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.
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EmailNever 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?
Lawyer Gets Exactly What He Deserves
Every day people ask me if my business strategies will work in their practice area.
It doesn’t matter if they practice environmental law, personal injury law, criminal defense law or law relating to Native American Rights – everybody thinks their law practice is different. And they feel compelled to verify that the strategies I have developed over the years will work for them.
In this week’s Rainmaker Minute I’m going to give you a quick case study that will show you how applicable basic client acquisition strategy is and how you can use it to attract the clients you deserve.
A few months ago Steve Klitzner (a longtime client) came to me looking for a way to attract new clients to his tax practice. Steve handles IRS problem resolution.
What does that mean?
Well, think about people who have not paid their taxes for years and years. Now think about them waking up one day and deciding that they can’t take the feeling of impending doom any longer.
Who do they go see? They go see Steve.
A good portion of Steve’s business is developed as a result of referrals from accountants, bankruptcy attorneys and other lawyers. He does quite a bit of marketing and he is always looking for new ways to attract clients.
At one of our meetings Steve told me he was looking for a way to get more referrals from accountants. While he had booked speaking engagements to groups of accountants in the past, he had never been able to convert them into new business. With a speaking engagement to his State’s Association of CPAs coming up, he was looking for a way to make this event pay off.
Here is the exact strategy we developed and the results Steve received:
At the conclusion of his talk Steve offered all of the attendees a special report titled:
“EIGHT MISTAKES TAX PRACTITIONERS MAKE WHEN NEGOTIATING WITH THE IRS: Important Tips to Keep Your Client From Getting in MORE Hot Water”
About 40 CPA’s gave Steve their contact information and he sent them the report. They also receive his monthly newsletter on an ongoing basis.
In the three months since this event, he has received 8 referrals directly from accountants who got on his mailing list as a result of that strategy. If Steve’s average case value is $5,000 (and it’s not, it’s a lot more) he added an additional $40,000 to his billing as a result of that one strategy.
But that’s not the end of the story.
Steve then turned the report into an article and pitched it to several trade publications and industry newsletters. A prominent tax industry publication ran the article verbatim. That article landed Steve two additional speaking engagements and three additional referrals from CPAs.
This report, which took Steve two hours to create, will help him develop over $100,000 in new business this year…and this is just one of the marketing strategies he has in place.
Here’s the moral of the story:
Steve Klitzner is a successful IRS Problem Resolution Attorney because he takes action. I developed this strategy for him, but he put it into place and he got new clients as a result.
In the end, all of us get the business we deserve.
You just received the exact strategy Steve used to develop new business. It could work for you. But first you must take action.
Rest assured, whether or not you put this (or any other client acquisition strategy) into place, you are going to get the business you deserve.
If you come across a client with a tax issue send them to Steve. And you can find that special report he published on his website: http://www.floridataxsolvers.com
Your Fee Is Too Low
I was totally embarrassed when I heard that statement. I’ll admit it was the first time I had ever heard it after being in business of providing professional services for nearly 20 years.
Here’s the story:
A few years ago I was working with an attorney who had a solid book of business. The guy was doing just north of a half million dollars a year and it was coming from about 21 different clients.
He was a person of high integrity and he built his practice one relationship at a time. The big problem facing this forty-something attorney was that all the income was completely dependent upon him. He acquired the clients. He did the work and he answered every phone call.
And he was sick of working so hard.
My job was to help him figure out how to grow his law firm enough so that he could make the same (or more) money and not have to work so hard – while keeping his client relationships intact.
The solution we created transformed his business.
We decided to hire three new associates into his firm. Each one was assigned seven of the firm’s clients. They were each dedicated to taking care of their seven clients – no more and no less. Each associate received a base salary and a bonus based upon the growth of their relationships. So if one of their clients grew by $10,000 in any given year, the attorney who worked with that client received a $2,000 bonus.
This solution forced each of the attorneys to deepen their relationship with their clients and, in one year, they doubled the firm’s revenue.
At year end, when my client took me to lunch during the holidays, he uttered those magic words: “Your fee is too low”. He went on to say: “That one strategy – dedicating lawyers to a set number of clients and compensating them for deepening the relationship – has transformed my law firm”. As he finished uttering those words he slid an envelope across the table. In it was a sizable “bonus” for me.
Keep in mind that I did not perform any magic in my work with this client. All I did was get him to look at the situation from a different perspective.
Within 12 months, this lawyer went from running a one attorney practice that produced slightly over $500,000 in revenue to running a 4 lawyer law firm that produced $1.3 million.
Take a few minutes this week and look at your law firm from a different perspective. What could you be doing differently to make the practice of law easier for you and more valuable for your clients?
Ethics and Law Firm Marketing: Who Else is a Flawed Human Being?
Too many people pretend to be perfect in the eyes of others. Not only is that unrealistic it is also unethical.
In any profession, your ethics matter. You must be completely transparent.
Take a look at people who run for political office. As I write this (May 2011) Newt Gingrich has announced that he will be running for President of the United States. Before the announcement was made, people were already jumping all over him for his two failed marriages, the tales of adultery and womanizing from his past and the financial difficulties he and his companies have experienced.
Do these things make him unfit to be President of the United States? Maybe. We like our Presidents to cover up their flaws until their behavior gets the best of them while in office.
As the provider of professional services, as a lawyer, you will have an intimate relationship with your client. He must trust you implicitly. That’s why you have to be transparent when it comes to your flaws and your character.
Will this cost you some business? Maybe. But nobody will ever be able to call you inauthentic or a fraud. And you will be able to look yourself in the mirror and know that you have been honest with your clients.
A few weeks ago I saw an interview with Jerry Jones (the owner of the Dallas Cowboys) who currently has a personal net worth of about $1.1 Billion. He told the story of how, when he first purchased the team, he went up to the counter of a car rental agency and presented his maxed-out credit card which the clerk promptly cut up right in front of him.
Would you hesitate to invest in the Dallas Cowboys now because Jerry didn’t pay his credit card bills years ago? Should a person’s past financial or personal history keep you from working with them? How do you feel about Jerry knowing that he discusses his financial issues openly rather than covering them up?
I’ve been there. Many of us have. And with the tough economic times of the past three years, many of us made bad investments in Real Estate that resulted in business decisions to sell the property for less than it was worth. Doctors, Lawyers, Bankers – all have made bad financial decisions. Does that make them unqualified to be a doctor, a lawyer or a banker?
Is it fair to judge these people based upon their past decisions? I think it depends upon how you come upon that information. Is it disclosed by the person involved or was it concealed?
My life is the perfect example.
My rich background includes: A failed marriage, financial problems, being fired by clients and companies, having public (and often messy) disagreements with past partners and dealing with people in my life who were convicted of a crime.
What does this say about me? Does it say I picked the wrong people to marry, be friendly with, invest with, and work with/for? Maybe. Have I learned from those mistakes? Absolutely. Will I make them again? Hopefully not. In my mind, those mistakes say that I am human. And as a human being, I handle adversity.
Do I brag to others that I have had these experiences? Absolutely not. But I do not run and hide from them either.
Keep that in mind as you work through the crisis-du-jour in your own life.
People make bad decisions – with their finances, with their relationships, with their choices of employment. Everyone stumbles.
My message to you is this: If you are struggling with one (or several) of these issues now, realize that you are not alone and this is not the end of the world. You will get beyond this difficult time in your life and you will be stronger for having gone through it
You cannot control how people will judge you. But you can learn from your past and move on. Be upfront and disclose this information. Then go about your business.
Ultimately you will be judged by the grace with which you handle these issues. Be transparent and do not judge others too harshly. Treat them as you would like to be treated and do not worry about the things you cannot control.
