Findlaw Doesn't Know What Services They're Selling
I had a visit from a Findlaw salesman today. My general approach to unsolicited sales is that they are more than welcome to send me literature. If I’m interested, I can read through the materials and contact them. I can also read through the literature when it’s convenient to me, rather than when the phone rings. I had previously told the FindLaw reps this three times.
The FindLaw salesman wanted to sell me a sponsored spot at the top of their lawyer search. The cost depended on how many areas of law (personal injury, wrongful death, car wrecks) that I wanted to purchase. Fair enough, the portals spend a lot of money to build a brand, a presence and traffic. I believe that Lawyers.com and FindLaw.com are the two largest legal portals.
A few years ago, I tried an exclusive sponsored link on Lawyers.com and didn’t get a single call. Not a good result. I told the salesman that and asked him why I would want to pay to be linked to his directory if I was already
Out of curiosity, I pulled up the information that was available through FindLaw’s portal when you don’t get a website through FindLaw and here’s what I found. A single page with a white background that listed contact information (Attorney, Address, Phone, Address, Phone, Fax, E-Mail, Website, Blogs, Attorneys and West Practice Areas to be exact).
Of course, this contact information provides nothing about what kind of firm we are, how we handle cases, what kind of people we are, or why a potential client should do business with us. I don’t think a potential client will click through two forms before they find out even the smallest amount of information. The first rule of the internet is ‘Don’t Make Me Think’. People want to see what’s going on when they click on a button. They want things to be easy.
FindLaw and Lawyers.com potentially have valuable products/services. I have a serious problem when they make it proprietary to their system and won’t link to my website or blog. I know it’s good for them, but it’s not good for me. Thanks. But I’ll opt out.
With this blog, people can get a sense of who I am and what I’m about. If they like that, they can call. If they don’t like that, they’ll know before they call. Instead of selling people, I just have to be myself, be visible and let the law of attraction work. Blogs do that for me.
Sounds like a classic example of a misinformed salesperson & a rigid business structure. In his defense, lawyers are a REALLY tough group which to market. Believe me I know. ;)
We have had a sponsored listing with FindLaw for over a year. Unless I am wrong I don't think we have had the first call. I think I will do it on my own.
Dwayne Clark
Findlaw does offer the ability to link your site directly from the West Legal Directory on FindLaw.com. In order to do this, a customer must purchase at minimum a profile and a premire listing for a particular practice area on the directory. The value proposition is the premire listing. This premire listing links directly to a firm's website. A profile listing links to a profile of the firm with another link to the attorneys' individual profile. This profile simply offers biographical information. Your real selling tool is a website that offers a reason why someone should hire you over another attorney.
It's unfair to say that FindLaw does not know what it is selling. I am the sales rep that visited this blogger. The binder I showed him did show only FindLaw website customers. I don't have any non-customers in my sales binder. We can and do link to sites that we do not create. We do not have a rigid business structure. We have built over 16000 firmsites for attorneys. We take pride in getting our attorneys found on the major search engines. Our West Legal Directory offers another avenue for those attorneys that want to have a site they created or that is hosted by someone other than FindLaw to have a greater web presence. We of course, offer this service to our customers that have our sites as well. There are only 2 ways for attorneys to get found on the web, through search engines and through legal directories. We offer both as options. One thing that is true, lawyers are a really tough group.
What do you think of the internet service that Martindale-Hubbell provides?
Do not be scammed by Findlaw. These guys sell you web services and then you can't get them to turn it over. They rarely meet deadlines and are arrogant to a fault.
WASTE OF MONEY. Hire someone else to do your website so that you own it.
