Episode Transcript
Key Takeaways
- The biggest problem facing professional practices: they don't stand out, and they don't know the principles of standing out.
- Synthesize ideas from other industries. The fast-food drive-thru was stolen from banking.
- Legal and cosmetic marketing share the same core problem: you can't predict when a client will need you.
- Reputation compounds. Word travels fast when someone gets burned, and just as fast when you do right by people.
- Don't copy the big firms. What got them there won't work at your size.
Why this matters now. The big firms have only gotten bigger since this episode, and AI ad tools now let them spend even faster. Your advantage hasn't changed: they have to average their message across everyone, and you don't. We've run this play ourselves. Gartner Plastic Surgery came to us as a turnaround with one New Jersey office and grew to three, including Manhattan. Positioning beat budget. Start with what your competitors know that you don't, then why medical marketing fails. If you want the out-positioning done for you, that's our work as a lead generation agency in Toronto.
The Biggest Problem: You Don’t Stand Out
That’s the biggest problem I see facing professional practices is they do not stand out at all. Worse, they don’t understand the principles to stand out. Welcome back to another episode of Practice Perfect, the podcast for medical professionals and anybody dealing with a professional services firm as opposed to a bricks and mortar business. On today’s episode, I’ve got a treat for you guys.
Corey Vanderburg Fights TV-Budget Law Firms for a Living
I’ve got Corey Vanderburg here from Clixi. Clixi is an agency that helps lawyers market and fight against large law firms with TV budgets. The title of this podcast is going to be How to Fight Large Competitors with Large Budgets Using Digital Marketing. If you’re not in the legal space, if you’re operating some sort of practice that’s in the medical space, if you’re a coach, if you are doing anything other than legal, I still want you to pay close attention to what Corey has to say.
Steal From Other Industries: The Drive-Thru Came From Banking
One of the things that I teach my clients is to synthesize information. When you synthesize information, what I mean by that is that you’re taking something from one industry and you’re applying it to another. A classic example of that is the drive-thru. Drive-thru for fast food actually came from the banking industry and somebody at some point was looking at this concept at the bank and said, hey, you know what, this would work really well at my drive-thru and then they applied it to fast food and since then we’ve had fast food drive-thrus.
“When you synthesize information, what I mean by that is that you’re taking something from one industry and you’re applying it to another.”
You Can’t Predict When a Client Needs You
Corey has been working with lawyers and he is probably the foremost authority on legal marketing in my opinion that I’ve seen. I don’t know anybody that can answer questions about the legal space and how to market for lawyers than Corey Vanderburg. Now I have to preface that with the fact that the legal profession is not an easy profession to get into in terms of marketing.
“Legal marketing is exactly the same. You cannot predict when somebody has had a car accident.”
How Corey Fell Into Legal Marketing
Corey, welcome to the show. Thank you, sir. I appreciate that introduction. That was very thorough and undeserved.
It seems like the best stories tend to start that way. It sort of fell in our lap. The way Will and I initially met is he was running a program to help individuals improve their credit scores so that they could get a mortgage. This was really a clever way of manufacturing his own purchasers for properties that he was fixing up and selling.
Nobody Ever Loses Their Home Because of Us
We had a certain ethic when we would help these homeowners and it was that nobody ever loses their home because of us. When we did that, one of the things we would always tell them is, look, your absolute worst case scenario is we know a lot of the bankruptcy attorneys in town and there are ways that you can save your home utilizing the bankruptcy courts as a backstop.
“It’s a small world and word travels quickly, especially when someone gets burned.”
Activity Does Not Equal Progress
So on that note and with this concept of activity, I know that you guys, just like us, you do things a little bit differently where you actually keep yourselves accountable for results. Tell me a little bit about the philosophy around that and why you started to do that because I think that it’s important for doctors, lawyers, service professionals to understand this concept of activity not equaling progress.
Don’t Copy the Big Firms. It Won’t Work at Your Size.
I think that those are two huge points. If you’re listening and you can take note of that, go back and listen to exactly what Corey said there is that you’ve got a unique advantage no matter the size of your business and understand that what’s gotten you here isn’t going to get you there and it’s the same for the big firms. Don’t try to copy your big competitors because what’s going to get you there isn’t what got them there and it’s not going to work for you as it is for them.
Corey’s Parting Advice
Corey, in three minutes or less, can you tell me anything that I may have forgotten to ask you that you would like to share with lawyers and service providers that are listening to this episode? I don’t think from a topical standpoint and I’m a little wordy as it is, so I don’t think I’d be able to broach anything in three minutes, but I did want to add one quick clarification earlier when we were talking about the brand transformation and new website packages.