Legal Marketing Expert Criteria From Dave Lorenzo
The other day I was introduced to someone as Dave Lorenzo Legal Marketing Expert. While I like the sound of the term Legal Marketing Expert associated with my name I am also aware that people are fast and loose when they throw around titles.
Since there is no regulating or governing body to create criteria for the status of legal marketing expert, I am going to do it.
Below are the official criteria for being an Approved Dave Lorenzo Legal Marketing Expert:
A legal marketing expert must focus full time on legal marketing. He/she cannot have another part time job (like selling Amway, Mary Kay Products or practicing law). The legal marketing expert must be totally focused and dedicated to legal marketing.
A legal marketing expert must be a student of marketing and must be able to demonstrate his/her willingness to learn and keep current in this field. This means the legal marketing expert should be enrolled in some form of on-going education program that keeps them up-to-date with the latest trends and developments in legal marketing.
A legal marketing expert must have focused on marketing exclusively for a minimum of five years. This five year rule stems from the theory that it requires 10,000 hours of practice to develop expertise in any particular field or discipline. If you work 40 hours per week exclusively on legal marketing and you work 50 weeks per year, you reach 10, 000 hours in five years.
A legal marketing expert must demonstrate knowledge of marketing outside the legal profession. This is important because there are many things that are transferable from business to legal marketing. All ethical, professional and legal guidelines must always be followed, of course. But having a broad base of knowledge is required of a legal marketing expert. This may be demonstrated by experience: Ten years of marketing experience in various industries is a good objective criterion. This should also be demonstrated by education. A masters degree in marketing, strategic communications, business administration or integrated marketing communications is also a good criterion.
The final requirement for a legal marketing expert is a demonstration of good moral character. This means that information proclaimed by the individual to be true should, in fact be true, and verifiable.
These are the five basic criteria for becoming an Approved Dave Lorenzo Legal Marketing Expert. I will accept applications and begin interviews immediately.
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EmailFour Things I Do Not Understand About Law Firm Marketing
Even though I make my living giving law firm marketing advice, there are some things about my clients I do not understand. And I am a big enough person to admit it. Here are four of these law firm marketing mysteries:
Why do some lawyers view marketing as evil?
Marketing cannot be evil. Marketing is a business process. It is defined by the Merriam-Webster Dictionary as the process or technique of promoting, selling, and distributing a product or service.
A business processed can be misused. It can be used unethically. It can be used unprofessionally. But ultimately, there are many, many lawyers who are great at effective, professional, ethical marketing.
To brand marketing itself as wrong, evil or improper is simply ignorant, narrow minded and foolish.
Unless of course you are doing so as part of your own marketing strategy….
Besides laziness and lack of imagination, why else do attorneys bill hourly?
There is no good answer to this question. Hourly billing is unethical in most cases. It ensures that the lawyer’s financial interest and the best interest of the client are divergent.
If a client wants a matter dragged on for a long time and they retain a lawyer for that purpose, then hourly billing may be an ethical option. Very few clients have that objective in mind when they retain a lawyer.
Just because something is an accepted practice does not make it right (Slavery was an accepted practice for a while in the United States. Honor killing is still an accepted practice in some parts of the world).
Your failure to at least present an alternative to hourly billing to a client is evidence of either a lack of creativity or laziness.
Why don’t litigators form partnerships with transactional attorneys more often?
There are only three ways to make money as an attorney. They are:
1). Get more clients
2). Get more matters from existing clients
3). Raise your fees
The best way to take advantage of all three of these is by developing a relationship with a client where you can work with them over the long term. Litigation is an ad hoc process. Once the matter at hand is disposed of, it is gone and in most cases, so is the relationship.
In a perfect world, every litigation practice would have a transactional component to it and vice versa. This would allow the firm to benefit from the depth of the relationship with both the client and any referral sources.
This is commonsense and not marketing genius. Litigators: go find a transactional lawyer you like and ask them to share office space with you.
Why would a lawyer hire an unsuccessful former lawyer or a part time lawyer to help with marketing?
Would you hire a butcher to cut your hair? Would you hire a hairdresser to do your root canal? Would you hire a dentist to perform open heart surgery on your grandmother? Would you hire a heart surgeon from the Cleveland Clinic to neuter your Golden Retriever?
The answers to these questions are an obvious and emphatic “NO”. Yet when I ask attorneys why they hire other attorneys to help them with their marketing, I get dumb looks and even dumber answers.
Let’s face it, 99% of the time when an attorney decides to become a “marketing guru” they are a failure (or an underachiever) in their own profession. After all, if they were great attorneys, why would they abandon that profession (or make it a part time job).
Honestly, if you need marketing help you don’t have to work with me. In fact, most of the time you cannot work directly with me.
But please, please, do not give your hard-earned money to a former lawyer who learned about marketing in a three day seminar. Or even worse, to someone who practices law part time and is a marketing guru part time.
If you need help with law firm marketing, hire a law firm marketing expert.
Target the Center of Influence with Law Firm Marketing
There is one law firm marketing strategy that is so simple and so powerful yet almost no attorney is using it.
It is a strategy that is requires a little creativity, a little commonsense and a lot of persistence.
I call it the center of influence strategy and it can make the difference between having a good law firm and having a great law firm.
This is how it works:
For Lawyers who Target Consumers (Criminal Law, Family Law, Trust and Estates Law, etc.):
Every community has people who are well respected and influence the decisions of a great many people. Individuals in roles such as members of the clergy, individuals who run community centers, people who occupy positions of authority, media personalities, etc. These are the people we are targeting with this strategy.
For Lawyers Who Target Businesses:
We are targeting decision-makers. Most often I recommend we target the top person in the company (the CEO or owner).
There are three elements to this strategy:
Element One: The Introduction
Every two weeks you write this person a letter. In that letter you highlight the issues that the community/industry is facing and you discuss how you can help prevent bad things from happening to good people. Your call to action in the letter is to ask the reader to contact you for an educational briefing on the particular problem you are good at solving. It is important to note that you are not soliciting business. You are asking for an opportunity to present information that will help them understand and prevent the problem themselves.
A good example comes from criminal law. Criminal defense attorneys conduct this presentation with members of the clergy. The topic is: ‘How to Keep the Children in Our Community Safe’. The presentation is about preventing kids from joining gangs and committing crime by enrolling them in after school activities.
Element Two: The Presentation
This portion of the strategy can be an in-person talk or a webinar that is delivered to the influential individual. It contains statistics and data that highlight the problem. It also appeals to the individual to help solve the problem.
Element Three: The Offer
This is the call to action. You now ask the influencer to invite you in to speak to his/her group. You can offer to speak frequently (monthly, quarterly, annually). You give a talk on how to prevent the bad things you see in your law practice.
After these talks you continue to stay in touch with the influencer and you remain available to speak as often as he would like you to do so.
You will be amazed at how many referrals you can source with this strategy. If you do it right, this strategy will position you as a person who cares about the community/industry and is willing to do something to give back.
In reality, it is always in giving that we receive the most.
Great Legal Marketing and Accessibility Are Not Compatible
Many lawyers pride themselves on being available 24 hours a day, seven days per week for clients and prospective clients to call them.
If you are one of those lawyers, this is your wake-up call.
Being available all the time is not perceived as excellent service. It is perceived as a desperate attempt to get any client possible. In the case of existing clients, it is perceived as doing anything and everything possible to keep the clients you have.
Think about it from the client’s perspective:
If you are good, one of the best, in your area of practice, you should be busy, very busy. If I call your office and your assistant says:
“Mr. Smith has client meetings all day today. Can I schedule an appointment to have him return the call tomorrow?” How does that position you?
Think of it this way: You call the heart surgeon to ask a question about your medication and his assistant says:
“Hold on, he’s right here” and she hands him the phone. What if he answered the phone himself?
A great surgeon spends his time with patients and in surgery. If he has time to a take unscheduled calls he must not be busy. Not busy means not good.
If you want to be accessible and if you want to capture the client at their time of greatest need, have SOMEONE answer the phone 24 hours a day but always schedule a return call from the attorney or from the expert (you).
I know, I know, the criminal attorneys who read this are shaking their heads. They are saying it is their business to answer those calls in the middle of the night. Maybe. But think about the kind of client placing that call to you. If that person is your ideal client, then fine, take the call. But think about the kind of practice you will have if that is the intake process for the majority of your clients.
If you must handle those clients, have a junior attorney field the call and handle the bond hearing. Then you take the case from that point forward. The best attorney only gets up in the middle of the night for a select few clients.
The bottom line on accessibility: The best person in any field is also the busiest and also has total command of his schedule.
Are you the best? Would you like to be perceived as the best?
If so, give some thought to how you manage access to your law firm’s most valuable asset, you.
If Marketing for Lawyers was Easy Everyone Would Do It
There is a dirty little secret that most people who work on marketing for lawyers keep from their clients. They keep this secret because once they reveal it, 95% of the attorney population won’t hire them.
Before I tell you WHAT the secret is, let me tell you why it is important to me that you know it:
I only want to work with the best lawyers. I only want to work with people who take their law firms from GOOD to GREAT. I only want to work with ethical people who improve the client’s condition. I am hoping that if I share this secret with you, the best lawyers will act on it and the complacent masses will continue to toil away, content with living a shallow life of unfulfilled potential.
The Secret
Marketing for lawyers requires a great deal of effort. There is no easy way to find and engage hundreds of clients. There is no magic formula for success. You can’t go to sleep at night and wake up in the morning with a waiting room full of clients.
Well, let me rephrase that: There is a formula. It goes like this:
Go to sleep. Wake up. Work your ass off. Go to sleep. Repeat for several months. Wake up with a lobby full of clients.
I know this is not what others are telling you. I know there are people out there who promise you the magic beans that will help you grow your law firm while you sleep. Unfortunately, it is just not true.
The Reason this is Good News
This is good news for 5% of the attorney population. It is good news for the people who get it. It is good news for the people who want to put in the work. Here’s why:
If you consistently work on marketing over a sustained period of time you will get results. Clients will be drawn to you. You will achieve a significant return on the investment of your time.
If you consistently work on marketing over a sustained period of time you will create a significant barrier to entry for your competition. Catching up will be difficult for them. They will not want to put in the time and effort you put in. Or they may focus on the wrong things. Or they may be a step behind. All you need to do is innovate faster than they can copy you.
If you consistently work smart on marketing you will have your choice of clients. Attorney marketing systems deliver qualified clients to your doorstep. You simply need to select the right clients for your law practice.
If you consistently work on marketing you may be able to change your lifestyle. Once you realize that developing marketing systems is the key to law firm success, a whole new world will be open to you.
But first you have to do the work.
At this point, I have either completely lost you, in which case you are only still reading because you are cynical, or you are intrigued (or at least a little interested in marketing for lawyers) and want to learn more. If you want to learn more, visit the website below.
Marketing for lawyers can be your key to making a great living and living a great life!
This is the website to visit: http://milliondollarlawyersecrets.com/
How My Barbershop Lost a Client: A Marketing Lesson for Lawyers
I have been going to the same barber shop for about 4 years. Since this is a luxury shop (they do haircuts, shaves, massages and spa treatments for men) and they offer a good experience (they serve beer, wine and tasty snacks) I never had a problem paying a little more for a haircut.
During the three years of my patronage of this shop I would go in for a haircut about once a month. About a year ago my barber left to work somewhere else. When this happened the owner of the shop called me personally and asked me to stay with the shop and try out the new barber they brought it. I was impressed by this proactive gesture so I gave the new guy a try. I am glad I did. He is a good guy who loves sports and has an interest in the same teams I follow.
After a few visits, this gentleman suggested that I come for a haircut every two weeks. I wear my hair very short and waiting four weeks to get it cut can make my hair look unruly. The barber talked with the owner of the shop and they agreed that every two weeks I would get a haircut I would pay half of what I paid for the monthly visit. This meant I was going to pay the same amount each month for more visits. I was thrilled.
Last month the shop was sold.
The new owners sent out an email announcement stating that buying this shop was “fulfilling their lifelong dream of business ownership”. The announcement was all about them. It didn’t thank the customers. It didn’t give us any introductory incentive to come in and meet the new owners. In fact, it didn’t mention anything at all about the clientele.
I went in for my first haircut and the new owner immediately tried to up-sell me into getting a manicure. I’m not the manicure kind of guy but there was no irresistible offer (coupon to try it for free, etc.). It was just suggested that I try it because the manicurist was really good. Again – about them, not the client.
After fending off the hard sell I met with the guy who actually cuts my hair. It was then that he dropped a bombshell on me. No longer could we do the two visits per month at the agreed upon price. A haircut was a haircut. Full price must be paid every visit. When I raised the issue with the new owner I was told the same thing. A haircut is a haircut. Same shop. Different experience. Bad feeling.
So what does this have to do with marketing for lawyers?
Attorneys often treat their clients the same way.
The marketing only focuses on what the lawyer has to offer. It doesn’t take into consideration the client’s needs or wants. The attorney doesn’t give the client any incentive to make a decision. He simply says: “This is what you need to do”. And the surprises that come with hourly billing (just like the surprise of my haircut price doubling) are killers of good client relationships.
Now I need to go look for a new barber. This is a minor inconvenience for me and about a $1,000 per year loss for the barber shop.
Think about the experience the client has when he interacts with your firm. Could you spend more time talking about his needs? Could you give him an incentive to do more legal work with you? Is there a better billing option you could have provided that would have made him feel less “ambushed”?
Marketing for lawyers is all about relationship building. Put the relationship first and offer a great experience. If you do your income will never receive a haircut.
Late Night Debacle is a Lesson on Writing an Attorney Marketing Plan
Once again there is trouble on the late shift.
In case you have not been following entertainment news, here is a brief overview:
In September 2009 the NBC brain trust moved Jay Leno into a one hour show at 10PM. This move dislodged him from the Tonight Show (which he hosted since 1992). Conan O’Brien became the new Tonight Show host. The NBC Brass loved the move since they were able to profitably sell the new 10PM show to advertisers. (A talk show is much cheaper to produce and air than a scripted show with an ensemble cast).
As it turns out, nobody likes watching Jay Leno at 10PM and only a few people like watching Conan on the Tonight Show. The affiliates (television station owners) are really angry. NBC screwed up royally and they needed to fix it.
So what did they decide to do?
They tip toed around behind the scenes and opened negotiations with Jay to move him into a 30 minute show at 11:35PM (that is currently when the Tonight Show starts). This means the Tonight Show would need to be moved back a half hour. Once Conan got wind of this he was not happy. Although an agreement is imminent, the drama played out on TV, in the newspapers and on line. In the end, it will cost NBC tens of millions of dollars and much more than that value in talent (Conan will probably end up leaving).
Here are three things we can learn from this mess:
When something works, stick with it until it stops working. Don’t tinker with it just because you can.
Conan O’Brien always wanted the Tonight Show and he has demonstrated that he would wait for it. His contract was not up yet and neither was Jay’s. The ratings for both shows were good. But NBC wanted to cut costs during the 10PM hour. So they made this ridiculous deal with these guys. They messed up a good thing.
We do this kind of thing all the time. We come up with a client acquisition tactic that works and then we tinker with it.
What do I mean?
You go to a networking event, you meet a few people, you follow up with them and you get new business. But then you don’t go to another event for six months.
You give a speech and it results in a couple of good new clients. Instead of looking for other venues to give that same speech again, you decide to give a different speech that doesn’t work as well.
When something works, stick with it until it stops working. If you give a speech to a group or trade organization and you receive a positive response, give that same speech to a different group (within the same industry). If networking brings you new clients, stick with it until you simply can’t shake another hand.
Don’t mess with things that are working just for the sake of making a change.
Put the client at the forefront of any new business strategy.
NBC thought they knew what was best for the viewers of late night television. Magically, this aligned with their desire to cut costs. It appears that NBC wanted to do what was best for NBC and the viewers’ desires were secondary.
Every day you face choices that affect the wellbeing of your law firm. It is easy to make those choices when they are black and white - either good or bad for your client. It is not easy to make those choices when they are grey.
Always be guided by giving the client the greatest value for their investment in you. This is the most powerful advertising strategy you will ever employ as it is the key driver of word of mouth.
Do what you love because you love to do it.
Both Jay and Conan are making light of their situation. They realize that it provides them each with an opportunity to get some laughs. And that’s what they love to do, regardless of when they appear on television.
If you don’t enjoy being an attorney (at least 80% of the time) you need to make some changes. Your passion for your profession and your desire to help your clients will make all the difference in the results you get.
Ultimately, the current late night television situation will be a footnote on the careers of both of these gentlemen. It is media fodder now but it will all be forgotten with positive ratings results. But this debacle for NBC serves as a reminder that good planning is far more valuable than most of us realize.
Think things through from every possible angle. Most of the time big mistakes are just not this funny.
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
Thoughts on Motivation, Lawyers and Marketing
I am a marketer and business strategist.
I am good, some would say excellent, at helping attorneys attract and retain clients.
I didn’t always work with lawyers. For a number of years I worked with business owners, managers and executives in many industries. My only guidelines for accepting new clients were that their business was operated in a legal, moral and ethical manner.
I made a decision to focus exclusively on working with attorneys. I did this because I felt there was an underserved need for business fundamentals, strategy and marketing savvy in the profession.
That assumption was correct.
I don’t question the motivation of anyone who chooses to become a lawyer. Some folks go into the law because they want to break new ground – set precedent. Some folks become attorneys because they have a desire to help others. Some folks become lawyers because they want to make a lot of money. Some folks are motivated by all three things.
I have worked with people who are motivated by each of these factors. Marketing and business strategy can help an attorney no matter what his/her motivation.
Here’s how:
For the lawyer who likes to break new ground: We develop a strategy for attracting the kinds of matters that are likely to need new precedent in order to be successful. We then position the attorney (marketing) as the logical choice to help the client in this particular predicament.
For the attorney who wants to help people: Finding someone to help is generally not the hard part. Finding the RIGHT someone to help can be difficult. If you work in private practice you can only take on a select few cases pro bono. This means that you need to attract the majority of your clients from a pool of people you can help who can actually pay you something. Finding those people and getting them to hire you is where marketing and business strategy are helpful.
For the attorney who wants to make lots of money: Identifying, attracting and retaining the best clients with the highest value are great uses for a sound business strategy and good marketing.
I am essentially making two points:
- Marketing and business strategy are not the enemy of a good lawyer. If they are used correctly, they can help any lawyer in private practice.
- Nobody has the right to question your motivation as long as you operate in a legal, moral and ethical manner.
Attorneys love to argue about marketing and motivation. They love to bash their fellow attorneys who have made their law firms into large productive businesses. I don’t partake in those arguments because I am personally in business for all of the reasons I outlined above. I like helping people (and many attorneys desperately need business help). I like doing new things in my field (setting precedent). And I like making money. I find that the people who judge my motivation are usually envious of my success in any or all of these areas.
One of my first mentors once told me that people who complained about someone making “too much money” were people who didn’t have any money themselves. I wonder if the same is true of people who question the motivation of someone who does their job because of the money they make…
In a perfect world we would all do what we love and make as much money as we wanted while doing it. Until that world exists I’ll keep helping the people who show up regardless of why they came to me.
Dave Lorenzo
888.692.5531
Five Things Every Law Firm Should Guarantee
Most businesses are afraid of guarantees. The believe that people will take advantage of them way too often and drive firm into the ground.
Law firms are no different.
In most states law firms cannot even allude to the potential positive outcome of a matter without facing severe penalties. So you can forget about guaranteeing anything…right?
Wrong!
The state bar rules, in most cases, do not forbid SERVICE LEVEL GUARANTEES. They forbid outcome guarantees. Your law firm can guarantee that you will treat your clients with respect and common courtesy.
Many of my clients (I only work with lawyers) have strong guarantees and they ask their clients to hold them accountable.
Here are the five things that every law firm should guarantee:
A Return Phone Call
I hate the fact that most attorneys do not return phone calls in a timely fashion. I do not care how busy you are, I do not care if you spend your entire day in court, I don’t care if you commute 3 hours one way to work; all client phone calls should be returned within two hours. Period.
You don’t have to personally call your client back (it would be great if you would). But your assistant should call people back within two hours and schedule a return call to your clients at the next possible opportunity.
By they way there is no excuse for ever letting a client go beyond 24 hours without a phone call. If you don’t get out of work until 10PM, call then. The client will be glad you did. They will not be upset when you interrupt their TV shows.
Proper Preparation
I have seen many attorneys walk into the lobby of the courthouse and get introduced to their client for the first time.
Sorry but that is crap.
Proper preparation means having at least one conversation with your client before they put their legal future in your hands.
It also means that you have read the file before walking into the meeting with opposing council for the first time (yep I’ve seen and heard about that a few times too). It also means proof reading the settlement letter before sending it – you know – to make sure that the client’s name is spelled correctly…
An Answer to Every Question
You must give your client an answer to every question he/she asks. Helping your client understand what is happening to him/her is an essential part of your job.
If you don’t know the answer to the question at that moment, simply say: “I have to do some research before I answer you.” And then get back to them as soon as possible.
That’s not only a nice thing to do, it’s your job. You work for the client.
Attorney Timeliness
No one client is more important than any other.
If they are you should choose not to represent the lesser of the two clients because they deserve someone who will give them their full attention.
Be on time.
Just like the phone call situation – there are few acceptable excuses for being late to a meeting.
The Right to Speak with the Boss
All clients should have the right to speak with the ultimate decision-making authority in the firm.
If you are a solo or small firm attorney then you might want to consider a “speak your mind guarantee”. This is a guarantee that states that if the client is ever not happy with something, they have the right to speak their mind and not worry about any repercussions. Of course this is not the same as introducing an objective third party into the situation, but it demonstrates your concern for the feelings of the client.
So just what happens if you let the client down?
What happens if you fail in one of these areas?
In most cases, the attorney agrees to forgive some portion of the fee.
That’s right; they put their money where their mouth is.
These five items are foundational elements of client service. If you are not guaranteeing them, there is only one reason: You are scared that you cannot control yourself enough to treat people properly.
Why don’t you implement this five point guarantee today?
Need help? Call me. Dave Lorenzo 888.692.5531
