Archives for December 2011

A simple way to promote your blawg you’re probably not doing

December 16, 2011 by
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increase-blog-trafficDo you have a print brochure for your law practice? Most attorneys don’t. They pass out their business card with the url to their web site or blog but a business card generally doesn’t tell people what you do or the benefits you offer. People have to go the your web site to find out and too often they simply don’t.

A brochure would help. But if you don’t want to spend the time or money hiring professionals to create one, there is a simpler alternative.

Take your best and most read blog post or posts and print them. You don’t need to re-set the text so it looks like a brochure, just print out the the posts as is. Add a cover sheet on your letterhead or add a screen shot of your blog’s home page. Or just staple your business card to the front and you’re done. Instant brochure.

No, it’s not slick and polished like a “real” brochure, and that’s okay, it’s not a brochure, it’s a reprint. In truth, your reprint is more effective than a brochure because it’s not slick and it’s not a sales document, it is valuable content that prospects want to read.

Hand out your reprints when you’re you’re speaking or networking. Put some on the table at the back of the room. Put a few copies in your new client welcome kits. Ask your referral sources to put them in their waiting rooms.

You can use this idea online, too. Gather up some of your better posts and assemble them into a PDF.

One of the easiest ways to get more traffic to your blawg is to give people a taste of what they get when they visit. This is a simple and very effective way to do that.

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Filed Under: Blogging, Marketing legal services, Online Marketing Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

How to kill your chances of success

December 15, 2011 by
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the worst time to take a vacationThere’s a natural rhythm to building a law practice. You start out from a dead stop, try a lot of things to see what works, and you keep doing what’s working. Eventually, you have some momentum. Things start happening a bit more often. They last a bit longer. They get a little easier.

Before you know it, you’re on a roll.

The same pattern occurs throughout your career, and if you’re smart, you’ll capitalize on your momentum, pouring gasoline on the sparks and fanning the flames until you have a raging inferno of success.

Leveraging your positive results and momentum to build things bigger is not only a smart move, it is essential. How many times have you seen people you know get off to a good start in a project but fail to finish big? How many times have you seen this happen to you?

Momentum is one of the hardest things to achieve and one of the easiest things to lose. The good news is that once you have some momentum, things do get easier. But that doesn’t mean you can stop.

It’s like pushing a car from a dead stop–very difficult at first, but once it’s rolling, it doesn’t take much to keep it moving. If you stop pushing, however, the car will eventually come to a dead stop.

I read a thoughtful article this morning that makes this point in the context of taking vacations. In “The Absolute WORST Day to Take a Vacation (It’s Not What You Think!)” the author says that the worst day to take time off is just after you’ve achieved a goal. When things are starting to happen for you, you shouldn’t take a break, you should double your efforts.

It’s not that you don’t deserve a reward for your hard work. But your reward, says the author, should be your results:

For an entrepreneur (or anyone who is in charge of their own income),vacations don’t come when projects are complete. On the contrary – they should come when the projects are still in progress, but you’re tired, and need to recharge to carry the ball the rest of the way.

Give some thought to this as you plan out the coming year. I know it’s difficult to find time on your calendar for family trips, especially when you must coordinate school and work schedules. At least be aware of the rhythm of your practice and do your best to start projects after a vacation, not before.

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Filed Under: Career satisfaction, Law office management, Leverage, Marketing Plan Tagged With: , , , , ,

Your LinkedIn profile is boring. Congratulations!

December 13, 2011 by
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your linked in profileLinkedIn studied 135 million user profiles and released their second annual list of the top ten “overused buzzwords”. Here is the list for the US:

  1. Creative
  2. Effective
  3. Organizational
  4. Extensive Experience
  5. Track Record
  6. Motivated
  7. Innovative
  8. Problem Solving
  9. Communication Skills
  10. Dynamic

If you’re grimacing because you used one or more of these words, relax–it’s okay. In fact, using some of these words is probably a good idea. Here’s why:

  1. These words are overused for a reason: they are associated with positive attributes, the kinds of attributes people looking at profiles expect to see.
  2. If you didn’t include these words, people may wonder why. “What, you’re not creative?”
  3. People who use Linkedin profiles for hiring run through them quickly, like resumes, looking for reasons to reject a candidate. If a profile doesn’t have the basics, it may be rejected for that reason alone.
  4. Nobody pays attention. Profiles are skimmed, not read, at least initially, and most of what’s in a profile doesn’t matter. It’s like wallpaper–you would notice if the walls were bare or they were covered in red velvet, but you pay no attention to “regular” wallpaper (unless you’re a designer).
  5. Giving people what they expect to see, albeit with overused buzzwords, makes them comfortable, but it won’t get you the job or the client. Don’t limit your profile to the banal, flesh out your profile to show the uniqueness you offer.
  6. Nobody believes you. You can say what you want about yourself but what really counts is what others say about you, so make sure you have “recommendations”. It’s the most read and most persuasive part of your profile.

What’s the opposite of boring? Flamboyant? Loud? Exciting?

When people are looking to hire an attorney, I think being a little boring is actually a good thing.

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Filed Under: Social media, Social media marketing Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

My Wish for You in 2012: A Plan for Building Your Law Practice

December 12, 2011 by
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business development plan for attorney lawyerAre you hoping things will get better in 2012? A lot of people are, but unfortunately, “hope is not a strategy“.

If you want things to get better, you need to make them better. But how?

Don’t start with technique, start with strategy–a plan. What do you want to happen, and why? What will do you do to make it happen? Is this really something you want to do?

Too often, people grab hold of a technique they hear about and run with it. They spend time and money doing the requisite activities, without considering why they are doing it. They install an expensive motor on their row boat hoping it will get them to their destination faster, but they never look at a map.

Techniques are important. Using the right tools for the job, execution, timing–can make a big difference in your results. But without the right strategy, the latest techniques won’t help you to get where you want to go.

What are you good at and enjoy? Writing? Speaking? Networking? Technology? Make it the core of your business building strategy.

Your strategy doesn’t have to be elaborate. In fact, the simpler it is the better. But simple is not synonymous with small. Your plan should inspire you to accomplish big things. After all, the goal isn’t merely to survive, it is to thrive, and you cannot do that by dabbling.

I’ve seen great practices built by using only one or two techniques. Once you know where you want to go and you have a plan to get there, you don’t need dozens of techniques.

Without the right strategy, no technique is good enough, no matter how much it costs or how hard you work at it. With the right strategy, almost any technique will do.

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Filed Under: Career satisfaction, Goal Setting, Increase your income, Marketing legal services, Marketing Plan, success Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The productive lawyer: squeezing more work into your busy day

December 9, 2011 by
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productive lawyer attorneyLast night, I heard a speaker talking about how he found more time for work in his already busy schedule.

He had his weekly calendar up on a slide, showing his 12 hour work-days, and showed how he was able to find another 30 hours a week (30!) by doing things like making calls during his commute to and from work, taking 15 minutes to eat lunch instead of an hour, and who knows what else he said, I tuned out about a third of the way through his presentation.

I don’t want to do more work. I work enough as it is. Actually, if I were honest about it, what I want to do is less work. Much less. Like none at all.

Of course that depends on how you define work. Here’s a simple definition I just made up: if it’s not fun, it’s work.

So what I really want to do is get rid of everything I don’t like doing and replace it with things I enjoy.

Is that unrealistic? Good! Then unrealistic is what I want to be!

Yes, I know there will always be things I can’t delegate, things I don’t want to do but must. But that doesn’t mean I have to fill my day with these kinds of things, let alone find ways to squeeze even more hours of unpleasantness into my day.

Okay, I know I’m ranting, but this guy bummed me out. I should have heard him out (so I could share more of his ideas with you) and simply changed the word “work” to fun. “How to find an additional 30 hours a week for fun”. Now that would have been an awesome presentation.

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Filed Under: Just for fun, Productivity, Time Management Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

How to get more clients from cases you don’t handle

December 8, 2011 by
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shield laws for bloggersI’m sure you read the story about the blogger in a defamation case who got hit with a $2.5 million judgment because, the judge said, she is not a journalist and was not protected by the state’s shield laws.

Interesting story. Important subject.

You read the story but did you make any money with it?

Attorneys can easily leverage a story like this to get more media attention, more traffic to their web site, more prospects, more referral sources, and more clients. And I’m not talking about the attorneys who handled the case itself, I’m talking about you.

Interested? Here’s all you have to do.

First, write a two or three page report summarizing defamation laws in your jurisdiction. You don’t have to practice in this area to do this, Uncle Google will help you, or you can ask an attorney friend who does (and tell him about this idea so he can do it, too).

In your report, mention the case about the blogger. Offer your opinion. Include a few citations, maybe a few resources.

Now, go back to Uncle Google and ask him to give you a list of bloggers in your target market(s) who are in your state or province.

Next, contact these bloggers (a personal email will do) and tell them you wrote a report for bloggers about how they can protect themselves against lawsuits like the one in the news. Offer to send it to them, free of charge. Tell them they are welcome to send it other bloggers they know and care about. (If you know the blogger, you could just send them the report in your first email).

In one day, you can get your report into the hands of dozens of people who every day write and influence the people you are targeting for your services. You have provided value to the blogger on a personal level, and asked nothing in return.

Where can this lead? Interviews, hosted webinars for their readers, guest posts, referrals, introductions, you name it.

It doesn’t matter if you don’t practice tort law. If you do, that’s an added benefit, but the point of this effort isn’t to show these bloggers you can help them in this particular area of the law, it’s to meet them.

Now, what else could you do with your report? Here are a few ideas:

  • Send it to local media with a cover letter letting them know you are available for interviews.
  • Call or email your clients and contacts: Who do you know in (your area) who writes a blog? Tell them you have a report that can help them.
  • Offer it through social media; post a video on youtube, opining on the story and linking to your report; offer it via forums, chat groups, listserves, and other areas where bloggers and people who know bloggers congregate.
  • Contact local blogger groups, business groups (anyone who has a blog), and offer a lunch talk.
  • Write about it on your blog or in your newsletter.
  • Take out ads and offer the report, as a “public service”.
  • Send it to lawyers in your practice area in states or provinces where you don’t practice. Tell them what you’re doing with the report in your area, invite them to do the same in theirs. (If you have to ask how this could help you, forget about this idea.)
  • Do a presentation at your bar group’s next function on how you used a news story to market your services.

You get the idea.

Oh, and you don’t need a news story to do this, you can write about anything that affects people in your target market or they people who influence them.

It’s about providing value in a leveraged way. It’s simple and it works. And if your report goes viral, it could help you take a quantum leap in the growth of your practice.

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Filed Under: Advertising, Blogging, Increase your income, Leverage, List building, Marketing legal services, Networking, News, Online Marketing, Publicity, Referrals, Relationship marketing, Social media marketing Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Why people hate lawyers and why you shouldn’t care

December 7, 2011 by
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why people hate lawyersIn my recent post, “Why don’t people trust lawyers and does it really matter?” I concluded that not only doesn’t it matter that people don’t trust lawyers, it’s actually a good thing.

It’s good for clients because it makes them more careful when hiring an attorney. They ask more questions. They don’t blindly follow. Caveat emptor.

It’s good for attorneys because it allows us to stand out from the crowd by showing how we are different, how we can be trusted, and with a little effort, this is not difficult to do.

But not only do people not trust lawyers, they also hate lawyers. Attorney Suzanne Meehle presents ten “bad lawyer” stereotypes that make people hate lawyers.

Ambulance chasers, unethical lawyers, a**holes, incompetents, and so on.

Some of these stereotypes are worse than others. The “24/7 Lawyer,” the workaholic on a path to burnout, doesn’t belong in the same category as the dishonest lawyer. I don’t think people hate lawyers merely because they work too hard. But we all get the point: there are plenty of examples of bad lawyers who give the rest of us a bad name.

I say this is a good thing. Why? Because stereotypes are almost always exaggerated depictions of real life, making it even easier to show people that you’re “not like that”.

If a lot of people don’t like lawyers because they perceive them to be bullies, for example, don’t be a bully. If they hate lawyers because they think we are unethical, go out of your way to display words and deeds consistent with the highest ethical standards.

I don’t particularly enjoy meeting people who, within the first minutes, feel compelled to tell me they, “don’t like lawyers”. But that’s the way it is and I do enjoy the challenge of winning them over.

In sales, it is said that the best prospects are often the ones who offer the most resistance. These prospects know they are naturally an “easy sale” and so to protect themselves from getting taken advantage of, they put up an outer wall. They may be surly and unpleasant, overly suspicious and overly demanding. The best sales people understand this and when they encounter a prospect who “protests too much,” shower them with kindness and patiently wait for them to “drop their shields”. The result is often a sale and a lifelong customer and advocate.

Don’t try to argue away the stereotypes. Acknowledge them. There are a lot of bad eggs out there and people do have to be careful. With a little common sense, you can easily distance yourself from this crowd and show you are one of the good guys. When you do, you’ll find people hiring you, in some cases simply because you’re not what they expected.

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Filed Under: Client loyalty, Client relations, Marketing legal services, Salesmanship Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

How to get your clients to help you increase your law firm’s profits

December 6, 2011 by
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client interviews, surveys and law firm auditsIn his report, “What’s Hot and What’s Not in the Legal Profession,” posted last week, Bob Denney said that one of the trends that was heating up in the marketing and business development area is “client interviews and audits”. He said, “More firms are recognizing, however slowly, that the feedback and information obtained from them–particularly when they are conducted by knowledgeable outside consultants–are critical in strategic planning and development of growth strategies.”

Asking your clients how you’re doing and what you can do better is the best market research you can get, and it’s free. Not counting the cost of the outside consultant.

There’s no better “intel” than that from someone who actually paid money to hire you.

Using outside professionals to do the surveys is also good advice. A firm that specializes in this kind of research will ask the right questions and they will know how to critically evaluate the answers. And using an outside service instead of doing it yourself will undoubtedly provide more honest feedback.

If you don’t want to hire an outside firm, interview your clients anyway. The feedback may not be as accurate but it’s better feedback than you’re getting right now.

Client interviews can help you learn what you are doing well and what you can do better. They can help you improve client relations and communications. And they can help you discover new marketing opportunities. All you have to do is ask.

Surveys are an easy alternative to interviews. You can post them on your web site, using free sites like www.surveymonkey.com and www.polldaddy.com. By providing anonymity, clients will be more likely to respond honestly. Open-ended questions can lead to some surprising discoveries. Multiple choice questions can help you identify patterns that deserve your attention. If 70% of your clients say you need to communicate with them more often, that’s something you cannot ignore.

At the very least, call a client today and ask them how you’re doing. You never know what you might learn and what you learn could earn you a fortune.

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Filed Under: Client loyalty, Client relations, Law office management, Legal industry, Marketing legal services Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Why don’t people trust lawyers and does it really matter?

December 5, 2011 by
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why don't people trust lawyers?I just read an interview of the authors of a new book, “The Trusted Advisor’s Fieldbook: A Comprehensive Toolkit for Leading with Trust.” In this sequel to, “The Trusted Advisor,” Charles Green and Andrea Howe present tools and exercises for helping lawyers earn the trust of their clients.

Clearly, this is an important subject. After all, clients hire attorneys they “know, like, and trust” and if your clients don’t trust you, or don’t trust you enough, there will either be a strain on your relationship or no relationship at all.

Matt Homman, who conducted the interview, asked the authors, “What questions were you expecting [in interviews] and haven’t yet been asked? How would you answer them?” Green said a question they haven’t been asked is, “Why don’t people trust lawyers? And is it a bum rap?”

Green said it’s not a bum rap, people generally don’t trust lawyers.

I agree. But then I started thinking about this issue of trust and wondered how important it really is. People don’t trust lawyers and yet they hire lawyers every day.

And then I thought that not trusting lawyers may actually be a good thing. For clients, lawyers, and everyone else.

For lawyers, living in a world where people generally don’t trust you gives you an opportunity to stand out from the crowd. You can show why you can be trusted and you don’t need to do a lot to accomplish this.

We need to show clients:

  1. We know what we’re doing,
  2. We’re not going to rip them off, and
  3. We’ll do our best to help them.

This is not difficult. Share some stories, look them in the eye, patiently answer all their questions, and you’re half way there. And if you were referred to the client, you’ve rounded third base and are headed for home.

Once you’re hired, show clients you know what you’re doing by doing it, don’t rip them off, and do your best to help them. Oh, and return their calls.

Be a mensch. People will trust you (and your mother will be proud).

Okay, this is overly simplified, but the truth is that earning trust isn’t extremely difficult, and it is actually made easier because of the pervasiveness of distrust. A little effort on your part will go a long way.

A general distrust of lawyers is also a good thing for clients. If people innately distrust lawyers, won’t they be inclined to ask more questions before hiring one?

It’s when people are too trusting that they get hurt. It’s when they don’t ask enough questions or seek enough assurances that they get into trouble. (I don’t think Bernie Madoff had a law degree but you get the point.)

And let’s not forget “the other guy’s” lawyer. Not trusting the other side’s counsel is almost always a good thing.

Okay, people don’t trust lawyers, this is a good thing for clients, and lawyers can stand out from the crowd and earn their clients’ trust without a lot of effort.

So, what’s the problem?

Now, if we can only do something about those damned lawyer jokes.

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Filed Under: Client relations, Salesmanship Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
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