Choices We Make
I provide guidance, systems and ideas to lawyers.
I don’t teach lawyers how to get rich quick.
Don’t get me wrong, some of the lawyers I work with improve their income substantially. But that’s not the reason my clients engage me.
My clients hire me to help them improve their income and get home for dinner, on time, every night.
These lawyers are not “get rich quick” kind of people. Most of them love the law. They enjoy what they do. But they also love spending time with family and living life.
Make a great living and live a great life is not just my firm’s slogan. It is what everyone who invests in my services wants – a great living and a great life.
You chose the law as your profession. That doesn’t mean you chose to sacrifice your life serving it.
We all make choices in life but that doesn’t mean you have to give up a great income to spend time with your family. And it doesn’t mean you have to spend eighty hours a week in the office to make an above average living.
But you do have to make some choices. You have to get your priorities in order.
You must choose the right clients. You must choose the rules under which you will operate your law firm. You must choose the advice you take and the advice you discard.
And you must choose to have thick skin. Because lots of people will be jealous if you have success at making a great living and living a great life.
I’m not a lawyer but I choose to work with lawyers. Why? Because I am good at helping people make tough choices. Lawyers trying to build a law firm and have a family life face some of the toughest choices in the business world.
I’m not going to help you get rich quick but I am going to help you feel good about the choices you make.
Most of the time doing the right thing is easy. It’s figuring out what the right thing is, that’s hard.
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EmailAre You Worth the Risk?
When a client comes to you with a problem he is anxious. He may never have faced this kind of situation before. He is worried about losing money, time and/or an opportunity. He knows that hiring the right lawyer is going to be the most important decision he will make toward achieving a favorable result.
In short, he is worried about the risk he is taking in selecting you as his lawyer.
Overcoming the client’s fear of making a mistake in lawyer selection is the single most important factor in law firm marketing. Most lawyers underestimate the depth of that fear.
There are six different elements of risk that come into play when a client is looking to hire a lawyer and you must overcome all of them.
Below are these elements of risk. I have also included some thoughts on how you can address this risk head on and make the client’s decision easier.
The risk of poor performance: The client hires a lawyer and the lawyer is not able to achieve the desired result.
To overcome this risk, show the client your past work. Help him feel comfortable with your skill level. Give the client the names and phone numbers of other people you have represented so he can check up on you.
The risk of financial investment: The client invests in you, you do not perform well and he is responsible for damages awarded to his adversary.
To overcome this risk, show the client the value he is receiving by hiring you. Help him see that NOT hiring you is the true financial risk because you are their best option.
The risk of loss of time: The client helps you become familiar with his situation. This takes time. If he needs to find another lawyer, he has lost the time he invested in working with you. In many matters, time is of the essence. If the client works with you and you cannot act quickly he may not achieve a favorable outcome.
Overcome this risk by demonstrating sensitivity to his time investment. Show up on time to meetings with him. Return his calls promptly and be attentive to his needs. If you are unavailable, make sure a member of your team responds to the needs of the client in timely fashion.
The risk of the loss of an opportunity: Your depth of knowledge is critical to the client’s success. If you miss an opportunity while working on his matter, you may cost him money or you may even jeopardize the entire engagement.
Start the relationship off by asking in-depth questions about the client’s situation. Show him that you are thinking about his matter beyond the superficial aspects of it. Asking good questions demonstrates the desire to completely understand a situation. This is critical to alleviating the client’s fear of loss of an opportunity.
Psychological risk: How does the client feel when he works with you? Does he feel like he is in good hands? There is a fine line between giving your client peace of mind and promising an outcome. You need to walk that line effectively and make the client feel good about your work. When you present your client with options and he makes a decision, reassure him.
Social risk: Clients talk to other people in their sphere of influence. Every interaction you have with a client or on behalf of a client either enhances or detracts from your reputation. Monitor what is being said about you in the community and realize that what you do is also a reflection on your clients.
Many times the client is making the decision to hire a lawyer during a brief conversation you have with him. You must, through your actions and your words, address each of these elements of risk to his satisfaction in order to be hired. Lawyers who are good at business development have made this a natural part of their initial client meeting.
If clients come to see you and leave without hiring you, you have a problem addressing these six elements of risk.
This is not unusual and it can be corrected. Call me today to find out how.
What I Failed To Do and What You Can Learn From It
Have you ever felt bad for a client because they said they couldn’t pay you?
Ever discounted your fee because the client told you a sob story?
Let me tell you about a time I did that and tell you what I learned from it.
I had been working with Charlie the tax attorney for about two years. He is a great lawyer – maybe one of the best lawyers in his field in Miami. At the outset of our work, Charlie was the only attorney in his firm and he had a part time administrative assistant who worked with him on Tuesdays and Thursdays. He was billing about $200,000 per year back then. He shared an office with a criminal attorney who was a friend from Law School.
When we first started working together we would meet in weekly one-on-one sessions. Each week I would cover a topic with him, give him some action items, and he would religiously implement the things we talked about.
About six months into our work together Charlie and I were reviewing his financial statement and we realized that his billing had doubled. He was giving his part time assistant full time hours and he hired a paralegal to help him with his workload. When we reviewed his financial statements, he pointed to the time when we started working together and he said: “This was the turning point in my career as a lawyer.”
Things continued to go well for Charlie. Over time he hired another paralegal and an associate attorney. His client flow was increasing as was his billing. But something strange began to happen in our relationship. Charlie stopped wanting to see me every week. He became very slow to implement the adjustments I recommended. And when I recommended something he could not implement immediately, he would question the value of my advice.
This finally came to a head one summer day when he said he was “choking on my monthly fee”. He pointed out how expensive I was and how what he really needed was help with implementation because he “had enough good ideas”. And at that point he asked me to reduce my fee.
I wanted to keep Charlie as a client so I agreed to do it.
And for three more months, things were fine. Charlie’s firm had grown to over $800,000 in annual revenue and he had five staff members. He moved into a bigger (more expensive) office. He leased a fancy car. He was buying custom tailored suits. And then it finally happened.
Charlie called me from his scuba diving lesson in Aruba to inform me that he “just couldn’t afford to work with me anymore.” Again he said he had enough good ideas and he was going to take his time and implement them. Even the reduced rate was too much for him.
His practice had quadrupled in size, he hired three staff members, he had a beautiful new office, new clothes, a new car and was taking exotic vacations three times each year but my fee was too much.
And that’s where I learned the lesson.
Providing value to clients wasn’t enough. Helping them transform their law firms and their lives was not enough. I also had to demonstrate this value over and over – each and every time we met. I had to show them, in a subtle way, the value I was providing.
This experience changed the way I handled my work with my clients. It transformed the way I do business. These days I only personally work with a handful of clients. I intentionally keep my private client roster small so I can provide outstanding guidance and access to the few people who truly understand the value I provide and execute on the strategy we discuss. And I charge these people a significant fee for helping them grow their business and improve their life.
You can do the same thing in your law firm.
You can make a conscious choice to work only with qualified clients who appreciate your talent.
The key to transforming your law practice into an exclusive, private client firm is in your law firm marketing. What you say to your clients before, during and after you get hired makes all the difference in the world. How you develop your relationship is critical to their perception of your value. It is not enough to do good work. You must also be perceived as a highly valuable member of the client’s inner circle.
If you are ready to take your law firm to the next level, give me a call. I may not be able to work with you personally, but at least I can point you in the right direction.
Law Firm Marketing for Leaders: Can You Handle It?
It really is lonely at the top. It doesn’t matter if you are the knot tying champ in your Boy Scout Troop or the CEO of a FORTUNE 500 company. Being the best or being in charge means that people will be coming after you. Rest assured, it will happen. One of the inevitable byproducts of success is the big target that will be firmly affixed to your back.
Why?
Human nature.
Each of us is born with the capacity to feel emotion and, in early childhood, we develop and refine our use of these emotions and our response to the emotions displayed by others.
Insecurity, jealousy, anger and resentment are often byproducts of our view of the success of a rival.
Some people see your success and they feel all of these things. A few of the more narcissistic folks will actually act on these feelings. That’s when the fun really begins.
The more successful you are, the more intense the emotional reaction to your success will be. Expect it.
And if you think it won’t happen to you because you are a “Nice Person”, just do an Internet Search for Christopher Hitchens thoughts on Mother Teresa. If someone can hate a Saint that much, trust me, someone out there will take aim at you once you have achieved a modicum of success.
So what are you supposed to do with these HATERS?
When my clients come crying to me about people who are:
1). Complaining about them to the world
2). Sending them hate mail or posting hateful things about them on the Internet
3). Spreading false rumors about them (or even bringing some old but true indiscretions to light)
I encourage them to react as follows:
Embrace the Fame
Let’s face it, if someone is attacking you, no matter how awful the attack is, your message is reaching its audience. Losers do not get targeted by anyone. Somebody feels threatened by you. Somewhere you have struck a nerve. Go with it. Shout louder. Appear in more places. Write more articles. Use even stronger language.
Remember that your goal in marketing is not only to attract potential clients but also to REPEL non-clients. You only want to work with people who have a problem you can solve and are willing to pay top dollar for you to solve it.
Publicly Identify the Emotional Dysfunction
Never attack your adversary directly as this would only serve to elevate him to your status. Instead, attack his emotional dysfunction. Talk about the evil of the emotion and not about the specific individual who personifies that evil.
Hillary Clinton did this masterfully during impeachment proceedings against her husband. During a nationally televised interview that was watched by more than half of the population of the United States, she painted the vitriol toward President Clinton as a vast right wing conspiracy.
With one statement she polarized the voting public. You were either part of that conspiracy or you were a victim of it.
Use the Attacks to Embolden Your Own Mission
Now that you have an enemy, use it (remember the enemy is the ideal not the person) to advance your position.
Personal Injury Lawyers use Insurance Companies or Big Tobacco or greedy manufacturing companies looking to make money at the cost of worker safety. Criminal Lawyers use the ruthless state-run system that chews up victims of circumstance and makes them hardened criminals. Labor attorneys use the union as a socialist enterprise that wants to drive a wedge between the workers and their benevolent employer.
Find a way to fight the emotion without picking a fight with the individual. The last thing you want to do is create a sympathetic victim.
You may be wondering why I selected this forum to share this insight with you. I will admit that this is advanced messaging strategy and an unusual law firm marketing strategy and can easily be misinterpreted by the uninitiated. The reason I share this particular strategy with you today is because I want you to think about your future. I want you to mentally prepare for the success that is coming. As your law practice (your business) evolves, and you become more successful, you will also become a target. My goal is for you to expect it.
But that begs a critically important question about your future success:
Can you handle it?
8 Words That Make All The Difference
“I’m sorry I have not been in touch.”
Those eight simple words are the best way to begin a communication campaign with your clients, past clients and potential referral sources.
I know you probably don’t receive as many referrals as you deserve. In most cases, this is a not a reflection of the quality of your work. It is a reflection of your lack of communication with the people most likely to give you referrals.
Your clients want to refer others to you. Unfortunately, they just don’t think about you all of the time.
The easy remedy to this situation is to remind them (frequently) that you are still here, still practicing law, and still providing the same fantastic service.
This is a tricky proposition.
You want to communicate with potential referral sources frequently but you do not want to be annoying.
Here are three ways to do that:
1). Send out a weekly email newsletter. This is a cost effective way to stay in touch with people who could potentially send you business. Many lawyers are intimidated by the suggested frequency. They initially feel that weekly communication may be too much. I assure you it is not. As long as your email is interesting, your clients will welcome it. Use the phrase: “Sorry I have not been in touch” in the subject of your first email.
2). Remember birthdays. There are three elements that go into getting a great referral. A person must know you, like you and trust you before they refer business to you. Your clients trust you or they would not have worked with you in the first place. If you send them a card on their birthday you will deepen your relationship with them. This simple step of remembering and recognizing them on an important day in their life will go a long way toward building your relationship.
3). Host a client appreciation event. One of the first things eliminated from the budget during difficult economic times is the office holiday party. This is a mistake. You should host an event, at least once each year, to recognize your clients. This doesn’t have to happen during the holidays. It can be anytime. In fact, it is often best to have this event during a time when there are no other competing events to distract from its significance. A simple gathering of clients with light food and drink is a terrific way to build good will.
Referrals are the lifeblood of any law firm marketing plan. Last week I shot a DVD for my clients that outlined 15 ways to attract more referrals. Watching this video and then taking consistent action on just one of these ideas could double the size of their law firm.
Think about it: If each of your current clients referred you one new client, your practice would grow by 100%.
Implement the three strategies I outlined above immediately. They are wise investments of your time and money and they will help you grow your business rapidly.
How Law Firm Marketing Can Improve Your Revenue
If you are thinking about different ways to improve your law firm revenue there are three specific options you need to consider.
These options should result in a shift in your law firm marketing strategy.
They are:
- Sell Different Legal Services
- Sell Your Services to Someone Different
- Sell Your Legal Services Differently
Think about each of these options for a minute:
Sell Different Legal Services
I am not advocating that you shift from being a criminal defense lawyer to drafting wills. I am saying that you should consider pursuing some options that are either related to the field of law you enjoy or you decide where your talent lies and align your practice with your talent. So in the example above: If you like computers focus on computer related crime.
Sell Your Services to Someone Different
This is the argument for focusing on niche marketing with your law practice. Having one (or several) target markets and tailoring your marketing to those areas, is a good way to measure results. This will enable you to decide which market is right for your law firm.
Sell Your Legal Services Differently
This is the argument for marketing. And I’m not talking about billboards and bus stop benches. This is the argument for having an excellent follow up system and focusing on marketing to referral sources.
There is one important thing that you must keep in mind as you move forward with a law firm marketing plan: Nothing changes until you change. If you do the same things you have always done you will get the same results you have always gotten.
Law Firm Marketing Strategy: What’s Next?
The biggest difference between owning your own law firm and working for someone else is freedom.
This could mean the freedom to get rich or it could mean the freedom to go broke.
It could mean the freedom to live life on your own terms or it could mean the freedom to be under constant pressure from demanding clients.
Being in your own law firm, a law firm that you own and control means you call the shots. You choose which clients to accept and which to reject. You choose who else (if anyone) gets to work in your law firm. You choose what direction you want your law firm to take.
The part about choosing the direction of your firm is called strategy.
In business school they taught us many different ways to develop a law firm strategic plan. I’ve spent the better part of my career creating strategic plans for companies and law firms. Now I teach lawyers how to do that for themselves. And I can teach you how to boil your business strategy down to two words:
What’s Next?
That two word phrase is all you need to know if you want to develop a sound business strategy for your law firm.
Here’s how this sophisticated strategic planning session works:
First: Decide what you want your law firm to look like when you retire or die. (I say retire in case you want to stop working one day and I say die in case you never want to stop working – either way is fine.)
Next: Take a good, hard, realistic look at your law firm now. Then take a deep breath and promise yourself that you will get to the desired end result.
You now have a goal and you have a starting point.
After you have committed to getting to where you want to go, you need to create the map that will lead you there. So look at your law firm as it is today and ask yourself: “What’s next?”
You will be amazed at the power of this question. These two words keep you focused on the growth and development of your law firm.
The words “what’s next” are about moving forward. They are about not being satisfied with the status quo. They are about operating your law firm in a state of continuous improvement.
Over the course of the next few weeks you will see lots of commercials on television for New Year’s Resolutions. Unfortunately 99% of these resolutions will fall by the wayside before the end of the month of January.
My challenge to you is to make new resolutions each and every single day of the upcoming year. That is the power of having a vision of your future. And that is the power of taking one step each day, no matter how small, to help you get closer to making that vision a reality.
I wish you much success and happiness in this New Year and beyond.
And I ask you now, as we enter 2011: What’s next?
Legal Marketing Strategy: Avoid People Who Don’t Get It
Sometimes legal marketing means weeding out the wrong people as much as it means attracting the right people.
There is one type of person I simply cannot stand. His name is Mr. Don T. Getit.
This guy calls your office and tells you how much his case is worth. He also tells you how to handle the case and why you should give him a discount or take it on contingency or offer a payment plan. If you accept him as a client, he will tell you how to practice law yet he will not comply with anything you ask him to do. Once the matter is over, he will have an outstanding balance with your law firm and when you try to collect, he will file a grievance against you.
This guy is bad news.
In my business this guy is a lawyer. He is spending his last dollar with me, hoping that I have a magical solution for his legal marketing issues. He has no money left over for a marketing budget…actually he cannot even pick up a lunch check…yet he wants me to work some kind of miracle for him.
Even after I teach him 10-15 FREE ways to increase referrals and attract more clients, he complains because he has to take time out of his day to implement them.
Then after he tries some of these methods one time, he complains that they do not work.
I have taken this kind of client. You have taken this kind of client. Sometimes they tell us a compelling story and we get suckered. Sometimes we want to make a little extra money so we lower our guard and take them in. And sometimes our ego gets the better of us and we think that they will change because they want to work with us.
Here is my advice to anyone in any business (especially lawyers) who starts to feel the slight pull of Mr. Don T. Getit on his shirtsleeve….avoid him like the plague.
Life is too short to spend with people who don’t get it.
In Legal Marketing It Is Wrong to Follow The Crowd
When it comes to legal marketing it is (almost) always a bad idea to follow the crowd.
What does this mean?
A personal injury lawyer sees his competition advertising on billboards and on the side of buses throughout the city. He believes this must be the correct way to advertise so he goes out and spends a fortune on the same forms of media his competitors use. The thought being: “If the other guy is doing it, it must work.”
In this example we have two attorneys wasting their money on ineffective advertising.
In reality, the most successful legal marketing strategies are the ones you hardly ever hear about (except here at RainmakerLawyer.com). They are the things few lawyers have thought of doing and even fewer people have taken the time to implement.
One of the mantras I repeat to my clients over and over again is: “If you want average results you should do what everyone else does. If you want exceptional results you must be exceptional.”
The next time you happen to see some form of advertising (like a billboard or a Yellow Pages Ad) and you wonder if it makes sense for your legal marketing, think twice.
Be bold and be different. Try things that nobody else is trying. You might just be surprised at the results.
Legal Marketing and The Slacker Season
This is the time of year when legal marketing can become very discouraging.
Why?
It is tough to get a return phone call from anyone. People are leaving work early so you can’t meet anyone for lunch. Next year’s budget is set but this year’s budget is spent so nobody wants to talk about legal services until after the calendar turns a page.
What are you supposed to do while everyone else is tired, bored and simply refuses to work until the Holiday Break is over?
Here are five things you can do during The Slacker Season to maintain your legal marketing momentum and your productivity.
Plan for the next 3 to 6 months. This time of year is the perfect time to take a few hours and map out your plan for the next three to six months. Shut off the phone. Close the office door and think about where you want to go and how you want to get there.
Set up appointments by sending a letter and following up with a phone call. This is the perfect opportunity to send out a brief letter that says “let’s catch up”. Notice I said a letter and not a card. Everyone is getting holiday cards this time of year. Send a letter on your letterhead to clients and referral sources. Then follow up with a phone call to set an appointment to meet them next month. Leave a voice mail if they don’t answer.
People will be happy to get a date on the calendar next month so they can get their year off to a great start. Send a letter and follow up with a phone call and you will be amazed at the number of appointments you can set.
Handle any tedious office tasks that you have been avoiding. If you have avoided reorganizing your files, now is the time to tackle that task. If you have ignored rearranging the office furniture, do it now. Anything administrative that you have been avoiding, you should handle during the next few days.
Tackle the big project. This is the perfect time to write the white paper you have been putting off. This is an ideal time to develop your presentation to your Bar Association. This is the ideal time to get moving on any big marketing project you have been neglecting because you have been “too busy.” Simply put your head down and get to it.
Go on vacation. Let’s face it, if your clients are not burning up the phone lines because of the time of year, and you’ve gotten all of your administrative work done and you have prepared your marketing initiatives for the next 6 months, then there is only one thing left to do….take some time off. This is the perfect time of year to rest, relax and recharge your batteries. Do it now before you get busy.
The “Slacker Season” can (and should) be the most productive time of year for legal marketing. Use these next few weeks to your advantage. If you do, you will find that your law firm is well prepared and well equipped as the calendar page turns and business picks up.
