No one wakes up thinking, "I need a corporate lawyer specializing in shareholder agreements." What really happens is something else: someone experiences a moment—an argument with a business partner, the fear of signing something they don't understand, the excitement of starting their own business—and in that instant, their mind decides who to turn to. Or who not to. Marketing calls these moments Category Entry Points.
The concept has been studied for years, and although it originated to sell products, it explains, like few other things, why a client chooses you… or why you're not even on their radar.
What Marketing Discovered and Law Hardly Uses
Category Entry Points (CEPs) are the situations, motivations, or needs that lead someone to start considering hiring within a particular field. The concept was developed in Australia by Professors Byron Sharp and Jenni Romaniukof the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute for Marketing Science.
The underlying idea is simple and a little uncomfortable: you're not chosen because you're the best on paper; you're chosen because you're the name that pops into the client's head at the right moment. And here's the key: the more entry points associated with you, the greater your real market share. Not the one your website claims, but the one that lives in people's minds.
They are, ultimately, moments that people remember.
The client doesn't think in legal categories; they think in moments
We organize the world by branches: commercial, family, tax, labor. The client doesn't. The client thinks, "I'm getting divorced and I'm worried about my children," "I've inherited something and I don't know what to do," "I want to start something with a friend and I don't want it to fall apart." They don't think about family law; they think about their life. And perhaps the first thing that comes to mind is the legal-aid lawyer who got them out of a tight spot but was very friendly and approachable.
The entire business of a lawyer hinges on that bridge: translating a person's experiences into the help you can offer. If you wait for the client to speak your language, you're already too late.
A lawyer isn't just for when things go wrong
We tend to associate lawyers with problems: a lawsuit, a fine, a divorce, an inheritance dispute within the family. That's understandable, but it's only half the picture.
The other half represents the moments of building: like buying a house, starting a business, signing a partnership agreement, hiring someone, protecting an idea, expanding into another country, or ensuring an estate is properly settled while you're still alive. None of that is a failure or an emergency; these are important decisions that go much more smoothly with a lawyer by your side.
And the difference is enormous: if your client only associates you with conflicts, they'll only remember you when they're already facing one… and by then, often, the best advice would have been to call you sooner. If you only manage to be remembered this way, you're missing out on a huge number of situations where you could also be the person who comes to mind.
The moments, one by one
Romaniuk suggests looking at these entry points by asking several questions.
Adapted to the legal world, they would be something like this:
- Why: the motivation itself. Fear, obligation, ambition, protecting loved ones.
- When: the life or business milestone. A company is born, an inheritance arrives, a relationship ends.
- Where and with whom: a conversation with their partner, their accountant, their business partner.
- What they feel: overwhelmed, excited, lost, scared.
- While doing what: signing a contract, buying, hiring, growing.
The work isn't about choosing one, but about mapping all the ones that relate to you and trying to be present in as many as possible. As long as they suit you.
The biggest mental block isn't the client's, it's yours
And we arrive at what really matters. To find those moments, you have to do something that's harder than it seems: step outside your own head.
We get trapped in our own categories—"this is how I do it," "this is how it's always been done"—and we project our view of the law onto the client. But the client doesn't see the law; they see their life and what's happening to them. At that moment, the lawyer can ask themselves, "Where is this person in their legal process?" instead of "What legal problem do they have?" And understand what other opportunities might arise, even if at that moment you think there are none. Stop seeing them as just another case file.
Understanding beyond the surface isn't just a slogan: it's about investigating, asking questions, listening, and learning. It's about putting yourself in their shoes, and not only that, but asking them how they would like to handle the case, what information they would like to receive about their case, how often, and how they would like to approach it. Sometimes we have clients who are willing to give us a lot of information on how to improve our daily practice. All you have to do is listen to them, step outside your own ideas, and devise a strategy that breaks the mold.
How does this translate to your daily life?
You don't need a marketing master's degree to get started. You just need curiosity:
- Make a list of all the moments when someone might need you—problems and non-problems.
- Ask your current clients exactly what they were going through when they contacted you. Their answers are worth more than any study.
- Talk about those moments, not your area of expertise. People aren't looking for "a commercial lawyer"; they're looking for someone who understands what they're going through.
- Be the name that pops into their head at the right moment. Think about how you can become that person.
What I take away from this
Law, in the end, is also about understanding people. They don't choose you because you're the most brilliant on paper: they choose you because you were in their mind when the moment arrived.
The more moments in someone's life you can be a part of, the more minds you'll be in when they need you. And that—and nothing else—is what determines whether they choose you… or not even consider you.
Sources
- Julian Cole (Strategy Tips) — Byron Sharp’s How Brands Grow: Category Entry Points (video): youtube.com/watch?v=eWfxgBlqH6k
- Jenni Romaniuk — Increasing mental market share by using category entry points: jenniromaniuk.com
- Ehrenberg-Bass Institute — Category Entry Points Dissected: marketingscience.info
- Video by Marina Viñas about Category Entry Points (YouTube): youtube.com/watch?v=N75Xpo1DEns
