How Attorneys Can Make a Great Living and Live a Great Life
There are two kinds of law firms in existence today:
FREE Law Firms and FAKE Law Firms
Your law practice or your professional service firm is either FREE or it’s FAKE.
A FREE Firm is:
Fun – You enjoy what you are doing and who you work with.
Rewarding – Your work helps fulfill your personal mission.
Easy – Your work comes naturally to you.
Engaging – Your firm magnetically attracts others.
You know your law firm is FAKE if it is:
Frustrating – You can’t seem to break through to the next level.
Annoying – Going to work bothers you.
Killer – Your business is literally taking years off of your life.
Exhausting - You’re tired all the time and you don’t know why.
My mission is to help FAKE firms become FREE firms.
If you feel like you have been stuck in a rut in your law practice…
If you have not eaten dinner with your family in months…
If you can’t believe that you have to see that difficult client AGAIN…
If you are just flat out tired of busting your butt today to pay yesterday’s bills…
Listening to this interview may be the most valuable time you have ever spent.
Press play on the audio player below to listen to a nationally syndicated interview that has the tips, strategy and tactics that successful attorneys use to move their firm from FAKE to FREE.
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EmailThick Skin and Unsolicited Advice
NOTE: This article contains adult language for emphasis. If you are offended by slang words used to describe poop and donkeys, please do not read this article.
Being uncomfortable prevents thousands, (maybe millions) of people from becoming financially free. This is especially true of attorneys.
An example: Most lawyers I meet tell me they use their current method of billing because “that’s the way everyone else does it”. Essentially they fear the discomfort of being different. This fear is so great they refuse to buck the current trend.
They tell me that people will not work with them if they are different. They say they must conform or face financial ruin.
Of course that is a huge pile of crap.
It is just fear that prevents them from developing an alternative billing model. Fear and insecurity. Nothing more.
But this is not an article about billing. It is an article about you and the way you deal with “unsolicited negative feedback”.
We all fall victim to unsolicited feedback offered by other people.
In many cases, the person who gives you “a little friendly advice” is not actually being friendly. They are being destructive.
Why do they do this? Why give you unsolicited advice that only serves to bring you down?
I don’t know the technical term for it but at a deep psychological level, for some people, making others feel less successful fills some kind of need.
It happens to everyone and it can get inside your head…if you let it.
I fell victim to this just the other day.
Click Continue Reading for more of my foolish behavior and learn how you can avoid the mistake I made
The Lawyers Who Don’t Need Marketing and Business Strategy
If you work in a law firm – particularly a big law firm – you may not need to know how to originate new business. Someone may feed you business. And they may do so for years and years.
You will probably make a respectable salary and you will get to do meaningful work, some of which you’ll enjoy.
If you work for yourself, own your own law firm, you may not need to do much in the way of marketing. You may be able to go directly from a public position (Prosecutor’s Office or Public Defender’s Office) into a practice where your reputation delivers clients to your doorstep on a steady, regular basis.
Both of these options are true career paths that thousands of lawyers have worn over the years. Many of the lawyers that follow these paths make a good living.
There is one challenge with these two paths: They leave an awful lot to chance.
With the big firm path, you never have the opportunity to control your own destiny. You constantly wait for someone to deliver work to your office, you say thank you, and you kill yourself for no glory.
On the second path, you have every opportunity in the world at your feet. You can take whatever cases you’d like. You can charge whatever you’d like and you can work whenever you’d like …
…if you know how to attract and retain clients.
Note: Being a good lawyer is not a strategy. Being a good lawyer is a prerequisite for any attorney who owns his/her own firm. If you stink as a lawyer, your lousy reputation will overwhelm any marketing efforts you can possibly employ.
Being a good lawyer and promoting yourself minimally (putting up a website and attending a few local events) will help you expand your reputation and get you to a comfortable place financially.
If you want to make more money, mid six figures to seven figures and beyond, you will need to do some marketing and set a sound business strategy.
That means creating a message and targeting a specific market with that message. It’s not necessarily advertising…it is marketing and business strategy.
The bottom line: If you want to top out at $150,000 - $300,000 per year, that’s great. Continue to work for someone else or start your solo shop and rely solely on good fortune and your reputation.
Risky but possible.
If you want to make $500,000 and beyond (I have several clients who make multiple millions of dollars per year in law firms they own, with less than 10 employees) you need a sound strategy and you need marketing.
Need help with this? Think I’m wrong? Give me a call.
Dave Lorenzo 888.692.5531
Thoughts on Motivation, Lawyers and Marketing
I am a marketer and business strategist.
I am good, some would say excellent, at helping attorneys attract and retain clients.
I didn’t always work with lawyers. For a number of years I worked with business owners, managers and executives in many industries. My only guidelines for accepting new clients were that their business was operated in a legal, moral and ethical manner.
Last year I made a decision to focus exclusively on working with attorneys. I did this because I felt there was an underserved need for business fundamentals, strategy and marketing savvy in the profession.
That assumption was correct.
I don’t question the motivation of anyone who chooses to become a lawyer. Some folks go into the law because they want to break new ground – set precedent. Some folks become attorneys because they have a desire to help others. Some folks become lawyers because they want to make a lot of money. Some folks are motivated by all three things.
I have worked with people who are motivated by each of these factors. Marketing and business strategy can help an attorney no matter what his/her motivation.
Here’s how:
For the lawyer who likes to break new ground: We develop a strategy for attracting the kinds of matters that are likely to need new precedent in order to be successful. We then position the attorney (marketing) as the logical choice to help the client in this particular predicament.
For the attorney who wants to help people: Finding someone to help is generally not the hard part. Finding the RIGHT someone to help can be difficult. If you work in private practice you can only take on a select few cases pro bono. This means that you need to attract the majority of your clients from a pool of people you can help who can actually pay you something. Finding those people and getting them to hire you is where marketing and business strategy are helpful.
For the attorney who wants to make lots of money: Identifying, attracting and retaining the best clients with the highest value are great uses for a sound business strategy and good marketing.
I am essentially making two points:
- Marketing and business strategy are not the enemy of a good lawyer. If they are used correctly, they can help any lawyer in private practice.
- Nobody has the right to question your motivation as long as you operate in a legal, moral and ethical manner.
Attorneys love to argue about marketing and motivation. They love to bash their fellow attorneys who have made their law firms into large productive businesses. I don’t partake in those arguments because I am personally in business for all of the reasons I outlined above. I like helping people (and many attorneys desperately need business help). I like doing new things in my field (setting precedent). And I like making money. I find that the people who judge my motivation are usually envious of my success in any or all of these areas.
One of my first mentors once told me that people who complained about someone making “too much money” were people who didn’t have any money themselves. I wonder if the same is true of people who question the motivation of someone who does their job because of the money they make…
In a perfect world we would all do what we love and make as much money as we wanted while doing it. Until that world exists I’ll keep helping the people who show up regardless of why they came to me.
Dave Lorenzo
888.692.5531
Money Is Important
Let’s have a heart-to-heart conversation.
You need to make money. Maybe even more money than you are currently making. Even if you don’t need it, you want it.
There’s nothing wrong with that.
Let me say that again.
There is nothing wrong with wanting to make more money.
You can love the law and want more money.
You can love your family and want more money.
You can provide great value to your clients and want more money.
You can be a good person and want more money.
Money is not bad. It is good.
So why do so many attorneys have a complex about making more money?
A law firm is a business.
Businesses exist …to make money.
Don’t get hung up on the negativity about growing your practice, raising your rates or charging for initial consultations.
Deliver fair value and charge accordingly.
Got questions? Call me.
Dave Lorenzo 888.692.5531
Five Things Every Law Firm Should Guarantee
Most businesses are afraid of guarantees. The believe that people will take advantage of them way too often and drive firm into the ground.
Law firms are no different.
In most states law firms cannot even allude to the potential positive outcome of a matter without facing severe penalties. So you can forget about guaranteeing anything…right?
Wrong!
The state bar rules, in most cases, do not forbid SERVICE LEVEL GUARANTEES. They forbid outcome guarantees. Your law firm can guarantee that you will treat your clients with respect and common courtesy.
Many of my clients (I only work with lawyers) have strong guarantees and they ask their clients to hold them accountable.
Here are the five things that every law firm should guarantee:
A Return Phone Call
I hate the fact that most attorneys do not return phone calls in a timely fashion. I do not care how busy you are, I do not care if you spend your entire day in court, I don’t care if you commute 3 hours one way to work; all client phone calls should be returned within two hours. Period.
You don’t have to personally call your client back (it would be great if you would). But your assistant should call people back within two hours and schedule a return call to your clients at the next possible opportunity.
By they way there is no excuse for ever letting a client go beyond 24 hours without a phone call. If you don’t get out of work until 10PM, call then. The client will be glad you did. They will not be upset when you interrupt their TV shows.
Proper Preparation
I have seen many attorneys walk into the lobby of the courthouse and get introduced to their client for the first time.
Sorry but that is crap.
Proper preparation means having at least one conversation with your client before they put their legal future in your hands.
It also means that you have read the file before walking into the meeting with opposing council for the first time (yep I’ve seen and heard about that a few times too). It also means proof reading the settlement letter before sending it – you know – to make sure that the client’s name is spelled correctly…
An Answer to Every Question
You must give your client an answer to every question he/she asks. Helping your client understand what is happening to him/her is an essential part of your job.
If you don’t know the answer to the question at that moment, simply say: “I have to do some research before I answer you.” And then get back to them as soon as possible.
That’s not only a nice thing to do, it’s your job. You work for the client.
Attorney Timeliness
No one client is more important than any other.
If they are you should choose not to represent the lesser of the two clients because they deserve someone who will give them their full attention.
Be on time.
Just like the phone call situation – there are few acceptable excuses for being late to a meeting.
The Right to Speak with the Boss
All clients should have the right to speak with the ultimate decision-making authority in the firm.
If you are a solo or small firm attorney then you might want to consider a “speak your mind guarantee”. This is a guarantee that states that if the client is ever not happy with something, they have the right to speak their mind and not worry about any repercussions. Of course this is not the same as introducing an objective third party into the situation, but it demonstrates your concern for the feelings of the client.
So just what happens if you let the client down?
What happens if you fail in one of these areas?
In most cases, the attorney agrees to forgive some portion of the fee.
That’s right; they put their money where their mouth is.
These five items are foundational elements of client service. If you are not guaranteeing them, there is only one reason: You are scared that you cannot control yourself enough to treat people properly.
Why don’t you implement this five point guarantee today?
Need help? Call me. Dave Lorenzo 888.692.5531
Time Management Secrets that Actually Work
One day last month I was on the phone with a client and he was going into great detail about his trouble managing his time.
He blamed email, voice mail and his cell phone for his problems. He said that there were just too many ways to get in touch with him.
We implemented four simple steps that have transformed the way he does business.
He has saved five hours a week (at minimum).
Here’s what he did:
1). He now responds, deletes or files every email when he reads it. He only looks at an item one time. He doesn’t “cherry pick” email messages – meaning he doesn’t go through the list and only respond to the easy ones. He takes them one at a time and plows through them.
2). He eliminated voice mail. His assistant fields and screens the calls and SCHEDULES a call back time for him. This has been transformational because she will schedule calls in fifteen minute increments. If a client needs something longer than that amount of time they are encouraged to book at telephone APPOINTMENT which is at least an hour in length.
3). He forwarded his cell phone to his assistant during normal business hours and rule 2 applies. After 7PM and before 8AM he takes calls on his cell phone (for emergencies only).
The final tip is his little secret that he didn’t want me to post.
Click “Continue Reading” for the last tip that saved this attorney a huge amount of time.
The Fastest Way to Lose a Client
Most solo practitioners and small law firms can’t afford to lose a client.
Yet most do the one thing that absolutely infuriates their clients.
What am I talking about?
I’m talking about the lack of responsiveness that has become pervasive in the legal profession.
Consider this scenario:
A client engages you to handle an important matter, a matter where time is of the essence. The client is nervous, maybe even down right scared. Their financial health and quite possibly their physical wellbeing rest in your hands. They call your office with a question at 10:30AM on a Tuesday.
What is a reasonable time for the client to expect a return call?
Not necessarily an ANSWER to his question but a call acknowledging the issue.
What is reasonable? Four hours? Before the end of the day? Later that week?
How about never?
Is that acceptable?
Obviously not.
This is a true story.
A client was fired from her job as an executive at a telecom company. She engaged an employment attorney to help her work out a financial settlement with her former employer. The attorney worked on a contingency fee basis and the settlement negotiations were in the mid-six figure range.
As negotiations progressed, the executive began to become more and more anxious. She had no current income and two kids to feed. Her savings would last at least six months but she had hoped to avoid spending it down.
But that wasn’t even the key issue.
She was also looking at a terrible (and probably illegal) noncompete agreement that she signed ten years earlier. Reworking the terms of this agreement also needed to be part of the deal.
One Tuesday (about three weeks into the negotiation) the executive left a message for the attorney at around 10:30AM. When her call was not returned by Friday morning, she called again. She was able to speak directly with the attorney who said he did not return the call because he was: “Busy with an important case.”
The executive was taken aback but believed that she was too far into the negotiation to make any waves with her attorney. So she swallowed her indignation and hoped for the best.
Things progressed and the settlement worked out fine. During her review of the paperwork, the executive again left a message for the attorney. This time a week passed and after the executive left two additional messages, the attorney finally called back.
In this case, the client was angry at the attorney’s lack of responsiveness. But she felt handcuffed because of the nature of the situation. Make no mistake; the client in this matter has not forgotten how she was treated. She is now a senior executive working for another telecom company in the same town where the attorney practices law. She regularly tells EVERYONE about her former council’s lack of responsiveness during this encounter.
In this matter, the attorney did not lose the client but his past behavior has kept him from realizing several new potential client relationships.
In the past few months I have heard similar stories four other times.
Four other incidents of attorneys virtually ignoring client phone calls.
And intent is irrelevant.
When I brought this up to one of the attorneys who was a particularly egregious offender in this regard he responded:
“I am only one person. I want to talk with my clients – in real time. I would love to present them with the issues as they arise and get their feedback and ultimately conclude the matter in a couple of days. The fact is that each client is just a drop in the ocean. I have almost 120 clients. How can I return all those calls, and go to court, and negotiate with opposing council, all at the same time?”
Something is dreadfully wrong with this situation.
There is no excuse for not returning a client’s phone call or email.
None.
I do not care how busy you think you are.
The easiest way to get fired is to be nonresponsive.
One of the first things I drill into the heads of the attorneys who hire me is the response standard that their clients expect. This standard is not only common courtesy, in difficult times it serves as a harbinger of practice integrity.
In the offices of my clients they adhere to these two communications policies:
- All phone calls are returned within 90 minutes
- We respond to all email within 24 hours
I work with law firms that bill over $1 million annually and somehow manage to adhere to this standard. I also work with solo attorneys who bill in excess of $750,000 per year and follow this policy to the letter.
There is no reason why you cannot do this.
Yes, I know you sometimes go to court and there are days when you are in client meetings and you can’t get to your calls for more than 90 minutes. That is where a good administrative assistant comes into the picture.
Here’s how the system works when you are away from your phone for more than 90 minutes at a time:
On your outgoing voice mail message let callers know that your assistant is picking up your messages while you are in court. Ask that the caller leave only his name and phone number. Your assistant must check messages every hour and call back each client and schedule a return call with them for you. She should put it right on your calendar.
The client feels good and you remain in control of your time.
This system works if you give it a chance.
If you think it can’t work for you, call me and I’ll help you work through it.
If I’m busy, I’ll get back to you within 90 minutes.
Dave Lorenzo 888.692.5531
Is There Any Hustle in Your Marketing?
Lately I have been inundated with calls from tenured solo attorneys who suddenly need to find new business…in the worst economy since the great depression.
Why the sudden need for new business?
In most cases it is because they lost one or two “big” clients who made up the bulk of their law firm’s revenue.
Coincidentally, these were the same attorneys who went out and bought (or leased) the $100,000 sports cars when times were good.
The voices on the other end of the phone are always strained as they say how amazed they are that they could go from billing $500,000 a year to $50,000 almost overnight. The strain turns to downright panic when I ask them to send me a copy of their marketing plan.
It gets even worse when I ask them what they have been doing to develop new business for the past couple of years. Most of them can’t point to anything beyond getting a website together.
So what are these attorneys (with 15 years of experience or more) supposed to do?
The answer is simple. It can be summed up in one word.
“Hustle.”
What does that mean?
It simply means that they need to get out of their office and get their face in front of people who could potentially hire them.
Here are the three simple steps I give them to jump start their practice:
1. Call everyone you know. Make sure they understand what you do for a living and how you are different from everyone else who does the same thing.
2. Break some bread. Go to breakfast, lunch and/or dinner with someone new each day. Make sure they know what you do for a living and make sure they know why you are different from your competitors.
3. Follow-up, follow-up, follow-up. I have a specific system my clients use to keep in touch with everyone they have met face-to-face. It is nonintrusive and it keeps the attorney’s name and value proposition in front of the client/prospect every couple of weeks. This point can’t be overemphasized. Follow-up will always result in new matter origination. It never fails.
In my book this is hustling. It requires aggressive activity. It requires you to get up off your chair and make something happen.
Is there any hustle in your marketing?
If you want to find out more about my never-fail follow-up system or how I can help you get some new clients…give me a call.
Dave Lorenzo 888.692.5531
Do You Have a Bias for Action?
Have you ever wondered why some people always seem to “win” no matter what the environment?
It doesn’t matter what real estate values are. It doesn’t matter what happens on the stock exchange. Regardless of the economic growth forecast – these folks always seem to find a way to make a good living and live a good life.
How do they do it?
There is one key element these extraordinary attorneys all have in common. And it is not something they learned at Harvard Law School. It’s not something they read about in a book and it’s not something that someone gave to them.
It is something that is interwoven into the fabric of their very being.
They weren’t born with it but it is as much a part of them as the air they breathe.
I’m talking about their attitude. Specifically their bias for action.
It is the one quality that separates people who are successful in ANY economy from the folks who mope around and blame others.
What exactly do I mean by that?
I mean they don’t wait. Ever. They have an idea. They decide to implement it and they make it happen.
They do not debate. They do not procrastinate. They move forward aggressively.
Certainly there are some natural pitfalls to this behavior. We’re not talking about jumping into things without checking them out. But the general philosophy of these highly successful individuals is that they can always take more action to correct for their incorrect action. Once the decision is made they move forward full speed ahead.
How is this a competitive advantage?
They draw new business to themselves like a magnet. Since action is a sign of confidence it is attractive to new clients. Attorneys with a bias for action will often do twice as much as their competitors in the same amount of time. This means they can out market and out sell their competitors. Most of the time the competitor cannot keep up.
Think about five ways you can add a bias for action into your life. Is there a way you can make this attitude a habit?
Try this exercise as a way to condition yourself: The next time you are on line in a store (lets use a bakery as an example) look around and decide exactly what you want before you get to the front of the line. Then get your method of payment out and have it ready when you get to the counter.
This is how the person with a bias for action thinks – strategically. He has already completed the transaction in his head before he gets to the front of the line.
Now think about the five things on your “to do” list that you have not been able to finish.
Why are they not done?
What does completing them entail?
What is the next step?
Conditioning yourself to take aggressive action can help you in your law practice and in life. The key question is: What will you do now that you have this knowledge?
If you are looking for a way to win back that competitive edge that this economy has sucked out of you, give me a call. I might be able to help.
Dave Lorenzo - 888.692.5531
How to Write a Recession Survival Story for your Small Law Firm
There are plenty of attorneys making money in these difficult economic times.
You read that correctly.
There are small law firms and solo practitioners doing quite well in spite of the gloom and doom on both Wall Street and Main Street. And no, I’m not just talking about bankruptcy attorneys.
There are dozens of examples in almost every specialty. Real estate, employment, immigration, corporate transactional law, all have success stories that you won’t find in any newspaper. These firms are just beginning to “hit their stride” as the recession seems to be in its darkest days.
How are they doing this?
All of these successful firms have three things in common:
1). Fiscal Flexibility: Firms that have had the greatest success during the recession have had the ability to adjust their economic model.
A condo association attorney in South Florida was able to adjust to paying his five team members once a month instead of every other week. This helped him manage his cash flow and adjust to the slower payment patterns of his clients.
A twelve member firm that specializes in Intellectual Property Law in New York City let their office lease expire and allowed all the members of the firm to work virtually. They pay $500 per month to use the conference room in a larger firm’s law office every two weeks for staff meetings. The firm saves the $18,000/month rent and everyone loves the fact that they can now work from home.
2). Real Work for Real Lawyers: Another characteristic that is common to firms doing well in the recession is the “can do” attitude of the principles/owners of the firm. The small firms that are thriving in these difficult times are made up of lawyers who roll up their sleeves and get dirty. That means that actually do the work – and lots of it – themselves.
While this is something that will definitely hinder long-term growth, many of the financially successful firms’ Partners are handling work they would normally have a paralegal tackle. This saves the expense of the extra person and it keeps the attorney close to the client.
This was exactly the situation with an immigration attorney in San Diego. She began handling all the paperwork on her cases in the middle of last year and she saved the expense of the freelance paralegal she was working with a couple of days per week.
A real estate attorney in Miami who had been handling 10 closings per week with a staff of 5 people just 18 months ago is now working on double that number of loan modifications – with one other person – and making about the same money.
3). Maintain a Continuous Focus on Marketing. This is not that time to be shy. Now is the perfect time to aggressively market to your target audience. Why? Because your competitors are cutting marketing expenses.
A husband and wife attorney team in Georgia gives estate planning seminars twice a month in the basement of a local church. The majority of the questions they answer are about the current state of the economy but they always come away from those seminars with a few new clients.
A corporate transactional attorney in my Private Client Group has steadily increased his client base during the past six months by moving to a weekly newsletter from a monthly newsletter. The key to his success has been to offer timely, relevant information to his prospective clients on how to handle issues specific to an economic downturn.
Your small law firm or solo law practice can do well in spite of the economy. The keys are to stay flexible, look for every opportunity to save money and keep getting your name in front of your prospective client base.
Maintaining these qualities even after the economy recovers also might not be such a bad thing.
Business Strategy Coaching Takes Law Firms from Good To Great
I was at a high profile networking event last week and I was introduced to a successful attorney as “a fantastic marketing consultant” for attorneys. The attorney shook my hand and said something like:
- “Why would a good attorney hire a marketing consultant? If you are a good lawyer your reputation should deliver clients right to your doorstep.”
At that point I explained that I worked as much on business strategy as I did on marketing and that seemed to make more sense to my new friend. But his statement got me thinking about why successful attorneys have hired me in the past (only about 20% of my work comes from start-ups and I work with few attorneys who are actually in danger of failing).
After giving this considerable thought (and talking to two-dozen clients) here are the six main reasons why a successful attorney would hire a business strategist:
They are working too many hours. They’re pretty sure that if they left for a vacation, or even just took a day off, things wouldn’t work anywhere near as well as they do now. If you’re ready to work a whole lot less, a good business strategist can show you how. Our proven process has worked for hundreds of clients. It helps shed some light on the things you should be doing and the things you should be delegating to others or outsourcing completely.
They are ready to make a whole lot more profit. Sometimes a law firm requires so much effort that the partners begin to ask; “It is worth it?” We have identified hundreds of ways for you to make more money – regardless of your area of specialty. We can help you with business development, team building, advertising, firm growth, building firm equity, helping Partners with business development and cross selling, developing business systems and jump starting billing.
They are ready to build a team of people that can grow and run the firm without the day-to-day involvement of the principles or founder. Good help is always hard to find. We have a proven process for recruiting, training and keeping the best people. Not only does this make your life easier, it helps your firm run effectively and efficiently.
They can’t keep up with the changes in their market. They know that firm growth follows personal growth, but they don’t even have time to keep up with the day-to-day changes in their area of specialty – let alone the changes in the local competitive environment. Business education has moved into a new realm, with business mentoring and coaching taking over from traditional books and seminars so you get the right information at the right time. We call it “Just in Time Learning”. You get what you need specifically for your law firm - not a bunch of academic theories.
They need someone to hold them accountable, someone to demand a profit, to demand results, someone to push them to do what is necessary to take the firm to the next level. Being a business owner, a law firm owner in particular, can be a lonely job. Having a sounding board, a mentor and coach, a friend to talk with about your business problems is just a small part of what we do, but often it is the most valuable.
They need someone who can see the forest for the trees, an outsider who isn’t blinded by Big Law and by too many years of being told “that’s the way it’s always been done.” Outsiders can often provide the “secrets to success”. The reason: Running your own firm is like any part of life; often you need an outsider to see the simplest of things. Often you need someone to ask the tough questions. We can provide the objectivity you need to make the best decisions for the long-term health of your business.
Those are the six reasons why my most successful law firm clients engaged me. The one thing I noticed was that marketing advice was not specifically mentioned. My clients mostly highlighted the business and personal strategy work as the main reason we worked together.
In fairness, I do give quite a bit of marketing advice and that is the reason most of my clients initially seek me out. But the strategy aspect of our work is something that cannot and should not be overlooked.
Thanks to all who helped me answer this question. For more information on my new Strategic Advisor Program, please visit:
http://www.rainmakerlawyer.com/site/coaching
New Video: Niche Marketing Secrets for Law Firms
Video Notes:
How Niche Marketing Helps Attorneys Thrive in an Economic Downturn
What is a niche market?
A niche market is a focused portion (subset) of a market.
The benefits of niche marketing:
In a difficult economy an attorney with a specific niche will always command more value.
Example:
- Real Estate attorney who specializes in loan modification.
- Affluent investor specialist – Immigration Attorney.
- Bankruptcy attorney who specializes in small businesses.
- Employment attorney who has deep knowledge of restructuring executive compensation packages.
Niche marketing is always a good business strategy but in difficult economic times it is one that can have you flourishing while other attorneys struggle.
The First Step in Building a Succesful Law Firm as a Solo Attorney
Successful solo attorneys understand that a law firm is a business.
Building a successful law business starts with setting goals, writing them down, and reviewing them regularly.
The very first question I ask my clients in my coaching practice is:
“What do you want from your business?”
It doesn’t matter if the person across the desk from me is a litigator or a transactional attorney. It is no different if the attorney in my office is an intellectual property attorney or the owner of a personal injury firm.
Just about every one of them tries to give me a long-winded answer about taking care of customers, giving back to society, and making the world a better place.
After I let them say their piece, I politely tell them that they are full of crap!
Well, at least I hope they are full of crap.
The only good reason to go into business for yourself is to make a lot of money doing exactly what you want to do when you want to do it.
That’s it.
If you went out on your own and started up a law firm and you did not have this thought in your head, then you should go out and look for a job.
Click Continue Reading for The First Step in Building a Successful Practice as a Solo Practitioner.
Five Ways Solo Attorneys Can Survive and Thrive in a Recession
The economy is the one subject that seems to have an impact on everyone. It can even have an effect on solo attorneys and small law firms. How can this be? People still need legal assistance even in a difficult economy, right? Contracts still need to be written. Businesses still have problems. Why would things ever slow down for a small law firm?
Yes, it is true that the law moves forward in good times and in bad times. The challenge for solo attorneys and small law firms comes in being referred quality clients during a recession. Referrals may dry up in an economic downturn because many small business owners are not seeing as many clients as they have in the past. Since they don’t see as many people, they may not hear of as many issues that could be relevant matters for your firm. Indirectly, the downturn in business for your referral partners may result in a lack of referrals to your firm.
Here are five cost-effective ways to combat the economic slowdown and keep it from affecting your solo law firm:
Three Ways to Attract New Small Business Clients to Your Law Firm
Many solo and small practice attorneys look to court small business owners as their clients.
This segment of the population offers enormous opportunity for your law firm. Small businesses enter into contracts and service agreements regularly. They have copyright, trademark and patent issues. They deliver products and services and need to be protected from liability. And they often have complicated tax issues that need to be sorted out. All of these factors make them good potential clients for your firm. Yet one persistent question always arises about this group.
How does a solo attorney attract a small business owner to his law practice?
Since small business owners are usually busy, and they prefer to work with people they know, like and trust. The way you approach a small businesses owner is critical. You must take a long term view toward building this relationship. Start by getting to know them and helping them get to know you.
Below are three ways to jump start a professional relationship with a small business owner:
Have you Fallen Into the Solo Attorney Trap?
Many solo attorneys become victim of what I have begun to call the “solo attorney trap”.
This means they get caught up in ONLY speaking with and learning from other attorneys when it comes to building their law firm.
This is so common that when someone with a different perspective comes along, the new guy, with the fresh ideas, is often considered an oddball.
After all, how can HE understand what YOU are going through? He is not an attorney.
Don’t get me wrong, there is value in participating in a peer advisory group. Having discussions with folks who are in similar situations can definitely provide some comfort.
But limiting yourself (even subconsciously) to only learning from other solo attorneys can be the death of your law firm.
Here are three reasons why you need to widen your circle of advisors beyond other attorneys:
Doing what everyone else does is the easiest way to get the same results as everyone else.
This is not good.
You want better results than the other solo attorneys.
The average solo attorney (depending upon which survey you believe) makes somewhere between $85,000 and $125,000 per year by their third year in a solo practice.
This would be good money except for the fact that you probably have at least that much in school loans and you probably also have a family to feed and a mortgage to pay.
My contention is that you don’t want to be average.
You don’t want to be like everyone else. You want to make more money.
You can make more money but you need to be the EXCEPTION to the rule and that means doing things differently than 95% of the other solo attorneys that are practicing today.
Surrounding yourself with other attorneys promotes gripe sessions and not productive dialogue.
“Woe is me. My life is so hard. I don’t have enough (add noun here: i.e. time, money, clients, friends).”
You need someone to slap you and tell you to cut the crap. Other solos are less likely to do that because they feel the same thing. The group empathy is not helpful in getting you out of the rut your lack of business activity has gotten you into.
Snap out of it.
Lose the friends and advisors who are bringing you down. There are plenty of solo attorneys making great money today – even in a recession. They are doing so by taking aggressive action.
The one thing I guarantee they are not doing is sitting in Starbucks complaining about their situation.
Get away from that mentality and start surrounding yourself with business owners who are not attorneys.
You want successful business owners in your circle of influence (since business owners can complain too).
Find out what they are doing to promote their services and try it – something, anything.
Doing something different is a good thing. Listening to different people is a good thing.
Most attorneys don’t think like business owners
If you are a solo attorney, you need to think like a business owner because you are running a business.
Click continue reading to find out what you can do to get started thinking like a business owner today.
Video: Law Firm Marketing Numbers You Need to Know
Video Notes: These are the notes for the video titled: Law Firm Marketing Numbers You Need to Know
Law firms of all sizes need to look at three numbers to determine the overall health of the firm’s marketing efforts. Those numbers are:
1). The client lifetime value for each client that works with the firm.
2). The return on investment of the firm’s marketing dollars
3). The average cost of acquisition of a new client.
Here’s how you calculate those numbers:
Client Lifetime Value
Calculate the total amount of dollars you have billed to the client. Add in the referral business this client has brought to your firm over the years.
Divide the total dollar amount by the number of years they have worked with your law firm.
Return on Investment
Take the amount you have made as a result of a particular marketing tactic or campaign and divide it by the amount of money you invested in employing that marketing tactic.
Return on Investment (ROI) is calculated at the tactic/campaign level.
Client Acquisition Cost
Client Acquisition Cost is calculated at the enterprise level. In other words, you should track the overall client acquisition cost for your entire law firm. To calculate the client acquisition cost you take the amount you invest in marketing and divide it by the number of clients.
For a BONUS tip on marketing measurement and management please click continue reading.
What You Think About Twitter Doesn’t Matter
In 3500BC when the Mesopotamians first started using the wheel to move heavy objects there was probably some resistance to making it a commonplace tool.
And when Henry Ford was motoring around Dearborn, Michigan in his car people probably thought it would never catch on.
The same is probably true of the television, and it was definitely true of the Internet.
People are resistant to things they don’t understand.
That’s the reason why I shake my head and smile when I hear people say that Twitter is a big waste of time.
Here is a newsflash:
Twitter is here to stay and it will change the face of communication as we know it.
You may not be using Twitter, you may not see a need for it, but many smart attorneys are using it as a marketing tool and it works.
What is Twitter?
Twitter is a service that allows you to communicate directly with a group of people who have an interest in your thoughts and ideas. This communication is in sound bites – specifically 140 character sentences – like text messaging.
People must “subscribe” to your Twitter updates (called “tweets”) in order to receive them. Subscribing is called “following” in Twitter language. If you are following someone and they are following you, you can have a conversation via Twitter. If you want other people to “overhear” your conversation, you can direct your comment to one person specifically and let everyone see it. This is like being in a public chat room. Twitter also allows you to send private messages to another user who is following you.
Why is Twitter powerful?
Twitter is a powerful tool because it allows you to have an ongoing conversation with a specific group of people. Conversations are how relationships begin. This is the essence of good marketing.
Here is an example:
If you are a plaintiff attorney in a personal injury practice and you receive most of your matters through attorney referrals, you can easily identify other attorneys on Twitter and communicate with them regularly.
This communication will eventually lead to the development of a relationship and possibly some referred clients. If you want to develop the relationship quickly, you can send your Twitter friends links to articles you have published. You can point them to case records that are relevant to something that they are working on and you can update them on relevant news in a related filed. All of this can be done from your personal computer or from your mobile phone. It takes a few seconds.
Isn’t Twitter a Waste of Time?
I have heard this question from many people. They usually say it as a statement and not as a question that they expect to be answered.
This comment comes mostly from people who do not understand how to use this tool.
Please click continue reading for the rest of this article on Twitter.
Five Reasons Why Nobody Visits Your Law Firm Blog
Many of the calls that come in to my office are about Law Firm Blogs and attracting visitors to attorney websites.
Blogs or blawgs as some have taken to call blogs written by attorneys are terrific resources for clients and prospective clients. They also serve a valuable marketing purpose for your law firm but they are much like a tree falling in the woods—if nobody is there do they matter. And this is why I get the phone calls.
Attorneys complain that they have poured their heart and soul into their blog and nobody has visited.
They want to know where all the prospective clients are.
They want to know why people aren’t reading their information.
They want to know what is wrong with a world that cannot recognize their Pulitzer Prize-worthy ability and intellect.
The problem is not with the clients. The problem is with the attorney and how they are managing or NOT managing their blog.
If any of this sounds familiar to you, here are five reasons why nobody is visiting your blog:
Reason 1: You don’t add new content to your law firm blog frequently enough
A blog is a conversation you have with your readers.
Even if your blog is primarily educational and you are the person doing most of the “talking”, frequency of interaction is important.
If you want to develop a relationship with your reader you must add new content to your law firm blog a few times each week.
How much is enough?
That’s up to you. In most cases, three new articles per week will keep your readers interested.
Once a month is too infrequent.
Please click on continue reading for the remaining four reasons why nobody is visiting your law firm blog.
The Eight Step Process to Rational Decisions for Your Law Firm
Rainmaker lawyers are strategic thinkers. Strategic thinking requires a cool head. Remaining calm and rational, even in the face of extreme pressure, is the hallmark of highly successful attorneys.
A calm veneer doesn’t mean that you are unfeeling; it simply means that you are engaging the logical aspects of your thinking process.
The following process can help you rein in your emotional response and smooth the way for successful strategic thinking.
Step 1: Disassociate Yourself
If every strategic thinking situation has an emotional aspect, then how do some people make decisions that appear to be more rational than others?
Attorneys who make decisions that appear to be more rational often disassociate themselves from the project or process. This is difficult to do but it is essential to good decision making.
Follow the example of surgeons, firefighters, and military commanders. They are forced to make decisions that have life and death implications – and they must do so under extreme pressure. They have mastered the ability to temporarily separate themselves from emotion of the situation. A successful strategic thinker views a problem as though she is completely detached from the circumstances surrounding it. By viewing the situation through this lens, he is objective in his assessment of the challenge. He prevents his personal emotional investment from playing a role in the moment.
Step 2: Define Specific Outcomes
Identify what this decision making process or plan will accomplish. It is always helpful to start with the ideal outcome. Once you set the ideal outcome as the goal for your decision or plan, you activate the creative side of your brain.
At this stage, you only want to make certain that the outcome is possible. You are not concerned with probability.
Step 3: Acknowledge Your Instincts
What is your gut feeling or intuition?
Is it something real, tangible, or merely a thought that pounds at you like a base drum?
It is important that you acknowledge any feelings you have about the problem or the desired outcome. At the outset of your decision making process, list possible solutions based solely on instinct. These hypotheses will free you from the nagging of your emotional subconscious. Generating purely emotional solutions up front will put them into perspective as you complete your research.
Step 4: Research the Problem
Next you must find the root cause of the problem or the most basic critical factor in your decision or plan.
The goal here is to get to the heart of the matter and address the issue once and for all time. Even something as simple as the case of a restaurant owner who is having trouble with complaints of cold food from dinners in the restaurant can be solved by rational decision making.
The key in this process is to trace the problem down to the root cause and find out why the food is cold when it reaches the customers’ tables. There are several factors that may contribute to this problem, such as distance of the dining room from the kitchen; not using plate covers; the speed of the service; the waiting time from preparation to service; and the temperatures of the dining room and the kitchen. However, none of these contributing factors will make any difference if the food is not cooked to the proper temperature in the first place. In this example, improper cooking temperature is the root cause of the problem. Looking for the root cause is the primary purpose of your research.
In the case of strategic planning, the goal is to get to the most basic level of the desired outcome so that you can take as few steps as possible in order to achieve your goal. You are looking for the shortest distance between where you are now and where you want to go. For example, let’s say you are a salesperson working on commission and your goal is to increase your salary by 20 percent by the end of the year. For planning purposes, the shortest distance to your goal is to sell more products to your customers. Therefore, researching ways to increase product sales is the best place to begin.
Step 5: Recognize Patterns
After finding the root cause of your problem or the shortest distance to your goal, you should begin to work backwards towards your current state. In doing this, you will notice factors that contribute to the root cause of the problem. In planning, you will find steps that will contribute to overall goal achievement. You should look for patterns in these contributing factors. As patterns emerge, you must begin to look for ways to enable desired behavior and permanently discontinue undesirable behavior.
Please click continue reading for more.
Attorneys Need Goals Too
How will you know if you’ve reached your destination if you don’t know where you are going?
Goals are an essential part of the success of any attorney or law firm.
And you can’t just set goals on New Year’s Day and the come back and look at them a year later.
Well, that’s not exactly true.
You can do it that way—set your goals once and then check back a year later—but you may not achieve the results you’d like.
Here is the three step goal setting process I take my clients through when we first begin working together. This process has been the foundation upon which million-dollar firms are built.
Ignore it and you ignore your full potential.
Click continue reading for more on the power of setting goals
How to Manage Technical People When You’re Not One
The world as we know it has changed. Technology has ushered in a new era of products and services that have altered, not only the way you communicate with your friends and family, but also how you communicate with your clients. Most attorneys can turn on a computer, send an email, and create complex legal documents, but when it comes to configuring computer software and writing code for a website, most law firms will need the help of a professional.
If you’re not a technically inclined person, then keeping up with the changes in technology can be daunting. While most lawyers are analytical in nature, they are rarely technological experts because keeping up with technology is truly a full time job. At some point or another you will either find yourself managing a technical staff member, or you may need to hire an hourly technical person to help set up your computers, build efficient websites, figure out how to send electronic newsletters to clients and more.
Sometimes, technical people and non-technical people have trouble communicating. Instructions get misinterpreted, or changes are made to the original plan without discussion. Assigning work to a technical person can be awkward for both parties. The non-technical person is giving instructions and communicating expectations about an area where they are simply not well equipped. The technical expert has to take direction from and sometimes be managed by, a person who just doesn’t get the new advances in technology.
Realize that technical people and non-technical people tackle problems differently. Technical people tend to thrive when they are solving technical problems. They view technical problems the way that many people view jigsaw puzzles or crossword puzzles, to them problems are interesting and fun. Many non-technical people try to avoid technical problems. Having your computer crash for no reason or getting a virus can keep you from meeting client commitments and can be simply annoying.
So, if you are talking to a technical person and they don’t respond as if the sky is falling when your law firm is having a technical emergency, it is because for them, the interesting part has just begun. They are usually intrigued at the idea of spending the next several hours, days, or even weeks solving your problem for you.
Use clear details when communicating with technical people. When communicating with technical people whether they are in your firm or outside of it, be as specific as you can be. Leave no details for individual interpretation. Be clear about whether or not you are asking for advice or specific answers. Avoid phrases like, “I can’t get on the Internet,” or “My computer is acting funny.” Instead say, “When I try to open my website by going to the start menu and clicking Internet Explorer, nothing comes up. Instead I get an error message that appears on the desktop that says, ‘Error code 515: Action not allowed.’”
Write it down. One of the best ways to make sure that critical details aren’t missed is to write things down. This is especially effective for projects that will take more than a few minutes to complete.
Before speaking with your technical person, let them know what you need, why you need it, and when you would like to see the task completed. For instance if you are having someone set up a unique landing page on your website, be sure to explain to them how this landing page is going to be used and how you expect it impact your business. Your technical expert may have some additional ideas about how the page should be set up and possible other uses.
Essentially, don’t let yourself fall into the trap of thinking that you know the best solution for technical problems if technology is not your expertise. Open yourself up for advice and direction.
When speaking with the technical person about the project, make notes about the conversation. Jot down how the two of you have agreed to get to the final goal. Before the project starts, take your original notes on what you want, why and when you need it, add to this the details of what you and the technical person agreed upon. Make a copy for yourself and one for the technical expert. In this way, you are leaving nothing to chance.
Click continue reading for more on managing technical people.
Video: Effective Marketing with a Law Firm Website
Video Notes: These are the notes for the video titled: Effective Marketing with a Law Firm Website
Your law firm website should help you do 4 things:
1). Increase your visibility in your target market
2). Build credibility with your prospective client base
3). Differentiate your law firm from the competition
4). Generate leads for your law firm
What should you do to make certain that your website has met each of these key objectives?
Please click continue reading for the rest of the notes to the video: Effective Marketing with a Law Firm Website
Hiring and Managing Legal Assistants Part III: Working Together
Hiring a legal assistant can be one of the smartest decisions your solo practice ever makes. Many attorneys feel that legal assistants are an extravagance reserved only for large law firms. The truth is that attorneys in small law firms can often benefit more from having a legal assistant than the attorneys in those large firms. Attorneys in solo practices and small law firms often have no one to pick up the slack when challenges arise. To learn more about how to hire a legal assistant, read the other two articles in this series called “Hiring and Managing Legal Assistants Parts I and II.”
Once you’ve hired your assistant, you will need to do a few things to ensure that your get off to a good start. Remember that your legal assistant is a partner, a critical member of your team.
Spell Things Out
Be crystal clear with your legal assistant about your expectations. Don’t assume that they will understand what you want or why you want it.
Decide together how often you want to be updated on projects. Have a weekly meeting or connect once at the start of each day, depending on what works best for the two of you. Find a communication balance. Checking in with each other too often can lead to a lack of productivity. However, not checking in often enough can lead to projects getting off course. The more that the two of you work together, the easier it will be to find a natural flow of communication.
Remember that no one is perfect
Prioritize. You’re not hiring a best friend or looking for a life companion. While you may not generally like outspoken people, it may just what you need in an assistant. You want a legal assistant who is bold enough to tell you if they see trouble on the horizon and you want them to have the guts to handle it if you’re not around. Many assistants will simply act as if their job was to record the disaster. You want someone head strong enough to make last minute decisions, even if it is an area where they have yet to receive proper training.
Don’t Keep Secrets from You Legal Assistant
If you want your firm to fail, keep your assistant in the dark. Your assistant is your ally, not your enemy. If you can’t trust them with sensitive information then you need to get someone who you can trust. Your assistant will be tasked with making decisions everyday on your behalf. Let your assistant get into your head. Help them to understand not only what you are doing, but why you are doing it. You want to feel that, when you leave the office for meetings and litigation, you have left a small version of yourself behind. Your legal assistant should be someone who can, to some degree, handle things while you’re unavailable.
A competent legal assistant should know you and your style well enough to write your blog, send out your newsletter, and even seek out networking and speaking opportunities for you. They will also need to know where you plan to take your firm and your plan on how to get there.
For more of Hiring and Managing Legal Assistants Part III: Working Together click on continue reading.
Hiring and Managing Legal Assistants Part II: The Hunt
Eventually, the attorneys in almost every solo practice or small law firm will come to the realization that they require the help of a legal assistant. Hiring someone to come into your law firm, communicate with your clients and have access to your firm’s most delicate information should not be taken lightly. There are several key steps attorneys should take before they start the search for a legal assistant. To learn more about them read the first article in this three part series called “Hiring and Managing Legal Assistants Part I: Have a Plan”.
Once you’ve decided to hire a legal assistant for your solo practice or small law firm, and after you have planned out what tasks you will need them to take over for you and the salary and benefits you can offer, it’s time to begin the hunt. Finding just the right legal assistant is important. If your firm hires someone who just isn’t a good fit, you may have difficulty letting them go from the firm. Then once you do let them go, you’re back to where you started in the first place.
Take the time to perform a proper search, so that you can get the right legal assistant the first time.
Know Where to Look
One of the best ways to find a legal assistant is the old fashioned way, advertise the position. Put an ad in the paper and on Internet job boards like http://www.monster.com. You can also go to sites like Monster and view the resumes of legal assistants who are looking for work. Another great way to look for an assistant is to network. Let friends, family, and even clients know that you’re growing and that you’re in the market for an assistant.
There are staffing agencies that specialize in providing firms with legal assistants. They place a temporary legal assistant with you and the two of you work together for anywhere from 30 – 90 days, during which time you pay the agency a high hourly rate and then they pay the assistant after taking out a percentage. If all is well and you want to hire the assistant, then the staffing company will charge you an additional finder’s fee.
While it may sound tempting to use an agency, they charge a lot of money and almost anyone can register with them because their screening process is not very difficult to get through. The upside of using an agency is that you get a try before you buy. If the assistant isn’t a good fit, you can just call the agency and they will send you a new stack of potential candidates.
If you have the funds, then go ahead and use an agency, but you should still conduct phone and face to face interviews with all potential candidates.
Be specific in your advertisement
Be as clear as you can with potential candidates about what you think their duties will be. If you need someone who will be willing to work the occasional nights and weekends, be upfront about that as well. The more detailed you are, the more likely it is that you will find someone who will be a good fit for you and your firm.
List a salary range. There is definitely a lot of controversy about whether or not salary ranges should be listed in a job advertisement. However, at the end of the day, most people work because they have bills to pay. If the salary that you’re offering is $10,000 less a year than what a potential applicant needs in order to support themselves, then interviewing them is a waste of time for both of you.
Review resumes carefully. If a resume is chock full of misspellings, then you know that the applicant is not detail oriented when it really counts. If you want a legal assistant who will be able to write for you or do research and present it to you in a well organized document, then make sure that their resume reads well. It should have a flow, use logical language, and common yet professional phrases.
Look for gaps in employment and bouncing around from one job to another. However, keep in mind that the era of employees staying with the same company for life has passed. If your applicant changes jobs every 2-3 years, they may only stay with you that long as well. Many people see each job as a stepping stone to the next one.
For more of: Hiring and Managing Legal Assistants Part II: The Hunt please click continue reading.
Hiring and Managing Legal Assistants Part I: Have a Plan
At some point, almost all solo practice attorneys and small law firms will realize that they need to hire a legal assistant. Legal assistants are not just a luxury for attorneys in large law firms. They can be an integral component in your plan to grow your practice. Actually, getting a competent legal assistant may be one of the best decisions an attorney in a solo practice or small law firm can make.
Attorneys who are regularly involved in litigation need a legal assistant who can answer calls and basic questions from important clients while the attorney is out. But even attorneys who spend much of their day in the office can benefit from the help that a qualified legal assistant can provide.
Think about how much time you spend drafting correspondence, responding to basic inquiries, answering the phone, sorting the mail, updating your website and more. A legal assistant can provide you with additional time in your day to cultivate potential clients and to take on additional work.
Furthermore, a legal assistant can perform fact checking and can edit your work. They can research previous cases and legal articles pertaining to your firm’s most critical cases. They can also draft contracts and handle all of your billing for you. In other words, an attorney’s legal assistant can be a partner. The two of you can work together to achieve the goals of your law firm.
Hiring a Legal Assistant Takes Time
If you want to hire an assistant who is competent, quick to learn, and who complements your style, you will need to allow yourself an adequate amount of time to figure out what you need, review resumes, and conduct interviews. This cannot be stressed enough. By the time that most attorneys realize how much they need a legal assistant, they don’t have the time to conduct a proper search.
Do yourself a favor and honestly assess the needs of your firm before you’re in over your head with work. You can do some of the work of hunting for a legal assistant even before you think you will actually need one. In other words, get everything set up so that when you decide that you want to start looking for help, you already know where you will look, how much it will cost, and what skills are important to you.
Know What You Want
Think very specifically about what duties you would like to hand over to your assistant. Imagine what the ideal day would look like if there was someone there to help you. A good legal assistant should work with an attorney like a team member, not a subordinate. Remember, you’re not just looking for someone to answer the phone and make copies, you want a legal assistant who will be smart enough and savvy enough to actually take regular projects off of your to do list. You may need someone polished enough to meet high level clients and other counsel.
Decide whether or not you need someone who has been to school to become a legal assistant. Many attorneys have just as much luck hiring someone with a strong administrative background as they do hiring an assistant straight out of school. If you want someone who already has a strong understanding of what it means to be a legal assistant, then this is the route for you. If you want someone who has proven project management and administrative abilities, then you may be able to cast a wider net as you search for the perfect candidate.
If there are certain areas where you know you’re weak, look for someone who has previous experience in those same areas. For instance, if you know that you have no interest in marketing, consider hiring an assistant with a marketing background. You can teach them about the law and they can help you understand the nuances of marketing your law firm.
Once you’ve decided on what your legal assistant’s job duties will be. Ask yourself what skills and attributes your legal assistant will need in order to complete those tasks. Use this information to create a job description. No assistant wants to have to guess to find out what you want from them. Be as detailed and as clear as you can be.
You Get What You Pay For
If you want quality, you have to pay for it. This may be hard to swallow, but remember that what you pay your assistant will more than be made up for in the additional business you can take on because you’re not tied down doing tasks that could be handled by an assistant.
Conduct some research to find out what the going rates are for legal assistants in your geographic region and in your field of law. Don’t plan to pay the minimum. If you do, then you’ll hire someone, train them, and then throw them a going away party because they’ll use their new skills to go someplace that pays better.
For more of Part I of our three part series on Hiring and Managing Legal Assistants, click continue reading.
How to Create a Killer Law Firm Ad
Long ago there was much debate about whether or not lawyers should advertise at all.
It’s clear today, however, that legal advertisements are becoming part of the norm. Even the most respected and largest international law firms place advertisements in well known national publications.
The good thing is that a quality print advertisement does not have to push the limits of the legal ethics envelope. The goal is not to convince potential clients that your law firm will win their case no matter what. If you simply want to let potential clients know that you’re out there and that your law firm provides quality legal services, then this article is for you.
With that said, in today’s competitive market, advertising really is a necessary part of building a successful legal practice. There are a variety of ways to get your name out there and to let potential clients know about your law firm. One of the most common is the printed advertisement. In an ideal world, you would simply hire someone to design an advertisement for your small law firm or solo practice. In the real world, your law firm may not have the extra cash to do this.
If this is your firm’s situation, then you’ll need to design your own advertisements from scratch. The good news is that you don’t need a degree from design school to come up with a killer advertisement for your law firm. With Photoshop and even some of the more advanced features in Word, you can often create the general look of the ad yourself and then work with a freelance designer to get the layout in the formats required by the publishers you’re working with.
Even if your firm can afford to hire someone else to create your ad, you should still know what makes the perfect advertisement. Read this two part series to learn about how to create the Killer Print Advertisement.
What Is the Goal?
Before you do anything, you must know what you want. If you want your law firm’s advertisement to simply get people in the door, that’s fine. However, spend some time to see if you can get a little more creative and specific with this goal. If there is stiff competition in your area, then you may want to highlight something your law firm offers that you know other firms don’t.
Use the print advertisement to drive traffic to your website. The space in a print ad is often very limited. If you have more to say than the print space allows, then try to find a way to get readers to come to your website. There, you can go into more detail about your firm, its attorneys and their achievement.
Think about your target demographic. What types of messages will be the most effective at getting through to them. Consider their average education level. Think about what is important to your potential clients. Are you advertising to people who may be in legal trouble or to people who need an attorney to handle estate related documents for them? Write as if you’re talking to potential clients one on one.
Where to Advertise
One of the most important decisions you’ll make is where to place your law firm’s advertisement. This decision will be based on a variety of factors like cost and the demographics of your target audience. If you decide to advertise in the newspaper, here is what you’ll need to consider. If you live in a large city, there are probably several newspapers for you to choose from. There may be a large paper that covers the entire metropolitan area, and regional papers that cover the smaller cities, and then even newspapers that cover certain neighborhoods. Consider each paper individually. Look at cost, the demographics of their readership, and more.
If you advertise in your metropolitan area’s large Sunday paper, your ad could get lost in all the coupon clutter. However, more people read their Sunday paper than the ones they receive during the week. You’ll also have to decide if you want a large ad that you can only afford to run a few times, or do you want a small ad that you can run for several weeks. Keep in mind that you may want to make changes to the ad based on the responses you get.
Advertising in magazines is another excellent opportunity for law firms to gain exposure. Your firm may not be able to place an expensive ad in one of the large, national magazines, but there are countless local and trade magazines that may be just the fit for your firm. Look online to see what magazines and newspapers publish in your area and contact them for their rates. Not only will they be able to tell you about the demographics of their readership, but they will also be able to advise you on when and where to advertise within their publication.
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The First Sale is to Yourself
Sitting down with a prospective client is always an interesting and exciting experience for me.
I meet many attorneys through referrals and I feel obligated (to the party who referred me) to have a conversation with everyone who is sent my way. These are not “highly qualified” prospects. Meaning that they don’t come to me thinking they need help. They are friends of my friends or clients who said “yes” to the idea of meeting with a business strategist (me).
The conversation begins with some general dialogue and rapport building. And then we move into some questions about the future of their law business. I ask questions and they give me answers. As we get deeper and deeper into a conversation I can often see the possibilities for their law firm. I can literally see them—large as life— as they materialize during our conversation.
That’s when the sales process starts.
I do not try to sell myself or my services.
At least not at this point.
I have something much more important and much more valuable to sell.
The most important sale that I make to any prospective client is the belief they have in themselves and in their ability to make their dreams a reality.
Most of them believed in it at one time but they have left it behind.
It is still possible.
You can still make it happen. You can build a small firm that delivers big profit and financial freedom.
I know all the reasons why you think it HAS NOT happened.
But I am afraid that you don’t know the MAIN REASON why it has not happened.
For that reason and the solution, please click on continue reading.
Video: How to Plan a Law Firm Marketing Camaign
Video Notes: These are the notes for the video titled: How to Plan a Law Firm Marketing Campaign
Planning an effective marketing campaign is essential to the success of a law firm.
There are four essential components to successful marketing campaign. They can be summed up using the acronym: TARP
T = Target
A = Action
R= Response Device
P = Process
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