For lawyers, marketing is all about getting noticed, building relationships and then taking care of clients once you have them, according to Leslie Meagley, a Seattle marketing consultant and former chief marketing officer at Preston Gates & Ellis (now K&L Gates). She advises clients to take a few important steps.

DIFFERENTIATE YOURSELF. Find ways to get noticed that work for you: public speaking, perhaps, or being active in associations. Publishing (in print or online) or getting quoted in the mass media helps. Lawyers also should find ways to become expert in a niche field of the law. Sometimes lawyers do this by focusing on the law pertaining to fields where they used to work, or where their spouse still does.

BUILD TRUSTING RELATIONSHIPS. Spend time networking. It can be time-consuming, involving a score of face-to-face meetings over a couple of years, which can be daunting for lawyers, who as a rule are less sociable than salespeople. However, more than 80 percent of new business comes from relationships and referrals, she says. Advertising can help reinforce the efforts lawyers put into networking.

CHEMISTRY IS IMPORTANT. Clients create short lists based on a lawyer's perceived competency, Meagley says, but they hire based on chemistry ? whether they think an attorney will take care of them.

Finally, she says, STICK WITH IT. Successful rainmakers have a business development plan and they stay optimistic.

? Bryan Corliss