Archives for October 2007

Free advice that can make you millions

October 10, 2007 by
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One of the best ways to get from where you are to where you want to go is getting help from someone who has done what you want to do. Make a list of areas you would like help with or areas where you would like to grow. Three key areas for lawyers in private practice would be

  • Substantive practice areas
  • Marketing
  • Administration/management

Specific areas you might want to key on might be

  • Technology/internet
  • Employee relations
  • Taxes/record keeping
  • Risk management/insurance
  • Retirement planning/investments

And so on.

Of course you can always hire experts to consult and advise you in these areas, and you might. But why not find lawyers (or other professionals) who have had success in these areas and ask them to be your mentor?

Mentors help you see what’s possible by serving as a role model. They can keep you from going off course by providing feedback about your ideas. And they can open doors for you to opportunities, introductions to vendors, prospective clients and referral sources. The right mentors can spare you years of hardship and, literally, make you rich.

Once you have identified a list of areas you would like to be mentored in, start asking everyone you know for recommendations and referrals to experts in those areas. “Who do you know who is a great networker?” “Do you know any lawyers who know a lot about web sites?” “Who is the best construction litigation attorney you know?”

Next, make a list of specific points you’d like to cover in your first conversation, such as why you’d like them to mentor you and what kind of help you might be looking for.

Successful people like to share what they have learned. Properly approached, you’ll find any number of individuals willing to share a few minutes of their time with you each month.

Here’s an approach you can take:

“Hello, Mr. Jones, my name is Robert Lawyer. We haven’t met and I know you’re a busy man, so I’ll be brief. I’m a sole practictioner in the area of estate planning. I know you’ve built a very successful estate practice over the last twenty-five years. I’ve been practicing for four years now and I’m ready to take things to a higher level and I would appreciate it if you would consider being my mentor. All that would mean is spending ten minutes with me on the phone once a month, so I could ask you a few questions. I’d really appreciate it. Would you be open to that?”

Be prepared to give your mentors something in return. At the very least, give them feedback on how their advice has worked out for you. Look for information and resources that can benefit them and share it with them.

Eventually, find others whom you can mentor. There’s no better way to pay tribute to your mentors than to follow in their footsteps.

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Filed Under: Law office management, Marketing legal services, Mentors & Coaches, Networking, Productivity, Referral sources Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Why goal setting works

October 9, 2007 by
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Numerous studies confirm the efficacy of goal setting. Those who set specific goals out-earn, out-perform, and out-achieve those who don’t. But why?

Well, part of the answer lies in our physiology.

Goal setting helps us determine precisely what we want and that clarity makes us dramatically more alert to elements in our environment that can assist us.

Each of us has a group of cells at the base of the brain called the reticular activating system, or RAS. This network of cells acts as a filter to keep out unnecessary stimuli. Without this filter, we would be unable to function. The constant bombardment of sensory stimuli that surrounds us would quickly overload us.

If you have ever had an ant crawl up your leg, you have felt your RAS in action. Flicking the ant off your leg triggers the RAS, causing your nervous system to be on the alert for more of the same kind of itchy feelings. Your nervous system then allows in far more stimuli than it ordinarily would. Now more sensitized, you may feel like there are swarms of ants crawling on you.

The RAS appears to admit two key types of information: that of immediate value and that which is a threat. When we define specifically what we want, our goals, we “turn on” our RAS to be on the alert for elements that can assist us in moving towards those goals.

Information that was always available to us suddenly has value, and we notice it as if it were brand new.

When you buy a new car, all of a sudden you see the same model and color “everywhere”. The same number of cars were always there, however, but because your RAS has been triggered, you have become more aware of them.

Decide what you want (not what you don’t want). Write it down in the form of a goal. Create a clear vision in your mind’s eye of that goal; the more vivid the vision, the more powerfully your RAS will function.

And that’s why goal setting works.

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Filed Under: Goal Setting

How to make people like you

October 8, 2007 by
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No, I’m not talking about cloning. (Sorry. Couldn’t resist.)

Psychologists tell us that the most important ingredient for success in personal and business relationships is “liking”. The more people like you, the more success you will tend to have.

The Law of Association says that people associate how they feel about you with how they feel at the time they meet you. If they are in a good mood when they meet you, they tend to associate those good feelings with you and, as a result, be more inclined to like you.

“If you want to be liked by a person, try talking to him when he is in a good mood or excited about something. These feelings are anchored and associated with you, and this person will then come to have positive feelings toward you,” says David J. Lieberman, Ph.d, author of “Get Anyone To Do Anything.”

Most people meet an attorney under times of stress and difficulty. Your challenge, then, when meeting new clients is to make them feel hopeful and positive about solving their problems and about the future. As early in your first meeting as possible, you need to make them feel that “everything is going to be alright”.

That ties into another psychological principle cited by Dr. Lieberman as being a factor in “liking”: positive attitude. “We all seek, like, and admire those who have a positive, happy outlook and perspective on life. Why? Because that is what we all want,” he says.

Don’t worry. Be happy. Get folks to like you.

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Filed Under: Client relations, Image, Relationship marketing Tagged With: , ,

You only need a few (good) referral sources

October 4, 2007 by
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To create a successful, referral-based law practice, you only need strong relationships with a few good referral sources — people who can and will provide you with a lifetime of referrals.

Most of the referral sources you will meet (and already know) are not the “right” ones. They may have the willingness, but not the ability to refer the volume and quality of clients you seek. Or, they might have the wherewithal but, for whatever reasons, hold back on referring them to you.

A small percentage of the prospective referral sources you meet will be the “right” ones. I don’t know what the actual ratio will be, but let’s say that only one in fifty will be “right.” If your goal is to develop relationships with three good sources in the next two years, then you would need to prospect 150 to find those three.

When I say “prospect” I don’t mean “talk to.” You have to do much more than that speak to someone a couple of times before they start referring or before you will know if they are even a candidate. You have to spend time together, getting to know each other, building mutual trust, socializing, bonding, possibly having your spouses meet (and approve each other!)

It is a courtship; you spend quality time, face-to-face, belly-to-belly, getting to know people on a personal, intimate level. Without these “high-touch” activities, you will never be able to develop the kinds of strong relationships you want and need, even if you do meet someone who is otherwise “right”.

Technology, or high-tech, will never replace high-touch. Building relationships takes time and effort and emotional involvement. But high-tech can help you in two important ways.

First, you can use high-tech to find candidates and initiate contact. The Internet is your database, email and telephone your reaching out methods. Networking online is not as effective as networking in person, but it sure is efficient. Use it to find people who appear to be good candidates by virture of their business and their openness to “meet” new people (you). Eventually, invite those candidates to meet in person or otherwise take the next step towards building a relationship.

Second, use high-tech to stay in touch with candidates who aren’t ready to take the next step. Times change, people change, relationships change, and you want to be on their radar screen when they do become ready.

Never lose sight of your objective, that of finding a few of the “right” ones, but don’t ignore the many others who can provide value to you and should be a part of your business network. They may send you just one referral in ten years, or they might never send you referrals, but, through their contacts, lead you to others who do.

And that’s the biggest lesson for today: networking is not about who you know, it’s about who they can lead you to.

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Filed Under: Networking, Referral sources, Referrals Tagged With:

Is this fee splitting or smart marketing?

October 2, 2007 by
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Wouldn’t it be great to have hundreds of people referring clients to you on a commission basis?

"You can’t do that! That’s fee splitting. It’s illegal!"

Well. . . it depends.

It’s true that you can’t compensate non-attorneys for referring clients to you. But there’s nothing wrong with paying commissions to people who sell your book or tape set or other product–or service–as long as that product or service does not constitute "legal services".

The idea is simple. Let’s say you’re a divorce lawyer and you write a book (ebook, audio book) entitled, "Squash ’em: The complete guide to successful divorce". You offer your book for sale from your web site. The more books you sell, the higher your profits. But the purpose of the book isn’t just to make a retail profit. Think bigger.

People who buy a book on divorce, written by a divorce lawyer, are likely to be a prospective client for that lawyer’s services, don’t you think? Or someone who works with couples with marital problems, perhaps. When they read your book and see how you have helped other people in their situation, they’ll see how you can help them (or they people they can refer).

If these people do hire a lawyer, there’s a pretty good chance that you’ll be the one who is hired, especially if your book offers a free consultation or otherwise invites them to take "the next step".

Okay, so your book does a good job of selling your services to those who read it and the more books you sell, the more clients you are likely to have.

Now, to sell more books, you could advertise, and you might want to do that. You can offer your book on amazon.com and through a myriad of other outlets. But you can also set up an affiliate program and let other people advertise your book for you.

Why not let marriage counselors and people who run support groups, for example, sell your book to their clients? You pay for "advertising" (commissions) only when sales are made.

Technology makes it easy to automate the selling process and track affiliate commissions. All you do is find more affiliates and tell them about your book and the opportunity to market it. The affiliates sell the book, the book sells you, and hundreds of prospective clients find out about you and the services you offer, and pay you for the privilege!

Another strategy is to give away your ebook. Offer it as a download from your web site in return for the visitor’s contact information. You can also invite others to offer it from their web site, as a free resource to their readers, or, perhaps, as a premium for subscribing to their newsletter. The viral nature of ebooks could bring you an enormous amount of target traffic to your web site.

If your book is available online, you’re likely to get inquiries from prospective clients in jurisdictions where you do not practice. Now you’ll have the delightful problem of finding lawyers in the appropriate jurisdictions and developing reciprocal referral arrangements.

There are many other benefits to publishing a book and most lawyers are capable of writing one in about 90 days. If you don’t have the time, you could hire a ghost writer, work with a collaborator, or create something you do have time to do, i.e., a recording of one of your seminars.

One last thing (and I wish we lived in a world where I didn’t have to say this): check with your jurisdiction’s authority (bar association, law society, et. al.) regarding the ethics of this strategy. If they say you can’t do it, move. This is too good an idea to pass up.

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Filed Under: Marketing legal services, Online Marketing, Web traffic, Writing Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Do only what you do best; delegate the rest

October 1, 2007 by
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You can’t do everything, nor should you try. You should do only what you do best and delegate everything else.

Consultant and trainer, Brian Tracy, advises to find out what you love to do and design your career around it. "If you could only perform one task all day long, from morning to night, what one activity at work would you select?" ["Create Your Own Future", 2002, p.86]

Leadership expert John Maxwell Maxwell agrees. "I strive for excellence in a few things rather than a good performance in many."

When he delegates tasks, Maxwell uses the 10-80-10 principle: "I help with the first 10 percent by casting vision, laying down parameters, providing resources, and giving encouragement. Then, once they’ve done the middle 80 percent, I come alongside them again and help them take whatever it is the rest of the way, if I can. I call it putting the cherry on top." ["Thinking for a change," 2003, page 91.]

What do you do best? THAT’S what you should do. Let others do the rest.

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Filed Under: Productivity, Time Management Tagged With: ,
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