Archives for October 2012

More ways to use Google Alerts to grow your practice

October 17, 2012 by
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I’ve written before about using Google Alerts to spy on your competition and to find out what others are saying about you and your clients. Every day I get an email alert with links to articles and posts that mention my name and the key words I target in my marketing. I get to see what others are saying about me or my market and get ideas for articles.

I just found out that when it comes to Google Alerts, I’m a piker.

This excellent post provides a roundup of different ways the author uses alerts to leverage his brand (his name and business), authority, traffic and sales. Thanks to this, I see so much more I can do.

For example, although I have an alert for my name, I never considered adding one with variations of my name. The same goes for my web sites. I could be missing mentions that don’t get the name just right, but I will now.

I also like his suggestion for monitoring questions in your niche. “You can monitor your niche for a range of question based terms and then jump in and provide an expert answer with a link back to your site,” he says.

An estate planning attorney could create alerts for “Why * living trust”, “How * avoid probate”, or “Does * avoid estate taxes”, for example. The author says, “Every time I create a new piece of content that answers questions about a certain topic I setup corresponding alerts so I can direct people to the answer.”

Nice.

The author has suggestions for using alerts to monitor mentions about your content, finding new guest post and link building opportunities, monitoring your site’s security. and discovering new niches.

The author challenges you to be creative in how you use alerts. Okay, here’s an idea: let’s say our estate planning attorney would like to network with CPA’s who represent small businesses in his or her local market. Our estate planner could create an alert that notifies them when a CPA in their market posts new content with appropriate key words. Our estate planner could then contact the CPA to compliment them, promote their content, and invite them to lunch.

I like that you don’t have to be tech savvy to use google alerts, nor do you have to let them overwhelm you. You can set up alerts for daily or weekly notification, and have those results delivered via email, RSS.

Check out The Ninjas Guide to Google Alerts and tell me how you use (or plan to use) Google Alerts in your practice.

Here’s an alert for you: The Attorney Marketing Formula shows you how to get more clients and increase your income.

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Filed Under: Law office management, Marketing legal services, Technology Tagged With: ,

Get into flow and get more done by grouping your activities

October 16, 2012 by
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A friend of mine was making follow-up sales calls to prospective clients he’d spoken to previously. He commented that the mindset for making follow-up calls is different from the mindset of first calls and the two activities should be done at different times.

I agree. Don’t edit when you write and don’t write when you edit. Two different activities, two different mindsets.

My friend cold calls. When he makes a first call, he is prospecting. He moves quickly through large lists. He is sorting, looking for someone who will take his call and agree to look at some information. His focus is on the mechanical act of dialing rather than the quality of any one conversation. He knows that if he makes a certain number of dials, he will get a certain number of leads.

Follow-up calls are different. When he calls someone who agreed to look at some information, my friend is in sales mode. He engages the prospect. He asks questions to find out their hot buttons. When he knows what they want, he can show them how his service can help them get it. My friend answers questions and responds to objections. He moves the prospect forward to the next step, using finesse and skill.

It is important to my friend that he separates first calls from follow-ups because the mindset, energy, and rhythm are so different. When he’s prospecting and banging out calls, the last thing he wants to do is slow down and change gears into sales mode. It’s better to keep dialing and racking up leads and make follow-up calls later, after a break.

This is good advice for any activity. Do your work in bunches. Finish one bunch before moving onto another.

See new clients during a two hour block of time rather than spaced out throughout the day. Make all your calls to adjusters back to back. Review three files in a row.

When you get into the rhythm and feel of an activity, stay in it as long as you can. When you’re in a groove, you’ll get more done. Time will pass more quickly. You’ll get better results.

Psychologists refer to this as “flow“. One of the hallmarks of being in a state of flow is joy. It comes from being fully immersed in an activity and focusing on that and nothing else.

Joy is the catalyst to growth. The more my friend is on the phone, the better he gets at what he does (he just reported going seven for seven on first calls), and the joy he feels makes him want to do more.

When you find the joy in what you’re doing, success is imminent. You don’t need a psychologist to explain it:

The more you do of something, the better you get. The better you get, the better your results. The better your results, the more you enjoy it. The more you enjoy it, the more you want to do it. And the more you do it, the better you get.

Get better at marketing. Get The Attorney Marketing Formula.

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Filed Under: Career satisfaction, Law office management, Leverage, Marketing legal services, Personal development, Productivity

What do you do when you f****d up?

October 15, 2012 by
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The other day an attorney asked me, “What do you say to your client when he says “you f***d up and I’m not going to pay you?”

I told him that if he did do something wrong, the answer is easy: admit it, fix it, and be prepared to offer a refund.

Don’t blame others for your mistake. Be honest about what you did or didn’t do. Your client will understand and respect you for admitting it. Then, do whatever you have to do to fix the problem.

The good news is that when you do the right thing after making a mistake, when you fix things to your client’s satisfaction, they often feel a stronger allegiance to you. You didn’t try to hide it, you took responsibility and respected them enough to admit your mistake. And, of course, you fixed the problem.

Even if the problem cannot be fixed, if you bite the bullet and offer to pay compensation, most of the time you can save the relationship. So when you mess up, see it not so much as a problem but an opportunity.

Of course the next thing you need to do is to figure out why you made the mistake and make sure it doesn’t happen again. Ask yourself some questions:

  • Are you taking on too much work?
  • Are you taking on work outside your core competencies?
  • Are you promising too much or too soon?
  • Would a checklist help?
  • Could you get someone to help you?
  • Are you allowing enough time to review your work before the deadline?

The most successful people in the world often attribute their success to having made more mistakes than anyone else. They learned from those mistakes and got better at what they do. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes or admit to them. Use them to get better.

But we’re not done with the subject.

What do you do when a client blames you and accuses you of making a mistake you did not make? Clients often blame their lawyer when they don’t get the results they want. Do you have to take the hit?

Not at all. When you aren’t at fault, stand firm. Show the client that you did everything you were supposed to do, everything you could do, and that whatever happened was the result of something outside of your control. If the facts are on your side, and you handle things firmly and respectfully, in time, most clients will see the light. Often, they will apologize.

But we’re still not done.

You will have far fewer unhappy and ready-to-blame-you clients by managing your clients’ expectations at the beginning of the case, rather than trying to explain things at the end. Clients need to acknowledge, before you take their money, that:

  • You don’t promise results of any kind (other than best efforts)
  • They understand the risks and contingencies you have spelled out for them
  • They have declined certain options or a course of conduct you have recommended
  • They know what you will do for them and also what you will not do

You can’t be so heavy handed about this that you scare the client off, but you do need to make sure the client understands, from the beginning, what to expect of you and their case. Then, if something goes wrong, it will be clear that you are not the one to blame.

Get more clients and increase your income. Read The Attorney Marketing Formula.

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Filed Under: Client loyalty, Client relations, Law office management, Personal development

What do you like best about practicing law?

October 12, 2012 by
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“What do you like best about practice law?” I was asked that 1,000 times when I was practicing and I’m still asked that today. I’m sure you are, too. My standard reply is that I liked helping people and I liked making money, and that’s the truth. That’s why I went to law school, after all.

Do I like the title or the prestige of being a professional? Actually, it’s not important to me. When I’m introduced to people and they find out what I do [did], something changes in the dynamic and while sometimes it’s a good change, just as often it’s not. I can’t put my finger on it but I’m sure you know what I’m talking about. They look at you like you’re not a regular person. They become guarded, as if you’re going to ask them some tough questions and find out their secrets.

What about the work itself? There were some things I really enjoyed and some things I despised. Most of what I did I found boring.

But that’s me. How about you? What do you like best about what you do?

Make a list of all of things you do as a lawyer, and all of the things that being a lawyer means to you. Write down the big things and the little things, about the work, the people, the challenges and the rewards. Look at your calendar, look at the files on your desk or in your computer, look at how you spend your time.

Write down everything and when you’re done, look at your list and put a star next to the things you like best about what you do. And then, focus on those things.

Do more of what you like. The rest–the things you don’t like or the things you are bored by–don’t matter. Eliminate them, delegate them, or just do them, but focus on the things that you do like.

In my case, I focused on the people. My clients. Much of the work may have been routine and boring, but the people never were. They were unique. Every one of them. I enjoyed meeting them and finding out about their lives. I enjoyed explaining how things were going to get better for them and then helping make that happen. I enjoyed delivering the results and watching them smile and say thank you. And I enjoyed getting calls from their friends who had heard about me and wanted me to help them, too.

That’s what I enjoyed and that’s what I focused on. It made everything else, all of the things I didn’t like, relatively unimportant. It’s also what made my practice grow.

Whatever we focus on grows. By focusing on what you like about your practice, you will create more of it. Focus on your problems and you’ll have more of them. Focus on what frustrates you and you’ll have more to be frustrated about it. Focus on what you love, what gives you meaning, and you will create the life that you want because you will be doing more of what you want.

You don’t have to know how it works, just know that it does work, and do it.

If you want to earn more than you ever thought possible, download The Attorney Marketing Formula

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Filed Under: Career satisfaction, Client relations, Increase your income, Inspiration, Referrals Tagged With: , ,

We won!

October 11, 2012 by
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Have you ever noticed that when your team wins you say, “we won!” but when your team loses you say, “they lost”?

It’s understandable. When your team wins, you want to be associated with that success. It’s a subtle way of suggesting that you contributed to it. But you don’t want to be blamed when the team loses.

In truth, unless you own the team or play on it, you don’t deserve the credit or the blame. But that’s okay, it’s just sports. No harm, no foul. It’s not okay, however, in your law practice where you are the owner and star player.

When you win the case you deserve credit for your skill and hard work. But what about when you lose? If you blame the judge or the jury or the evidence, you may learn nothing from your loss. If you made a mistake you may be destined to repeat it. Maybe the judge was an idiot but maybe you should have known that and prepared for it.

Personal growth starts with personal responsibility. If you blame others for your losses, you relinquish your power. You can’t change anything when someone else controls the outcome.

And yet taking all the credit for your wins doesn’t increase your power, it diminishes it. Michael Jordan wouldn’t have won championships without teammates passing him the ball or a coach setting the plays. When his team won, he freely credited his coach and teammates. When they lost, he took responsibility.

Michael Jordan never said, “they lost.” And that’s one reason why he could so often say, “we won”.

The Attorney Marketing Formula shows you how to build a championship practice.

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Filed Under: Inspiration, Personal development Tagged With:

If my cat managed your law firm

October 10, 2012 by
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They say that dogs think of you as a member of their family and cats think of you as their employee. Our Tuxedo cat, Seamus, agrees. (He told me to keep this post short and get my ass back to work.)

Anyway, if Seamus was managing your law firm, I imagine he would tell you not to sweat the details. “Take care of the basics,” he would say, “and everything will be fine.”

For Seamus, the basics (that we are required to supply) are food and water, a clean litter box, and some play time. He takes care of grooming, sleeping, and staring out the window. If the basics are taken care of, Seamus is happy, although he has put in a request for more of that laser light thingie.

What are the basics in managing a law firm? Well, you need clients so marketing would have to be at the top of the list. You need some staff to help you because doing everything yourself is not a smart use of your time. And you need some tools: a computer, phone, and access to a library. Of course I am assuming you have the knowledge and skills to take these resources and put them to work for you.

Seamus says humans spend too much time fussing with little things. You don’t have to read everything, know everything, or do everything. Just cover the basics. Time management? That’s for sissies, he says. There’s plenty of time for the important things, as long as you cover the basics.

You can run a multi-million dollar practice with only the basics. And still have time to play with your cat.

Seamus says you need clients and recommends The Attorney Marketing Formula.

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Filed Under: Inspiration, Law office management, Marketing legal services Tagged With:

What to do when the yogurt hits the fan

October 9, 2012 by
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Something in Seth Godin’s post today caught my eye. He said, “Most things that go wrong, go wrong slowly.” That’s true, isn’t it? If you’re having challenges in your law practice, they usually take time to develop.

If you’re income is going down, it probably hasn’t happened all of a sudden. It’s probably been happening for months, maybe years. The good news is that because it happens slowly, there’s time to fix it.

When you are experiencing a downward cycle, Seth says the wrong thing to do is rationalize it and ride it out. Or, in the case of declining income, think that cutting costs is the only thing you can do.

The right way to deal with a downward cycle, he says, is learn to recognize it and replace it with an upward cycle. “Understand what triggers [a downward cycle] and then learn to use that trigger to initiate a different cycle,” he says.

So if your income has been declining, instead of waiting for the economy to improve, you have to do something to bring in more income.

But what?

Start by asking yourself some questions:

  • What did I do, or fail to do, that contributed to this situation? How can I change this?
  • What have I done before to turn things around?
  • What are other lawyers doing that’s working?
  • What do I need to learn?
  • What bad habits do I need to eradicate?
  • Who can help me? (Start with categories, i.e., CPA, marketing expert, banker, then look for candidates)
  • What do I need to do more of?
  • What do I need to get better at?

If I were coaching you, among other things, I would tell you to look at where most of your income is coming from now, or has in the past (practice area, referral sources, marketing methods, etc.) and expand this. Leverage your strengths. Do what has worked before.

And focus on what you can do, not on what you can’t do. You can’t change the economy, but you can make some calls.

If you want to learn how to earn more than you ever thought possible even if you’re in a downward cycle, download The Attorney Marketing Formula.

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Filed Under: Increase your income, Law office management, Leverage, Marketing legal services, Personal development Tagged With: ,

If Donald Trump managed your law firm

October 8, 2012 by
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The Donald knows a thing or two about making money. I’m guessing you wouldn’t mind getting some advice from him about ways you could grow your practice and increase your income. What could you do better? What should you do more of? What should you get rid of?

I’m guessing Mr. Trump isn’t available for consultation, but you and he can have a virtual conversation.

Imagine Donald Trump spending the day with you and your staff and examining what you do. Picture him with sitting in your office with his wild hair, firing questions at you. What would he ask? Take some time to think about this. His questions alone would be invaluable, wouldn’t they?

What would he want to know about your “operation”? What do you think he might say in response?

If you’ve read his books or seen him interviewed, or you’ve watched him on The Apprentice, you might have a few insights into the way he thinks. You know he thinks big picture and long term. He doesn’t rush into things. At the same time, he doesn’t let grass grow under his feet. He’s constantly moving, like a shark, looking for an opportunity, and when he finds it he’s ready to pounce.

He turns down most deals because most deals don’t pencil out. But he doesn’t need a lot of deals to be successful. One or two can earn him tens of millions.

He doesn’t get attached to a deal. If he can’t get something on his terms, he walks. But because he does his homework and because he is The Donald, he usually gets what he wants.

Mr. Trump may not know anything about practicing law and that’s probably a good thing. He won’t be hindered by traditional thinking. He knows how to recognize value and how to create it, and I’ll bet he could quickly size up your practice and tell you what to do.

What would he advise you to do?

In your mind, you can have a conversation with Donald Trump. Or with anyone else, living or dead. You could ask Abraham Lincoln or Albert Einstein for advice. I’ve talked to both men when I’ve been faced with difficult decisions. I imagined them in as much detail as I could and I heard them speak. Lincoln with his high, squeaky voice, Einstein with his heavy German accent. I asked them questions and listened to what they told me.

Steve Allen used to have a TV show, Meeting of Minds,a talk show of sorts where actors portraying prominent figures from history gathered around a table to discuss important issues. Cleopatra might be sitting next to Attila the Hun, Plato, and Frederick Douglass. Viewers got “first hand” depictions of history and insights into how to make better decisions for the future.

Having an imaginary conversation with Charles Darwin or Thomas Jefferson may seem weird, but unlike a scripted TV show, what they tell you in that conversation is, of course, really coming from you.

Am I saying you already know everything you need to know to solve your problems or achieve your goals? Of course not. But you probably know enough to ask some really good questions.

If you want to have a virtual conversation with me about marketing, get The Attorney Marketing Formula. You’ll get some great questions and even greater answers.

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Filed Under: Law office management, Marketing legal services Tagged With:

Is Goofus or Gallant managing your law firm?

October 5, 2012 by
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The children’s magazine, Highlights, has a cartoon feature, Goofus and Gallant, which teaches kids the right and wrong ways to handle different social situations. Goofus is irresponsible and selfish; Gallant does the right thing. At a cross-walk, for example, Goofus ignores the elderly person while Gallant offers to help her cross the street.

If Goofus or Gallant were managing your law firm, they might illustrate the right and wrong ways to behave with Do’s and Don’ts like the following:

  • DON’T do something just because there’s money in it; you can make money at a lot of things
  • DO what you’re good at; if you aren’t good at it, you won’t be successful
  • DON’T do what everyone else does; be different–it will be easier to stand out
  • DO what you enjoy; chances are it’s something you’re good at
  • DON’T offer what people don’t need; if people don’t need what you do, what you do is a hobby
  • DO offer what people want; people buy what they want, not what they need
  • DON’T compete on price; there will always be someone who charges less
  • DO provide more value than anyone else; that’s what people pay for
  • DON’T use marketing tactics you don’t like; you’ll only do them poorly
  • DO give new marketing tactics some time; you might find you like them after all
  • DON’T try to eliminate risk; without risk there is no reward
  • DO follow the advice of successful people who have what you want
  • DON’T assume that hard work is the recipe for success; it’s just one of the ingredients
  • DO use the 80/20 principle to get a bigger return on what you do

Is Goofus managing your practice or is Gallant? Are you doing the Do’s or the Don’ts?

If things aren’t going well for you, there’s another Highlight’s feature you might want to know about. On the back cover is something called “What’s Wrong?” It is a picture of a normal scene but with several out-of-place or incorrect objects. The reader is instructed to find “what’s wrong with this picture?”

Sometimes, you might want to look at your practice and ask yourself that question.

If you want to learn essential marketing Do’s and Don’ts, you need The Attorney Marketing Formula.

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Filed Under: Law office management, Marketing legal services Tagged With:

Should you upgrade or repair your law practice?

October 4, 2012 by
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The title of this post comes from an article I saw today, “Should you upgrade or repair your computer?” It had advice about how to repair software, how to repair hardware, and what and when you should upgrade.

I thought this was a good analogy for a law practice. Things slow down, they break, they need repairing and replacing. And, even if everything is working just fine, if you want to get to the next level, you need to continually upgrade what you’re doing.

Periodically examine the inner workings of your practice. What’s not working? What needs to be repaired or replaced? What can you upgrade?

Here’s an inspection list to get you started:

  • Broken relationships with clients and professional contacts
  • Sluggish client communications; “thank yous” and other initiatives that fail to show clients how much you value them; boring newsletters and blog posts
  • Malfunctioning processes that leave your clients vulnerable or in the dark
  • Out of date web pages, forms, form letters, templates, and checklists
  • Unnecessary or overly expensive overhead
  • Ineffective ads, social media, and networking
  • Offers that aren’t getting prospects to call
  • People who answer the phone but don’t get prospects into the office
  • Presentations that aren’t converting prospects into clients
  • Fees that don’t produce enough profit
  • Employees who aren’t worth what you’re paying them
  • Employees who are worth more than you pay them
  • Clients who leave; clients who don’t return; clients who don’t refer
  • Tasks that take too long to complete
  • Tasks that can be delegated, outsourced, or eliminated

Think of your practice as a machine. If you do regular inspections, maintenance and repairs, your machine will continue to function. If you don’t, it will slow down and ultimately cost you more when things break and have to be replaced.

And, every so often, upgrade your practice. Make things better and faster. Equip yourself and your staff with the latest tools. Stay ahead of the changing demands in the marketplace.

A brand new computer may be obsolete in six months. So can a law practice.

Does your marketing need an upgrade? Get The Attorney Marketing Formula and find out what to do.

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Filed Under: Increase your income, Law office management, Marketing legal services, Productivity, Time Management
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