71: Have a Power Niche with Managing Partner, Bruce Stachenfeld
Strive to be Different … Not Better
Bruce Stachenfeld is the Managing Partner of his firm, Duval & Stachenfeld.He’s known for being one of the most ‘connected’ real estate lawyers throughout the worldwide real estate community. He’s specialized and adapted his area of focus to meet the needs of the market over a 30-year legal career.
Habits that have lead to Bruce’s success:
– Being relentless
– Being open minded
– Experiencing and evaluating failure
– Ruthlessly analyzing his and his team’s performance
Ask clients and prospects questions. What do they care about? Learn how their business works, what their needs are. Be helpful.
Being better than the competition (adding features) is less profitable than being different. Competition drives similarity, adding features increases costs.
Define yourself differently. Strategically.
The Power Niche:
– Define ‘it’
– Learn everything about ‘it’
– Communicate about ‘it’ broadly
– Until you’re identified with ‘it’
Don’t be a lawyer who does legal work when asked. Stay in touch and educate on the issues.
Advice to develop your practice:
- Get out and about:you’ll get ideas/information about clients and prospects out in the field.
- Be enthusiastic:show your passion, the thrill and the love of what you do
- Knowledge is power:be dominant in your niche through knowledge
- Follow-up is critical:if you don’t follow-up the above 3 points are futile
Respond to a changing market condition specifically. Business slow? Use the available time to market.
Bottom line: Clients care about why you’re different. If they value that difference – and need it, they’ll pay for it.