Who Are the People Around You?
Have you ever wondered why some people always achieve excellence in everything they do? We have all come across people who, no matter what life throws at them, always seem to succeed. Sure they take some lumps from time to time. Yes, they have an occasional setback. But ultimately, they are winners.
There are many things you can do to elevate your performance as an attorney. There are literally dozens of things you can do to help advance your career or grow your law practice. There is one thing that may just be more important than all others. There is one thing that truly separates the good from the great.
That one thing is the people who surround you. I’m talking about the people who you allow into your life both personally and professionally. I’m not talking about your family. You don’t get to pick them. I am talking about your friends and business associates. If you want to fulfill your potential both as an attorney and as a person, you need to surround yourself with people who are better, smarter, and quicker than you.
Reverse Peer Pressure
Peer pressure is that thing our parents always warned us about. As an attorney looking to grow a law firm, surrounding yourself with peers who are smart, aggressive, ethical lawyers is a great way to stimulate your personal growth.
Surrounding yourself with successful business people gives you a competitive advantage. It opens your eyes to new ideas beyond the paradigm of the legal world. It keeps you focused on what is working in the world of your clients. It makes you sharp and keeps you on the cutting edge.
Each of us is judged by the company we keep. I am not talking about perception. I am talking about something real. Something more important. Your growth and the growth of your law firm. Look at any attorney whose law firm has stopped growing and you will find that they are surrounded by stagnant people.
Avoid Feeding Your Own Ego
It’s human nature. We all want to be the smartest, most successful person in the room. But that kind of thinking is a recipe for failure. I would rather be the dumbest person in a room full of geniuses than be a genius in a room full of dummies.
Go out and make a list of the successful people you know but have not interacted with in a while (if ever). Pursue them like a high school girl pursues a matinee idol. Establish a relationship with them and learn as much as you can.
Things that do not grow (intellectually or physically) begin to die. Said another way…
The day you stop learning is the day you stop earning…
Surround yourself with excellence and you will shape your destiny.
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EmailLawyers Marketing Habit Makes a Big Difference
A couple of weeks ago I made a video about a lawyers marketing habit that cam make all the difference in the world to your business development goals. The habit I am referring to is doing one last thing, related to marketing, at the end of the day. This means you have cleaned up your desk, put your files away, forwarded the phones and are standing in front of the light switch. At that point, you do one last thing.
Need some ideas? Here are a few:
Make a one last phone call. This is the most often used of the “one last habits”. Pick up the phone and call a client. If they answer, just say you were thinking about them and wanted to schedule a lunch with them to catch up.
Send an email. This is similar to the phone call. Send an email to a client just to let them know you were thinking about them. Offer to go to lunch sometime in the next few weeks.
Write a hand written note. This is my favorite. Each day, just before leaving, write a hand written note to someone just to let them know you are thinking about them.
Lawyers often forget that marketing is about building relationships. The habit of doing one last thing is a good way to make sure your relationship building skills don’t get rusty. And it might even help you get some new business.
Attorney Marketing Creed: Do No Harm
Your goal in marketing as an attorney should be to attract better quality clients as well as a greater number of clients. Your focus is on both quality and quantity.
If attracting the ideal client means you have to become some kind of circus sideshow, you should probably rethink your career choice.
The lawyers we see on bus stop benches or billboard with cute phone numbers (you know what I’m talking about, they spell CASH or PAIN) are a joke. They harm the legal profession and they harm those of us who make our living trying to help LEGITIMATE attorneys build a law firm.
Your law firm is a business but it is also a profession. Attorney marketing should be designed to build relationships with clients. The sleazy, cheesy, pursuit of fast cash from people who are often in a difficult situation is deplorable.
In the medical community, the creed of DO NO HARM governs at all times. As a combative measure to the onslaught of bad attorney marketing that exists, I tell friends who need a lawyer to follow the same practice as if they were selecting a medical specialist.
First: They should ask their family physician for a referral. In the case of a lawyer, they should ask a lawyer they trust for a referral. The lawyer who handled their real estate closing knows a criminal attorney. The attorney they use for their business transactions knows a divorce lawyer. The lawyer who prepared their will knows someone who can help with a tax matter…and so on…
Next: The client should check licensing body for disciplinary action. Every state has a governing body that regulates the conduct of lawyers. In Florida we have The Florida Bar. The Bar’s website has a member search area which allows clients to check the disciplinary history of any lawyer in the state. It also allows the attorney to complete a profile. As an attorney, you should fill in complete profile information and encourage prospective clients to check your credentials at the site.
Third: Interview them. I tell friends to ask the tough questions of their prospective attorney (not about the matter at hand but about the attorney’s experience and background). Would you let a surgeon cut into you without meeting them first? Only in an emergency. The same should hold true for a lawyer.
Finally: The attorney should provide references and contact information from past clients. All attorneys should have at least three references they can provide to prospective clients. Even attorneys in highly secretive and confidential practices should be able to point to three people, somewhere on the planet, who will vouch for them.
Smart clients will not hire an attorney base upon a billboard or a bus stop bench. An attorney who is good at marketing would never allow his firm to place that kind of advertising. DO NO HARM also holds true to when it refers to your profession.
How to Get Clients As a Lawyer
Does it bother you that you spent all that money on law school, invested all that time and energy in your education and they never taught you how to get new clients as a lawyer? If it does, this may be the most important article you have ever read.
During the next few paragraphs I am going to reveal the secrets of how to get more clients than you can possibly handle. Sit back in your chair. Plant your feet firmly on the ground and relax. Lawyer marketing is going to seem different in a few minutes.
Five ways lawyers get new clients:
Don’t think about marketing. Think about relationships.
Too many lawyers want to learn the tips, tricks, tactics or techniques to getting more clients. Ultimately, marketing for lawyers is not about learning some kind of business development judo. It is about building relationships. Everyone you meet has the potential to refer someone to you. Everyone you meet is one or two connections away from bringing in the huge client that could change your life. The people who believe in you most will refer people to you over and over again. Start off by looking to establish relationships with people first and the business will come.
Don’t forget about anyone, ever.
One of my clients, a personal injury attorney in the Midwestern United States, got his best client ever from an electrician who worked on the wiring in his home. How did this happen? The electrician was replacing some outdated wiring in the attorney’s home. This was a project that took several days.
A couple of days during that time period, the attorney had coffee with the electrician. They didn’t talk about electrical repair and they didn’t talk about the law. They talked about their kids, sports and the local town politics.
When the job was finished, the attorney added the electrician to his newsletter list. Each month, the electrician read the newsletter and enjoyed the personal stories it contained. One afternoon at the electrical supply store, he heard that a guy he once worked with had gotten hurt at a job on a construction site.
Since he knew the guy and since he had been involved in some close calls himself, he went to visit his former coworker in the hospital. The injuries were serious and the construction company who supervised the site cut several corners on that job. The electrician immediately reached out to “his friend” the attorney and made an introduction.
Getting clients as a lawyer happens naturally. It is not scripted. Your next client can come from anyone, anywhere.
Communicate with people as often as possible.
Frequency of communication builds trust. If people see you and hear from you often they will rely on you.
Too many attorneys feel that they will be bothering people by sending out a weekly electronic newsletter or a monthly print newsletter. The opposite is true. If you do not communicate with people often enough, they will be hesitant to trust you.
Focus on the client.
Don’t talk about yourself. Don’t write about yourself. You should only give people information about your law firm if they ask for it.
Give people information they need to make better decisions. Help them solve problems. Demonstrate your expertise.
TELLING someone how smart you are is awful. SHOWING them how smart you are by sharing your knowledge is great.
Be a connector.
As a lawyer, if you want people to help you get clients, if you want them to send you referrals, you have to become known as someone who connects people. Making valuable introductions to others is one of the best ways to demonstrate the behavior you want from others.
Connecting your friends and acquaintances is an important and valuable way to deepen your relationships. Deep relationships produce referrals.
These five ways to get clients may not have been exactly what you were looking for. You were probably thinking you were going to hear about some advertising strategy or some new and exciting social media.
During the past 20 years I have worked with countless attorneys and legal professionals on marketing. These five ways of getting clients are timeless and foundational. Focus on these first and you can add everything else into the mix later.
Lawyers Marketing and The Lies They Tell
There is one big lie that currently affects lawyers marketing activity. It is the concept that just being a good lawyer is enough to help you attract clients. Here’s how this usually plays out:
A WISE OLD MAN sits down with a group of young lawyers. He tells them that they must pay their dues. They must handle crappy cases for little money for years and years. Then, finally, when everyone knows they are a good lawyer, the good clients will come.
The WISE OLD MAN tells them this is how it happened for him. He says that he doesn’t believe in lawyers marketing to get clients. He shares stories of attorneys on TV and billboards bringing the profession down. Then he cautions the young lawyers not to BE LIKE THEM (meaning the unethical,immoral lawyers who spend time on marketing).
I believe you are smart enough to see through this façade. Here are just three reasons why this argument falls apart:
First: If you don’t promote your law firm and your services, nobody will know how great a lawyer you are. THE WORD simply doesn’t spread by itself. People don’t simply hear about great lawyers through the grape vine. Yes, some folks in your neighborhood may learn of your reputation. Sure the judges and/or your peers may think you are a great lawyer. Both of those things are important but they will not get you the number of new cases you need to pay your bills. The world deserves to know how good you are. Marketing gets THE WORD out to the people who need to hear it.
Second: Most lawyers marketing themselves are ethical. They follow the guidelines set by The Bar and they represent themselves appropriately. Because they are ethical, they don’t receive the same attention as the bottom feeders who lie, cheat and steal from clients. Legal marketing can be done ethically and in a way that makes the lawyer and the profession look good.
Third: The WISE OLD MAN is doing his best to keep you from competing with him. Most great attorneys are intensely competitive. If someone was going to compete with you, in your market, how willing would you be to give them a road map toward the best clients? Think about it. Whose interest is the WISE OLD MAN protecting?
Lawyers marketing their law firms are not bad for the profession. If it is done correctly, attorney marketing can highlight everything that is good about it. Don’t believe the lies of the WISE OLD MAN.
Is It Time to Make Changes in Your Law Firm?
The end of the year is the time when business owners focus on the changes they will make in their firms in the New Year. As a forty-something, over-educated curmudgeon, I hate change as much as anyone else but EVEN I make changes to my business once a year. My hope is that if I share my changes with you, you will reciprocate and share your law firm resolutions with me.
So here are my three BIG changes for 2010:
In 2010 I will only take on only 10 new Individual consulting clients. Unfortunately there are only 24 hours in a day and only one of me, so it is really the law of supply and demand that has mandated this change. I will still work with groups of lawyers and I’m launching a membership club that will allow people to work with me – but the days of making office visits to individual attorneys are highly limited.
This means I will also need to be highly selective in the clients I choose to work with. Everyone will have to fill out an application and submit to an interview before I agree to work with them. No exceptions. I have had more than my share of clients who were uncooperative or who thought they knew everything. I don’t need any more of those in 2010.
This year I am breaking my email addiction. I will only check my email once each week. Clients will have a private line they can use to schedule a telephone meeting with me. If they have documents for me to review, they can send them to my assistant. I hate email and I will no longer be a slave to it.
Most lawyers and law firms are no different than me. They don’t like change but they have at least a few things they must adjust if they are going to grow. If you need some ideas on changes you should make in your law practice, here are a few things you should consider:
Is this the year you end your fixation with hourly billing? Clients hate it and you can’t ethically figure out a way to make it work, so why not just give it up?
Why not do something in the New Year that makes you a little uncomfortable? Do some public speaking. Write an article and submit it to a trade publication. Go to a networking event and meet some new people. Pick up the phone and ask someone you know for an introduction to the CEO of his company. Get beyond your fear and just do it!
Is it time you finally update your website? Can you finally give up that AOL, Gmail or Yahoo email address? You are a professional. Isn’t it time you had a professional Web Presence?
Isn’t it time for you to stop answering your own phone? Get an answering service, hire an assistant or at least let the inbound calls go to voice mail. There is no way you can be productive if you keep answering all those calls.
Start dressing like a lawyer. I don’t pay my attorney the same amount of money I pay my gardener and there is no reason they should share a wardrobe. At least wear a sport coat to the office. Give up the casual days when you wear shorts, flip flops and a hibiscus-patterned shirt…seriously…
If 2009 was a good year for you (and it was for most of my clients) you may be tempted not to change anything. Do not succumb to this temptation. One of the hallmarks of successful individuals is their dedication to continuous improvement. That means they are in a constant state of change.
What do Weight Gain and Business Development Have in Common?
A few times each year we have family and friends from all over the country visit us. Since we live in South Florida, these visits usually occur between November and May. For the most part, these visits are happy occasions that allow us to catch up on the lives of one another. We relive the memories of the past and share good times that will be tomorrow’s great memories.
Since a good deal of time usually passes between these occasions, physical changes in people tend to become more pronounced. In other words, family will really notice if you’ve gained a few pounds.
This past weekend, while at one of those family gatherings, I noticed a few strange looks and a few snide comments directed at me. If you know my family, you know these weren’t subtle barbs either. People were flat out asking me how I got so fat. At one point, a relative pulled me aside and explained to me the health risks of “someone my age being this heavy”.
(Don’t think this story is me complaining about my relatives being nasty to me. I hand out enough barbs so I need to take them when they’re deserved.)
In truth, I’ve gained about 30 pounds in the past 18 months. Not intentionally. It just happened.
But there is an instructional point here for all of us – something you can use to improve your law firm – and I can use to improve my physical condition.
During the past 18 months my business has grown, my family has grown (my wife and I had a beautiful baby boy) and my focus has been on just about everything but my health. I’m not making excuses. I am pointing out the facts.
Consistancy Enables Growth
I made conscious choices to eat horrible food and not exercise much. It was not one single choice. It was dozens of choices, every day, compounded over time. After three months my pants were snug. At six months, my shirt collars would not button. At a year I had to stop tucking my casual shirts in my pants. At 15 months I purchased new suits which now, just three months later, are beginning to get tight around the waist.
I am in bad shape.
But I recognize the problem and I know how to solve it. And this is how my blubber relates to your ability to grow your law firm.
I know that if I design a plan to improve my eating and exercise habits I can improve my health. I know that if I make little changes each day, my effort will produce big results over time. Losing just 1 pound a week will have me in great shape this summer but changing my lifestyle will have me in great shape for the next 40 years.
The same can be said for your law firm.
First you must recognize the problem. Then you must want to make a change. Next you should develop a plan. And finally (but most importantly) you need to do a little bit each day to get better – make a gradual improvement that will consistently compound over time. You need to develop systems and measurement that will help you stay on track. You need someone to hold you accountable for your actions. Someone to reward and praise you when you do the right thing and help you stay focused when times are tough.
We could be talking about losing weight or gaining clients. The underlying principle is the same.
I have made the decision to improve my situation. During the upcoming year I am going to make my physical health as significant a priority as my business growth.
Will you be able to make your law firm growth a significant priority?
Will you develop systems, measurement and accountability to help your firm grow a little each day?
Can you attract one new client each week?
Can you strive to do a little more marketing?
I can’t lose 35 pounds overnight. It took me 18 months to get to where I am. It’s going to take time and effort to make the changes.
I am up for the challenge. Are you?
