Archives for January 2014

What to do when a potential client says no

January 17, 2014 by
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You meet with a prospective client, diagnose their problem, propose a solution, and quote a fee. They need your help, but tell you they want to think about it. They don’t call.

What should you do? How can you get them to hire you?

Sorry, bub. It’s probably too late. “I want to think about it” usually means no. It’s an excuse for some other objection.

They aren’t convinced they need a lawyer’s help. They aren’t convinced you’re the one they should choose. They don’t have the money. Or they need some else’s permission.

By and large, these objections should be dealt with before the client calls for an appointment or before they meet you.

You post information on your website, so they know why they need a lawyer and why they should choose you. You post detailed answers to FAQ’s, about your area of the law and the available options you offer.

You don’t quote fees online (or on the phone), but provide guidelines, so people have a general idea of how much they can expect to pay and what payment options you offer. They know they can’t hire you for $1,000 but it won’t cost them $100,000. They know they don’t need to pay 100% up front but they know they have to pay something.

Do this and when they call, they will already know that they need a lawyer and that you’re the one they want. They’ll know they will probably be able to afford your fees.

When they call to make an appointment, you make sure they bring their spouse or partner or other decision maker, or that they otherwise have the authority to hire you.

Now, when they’re in the office and you diagnose their problem, propose a solution, and quote a fee, you have eliminated most or all of their reasons to say no. If there are any remaining objections, you find out about them and deal them when they’re sitting in your office.

This way, they don’t have to think about it.

You deal with objections before they arise. You eliminate reasons to say no before they are said. After the fact, there’s not a lot you can do.

When a potential client says no, or I want to think about, or otherwise does not hire you, don’t blame them, and don’t chase them. Put them on your mailing list and stay in touch with them because they may hire you some day or refer business some day. But probably not today.

Learn what to put on your website to eliminate objections before they arise. Click here.

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Filed Under: Closing the sale, Communication, Handling objections, Online Marketing, Salesmanship

Why some attorneys earn more than you do

January 16, 2014 by
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With my CLE compliance deadline approaching (I finshed, thanks for asking), I’m being inundated with emails offering all manor of courses. I noticed that some companies charge much more than others. In fact, prices are all over the place. I could get all 25 credits for $299 or for $60. Are one company’s courses five times better than another’s? Probably not.

So why would attorneys pay more for something they could easily get for less?

Because some companies are well known to them and have good reputations. Lawyers will order from a familiar company because it’s safe. They don’t need to check them out. Click, order, done. They may realize they are paying more but the convenience and peace of mind are worth it.

I’m sure some attorneys equate a higher price with higher quality. They assume that by paying more they’re getting better courses. Or conversely, that if they pay a low price they will get inferior quality.

Other attorneys simply don’t want to take the time to shop around. They’re busy.

Still others never considered looking at anything else. They simply order from the company they ordered from the last time. They are a satisfied customer. When they get an email from “their company,” they just order.

Make sense?

Well guess what? The same things are true for buying legal services. People will pay more to hire an attorney who is well known to them or who comes through a referral. They will pay more to attorneys who make it easy and convenient to hire them. They will pay more because they believe they are getting more value than they would get from a “cheaper” attorney.

Yes, some clients shop price. You don’t want them. You want the low-hanging fruit, the clients who are willing to pay more for intangibles that are important to them.

And that’s why some attorneys earn more than you do for the same services.

Want to get paid more? Get the Check: Stress-Free Legal Billing and Collection shows you how.

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Filed Under: Attorneys fees, Client loyalty, Fees and Billing, Increase your income, Legal industry, Marketing legal services

How to start your writing project (finally)

January 15, 2014 by
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I want to help you start your writing project. You know, the one you’ve thinking about for months but haven’t been able to start.

A report, a book, a seminar, some blog posts. Something you can use in your marketing.

Whatever it is, if you’ve been procrastinating on getting started, today is the day you start.

And guess what? Starting is the most important part.

The first thing you need to do is to think about why you’re doing this. What do you hope to accomplish?

Whatever your objective, imagine it already being done.

If you want to write a few blog posts so you can attract new clients online, imagine getting an email or phone call from a prospective client who finds you through your posts. Imagine him telling you they like your site and were impressed by your post. Imagine him asking for an appointment.

Nice.

As you imagine this happy outcome, you may feel an emotional tug and the urge to start writing. Often, this is all you need to get your pen moving. If not, go for a walk or for a drive and think about this some more. Bring a recorder, in case you get inspired.

Now what?

Now you need a working title. It doesn’t have to be brilliant. You’ll make it better later. Write something simple to describe what your article, post, or paper is about.

“My [article/post/book] is about __________________.”

What if you don’t know what to write about? Try this: think about the questions prospective clients typically ask you about their case or matter. The ones you get over and over again. Choose one of those questions. That question, and your answer, is what your article is about.

Got it? Good.

Now I want you to write down three ideas or points you think you might include in your article or post. This can be a short sentence, a phrase, or a single word.

Do this quickly. Write down the first three things that come to mind.

Why just three things? Because three is easy. If you want to write down more than three, that’s fine.

You’re making progress. You have a working title and three points you want to write about. You’ve started. You may feel like continuing and getting the thing written. If you do, just start typing or dictating or scribbling. Before you know it, you’ll have your first draft.

If you’re still having trouble getting started, choose a date when you’ll have this done and mark it on your calendar. Don’t give yourself too much time. In fact, choose a date that gives you less time than you think you’ll need. Like tomorrow. Or the the first of next week.

Seriously. You can write an article in 30 minutes, a short report or ebook in a weekend.

Finally, if you’re still having trouble getting started, or you’ve started but can’t seem to finish, here’s what I suggest.

Call up a lawyer friend and tell him what you’re writing. Tell him when it will be finished, the actual date, and that you’ll send him a copy. And then ask him to hold you accountable. Tell him you’ve been procrastinating on this and that if you don’t get it done on the specified date, you want him to call you on it.

Accountability is very powerful. It will help you get your writing project started. And finished.

The 30-Day Referral Blitz has lots of ideas for topics and titles. Check it out here.

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Filed Under: Blogging, Personal development, Writing Tagged With: ,

The second best source of new clients

January 14, 2014 by
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According to a study of online marketing metrics, the best source of new clients (customers) is through generic search engine traffic. Nothing else comes close.

You probably knew that.

What you may find surprising is what’s number two. According to the study, it’s email, which is 40 times more effective than Facebook and Twitter.

So, if you aren’t leveraging generic search engine traffic by creating and posting quality content online, you’re missing out big time. Prospective clients go to search engines looking for information about their legal situation, the available solutions, and for lawyers who can help them. Post information that answers their questions and provides those solutions and they will find you.

You don’t need to hire a team of experts. You don’t need to spend a lot of time. Once a week or so, write 300 to 500 words about something prospective clients want to know and might go looking for and post it.

Make sure you use keywords in the title and body of your post and follow a few other best practice to tell Uncle Google and his cousins what your post is about. Remember, search engines want to help their customers find what they’re looking for. Write and post that content and they’ll help you find prospective clients.

Now, not everyone who finds your website and reads your content is ready to hire you right away. In fact, you have to assume that most visitors to your website aren’t ready. In a few days or a few months, or perhaps a few years, when they are ready (or know someone who is), they probably won’t remember you. There’s a good chance they’ll wind up on some other lawyer’s website.

Unless. . . you stay in touch with them . . through email. . . the second best source of new clients online.

Your website needs to collect visitor’s email addresses. If it does not, you’re losing business. Probably a lot of business. Even if you practice in an area where most people make a hiring decision quickly like personal injury or criminal defense, because some clients wait and some clients are unhappy with the first attorney they hire.

Offer your visitors something free as an incentive to sign up for your email list. A report, checklist, form, or ebook. Add a form to your site to make it easy for them to opt in. Use an autoresponder to collect emails and automate much or all of the “staying in touch”.

Marketing online is not difficult and does not take a lot of time. Create search engine friendly content and build an email list. They are the number one and number two best source of new clients online so if you do it, you won’t have to do much of anything else.

Need help? Get my course on Internet marketing for attorneys.

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

Lawyers with blogs aren’t necessarily bloggers

January 13, 2014 by
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One of the best ways to show prospective clients and referral sources what you can do to help them and the people they know is to post high quality information on your website. Whether that information comes in the form of articles, blog posts, videos, or anything else isn’t that important. It’s also unimportant whether you post that information on a static website or a blog.

If you post your content on a blog, that doesn’t make you a blogger. A blog is merely a convenient format for displaying content to visitors in a way that is accessible and search engine friendly.

Blogging is often said to be more than just writing and posting content. We are told that there is a distinct social aspect to blogging, involving things like engaging visitors through comments, interviewing subject matter experts, and conversing with other bloggers. But it appears that the importance of these activities may be overstated.

I read a post this morning which asked whether introverts can be successful bloggers. The author cites Pete Cashmore (Mashable), Guy Kawasaki, Brian Clark (Coppyblogger), and Darren Rowse (Problogger.net), four successful bloggers and self-confessed introverts, in support of his position that yes, introverts can be successful bloggers. In fact, these four individuals have all built big businesses through blogging.

I noted recently that a preponderance of attorneys are introverts. I am, too. I have a successful business that is built on a framework of blogging. While I don’t ignore the social aspects of the job, my primary focus is on creating and delivering content.

Am I a blogger? Perhaps. I don’t know. I really don’t care. What’s important is I don’t let my introversion stop me from leveraging the power of the Internet, and neither should you.

Quality content attracts traffic via search engines and social sharing (done by your visitors). That content then educates visitors about their legal issues and the possible solutions. In so doing, it shows those visitors how you can help them and demonstrates your skills and experience. It helps visitors get to know, like, and trust you, and prompts them to hire you or inquire about doing so. If they’re not ready to hire you immediately, your content can prompt them to join your email list so you can stay in touch with them until they are ready to take the next step.

If you want to add more of the social elements to the mix, that’s fine. It can help. And if you’re an extrovert, you’ll be naturally inclined to do so. But if you are an introvert, you can dabble with the social aspects, as I do, or ignore them completely.

You don’t have to be an extrovert to have a blog and lawyers with blogs aren’t necessarily bloggers.

Content marketing for attorneys. Click here to learn how.

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

The simplest time management system in the world

January 10, 2014 by
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Everyone has their favorite time management system. Except those who don’t. Many people don’t have any system. They look at the choices and conclude that they’re too complicated or, ironically, too time-consuming to use.

Others, try lots of systems and are never satisfied, so they keep looking.

If you don’t have a system that’s right for you, or if you don’t have any system at all, I want to present to you the simplest time management system in the world.

There are three parts to this system:

(1) Write down everything.

Get it out of your head and on paper or in some kind of electronic list. I use Evernote, but there are many alternatives.

What’s important is that you have a place to go to see all of the tasks and projects you have to do, want to do, or might one day consider doing, and that place is not in your head.

(2) Use a calendar.

Anything that is time-oriented–due dates, start dates, appointments, reminders–should be recorded on your calendar. If there is a specific time when it must be done, like an appointment or a conference call, record the time. If not, and you’re using an electronic calendar, record it as an “all day” event.

The key is to only record things you actually intend to do. As David Allen says, the calendar is “sacred territory”. If it’s on the calendar, you do it.

Of course throughout your day you need to look at your calendar to see what’s on it. You can also set up electronic reminders if you want.

(3) Ask yourself THIS question every day.

So the first two elements of this system are nothing new. I’m pretty sure every time management system uses them. Where things get complicated is with what happens next.

Time management systems use many different ways to categorize and prioritize the items on your master list. They uses tags and codes and allow you to put things in different boxes or on different sub-lists. If these work for you, use them. If they don’t, once a day, ask yourself one simple question:

“What are the most important things I need to do today?”

Write these on a separate list. These tasks are your “most important tasks” for the day. If you get these done, your day will be successful, even if they are the only things you do that day.

You don’t need to complete a lot of tasks to make it a successful day, as long as those tasks are important. I usually write down three “most important tasks” (MIT’s) for the day. Sometimes it’s just one or two, sometimes four or five. So the question I ask myself every day is, “What are the three most important things I need to do today?”

And that’s it. That’s the system. You look at your big list, decide what to do that day based on what’s important, and do them. You don’t do anything else on your list, or that comes up during the day, until you have done your “most important tasks” for the day.

What about the rest of your list? Forget about it. You’ll never get everything done and that’s okay. Let it go. Focus on getting the most important things done each day and when you’ve done that, you can go back to your list and choose additional tasks to do if you want to or you can call it a day.

Now, you may be wondering if this system requires you to read through your master list every day so you can choose your most important tasks. No. That’s too much. Reviewing your master list once a week is enough.

But here’s the thing. You probably already know what to put on your list of most important tasks for the day. At least your subconscious mind does. I’ll prove it.

Without looking at any lists or your calendar, ask yourself this question: “What is the most important thing I can do right now?”

I’ll bet you had an answer.

That’s what you should do next. When it’s done, go ahead and ask yourself that question again.

Do you use Evernote? Have you read my ebook, Evernote for Lawyers?

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Filed Under: Productivity, Time Management Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Opening a second law office

January 9, 2014 by
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Every four to six weeks I pop over to a small barber shop near my home. Snip snip, buzz buzz, and I’m done.  Its quick, they do good work, and it’s a heck of a lot cheaper than the fancy places I used to go.

On my last visit, I learned that the owner had opened a second location about ten miles away. Good for him. Entrepreneurship rocks.

He’s got more overhead, responsibilities, and risk, but he’s got the system down and I’m sure the second store will be running smoothly in no time.

He opened the second location, I’m sure, because he understands that there is only so much upside in a barber shop. Men don’t buy a lot of hair care products, we don’t get our nails done or our hair colored (usually), and in a small local shop, if all of the chairs are busy, there’s only so much the owner can do to increase his bottom line.

When I was practicing law, at one time I had three offices. I earned more, but frankly, it wasn’t worth the extra time and headaches. What I should have done, and what you should probably do if you’re considering opening a second (or third) office, is to work on increasing the profits in the first office.

There are lots of ways to increase profit in a law office. You can get bigger cases and better clients. You can get your former clients to hire you again, or hire you for different kinds of work. You can get more new business, from referrals or advertising or through the Internet, and short of needing a bigger office to accommodate additional staff, you can do all of this from one location.

On the other hand, clients will only travel so far to see a lawyer. Opening a second office is tempting. Does it ever make sense?

Theoretically, yes. In southern California, for example, if your office is in Los Angeles, you might want a second office in Orange County, and another in San Diego. Three different markets, with enough population to make the investment worthwhile.

But the investment in a second office encompasses far more than rent and employee expenses. You must hire, train, and supervise the new staff, which is difficult enough when you are present. There are additional liability and ethical risks, not to mention the risk to your reputation if something goes wrong.

If you’re thinking about opening a second law office, consider yourself warned. It’s not for the faint of heart.

If you have the resources and the thick skin, a second office is a viable way to increase your income. But don’t rush into it. A good place to start is to get a shared office arrangements where you can use a conference room to see clients. This will allow you to test both the market and your capacity for operating a satellite office, before you commit to something bigger and more permanent.

Proceed cautiously, limit your downside risk, and if things don’t go the way you had hoped, you won’t have to. . . forgive me. . . take a haircut.

Get more referrals. Quickly. Here’s how.

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Filed Under: Career satisfaction, Increase your income, Law office management, Legal industry Tagged With:

Are you managing your law practice or is it managing you?

January 8, 2014 by
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See the client. Review the document. Write the letter. See the next client. Document the file. Mail the letter. Read. Read some more. Email. Email some more. Prepare the complaint. Prepare the motion. Make the calls. Go to the meeting. Check your email. Check your calendar. Oops, late for court. Out the door. Fight traffic. Wait to be called. Back to the office. Record notes. Send the email. Look at the time. Oops, late for dinner. Fight traffic. Kiss the wife. Eat, read, news, sleep, get up, eat, dress, fight traffic, see the client. . .

Another day. Another week. Another month. Another year.

Who has time for marketing? Thinking about the future? Planning?

You want to, there’s just no time. Too much to do and it never gets done. At the end of the day you’re tired and want to go home.

You aren’t managing your law practice. It’s managing you.

Believe me, I understand.

It’s time for you to take control. Tell your practice who is in charge. Decide what kinds of clients and cases you want instead of taking what shows up. Decide how much you want to earn this year and do what you need to do to earn it.

But to do that, you have stand down from the daily grind, clear your mind, and make some decisions.

What do you have to decide? Start with the end in mind. What do you want your future to be like? What is your long term vision?

What do you want your life to be like five or ten years from today? Imagine things the way you would like them to be. What are you doing? Where are you living? How much are you earning? What is a typical day like?

Write a “vision statement” describing your life, in the present tense, five years in the future. One page is all you need. The only rule is there are no rules. Describe the life you want, not the life you think you might have.

Your vision statement is where you want to go. From this point forward, you can make choices that are consistent with your vision. You’ll do things that move you towards your vision. You’ll reject activities that don’t.

Instead of being pushed through life by circumstance, you’ll be pulled forward by your vision.

Once you have a vision statement, the next step is yearly goals. What do you want to happen in the next 12 months that is consistent with your long term vision?

You can set one big goal or a handful of goals in different areas of your life. Goals should be specific and measurable. At the end of the year you should be able to say that yes, you did reach the goal, or no you did not.

Goals should be bold and exciting. They should require you to stretch and grow, but not be so far out of reach that you don’t have a chance of achieving them.

Once you have yearly goals, the next step is to write monthly plans. What will you focus on this month? What projects will you work on? When will you start? When will you be done? What will you do after that?

Schedule your monthly plans in your calendar. Set up files to collect information and track your progress.

While you’ve got your calendar handy, also schedule a recurring weekly review. Once a week, take an hour or two to review what you have done during the week and what you will do the following week. This keeps you focused and accountable. This is you managing your practice instead of it managing you.

Finally, from you yearly goals, monthly plans, and weekly review, you choose your daily activities. What will you do today to move you forward? Choose a few things but make sure they are important.

It’s best to write down your daily activities the night before. “Plan your day before your day begins,” one of my mentors taught me.

A well-lived life is a well-planned life. If your law practice is managing you, it’s time to show it who’s boss.

The Attorney Marketing Formula will help you plan your future. Click here for details.

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Filed Under: Career satisfaction, Goal Setting, Law office management, Personal development Tagged With: , , ,

Marketing professional services: strategy vs. tactics

January 7, 2014 by
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Marketing professional services requires both strategies and tactics. A strategy is a process or plan. Tactics are specific actions for implementing that plan.

You may have several tactics you use to effect a given strategy. For example, your strategy may be to build your reputation in your community, target market, or among other lawyers. Your tactics may include doing charitable work, issuing press releases highlighting key victories, or teaching CLE classes.

Most attorneys employ similar strategies because we have similar objectives. We want to meet new prospective clients and referral sources, grow our lists, and generate more repeat business and referrals. Where we differ is in our tactics.

And that’s okay. You get to choose. You may like meeting people through social media while the next attorney prefers pressing the flesh. For most strategies, there are several tactics to choose from. You can do any or all.

If your strategy is to offer value to prospective clients so they (a) find you, (b) learn how you can help them, and (c) get to know, like, and trust you, there are many ways to accomplish this. You can conduct free seminars, offer a newsletter, put content on a blog, advertise a free report, create youtube videos, or engage with prospective clients via hangouts.

If your strategy is to meet and build relationships with centers of influence in your target market, your tactics may include general networking (e.g., Chamber of Commerce, Rotary Club, etc.), networking at niche-specific events, joint venture marketing, speaking at luncheons, or asking your existing professional contacts to introduce you to their counterparts.

If your strategy is to get more referrals from existing and former clients, tactics include educating them about your “ideal client,” making it easy to give referrals (e.g., outlining the process, providing a form), creating hand outs they can deliver to people they know, and endearing them to you by delivering more value and service than they expect.

If your strategy is to build your list of prospective clients, you can accomplish this through guest posts, keyword rich blog content, improved landing pages, and offering an incentive (i.e., a report) to encourage opt ins.

In my opinion, all of the above strategies are important, if not essential for building a professional practice. But there is enough variety in the tactics to allow each attorney to effect those strategies in a way that suits their practice and preferences.

In your planning, start with strategies. Decide what you want to accomplish. Then, choose from a menu of tactics. Infuse those tactics with your personal brand and style to create a plan of action that is both effective and well suited to you.

Once your plan is working, you can expand on the scope of your tactics (e.g., add more content to your site, find more places for networking), add additional tactics to your marketing mix, or both.

For a simple marketing plan that really works, get this. If you will be marketing online, get this.

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Filed Under: Marketing legal services, Marketing Plan Tagged With: , , , ,

When is procrastination a good thing?

January 6, 2014 by
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I’ve got until the first of next month to complete my CLE credits. I’ve been watching videos over the last couple of weeks and making good progress. I know some people would say that doing three years worth of CLE in a few weeks is unwise. They would point out that I could have done an hour a month and been done months ago.

Their math is correct but their advice is misplaced. They assume that procrastination is a sign of weakness or poor organizational skills and leads to unnecessary anxiety and poor results. But is that always true? Is there a time when procrastination is a good thing?

I think so.

Procrastination helps you prioritize. It allows you to filter your list of tasks so you can focus on what’s important and not merely what’s urgent.

CLE isn’t important to me since I no longer practice. Now, it is urgent that I get those credit done, but waiting as I did allowed me to concentrate on important projects.

Procrastinating served me another way. It allowed me to express (to myself) my resentment at being required to take courses I don’t need and don’t want. It allows me to give the middle finger to the system.

Hey, I’m human.

In school, procrastinating served me another way. Waiting until the last day to write a paper or study for exams gave me a built in excuse in case I got a poor grade. “Hey, I didn’t spend any time studying.”

I almost always got good grades, however. But what if I hadn’t?

What if procrastinating is harmful? What if it keeps you from doing what’s important? What if it results in poor performance or results?

Then you have a problem.

There are lots of techniques for dealing with “bad” procrastination. I think the simplest solution is to get the task out of your head and onto paper–your calendar or other “trusted system”. Give yourself enough time to get the task done and then forget about it. If you’ve schedule a start date and given yourself enough time to do what you need to do, you can then devote your mental energy to other things until it’s time to start.

That’s what I did with my CLE. I knew what I needed to do and when I needed to do it. And I’m getting it done.

Calendaring tasks for the future also gives you a buffer of time which may allow you to adjust your priorities. When the scheduled start date arrives you may find that the scheduled task can be safely postponed, or that you don’t need to do it at all. Since I am not actively practicing, I keep thinking about changing my status to inactive. If I do that I won’t have to do CLE.

When is procrastination a good thing? When it serves you in some way. It’s okay to do things at the last minute, as long as you are getting important things done. And as long as you’re still getting good grades.

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Filed Under: Continuing Legal Education, Dealing with stress, Personal development, Productivity, Time Management Tagged With: , ,
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