The real formula for success

Jerome Howard once shared the formula for success. He said, “If at first you don’t succeed, keep on sucking until you do suck seed.”

But that’s not really true. Continuing to do what you’ve always done, expecting different results, isn’t a formula for success. The real formula for success, if there is one, is to figure out what the masses are doing and do the opposite.

Most lawyers earn average incomes and have average practices. If you do what they do, you are unlikely to achieve more than average results. It’s the same for most endeavors. In the investing world, for example, when everyone is buying you should probably be selling.

Most lawyers either don’t have their own website, or if they do, it is severely lacking in (a) valuable content, and (b) personality. Their website is banal, devoid of anything that might attract a prospective client, let alone persuade them to hire the attorney.

Okay, there are degrees of banality, but you get my point: most lawyers don’t get much bang for their website buck.

So, do the opposite of what they do. Make your website a compendium of articles, posts, videos, reports, and other content that shows prospective clients how you can help them, answers their basic questions, and persuades them to call.

Put lots of “you” into your site. Share your opinions, tell your story, and talk about what drives you. Where most lawyers perfunctorily present “just the facts,” make your website an extension of yourself so that someone who visits can get a sense of what it will be like to work with you.

In addition, talk about your clients. Tell their stories. Show how bad off they were before you helped turn things around. Use their comments (testimonials, reviews) to shine a spotlight on your greatness, so you don’t have to do it yourself.

Look at your competition–other attorneys in your practice area and market–and look for ways you can do the opposite of what they do.

Obviously, you won’t always be able to do the literal opposite of what they do. But you can easily distinguish yourself by doing things differently.

If most attorneys see clients five days per week, between 8 to 5, for example, you might stand out in a meaningful way by opening your office for a few hours on Saturday, or by opening early or staying late once or twice a week.

If most attorneys have their staff meet with clients most of the time, you might not have the time to see them all yourself, but if you’re in the office, you could make a point of greeting them when they arrive or wishing them well at the end of the appointment.

Most lawyers do what most lawyers do. Top lawyers do things differently. Study what the top lawyers do. and learn from them. Examine their process, tools, and messaging. Find out how they get new clients, and how they work with them. Talk to them and seek their advice.

But if you have limited access to the best of the best, you can probably figure out what they’re doing by looking at what the masses do and doing the opposite.

How to get your website to make the phone ring