Now and then, new legislation is enacted that makes many professional services firms terrified of the changes they must make to survive. To find out the Best property lawyer in Kolkata, click here

Suppose you are an intellectual property legal services professional concerned about the impact of The Legal Services Act on your business. In that case, you can continue reading to learn how to position yourself and your company as leaders in the coming years.

The Act now aims to provide better service to consumers, many of whom believe that law firms are self-serving and have no interest in improving their client management capabilities.

Multi-service law firms may be concerned about the impact of allowing supermarkets to have legal shops (or preferred suppliers for branded legal services), for example. Such a company could employ you. To compete, will you reduce headcount and provide services at lower prices? More importantly, how will this affect the reputation of your industry if prospects and clients look at prices first before attempting to understand the benefits of the services you may provide? What happens to your ability to offer various legal services, including intellectual property advice, that keeps clients loyal to you over time?

And, perhaps most concerning for those in the profession who are accustomed to a well-trodden path to partnership status, how will you handle potential conflicts that arise internally and with clients if you have non-lawyers as partners in your practice?

There are numerous issues to address. But the most critical question you must answer is how you will differentiate yourself as a top intellectual property legal services professional and attract the clients you want in the face of legislative changes.

There currently needs to be more speculation about the impact of this Act on small to medium-sized legal practices. Given that many of these types provide the same range of services and are notoriously bad at marketing, the worst-case scenario predicted by some is widespread redundancy due to price wars. However, if you think about it, and this is pure speculation on my part, supermarkets that begin to offer legal services to loyalty card holders (e.g., estate planning, wills, powers of attorney, etc.) may be able to suck wind on costs to reach critical mass. After all, there is a massive opportunity for them to cross-sell financial services like insurance, mortgages, and so on.

So, do you think this is a scenario you're concerned about: supermarkets targeting your prospects or clients after acquiring information on our shopping habits (too effectively for quite a few customers)? Many of these people may be content to use a one-stop shop for various services, primarily the less complex legal stuff that wastes valuable time, but with the expectation that they will receive excellent service.

It's easy to hear various people tell you to improve your marketing to let people know what IP-related expertise you have, such as by redesigning your website, getting a new logo, purchasing a list of prospects to invite to seminars or events, sending out newsletters, doing more networking, and so on. That is all very well, but it will not help.

Why?

The main reason is that you have yet to get into your prospects' heads to discover their IP-related questions. If you don't do this, your marketing will be similar to many competitors. As a leader, you will not stand out.

Assume you know what information people seek and the ideal outcomes they desire. First and foremost, you must break a lifetime habit and stop bragging about the services you offer and how great you are. Even if you're under pressure, convincing people of your qualifications and experience will irritate many of the people you need to convert into clients.

Instead, could you identify a niche or a specific type of client to whom you would like to provide free information? I'd appreciate it if you could help prospects understand how to ease their pain and improve their lives. After all, intellectual property law is complicated to grasp. Whether you use white papers, articles, blogs, or newsletters makes no difference. However, you'll need to promote your IP-related information rather than your services. As I previously stated, direct response marketing is critical for capturing details and directing prospects to your information.

There are very few intellectual property lawyers, like so many other professional service fields, who have a comprehensive system in place to gain the trust of prospects as the first step in winning them over. And if you're wondering how to position your company as the go-to source for IP legal services in the face of all the legislative changes, then you need to focus on the value you provide to your prospects as you guide them through your sales funnel.

The only way to compete with larger practices without drastically lowering your prices is to establish yourself in prospects' minds as the best IP legal services practice that will address their concerns. Unfortunately, you won't be able to accomplish this by extolling your expertise and listing all your services in the hope that people will be impressed.

IP legal services professionals should look for ways to become leaders in specific niches if they want to get and keep good clients. Unfortunately, legislative changes tend to destroy firms that need to be more nimble to constantly recognize the need to evolve with the times.

Traditional marketing and legal advertising methods are no longer effective (by the way, if you have a yellow pages ad that lists your services, be very afraid). Instead, you should think about putting in place a new business model that focuses on answering questions from your target market and using this as a way to build trust with prospects. If you focus on this first, you will attract the clients you desire.