Books to inspire your marketing efforts

There are a lot of good books out there for learning how to network, build client relationships, and market one's self. And I’ve read most of them. But very very few of these books are specific to us lawyers—which is one of the reasons I wrote Juggling the Big 3.

As a lawyer, we tend to feel as though we work within an idiosyncratic profession—we are valued and rewarded for our intellect—and not cut from the same cloth as, for example, management consultants and sales people. (Did I actually use that four-letter word “sell” in the same sentence as “lawyer”?) Further, lawyers (at least in private practice) work on the basis of billable hours, which means time spent on “other” endeavors can feel like time wasted… and only fellow lawyers (who understand this difficulty) can advise on how to “juggle” networking and marketing with the unique demands of a legal career.

This may be true, but it doesn’t mean that lawyers can’t (or shouldn’t) be following the advice of other successful professionals.

One UK firm that specializes in marketing for lawyers (Berners Marketing) agrees. In fact, they specifically recommend the following books (written by non-lawyers):

• Rainmaking Made Simple What Every Professional Must Know by Mark M. Maraia;

• The Trusted Adviser by David H. Maister, Robert Galford, Charles Green;

• Network Your Way to Success by John Timperley; and

• Business Stripped Bare by Richard Branson.

I’ve read them all, and each of them was both beneficial to me as a practicing lawyer, and as an author.

Oh, and by the way, Berners Marketing also recommend Juggling the Big 3…which, IS, written by a lawyer, for lawyers.

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