I went to see an old client a few days ago. The man who prompted me to start writing parables about business.
Michael is a lawyer in the San Francisco Bay Area. After many years of doing auto and related insurance cases, Michael concentrated on motorcycle accidents.
He did so because there was a large market where a single lawyer could become a well known leader. And because he loves motorcycles.
Michael’s reputation rapidly spread. I even found myself describing one of his cases where the client ran his motorcycle into a telephone pole. Michael collected a large settlement from the phone company for the client.
Michael recently outfitted a Mercedes van with a luxury interior and standup room. He has to drive to many courthouses around the Bay. Traffic is so bad that a half hour trip can sometime take an hour and a half. Most lawyers go early and then go to a Starbucks or a Denny’s to work and pass the time.
Michael has a modem, refrigerator and tables in his van. He can sit in luxury and enjoy himself or work, on the many occasions when he arrives at a courthouse early.
A friend suggested that Michael put an advertising skin on his van. The side designs were pretty obvious. A motorcycle and name of the firm. It is on the back that Michael’s marketing genius came into play. He put the image of the back of a motorcyclist giving the universal ‘go around’ sign.
In the first week he got a motorcycle accident client who saw the back of the van. That single legal fee paid for the van.
Great marketing is always an act of insight.