to prefer an unchanging agenda, a neat outline, with no surprises. But when your entire retreat is Focused Forward, you never really know what's going to happen next. We call this being Open to Outcome.
Rest assured, it's a valuable, painless and even enjoyable process. Listen to how one of your colleagues, Mike Mastry of St. Petersburg, Florida described his experience.
Integrity Marketing Solutions - A Testimonial with Mike Mastry from Integrity Marketing Solutions on Vimeo.
The Wrap Up and Results
So what's next? Tomorrow I'll write about what you can expect as your retreat winds down, and when you get back to the office. Because, at the end of the day, it's all about the Results, right?
If you'd like to learn more or get your annual retreat on the schedule at Legacy Ranch, call James now: 1-877-352-2021. We would love to accommodate everyone, but we have very limited availability at the Ranch and the calendar is already filling up. If you think this is something of interest to you, please call right away. We only have a few openings left for first quarter planning.