Marketing your Process Service Business to Legal Association Members

The beginning process server business person referred to in my last blog also requested some guidance on marketing to Bar Associations. “Do I just hand out flyers or business cards introducing myself to the people that are there letting them know I’m offering a service? Is it okay for me to be marketing or promoting my business to these people in the association?”

That's a very good question, and one you always want to ask before promoting to any group you belong to. Do not just assume that it will be okay.

With regard to bar associations, as long as you are allowed to attend meetings, by all means, go and work on building relationships with other attendees. The key words in that last statement are “building relationships”. Networking is critical in most businesses, and the process service business is no different.  Networking requires the building of relationships; as in getting to "know, like and trust" one another. While you may not get any work right away, over time potential clients will get to know you. By building rapport, when they are looking for a server, they will already know you thus making your chances of being selected far greater than someone they would just have to pick out of a list of server companies.

I find networking events invaluable and attend them as often as I can find them. Do not be anxious to drop your business cards right away. If you have ever entered a room and had a stranger thrust their business card into your hand with hardly so much as a hello, you can understand why.  Do, however, take business cards with you. When, and only when, someone asks for a card, give them three; one card for them to keep and, the other two cards for them to share.

Remember, networking is not about the “hard sell”. It is a soft sell process achieved through the building of relationships over time where you discuss business as well as personal topics. Over time, by building rapport and trust, the potential client becomes a friend, or at the very least a good acquaintance, who in turn becomes a client or referral partner.

I hope these points have been helpful. For more helpful information such as this, read through my past blog posts or check out my book, “The Business End of Process, Running a Process Service Company From the Ground Up” available on Amazon.com. http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=%22The+Business+End+of+Process%22&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3A%22The+Business+End+of+Process%22&ajr=0.