If I asked you to share your best qualities, how easy would you find that to do? Would you be able to list your strengths without appearing over confident or would you struggle to answer? When I ask my clients to do this exercise, they find describing themselves and how they are perceived really tricky and embarrassing. Cringe worthy even!!
In this crowded and changing legal landscape, you want to be memorable and easily promoted by others. In other words, you need to build your personal reputation capital. This is the shorthand version of you! When people recommend you, they will use various adjectives to describe you as well as your services. So, you want to deepen their experience of you, which plays to your strengths.
We can do this through the use of testimonials. These statements help to enforce your qualities and, in order to strengthen your personal reputation, must be about you and not your firm.
Let me share some examples of testimonials that I can use to demonstrate credibility:
- “Wonderful to have a teacher who can translate practical businesssolutions from her experience into my firm’s and my personal needs/areas for development.” Jodie Hill Founder and MD Thrive Law
- “With all of her experience, Ann is quickly able to identify issues and areas of training specific to the individual. It is her astuteness and enthusiasm that separates her from the competition.” Partners at BCL Legal
- “Ann was an excellent presenter. Extremely knowledgeable and approachable. I got a lot more from the course than I expected and will definitely recommend the course and Ann to my peers.” Judith Bolderson Jigsaw Law
You will notice that I have chosen endorsements that are directly about me and reflect my skills and values – the qualities that I want to be known for.
I have then highlighted the relevant words to ensure I pick up the key messages that I want to focus on.
For example, “My clients tell me that that my inspiring style marries my knowledge and experience with my astuteness and practical solutions. This sets me apart and allows me to deliver more than is expected to my attendees of my training and coaching by making sure I provide relevant practical solutions.”
This is what I want to be known for and establish as an expectation for clients who attend my seminars and workshops as well as those coached by me.
The other advantage of honing in on strengths and qualities is that I can look for recurrent themes or messages to use in marketing activities. Using the three testimonials above, we may conclude that delegates would say:
- “Ann uses her knowledge and experience to ensure that I receive practical solutions I can use.”
- “I aways get more from her workshops.”
- “I find her enthusiasm inspiring and her workshops are fun not boring.”
Can you see how knowing this information makes it much easier to build your brand and give prospects a sense of not just what you do, but how you do it.
Where else can I use this information? Testimonials and your buzz words can also be used on your website and LinkedIn. If these have been received since your last appraisal you may wish to keep these with your learning and development record.
Are you ready to boost your personal brand with your clients and target market?
If so, I have four recommendations for you to improve your communication skills and self-confidence for meeting and connecting with potential clients:
- Go to my complimentary toolkit. In the section on ‘Where to start? Personal Branding – Documenting your brilliance© there is an exercise for you to list six of your testimonials. Then review and see if you can find the common themes identified by your clients. Now craft a statement about your client’s experience of your service and working with you.
- Reading:
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- I have a blog on ‘What is your personal brand as a lawyer and why is it important?’
- For further tips on networking see: ‘Three simple words to create interesting small talk at networking events’, ‘How to gain credibility in your 60 second introduction at networking events’ and ‘How to use statistics to position yourself as a trusted expert’. My blog on ‘Power’ skills reminds you of other skills which are necessary to your success.
- My book Business Skills? Don’t be daft I am a lawyer! in Chapters 2 ‘What skills and qualities do you need to start’; 1.3 ‘Advice from our stars’, and 3.3 ‘How does your personal brand help you in your market place,’ contain more exercises and valuable techniques about becoming successful.
- Training:
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- Personal branding workshop for Lawyers is an interactive 2-hour session by Zoom to enable you to understand the key elements of your brand. This will enable you to promote yourself online and off to expand your client base.
- My Business Brilliance Blueprint Programme is designed for partners and legal business owners who want to accelerate their mastery of business skills. This five-day training programme can be split into separate parts to address your specific challenges. Follow this link to the full brochure with all the details.
- Coaching: I offer personalised customised coaching programme which you can learn more about at this link. Chapter 1.2 of Business Skills? Don’t be daft I am a lawyer! contains exercises for you to identify your coaching needs. My blog “You Can’t read the Label form Inside the Jar” describes the benefits of coaching.
If you would like to discuss any of the content of this blog or any of the training and coaching programmes, please contact me either email, ann@yorkshirecoursesforlawyers.co.uk or telephone me on 07921540039.
Happy to chat over coffee and cake on a no obligation basis to discuss your objectives and needs.
Ann Page, Business Author, Trainer and Coach for the Legal Profession
A Top 100 lawyer of the year (2003) Ann has had a successful in-house 28-year career, working mainly in the financial sector. She switched from being a business lawyer in industry to a non-practising solicitor who teaches and coaches on business subjects in 2003. Since then, Ann has trained 7500+ lawyers on business skills including leadership, management and interpersonal skills. She trained with the Coaching Academy and holds a HNLP certificate in coaching as well as being an NLP Master Practitioner. Ann is also a MiRo Accredited Trainer and has written three books. Ann has always been active in various professional committees and currently she is Treasurer of the Yorkshire Sole Practitioner’s Group, a member of the Professional Speaking Association, Professional Speaking Academy and Leeds Law Society.
This blog was first published on May 10th 2017 and was significantly updated on September 10th 2022