Did You Know There Are Three "I"s in Marketing?

You might only see one letter "I" in the word "marketing", but I see three.  "I"ntroduce, "I"nvolve, and then "I"ncrease.

This is all about growing sideways through your client base.  Once you do have a client, a good way to get more business is to, firstly, do a great job for them, and then, secondly, keep them in the loop and engaged in the process (no pun intended), including educating them a little on what you are doing for them, and then, thirdly, increase the amount of work you do for them by introducing them to new, additional services.  Same client, just offer a different service.  It’s what McDonald’s does everyday.

It works like this at McDonald’s.  You come in and ask for a hamburger.  The attendant asks if you want cheese on it.  It wasn't something you were thinking about, but it sounds like a great idea, so you say, yes.  Then the attendant asks if you want fries.  Again, you were just thinking a hamburger, but fries sound like a great idea, so you say, yes.  Then the attendant asks if you want a large order of fries.  You say, yes.  Then the attendant asks if you want something to drink.  And you say, yes.  Get the point.

In fact, the whole process with ordering something at McDonalds has become so routine, that most people now walk into their restaurants and before the attendant can even ask if you want a hamburger with cheese and a large order of fries with a drink, the customer already knows what they are going to be asked, and they just spew it all out at once as the customer has been trained into these responses over time through exposure to the various products McDonalds puts forth.

You can do the same thing in process service.  How do you do that when all you are doing is serving a paper.  Here’s an easy example.  Your client contacts you to serve a subpoena.  And you respond by telling them that you can do that, and then you ask, do you want us to place a rush on that.  And they say, yes.  Or, you ask them, do you want me to prepare the subpoena (which under certain circumstances you can legally do), and they say, yes.

Here’s another example.  You may already know how to serve court documents, but you also know how to locate people who need to be served.  This is called skip tracing.  This is an additional service you can provide.  Or perhaps you can offer to do courier service for the client, or act as a notary public for sworn documents.  If you are qualified and licensed, you can also offer the client to do private investigations.  Plenty of attorneys have a need for investigative services.  If you are already working on their process service, it is easier to give you the investigations, seeing as they already know you, than for them to locate an investigator, get quotes, vet them, retain them, etc. 

So, in that way you "introduce" the client to a new service, you "involve" them in the new service by providing quality customer service and education into the process, and then you "increase" the level of services by introducing yet another new or additional service.  It could become an endless cycle if you could find an endless number of services to provide.  You could start serving court documents for one client, but before too long, you could be serving the court documents, running investigations, locating witnesses, notarizing documents, completing courier deliveries, retrieving court records, researching court files, preparing subpoenas, and on and on and on.

What would be easier from a marketing standpoint; provide eight different services for one client, or find eight different clients to provide just one service?  Even better -- eight different services for eight different clients.  Now that's a lot of cheeseburgers on the grill!