5 top tips for building your business credibility as an ADR provider

Small things add up when you’re trying to build your professional and business credibility in the ADR world. If a prospective client is choosing between you and another mediator with similar experience and services, the decision may ultimately rest on who seems more consistently credible.

It’s not worth cutting corners when you’re building trust in your market. Here are five places to invest your resources:

1. Convey a coherent, consistent brand

Your ADR business brand is your promise to your clients. It’s your look, the way your business feels to prospects, and the association between you and what you stand for in your client’s mind.

When I get a letter from a small business owner, or visit their site, or they hand me their business card, the way those things look makes a difference in my sense of their credibility. A website that’s slapped together conveys “not really invested.” A letter without professional letterhead says, “can’t afford it.” A business card with the perforations from self-printed inkjet templates says, “short-term.”

It’s worth your effort to get clear on your ADR brand, your promise and the association you want clients to make. It’s worth it to create coherent print and web materials for conveying that brand.

2. Get a separate business phone number

When clients call, they don’t want to hear your little boy’s cute voice or your family-friendly outgoing message. If you want to convey professionalism, your voicemail should, too.

These days, you don’t even need to pay for the installation of a second business line if you work from home. Services like GotVMail and GrandCentral fit the bill economically and do their jobs well. More and more frequently, people are also using their cell phones for business calls; if you do, change your message accordingly and be attentive to how you answer.

3. Get a separate, professional email address

Hotmail.com? I don’t think so. While free Gmail and AOL addresses are as prevalent as ragweed in September, a professional your email says something about you to your prospective clients. It says you’ve made a long-term commitment to professional practice and have a presence somewhere with your name on it (bricks and mortar or the web).

It costs pennies a day to buy a domain and get an email address with it. If this is unaffordable for you, your ability to capitalize your ADR business is in serious jeopardy.

4. Know how much skill-stretching is too much

I used to bemoan that I had people who took Basic Mediation with me and, after finishing, had no clue how much they didn’t know, but that I also had mediation master’s graduates who worried they didn’t know enough yet. That’s just bass ackwards.

Stretching yourself to grow and develop makes tons of sense. Stretching yourself and doing a disservice to your clients in your own quest to get business and learn more is quite another. Figure out where your own skill line is and you’ll never risk your professional credibility unduly.

5. Establish a clear pricing structure

Take the time to calculate what it takes to make your ADR practice financially sound and set your fees accordingly. A clear pricing structure enables you to answer clients’ questions easily and in a straightforward manner that inspires confidence.

And a clear pricing structure helps you prevent the awkwardness of a client charged one fee disclosing that to a client charged another. People talk. Even big cities are small towns these days.

On my way to Austin

I’m headed to Austin in a few hours and would love to meet and visit with you at the ACR conference! Come find me in the exhibitors’ hall, where I’ll have my book, Making Mediation Your Day Job. Or join Nancy Hudgins and me for our session on Saturday morning. Or join me for a cup of coffee. See you in the Lone Star State!

(Hat tip to Freelance Switch for a post that gave me the idea to write this post.)