Be The Person They Can’t Hire
After waiting on hold for 20 minutes I was finally on the phone with the pediatric gastroenterologist. Three visits to our regular pediatrician, two weeks of sleepless nights and several shirts soaked with regurgitated baby formula had me to the point where I was determined to get some answers.
I called in a couple of favors to get this particular doctor on the telephone. Everyone said he was “the best”. My goal was to get my three month old daughter an appointment with him. At this point she had gone from throwing up occasionally (which all babies do) to throwing up every day.
Finally I was on the phone with Doctor Big, the rock star of baby vomit, and I was going to beg him, bribe him or somehow convince him to see my kid.
My phone call with Doctor Big lasted only 3 minutes. I talked for 2 minutes 45 seconds – explaining what was happening, laying out the facts, including dates and times of these disgusting little incidents and specifics about what our baby had eaten. Doctor Big talked for 10 seconds. He said:
“Look, if you’re really concerned, take her to the emergency room. Unfortunately, my schedule is booked for six weeks”.
I replied:
“Please call my mobile phone if you have a cancellation. We have done our research. We know you are the best and I only want the best for my kid.”
At that point he sighed and said: “Good Night Mr. Lorenzo”.
I called his answering service and left my mobile phone number anyway.
This story is not about my little girl (who is doing better after a change in formula and several more visits to various other doctors). And it’s not about the state of healthcare in the United States.
It is about positioning.
How did Doctor Big get to be THE GUY for kids with stomach issues? He went to a middle-of-the-pack medical school. He graduated in the middle of his class. He works in a good (not great) hospital.
Yet he has a reputation as a great doctor and an appointment book to match.
Want to know his secret?
He is unavailable.
You read that correctly.
You see, I found out from a friend who plays golf with Doctor Big, that when he first started out he instructed his office to funnel all his patients into office visits two days per week. When the patients came in, the waiting room was packed. People were standing in the hallway. And during the other three days, Doctor Big volunteered in a clinic in a bad part of town. As his practice grew, Doctor Big expanded his office hours until all five days were packed each and every week. I was told this took a couple of years.
But the result was that people couldn’t hire him, couldn’t get him on the phone, and couldn’t even find him roaming around the hospital. So they figured the guy HAD to be good.
Think about the implications of this for your law practice. How easy is it to find you and ask you a question (for free)? How easy is it to get an appointment to see you?
Can I get in to see you today? Right now?
How good can you be if you have time available right this instant? You appear desperate if you have time to let me take command of your schedule. And your fee probably reflects that desperation.
Think about how accessible you are. Facebook, Twitter, email, PDAs, smart phones, text messaging – people have all kinds of access to you because you have given it to them.
Play hard-to-get, if you have the guts. You’ll find that you attract better clients, you can charge higher fees, and people will respect you because of the perception that you are unavailable.
Print
EmailLaw Firm Leadership: Fire Problem Clients and Vendors
About a month ago I received a telephone call from a client. He was furious. He had just received a phone call from his bookkeeper that made his blood boil.
Here’s the story:
Joe (my client) is an attorney in a practice area that was particularly hard hit by the recession. Just four years ago he was pulling in seven figures. By contrast, last year he was lucky to have a month where he brought home $2,500. He tried to “gut it out” (his words). But his cash flow was nonexistent and because he never adjusted his lifestyle, he was deep in debt.
By the time Joe began working with me (seven months ago) his credit cards were maxed out, he had an investment property in foreclosure and he was on the verge of defaulting on some old student loans.
When you are under this kind of financial pressure it can be debilitating.
Joe and I reinvented his practice and scaled back his expenses. And last month, for the first time in years, he was able to pay all of his monthly obligations and still have a little left over to take his family to the movies.
Just when Joe was feeling a little better about his financial situation, the phone rang and on the other end of the line was Marie his bookkeeper. Joe hated speaking with Marie. It was not because his financial picture was bleak for such a long time; it was because of the way she made him feel during their conversations.
Marie was the kind of person who told her clients what to do. She didn’t give advice in a nurturing fashion. She TOLD. And if the client resisted, she STEAMROLLED.
After a call with Marie, Joe always felt as if he had run a marathon. All energy would be drained from his body and he would be depressed.
This dysfunctional relationship came to a head on that fateful day last month. Joe sent Marie his expense statements and a few meals were categorized as business expenses. Marie called Joe and asked for the receipts from the meals. Joe could not find them and responded that Marie should just book the items as they appeared on his credit card bill. Marie persisted. She said she would have to categorize the expenses as distributions (which would create a tax issue for Joe) because he did not have the receipts.
Joe blew his top. He raised his voice and exclaimed that this was his business and, if he wanted something classified a certain way, for internal accounting purposes, his bookkeeper should do it.
Then Marie crossed the line. She said: “Joe, your financial difficulties demonstrate your lack of knowledge of accounting procedure. If you knew what you were doing you would not be in this mess in the first place.”
Joe hung up the phone and a few minutes later called me. He was emotional. He said he did not need anyone to remind him about his financial situation. He said he could tell by the clothes his kids were wearing (at least one size too small) and by the wear and tear on his seven year old business suits, that he was experiencing financial hardship. He said every time he drove to work and ignored the “check engine” light on his car (because he couldn’t afford to have it serviced); he was reminded of his financial situation.
He asked for my advice on how he should handle the situation with his bookkeeper.
The advice I gave Joe applies to everyone – regardless of their financial situation.
Immediately discontinue all relationships with people who consistently and repeatedly make you feel bad. People who make you feel insignificant, inferior or weak have their own insecurities. Get rid of them. It makes no difference if they are friends, clients, vendors or family. Banish them from your life.
There are two types of people in the world: People who energize you and make you feel good and people who suck the life out of you and make you feel bad. In difficult situations the energizers will offer solutions. In those same situations, the energy suckers will keep pointing out the problem.
Life is short. Make a concerted effort to rid your life of the people who focus on the negative and drain your energy.
The day Joe fired his bookkeeper he said he felt like a giant weight had been lifted off his back.
One of the best things about life is that you get to start over each and every day. When you surround yourself with people who help you find solutions; when you limit your circle of influence to people who only look at possibilities; when you make a conscious choice to eliminate negativity from your life; you are setting yourself up for success.
Is there someone in your life who is weighing you down? Isn’t it time you did something about that?
The Economy Doesn’t Matter
I saw something the other day that is a great lesson on “How to make money in this economy”.
In a shopping center down the street from my home, there was a high end restaurant on one end. The place was given five star reviews by just about everyone. It had been around for 25 years. In the boom economy you could never get a table there. It was always packed and the prices were outrageous.
On the other end of the shopping center there was a Burger King. During the good times, the dollar menu was a favorite of the “mommy and me” crowd and the drive thru had a line of contractor’s trucks around the block. That place had also been there for over a decade.
Last week both places closed their doors for good. Bankrupt. Out of business.
Was it because of the economy?
Well, let’s see…in the same shopping center there is a casual Mexican joint that has a line out the door everyday for lunch. They open at 11AM and they close at 9PM. I drove by last week on three different nights and the parking lot was packed during dinnertime. It’s not fast food but it certainly is not gourmet.
Same shopping center. Same traffic. Same economy.
What is making the difference?
I can’t say for sure but here’s what I know:
I received a post card in the mail from the Mexican place when they first opened. It was a discount coupon and invitation to visit. When I went there for the first time they asked for my email address and every Monday I get their “special of the week”. They also gave me a “bring a friend for free” coupon during my first visit (so that I would return). And they asked me for my birth date (so they can invite me to celebrate it at their place with a free meal if I bring three or more people).
The gourmet place never sent me anything; never invited me to come over, and damn sure never cared about my birthday. And good old BK didn’t do anything locally to promote their business. They just relied on the scary bigheaded king character on television to drive traffic to them.
The key take away for you is this:
You have to take responsibility for your own success. Do not rely on the economy. Do not rely on the “brand” of your law firm. Do not rely on your reputation as an exceptional legal practitioner.
Make an effort to develop relationships with people who will become your clients and with the people who will refer clients to you. Invite them in. Get to know them. Show them you care.
You make your own economy. You can still do well. You just have to work a little harder and work a lot smarter than you did in the past.
Complaining about how tough things are will get you nowhere.
If you want to attract clients to your law firm you need to take action. If you are confused about what action to take, give me a call: 305.692.5531.
Beating Back the Time Bandits: How to Save An Hour Per Day
Time is your most valuable asset. And it is perishable. You will never again get back the ten minutes you spent figuring out how to install the toner on the copy machine. That time is gone.
Everyone wants more time from you. Your spouse wants you to spend more time with the kids. Your paralegal and your associates want you to spend more time working with them. Your partner wants you to spend more time billing. Your client wants you to spend more time on his matter.
Everyone wants more of that precious asset but only a few are truly worthy. Yet we do not treat our time as a perishable asset. We treat it carelessly. We give it away and we waste it on stupid inane tasks that are handled inefficiently.
Below is one technique – just one – that will help you save an hour per day.
Never, Ever Answer a Ringing Telephone
Taking an unscheduled telephone call from ANYONE is a horrible idea. There are only three types of UNSCHEDULED calls you receive during your work day. They are:
- Personal calls
- Calls related to a client matter (past, present or future)
- Calls from someone who wants to sell you something
In all of those cases, it is a bad idea for you to pick up the telephone. Here’s why:
Personal calls should be handled on personal time. If you are at work, work. Have a conversation with your spouse, kids, mother, whoever and explain to them the importance of momentum and productivity. Then be proactive and call the people who are most likely to call you during your “personal” time (while driving, while having lunch, while taking a break from your work).
Taking unscheduled calls from a client or about a client’s matter is a disaster because you have no idea why the client is calling you or what the call is about. It is far better to have an assistant take a detailed message from the client and ascertain the purpose of the call. This way your assistant can schedule a telephone appointment to discuss the matter when you are prepared and have the client’s file in front of you.
Never, ever talk to a salesperson. Have your assistant screen all sales calls. If you have a legitimate need for the salesperson’s services, set up a telephone appointment to speak with that person.
Don’t have an assistant? Get a voice mail transcription service. I use Phonetag. This service transcribes my voicemail messages and sends them to me as an email attachment. You can then choose what you want to do with the call.
Here’s the bottom line on time management and this specific technique: You must train people to do business on your terms. Does that sound egotistical?
Think about it this way: You are always operating from an agenda. You can operate from your agenda or you can operate from someone else’s agenda. It’s up to you.
Train the people who call you for personal reasons. Train your clients. Train your assistant. And most importantly, train yourself.
The only person who can improve YOUR productivity is YOU. Start today with this simple technique.
Never Let Them See You Coming
Many people think being flashy is good. They believe that showing off your wealth, your knowledge or your skills is the way to win people over.
Nothing is farther from the truth.
If you want to attract clients, this may be the most important piece of advice you will ever receive.
Never let the client see you coming. This means you should always let the other guy feel superior.
Always.
Let him think he is smarter than you (at least when it comes to his business). Let him think he has more money than you do. Let him think he is more successful than you.
People are constantly comparing themselves to one another (both consciously and subconsciously). If they think they are more successful than you, they will want to be around you.
It’s human nature. The ego needs to be placated.
Providing the other person with the illusion of superiority allows you to control the interaction.
Need a case study? Watch a Colombo rerun.
Back in the 1970’s there was a television detective named Colombo (played by Peter Falk). Colombo appeared to be forgetful, disheveled and generally pathetic looking. His appearance and behavior always made the suspect feel at ease – as they did not believe Colombo was smart enough to crack the case. Of course this meant that they would be less guarded when having a conversation with Detective Colombo. This always led to the bad guy’s demise.
What does this mean for you? How can you use this in the day-to-day running of your law firm?
Avoid appearing or sounding superior. Dress professionally but not extravagantly. Be low key in your behavior. Never boast. When your work is successful, always deflect credit. Let others sing your praises. Make the client look good.
At the end of the day your goal is to help the client achieve his goal and to collect a fair fee for doing so.
In business and in life you can have everything you want as long as you are willing to make others look good (and feel good) while you conduct your business.
Your Most Valuable Relationship
A couple of weeks ago at a meeting of my Strategic Advisory Group for lawyers, one of my clients was telling the story of how his client, a very big celebrity, was going to be honored at an industry event. As he told our group this story, he ran down the list of all the things he had accomplished with and on behalf of this high profile individual. The list could have easily been mistaken for the achievements of a CAREER – yet my client helped his client accomplish these initiatives in less than twelve months.
I am not easily impressed or star struck – but in this case my jaw dropped.
The reason?
Not because of the fame of the celebrity involved. Not because of the sheer volume of work accomplished in a short time. And not because of the fees transferred from client to lawyer. All of these were significant but none as impressive as the one thing that can literally make or break any law firm or lawyer’s practice….the strength of the relationship between the lawyer and the client.
In this particular attorney/client relationship, the client, a mega star, does not make a business move without talking to his trusted advisor – the lawyer – my client.
Why is this so impressive?
Because that is the true nature of the practice of law. That is why you exist and why I help you. The client seeks your counsel. You guide. You advocate. You opine. And you represent. An ideal attorney/client relationship is not bound by specific matter or individual transaction or passing legal case. It is life-long and it is built upon bedrock of trust.
You may know me as a guy who helps lawyers attract clients but that is only partially true. I am the guy who helps lawyers attract the RIGHT client and then I help lawyers develop those life-long relationships.
In my world, marketing for lawyers is relationship development. To me a billboard is equal to speed dating. Lawyer referral services are essentially on-line match makers. Books with faces and twit websites are akin to The Singles Bar Scene.
I prefer my clients to meet their clients the old fashioned way – through a referral, by being approached by an admirer or by seeing them speak at an event. Making this happen is both an art and a science but it is only the beginning. Delivering value (real value in the eyes of the client) is what makes a relationship last.
How many of your clients will NOT make a move without first discussing it with you?
That list, in essence, is a demonstration of your value as a lawyer.
How To Double Your Productivity in 30 Days
All of us are plagued with too much work and too little time. Many of us have experimented with various time management systems and various electronic scheduling programs that we hope will keep us focused and on track and help us improve our productivity.
In reality we all possess the tools we need to double (and in many cases even triple) our productivity.
The secret is focus.
I’m not taking about listen-to-your- wife-while-you-watch-the-basketball -game focus. I’m talking about focus on one task and one task only to the point of excluding everything and everyone else.
And I’m talking about that kind of focus all the time.
But for most people, this is easier said than done.
Here’s how you can do it:
Step one: Write down everything you have to do and everything that takes up your time and energy during the course of the week. Make a big list. On this list put everything you spend time working on and thinking about.
Then lump these activities into categories. For example: driving to and from meetings, research, preparing a talk, returning client phone calls, sifting and sorting email, networking, drafting an agreement, etc.
Step two: Select the five areas of focus that are the best possible use of your time. Notice: This step has a hidden step within it. You must determine what your time is worth and decide what is the best possible use of your time.
Once you have selected the five things (or categories) that are the best possible use of your time, you can move on to step three.
Step three: Ruthlessly eliminate everything else from your life except the five things that are the best use of your time. The idea is to delegate or otherwise permanently dispatch these things from your life. Get rid of them completely.
Typical excuses:
Whenever I introduce this concept to my clients they always push back on certain items. Email for example, is one of the biggest time wasters on the planet. Here’s what I encourage you to do with email:
1). Never keep email open on your desktop while you are working.
2). Train your assistant or paralegal to sort your email. Have her alert you to anything urgent, handle what she can handle and flag things that need your attention.
3). Schedule time to check and respond to email every day. Select an hour in the morning and an hour in the afternoon.
4). If something in your email will need longer than 5 minutes of work, schedule time to handle it. Actually put it on your calendar – as long as it is one of the five things you are focusing on.
Another area people complain about is the telephone. Here is my solution for that problem:
Never take an inbound call. Have all your calls go to voice mail. Have the voice mail transcribed and emailed to your assistant or paralegal. Have the assistant handle the issue or schedule time on your calendar for you to handle the issue later on (as long as it is one of your five areas of focus).
Earn the Privilege of Being Selective
Last week I selected 100 people from my list of Rainmaker Minute subscribers and I made them an irresistible offer.
You see, I’ve developed a new self paced coaching program and I need 10 new lawyers to test it each month. So last Thursday I sent an email to 100 people on my subscriber list and offered them the opportunity to be Pioneers in this program.
This means the lawyers selected will receive one video DVD, audio CD and workbook/transcript from me with three recommendations each month. As Pioneers they agree to evaluate the information and if appropriate, implement the recommendations in their law firm. They also agree to provide feedback.
These 10 lawyers get to participate in this new program for a fraction of what the investment will be in the future. (The people who get in this month are only paying $97).
Within 6 hours of sending the initial offering email, I received 17 applications (yes, I make people apply and I evaluate them before accepting them). Within 12 hours I had 22 applications and I am still receiving a few here and there.
But even with that virtual stampede to sign up for this great deal, there were still a few skeptics. And there is a lesson we can learn from a couple of them.
Two people who received the email offer said they would be interested if I sent them some references of people who had already been through the program. This proves two things:
1).These folks do not read carefully. The reason I am looking for “Pioneers” is because nobody has been through this program yet. That’s why I am taking 10 new people each month and adding them to the client roster. As I add new recommendations I am adjusting based upon the feedback of other clients.
As a way to compensate for a lack of track record in this program I do not require any commitment. If you want out, just say so and you do not need to pay for future months. Just send an email and you’re out. It’s easier and quicker than a Las Vegas Divorce.
2). These folks have a distorted sense of value. Think about all the things you spend $97 or more on with no guarantee of success:
- Dinner for two in a chain restaurant (without wine)
- A trip to the movies for a family of 4, with popcorn, soda and candy
- The gym membership you have not used in 6 months
- A Craftsman Drill at Sears
- A tie, on sale, at Saks
- Your cell phone bill without a data plan
- A box of crappy cigars
None of those things or any of the hundred other things you could “invest” your $97 in will have a significant return on investment.
The coaching program I offered to these lawyers will certainly have a return on investment. Quite a few people were astute enough to recognize this fact and they applied immediately.
Could I have done more to demonstrate the value of my service to the skeptics?
Absolutely.
I could have given them the names and phone numbers of my clients who graciously serve as volunteers for references. Some of these folks appear on my website with full name and law firm affiliation available for the world to see.
But in this case I chose not to “sell” anyone on working with me.
Why?
Because I have earned the right to be selective. Demand for my service is high. People see the value of working with me at $3,000 per month. Dozens of people see the value of being involved with me at $97. I like working with clients who recognize value.
So what does this mean for you and your law firm?
It means you should price your service fairly based upon the value you provide. It also means you should understand the demand for your service and not worry about the few people who do not recognize your value. They were not meant to be your clients…especially when dozens or even hundreds are out there waiting to work with you.
If you have an interest in this exclusive program, call me and I will interview you. If you are accepted, you will fill the next opening on my client roster. 888.692.5531.
Five Qualities of Successful Lawyers
During this day and age of limited time and resources I am constantly being asked to boil success down to a handful of qualities. Everybody wants the five “secrets” to success.
While I am hard pressed to limit the qualities of successful lawyers to just five things, I can give you five qualities that are common among all successful people.
Incidentally, these five qualities were not developed by me. They were developed by a guy named Napoleon Hill as a result of a 20 year study he conducted on successful business people.
Good old Napoleon came up with 16 laws of success as a result of this study. All of Hill’s laws can be applied to attorneys but there are five in particular that separate the winning attorneys from the moderately successful attorneys.
Here are the five qualities from Napoleon Hill’s work that I believe to be most responsible for a lawyer’s success:
Quality 1: Successful Lawyers have a Burning Desire to Serve Their Clients:
This means you must really want to make a difference to your clients and you believe in your ability to do so. That passion and desire is easily spotted in successful people. It is a quality that attracts others – clients and referring attorneys – to you like a magnet.
If you are currently practicing law and you do not have a passion for it, consider a career change.
Quality 2: Successful Lawyers Make Use of Specialized Knowledge:
Every attorney has specialized knowledge of the law (compared to a non-attorney). But successful attorneys also have the specialized knowledge of how to build and run a law firm. They have specialized knowledge on how to build systems to set their practice up for success. They have specialized knowledge in business strategy and they know how to deploy their resources toward an area of need in the market. They know how to attract clients to their law firm and persuade those clients to retain them.
Specialized knowledge goes well beyond the law. It extends to the knowledge necessary to build and grow a thriving law firm.
Quality 3: Successful Lawyers are Decisive:
This is a quality that stands out in a good lawyer. They assimilate information and then they make a decision. You have to make correct decisions and you have to do it in a way that projects confidence in yourself and in the people around you.
Let’s face it; if you have the will, you can recover from almost any mistake you make in life.
However you may never be able to recapture an opportunity that presents itself if you don’t make a decision. Great opportunities – golden opportunities – only come along so often – and you need to be decisive to take advantage of them. Napoleon Hill found that decisiveness was a key quality in successful people and I could not agree more.
Quality 4: Successful Attorneys Set Goals:
Successful people are goal oriented. This means they have actually taken the time to think about where they want to be in five years, ten years and twenty years.
If you want to achieve significant success you need to first define what success is. That means setting goals.
If you have never done any goal setting exercises, try this:
- Pick out five things you would like to accomplish between now and the end of the year.
- Write these five things down on a sheet of paper.
- Fold the paper up and put it in your pocket.
- Review this sheet of paper every time you eat a meal.?
You will be amazed at the results.
When you write your goals down your subconscious mind automatically goes to work to try to help you achieve them. You will find yourself drawn to activities that will bring you closer to your goals.
Once you become comfortable with this process, conduct a similar exercise, setting goals for the next five years.
Quality 5: Successful Attorneys Tap into the Collective Intelligence of Others
This is critically important. You need to have a group of people you can trust to give you honest feedback on your ideas and performance. You must have a group of like-minded people who know and understand what you are going through and can help you achieve your goals.
This last one really resonates with me because when I started my own practice I was a one person operation. After having worked my entire career in big firms, I suddenly found myself without a sounding board for ideas. This lead to a stifling of my creativity.
As my business has grown I have actively sought out successful people to bounce my ideas off of. This process has been phenomenally value in many ways. Every lawyer needs a handful of people in whom he can confide.
When a lawyer comes to me and says he needs help with his law firm, I review these five characteristics with him. Almost always, the struggling lawyer has not developed any of these qualities in himself. That’s when I ask him a critical question:
“Are you willing to adopt these five qualities and use them in your law practice?”
You see, part of Napoleon Hill’s study revealed that successful people are not born with these qualities. They developed them over time. Success is learned behavior.
So I ask you now:
Are you willing to adopt these five qualities and incorporate them into your law practice?
What Did You Sell Today?
I have a profitable little habit I want to share with you.
It’s a habit I picked up out of necessity. You know – the need to eat – the need to feed my kids.
Every day I make it my mission to sell something to someone.
I am in the business of helping lawyers make a great living and live a great life, which means I usually have to sell something to a lawyer.
Each day I must come to an agreement with someone to help them in exchange for legal tender.
Most days this is easy. People call on the phone with a problem, question, concern or need. Together we come to an agreement on whether or not I can help them. That’s selling.
Some days nobody calls. On those days I reach out to past clients, referral sources or influential people in the community. I ask them to introduce me to a lawyer (or lawyers) who may need my services. Sometimes I ask them to help me get in touch with people who put attorney conventions together or edit articles in law firm trade magazines. That is also selling.
Now you may be thinking that this doesn’t apply to you. After all, you are a lawyer. You are a professional. And professionals – particularly lawyers – don’t sell.
In spite of what some of folks will tell you, a sale is made every time you interact with a potential client or referral source. Either you sell them on why you should be their lawyer or they sell themselves on why you shouldn’t.
Think about that for a minute.
Every time you meet with a potential client, speak with a potential client on the phone, meet with a referral source, have lunch with another lawyer or talk to someone who could refer you business, you are selling.
If you make the sale, you’ll get the client. If not, the other person has sold himself on why you are NOT going to get his case or his referral.
Still think lawyers don’t sell?
Have you ever argued a case in front of a jury? Made an argument to a court or magistrate? Ever tried to get your wife to agree to go see that new action adventure flick? Ever try to get your kid to clean his room? Ever try to get your mother-in-law to go away, on vacation, for a lengthy period of time?
A sale is made in each of these examples.
You sell. I sell. Everyone sells. Every day.
You can choose to become adept at it. You can choose to make it a habit. You can choose to live well.
Or you can choose to bury your head in the sand and continue to believe that lawyers don’t sell and that selling is evil.
As for me, I have a couple of calls to make. I like helping people. The way I help people is by sharing my knowledge and expertise with them.
What did you sell today?
