Using interesting items to decorate your shared office space will likely start conversations that can lead to long lasting referral relationships.
While your shared office space is typically designed to serve as a place to accomplish your work and a referral marketing tool, your office décor should pull double-duty as well. Decorating your office is imperative. Think of it as another aspect of your “visual resume.”
Choosing how you want your office to feel should depend on what you will enjoy seeing every day. Pick pieces that express something interesting about you to casual observers. It can be anything you love, like a painting from your Italian getaway or your children’s art.
Of course, the décor is not as important as the story behind the object or the conversations it will surely inspire. Here at Law Firm Suites, we have found that personal level social interaction is more likely to lead to prolonged referral relationships.
The Marathon Medal
Accessories reveal more of who you are as a person to your suite mates. For example, a Law Firm Suites IP attorney is an avid runner. He has run the New York City Marathon three times and proudly displays his medals around his office. These medals are instant conversation starters and, as we have mentioned, collegial conversation with like-minded professionals is the first step in receiving the ultimate value from your shared office space: referrals.
Meanwhile, his neighbor, a trusts and estates attorney, runs from his uptown home to work (9 miles!) every day that the weather allows. When he passed by and saw the medals, they instantly built a friendship. These two attorneys, in seemingly disparate practice areas, now network with and for each other. You would be surprised at the volume of referrals they have exchanged.
Obviously, you do not have to be a runner to appreciate the marathon medals. The IP attorney regularly has people say to him how “they could never run a marathon”, or extend a compliment about his commitment and determination. The marathon medals now symbolize the type of professional that this IP lawyer is: he is the lawyer who is willing to persevere for long-term benefits in the face of adversity. He is a lawyer who is tenacious and dedicated.
Find your own “marathon medals” and display them proudly.
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