How to fix the thing that is keeping you awake at night
Many people are having a hard time sleeping these days. They are worried about money. The bills are coming in quickly and the clients have disappeared.
This keeps them awake at night.
You are good at your craft. You are a good lawyer. But no matter how many times you add the numbers up, there is still not enough.
As the clock turns from 2:59 am to 3:00 am your mind begins to contemplate the “what if’s”…
What if this client leaves me?
What if that client decides not to pay?
What if I never get another new client?
The stillness of the night lends itself to the wild wandering of the imagination. You are instantly transported from the comfort of your bed to an island where you alone have this problem. And you feel like the main character on a television drama with 50 million viewers are watching as everything you have worked so hard to build is slowly slipping away.
This haze of uncertainty becomes a full blown panic just as the sun rises. You have not slept much and now your mind is full of thoughts that drag you down emotionally.
After a few days or weeks or months of this, people around you begin to notice. New clients stop signing up because you are in this state. They sense your desperation. They sense your neediness. This forces the cycle to perpetuate.
The purpose of this email is to help snap you out of this “cycle of doom”.
Below are three things you can do today, actually three things you can do RIGHT NOW to help you get back on track. Focus on these things and you’ll notice an improvement in your emotional outlook almost immediately. Once your emotional outlook (your attitude) improves, the clients will follow.
1). Realize You Are Not Alone
Millions of people are feeling the same way. The economic crisis has taken its toll on almost every industry. When it comes to money, people are reluctant to discuss their status. I can almost guarantee that dozens of your neighbors are up late at night with the same concerns you have.
The action item here is to find a group of likeminded people who will not judge you but help support you as you work through this situation. Just knowing that you are not alone will go a long way toward making you feel better.
2). Focus on the Things That Are Working
Money is an important aspect in life but it is not everything. Before you go to bed every night think about, in fact obsess over, the things in your life that are good. Think about your family. Think about your friends. Think about the people who love you unconditionally.
Instead of worrying about the bad things that MIGHT happen, focus on the things that HAVE happened in the past that are GOOD. It helps some people to make a list of all the good things they have in their lives and review that list whenever a negative thought creeps in.
3). Take Positive Action
Send an email to a perspective client. Send a dozen letters to people who were your clients in the past thanking them for their business. Offer to give a talk, pro bono, to a group of people at your school or in your community.
The key is to do something, anything to develop some positive momentum.
If you’d like to discuss some of the ways you can effectively and inexpensively take positive steps to improve your cash flow give me a call 888.692.5531.
In the meantime, remember you are not alone.
Print
EmailHow Often Should a Lawyer Communicate with Clients or Prospects?
One of the questions I am asked most often is: “How often should I communicate with my clients and prospective clients?”
Many people are afraid they will annoy their clients and prospective clients if they communicate with them too often. Lawyers (in my client group) are particularly concerned about the frequency of delivery of email and print information. They ask: “Is a weekly email newsletter too much?” And “Is a monthly print newsletter too frequent?”
The answers are: “NO” and “NO”.
If you provide your clients and prospects with the right kind of content they will happily read it no matter how often you send it to them.
This is not some academic theory (although it is supported by substantial academic evidence). It is something I have learned through experience.
My email tip – The Rainmaker Minute —is distributed weekly to my clients, my referral partners, people who may be clients some day and my friends and relatives. These are all people who I have met or have otherwise given me permission to correspond with them. Less than one percent of people I have sent this email to have ever opted out.
My monthly newsletter – The Rainmaker Letter – goes to Clients and VIPs (people who request it). Every 30 days these folks receive a 4 page newsletter from me. And every month I get several requests to send copies to friends of the recipients.
The bulk of my new clients, by far, come from people who have been reading my newsletters, books and blog articles regularly. They know me. They like me and they trust me.
This works for attorneys too.
The secret to keeping your clients and prospects engaged is contained within four key qualities of the content you create. Here are the four qualities of effective communication:
Interesting Content
This is, by far, the most important component of any communication system. Your content must be interesting and relevant to your audience. People change the channel on boring television programs. People unsubscribe from boring newsletters.
A shot of spice also never hurt the content of a newsletter or email. You’ll notice I occasionally pick fights with my competitors or tweak a lousy vendor or talk about sex just to make sure you are still with me.
Make sure your material is interesting and informative.
Frequency
People want to hear from you more often than you think. If you are providing value in your newsletter or email, there is no reason to worry about sending something to people too often. A good rule of thumb is to think about how often you call your best friend. You call when you have something interesting to say and your call is welcomed. Frequency of communication is a key component to law firm marketing.
The standard for my clients is a weekly email and a monthly newsletter. I have clients who send an email out daily – like an inspirational quote of the day or a stock market update (recapping yesterday’s results). Although these things are not relevant to their law practice, they are important to the person receiving them.
Consistency
The Rainmaker Minute is sent out each Wednesday at 12 noon (Eastern). Every week, same time. People know when to expect it. The Rainmaker Letter is sent out each month on the 15th (unless it is a Sunday – then we send it out a day early).
People like things that are consistent because they are reliable. They trust people who are consistent.
If you send out a newsletter one month and then you skip a few months, people will think you are unreliable.
Personality
Your writing should fit your personality. Many people say they can actually hear me speaking when they read my email and my newsletter. You are not writing an academic work when you sit down to compose your newsletter. You are having a conversation with a friend. You are helping them get to know you. Inject your personality into the writing.
Monthly newsletters and weekly email may seem like a lot of work – and it can be. But remember, doing this consistently, over time, will provide you with a handsome reward in new clients down the road.
Someone is finishing reading this article right now and they are going to implement a weekly and monthly communication system. Will it be you or will it be that competitor you are most concerned about?
If you need help, call me. 888.692.5531
The Worst Number for Law Firm Business Development
ONE is the worst number in law firm business development. Yet every attorney I meet is obsessed with it. Every attorney wants that ONE great client that they can live off. To get that client most attorneys call me looking for the ONE way to boost their revenue or the ONE thing they should be doing to get more clients. Then they want to know why their client acquisition tactics don’t work when they only apply them ONE time.
Indulge me now as I take us back to a campaign past when I quote a good man but a failed Presidential Candidate: “My friends it’s time for a little straight talk”.
The number ONE is disastrous for a law firm. Here are three reasons why:
First Reason: If you only have ONE major client you are doomed.
Imagine if you had ONE big client who delivered 80% of the revenue to your law firm. Life would be great, right?
Only ONE person calling on the phone each week/day/hour. Only ONE set of problems to address. Only ONE personality to adjust to handling. And if that client is big, I mean really big, that could be all you would ever need. Right?
I got a call a few weeks ago from an attorney in exactly that situation. He had a great client. They had been a client for 20 years. They made his family comfortable. They made him comfortable. He was so comfortable that he had not done any marketing in 18 years.
The client was an automotive company. A big automotive company.
Once they filed for bankruptcy, they no longer needed him.
The name of the client and even their business stature is unimportant. You can apply the example to your firm on a smaller scale. If you have one client who makes up more than 10% of your business, you are in trouble.
Second Reason: If you only have ONE way of acquiring clients you are doomed.
Have you ever been to an attorney’s website and seen their fantastic blog? (A blog is simply a website that can be updated regularly with articles, video or audio files. Don’t be mesmerized by the fancy language.) Many attorneys are blogging like crazy -updating their sites daily. The trouble is, that’s all they are doing in the way of marketing. The write articles, post them on their site and they wait.
In the past week, three lawyers told me that this was their marketing strategy -blogging . That’s it. (To be fair, one guy is going to networking meetings too, but the other two are writing more articles than a newspaper columnist and that is their only marketing tactic.)
Now they may get two or three clients a year as a result of better Internet placement from the blog. They may boost their credibility when people go to their website and read their fantastic articles. They may hone their writing skills and become good writers. But they will not be able to feed their families solely from the business that comes from their blog.
You need a minimum of 20 - yes 20 - different ways to attract clients to your law firm. These should be spread over as many media as possible. This means 2-5 tactics on the Internet, 2-5 networking events, 2-5 speaking venues, 2-5 trade magazines to which you submit articles, 2-5 key referral sources, 2-5 groups of people you mail to, and so on.
The more ways you have of building a client base the faster you will grow your firm.
Third Reason: If you only apply your client acquisition tactics ONE time you are doomed.
If you do any of this stuff ONE time it will not work. I have clients who get an article placed in a trade magazine once and they wonder why they don’t have thousands of new clients. The same holds true for a speaking engagement. A client told me last week that he only got five new clients from his last speaking gig…and he was upset.
Marketing tactics are like sex. If you only do it once you will not be happy.
Give every marketing tactic at least three opportunities to succeed. Three times. If it doesn’t work, move on.
As you can imagine, most people will ignore the advice contained in this article. So the one person who takes action based upon it will beat his competitors’ brains out.
Will you be that person?
Hey Lawyer I have a problem…
I have a problem…
Those are the magic words every attorney wants to hear. Unfortunately many of the people who have problems you can solve don’t even know you exist.
So what is an ambitious, ethical attorney supposed to do to gain some visibility?
Here are three things you can do RIGHT NOW to gain greater exposure within your community:
Market to Your Referral Sources
All attorneys have a natural pool of referral sources that should be regularly reminded of your value proposition.
For example:
Real Estate brokers and loan officers should regularly receive communication from Real Estate Attorneys.
Trust and Estate Attorneys should be well known in the local community of financial advisors, insurance professionals and accounts.
Personal Injury Attorneys should reach out to other attorneys, doctors, chiropractors, members of the local clergy and bartenders.
Criminal Defense Attorneys should be well known within the courthouse. Bailiffs, guards, clerks, court reporters and process servers should all be treated like potential clients since they see and hear many of the people who may need your services.
There is a list equally as long for each and every practice area specialty. Market to your referral sources just as hard as you would market to potential clients.
Educate the Community
Hold educational seminars whenever possible. Host these seminars on your own as well as in conjunction with other attorneys or referral sources. These seminars serve two purposes:
1). They provide valuable information to people who need it.
2). They position you as an expert in your field.
Holding a seminar on a different topic each month gives you a reason to get some folks together in your office. Even if you only have 10-15 people attend, those are now 10-15 “sales people” who will be referring you to their friends and neighbors.
If you can work with a local civic organization or religious group and have them host or sponsor your educational events, you may have a more significant audience and a larger “sales force”.
Write Articles
Look for trade magazines in your niche and submit articles regularly. Many of these publications need content and their editors are thrilled when people send them high-quality information.
Local newspapers often have guest columns written by influential members of the community. Find out how you can become one of those influential people.
Send your newsletter to editors of all trade magazines and local newspapers. You never know who will read it and call with a potential lead.
There are probably twenty more things you can and should be doing to raise your profile in the community. The real key is not so much WHAT you are doing…The key is that YOU ARE doing SOMETHING.
Doing NOTHING is easy. Doing NOTHING gets you the results you already have.
Get up, get going and get clients.
Rainmaker Habits that Make Lawyers Money
If you are a solo attorney or if you work in a small firm, chances are good that you cannot afford to advertise with much frequency.
This doesn’t mean that you can’t be an effective rainmaker.
In fact, we’ve found that the opposite is actually true. The smaller the firm, the better the attorneys are at bringing in the business without advertising.
This makes sense since there is no one else available in a small law firm to assume the responsibility for new business development.
But how do those small law firm rainmakers manage to fit in activity that helps their practice grow?
The answer lies in something that can not only make you successful in business; it can make you successful in life…your habits.
I’m not talking about brushing your teeth after every meal and watching your sugar intake. I’m talking about the little things that add up to big dollars in the long run for small firms.
Here are three habits many rainmakers use to build their client base with a limited amount of time and a tight budget.
Write Something First Thing in the Morning
Good marketing involves writing.
Articles on your website help you build your visibility and credibility. A monthly newsletter helps educate and inform your pool of prospective clients. Being published in a trade journal can attract several new clients and position you as an expert. Direct mail to other attorneys helps them remember to refer business to you.
The challenge comes in finding time to write.
Rainmakers write every day. Most do their writing first thing in the morning. This not only gets the day off to a productive start, it also helps them build a library of marketing collateral. Get up early. Put on a pot of coffee and write a 500 word article.
Save your articles and at the end of the week pick one and put it on your website. Take another one and submit it to a trade journal. Turn a third one into a letter that you send to your colleagues to help them keep you in mind.
Set Up a Mailing Each Week
There is an open secret among people who are really good at marketing. It is a secret we teach to everyone but only the most successful follow….
The secret is repetition. A prospective client must hear your message at least seven times before he/she will be ready to work with you.
Rainmakers communicate with their clients and prospects regularly. They use email and regular United States Postal Service mail to stay in touch with their client base. They use the mail to educate, inform and motivate clients, prospective clients and referral partners.
The best rainmakers mail often. Some of them even send out a mailing each week to a different audience. A typical schedule could look something like this:
Week one - mail a newsletter to existing clients.
Week two - mail an educational piece to prospects.
Week three - mail to clients who have worked with you in the past but are not currently active.
Week four - mail to referral partners.
The key to success with this approach is consistency. Reach out to each audience every month.
Schedule Lunch with a Client Every Day
There is nothing to be gained by eating lunch at your desk. You can’t be 100 percent focused if you’re crunching on a salad or slurping soup while reading depositions. If you truly want your lunchtime to be productive, use it as marketing time.
Invite a client or prospect to lunch. You don’t need to focus on business. The reason you are going to lunch is to build or strengthen your relationship. Deep client relationships mean more work for your firm. Clients do business with people they know, like and trust. Spending non-business time with your clients is a great way to deepen your relationship with them.
Good marketing does not have to be time consuming. It is a matter of doing the right things, consistently. It is a matter of good habits.
Your Law Firm is Leaking
Each and every month you lose influence over your clients. Each month some of the people who have paid you the highest fees or done the most work with you become less and less interested in you. Each month your stellar reputation fades a little more in the minds of the folks who refer you new clients And most people are probably not doing anything about it.
Why?
Because most people are lazy.
You lose 10% of your influence with your clients, prospects and referral sources for every 30 days you do not have contact with them.
This means ten months from now, the great client you had lunch with today will have forgotten all about you. It means the doctor who sent you that great referral last week will have a hard time remembering what you do for a living. It means the business owner you met at the networking event yesterday will not recognize you if you hit him with your car next spring.
So what is the solution?
The answer is to start communicating with these people. Each month you should have some kind of communication with your clients, prospective clients and referral sources. This communication can be a newsletter, it can be a card or it can be a phone call or an email. It really doesn’t matter how you interact with them. You simply want to remind them that you are here and ready to help them and the people they know.
Some people will say: “I don’t have the money!”
Do you have a real business or are you just playing around? You need to invest money in your client acquisition efforts in order to develop a real business (a law firm is a business by the way).
It costs less than a dollar to purchase and mail a greeting card each month. It costs about $2 to send out a printed newsletter (in small quantity). Email is practically free – just type and hit send.
But some people will need to be convinced. Here’s how the math works:
You mail 1000 newsletters at $2 each (the cost for printing and mailing). You mail 1000 greeting cards at $1 each. You type and send 1000 emails to the people within your database (only to those from whom you have received permission). You do these three things every month. That is a total monthly expense of $3000.
Let’s say it takes you three months to see any business from these efforts. So you have spent $9,000 in keeping up with the most valuable 1000 people in your database.
On the first day of the fourth month you get a client as a direct result of these efforts. This client is your average client. And your average client pays you $10,000 in fees.
Was your investment worth it?
Yes.
Will you get more than one client from these efforts?
Most likely. There is a cumulative effect to this kind of system. After about six months you will start to see more and more interest in your services. It takes some people a little longer to absorb the information and react.
Will you get more clients by doing this compared to doing nothing?
Definitely.
What are you waiting for?
If you need a kick in the rear end and want some help in setting up this type of system, give me a call. If you want me to show you how, I will. If you want me to set it up, I will. If you want me to do this for you each and every month I will.
You can be lazy and outsource this system to me or I can show you how to do this for yourself. The choice is yours but doing NOTHING is the worst choice you can possibly make.
Call now. 1.888.692.5531
How Smart Attorneys Double Their Revenue in a Year
As you may have heard from me (several times) it is better to have 100 ways to get one client than it is to have 1 way to get 100 clients.
But there is one thing you should do first, actually NOW, if you really want to grow your client base in the next twelve months. In fact, this activity is possibly THE BEST way to ensure you will DOUBLE your revenue.
It is not sexy.
But it works.
What is this mysterious client acquisition tactic? Is it something on the Internet? Is it social media? Is it some new form of technology?
No.
It is called follow-up.
Good, old fashioned, follow-up.
Here’s how it works:
Let’s say you are introduced to someone by a client, friend or referral source. You have a brief conversation and you believe this person has the potential to become a client in the future or refer you to potential clients. What happens next? Usually nothing.
Replace “nothing” with these steps and you will double your revenue in a year:
1). Go to lunch: Take your new friend to lunch and learn everything you can about his business. Don’t sell yourself. Learn about him and his business.
2). Send a hand written note: Let him know you enjoyed meeting him. Enclose a business card.
3). Send your contact information in electronic form. People like to have your information in their PDA or Smartphone. Make it easy for them. Send your contact info in an email.
4). Introduce this person to someone who can help his business. This point is critical. You need to go the extra mile and actually HELP your new prospective client. You must give something before you can expect to receive something.
5). Provide them with something of value a least every month. This means you should send them something they will enjoy every month. It can be a newsletter. It can be a greeting card. It can be a phone call where you touch base and help them solve a problem. The key is to help them remember you by providing them with something valuable.
People do business with people they know, like and trust. If you implement a simple follow-up and monthly contact system you will reap the rewards.
It takes about six months for people to get used to interacting with you on a consistent basis. But once they realize you are interested in helping them, they will warm up to the idea of trusting you with their most important matters.
