Today’s a good day to get organized

November 23, 2016 by
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Any day is a good day to get organized but the day before a holiday is especially good. You’re relaxed and looking forward to Thanksgiving. You’re probably not in the mood to do a lot of serious work. And you like the idea of starting the week without 102 things to do and no idea where to start.

Take a look at your email inbox. This would be a good time to zero it out. Go through the first few hundred (the rest are probably too old to bother with). When you find something that you want or need to do, tag or label it, or forward it to your task management software, and then archive everything else. It will still be there if you need it but you won’t have to look at it.

Take a look at your tasks and projects and do the same thing. Flag those that are important and should be done soon and put everything else out of sight (e.g., archive, someday/maybe, or tagged for future review).

Take a look at your current and upcoming projects. Consolidate your notes and ideas, clean up your outlines and task lists and get things ready so that when you see them next, you can finish them quickly or start them with aplomb.

Get organized today and then enjoy the morrow. Clear your mind, fill your belly, and give thanks for what you have and what the future has in store.

Happy Thanksgiving.

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Filed Under: Productivity

Increase your income by focusing on income producing activities

November 22, 2016 by
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How much of what you do each day could be considered “income producing activities”?

Client work is income producing. So is marketing which brings in (and keeps) the clients. Everything else is is an expense and should be minimized, delegated, or eliminated.

In my opinion, in an eight-hour day, five hours of client work is a good target. Another hour should be invested in marketing. That leaves two hours that can be used for admin, lunch, and (your choice), more client work or more marketing.

If you have lots of clients, do more work. If you need more clients, do more marketing.

Of course this is just a starting point and your mileage may vary.

Next step: hire (more) assistants so you can do more work and more marketing. After that, hire more lawyers and/or legal assistants and have them do most (or all) of the work. Then, hire people to supervise and assist your team so you can continue to grow, open another office, and have time to spend some of the loot you’re bringing in.

That’s how I built my practice. That’s how I quadrupled my income and cut my work down to three days a week.

Sound like a plan?

This will help you do more income producing activities

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Filed Under: Law office management, Marketing Plan

How to create a task you’ll actually do

November 21, 2016 by
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If you find yourself procrastinating about certain tasks on your list, one reason might be the task description itself. If it’s unclear what you’re supposed to do, if the task looks daunting or overly time consuming, it’s easy to see why you might put it off until later or skip it completely.

You can avoid this by writing better descriptions. Here are three ways to do that:

1) Make sure the task is something you can DO.

A task should be something simple, meaning something you can actually do.

You can’t “buy a car,” for example. There are too many things you need to do first: research makes and models, read reviews, consider extras and add-ons, choose a color, compare prices, take a test drive, inquire about financing, and so on.

Buying a car is a “project” not a task. Break up your projects into the component tasks and record those on your list.

2) Use ACTION VERBS to describe your tasks

Describe each task clearly and concisely. Start the description with an action verb: write, call, review, outline, research, send, etc.

If your task is to compare prices on your new car, for example, you might write, “Call five dealers for written quotes”.

Specific, clear, concise, and doable.

3) Make it EASIER to do

The easier (and quicker) it is to do a task, the more likely it is that you’ll do it. When writing the task description, include additional information and resources you’ll need so you don’t have to go looking for them when it’s time to do the task.

If the task is to call someone, put the phone number in the task description. Add notes you might need to reference during the call.

If the task is to review a document, embed the document or a link thereto in the task description. If you need to fill out a monthly report, include the template or the previous month’s report to refer to and/or modify for this month’s report.

Make your tasks something you can do, make the description action-oriented so you’ll know exactly what to do, and make the task easier to do by adding additional information and resources.

“Get more referrals” is a project, not a task. Here’s everything you need to do

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Filed Under: Productivity Tagged With: , , ,

What to do when your practice area dries up?

November 18, 2016 by
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This just in: Divorce in U.S. Plunges to 35-Year Low. If you’re a divorce lawyer, what do you do?

Whatever you do, don’t panic. Put down your coloring book, let go of your blankie, and come out of your safe space. Everything is going to be okay.

First, markets ebb and flow. This year might be bad, next year the trend could turn.

Second, no matter what’s going on in the overall divorce “marketplace,” unless and until divorce is outlawed, there will always be enough business available to keep you busy. In fact, there should be enough business available to make you rich.

The same goes for other practice areas.

So don’t worry about “the market”. Just worry about yourself.

It’s like the old joke about you and a friend getting lost in the woods and a bear starts chasing you. You don’t have to outrun the bear, you just need to outrun your friend.

But don’t ignore what’s going on in the market or get complacent. In order to run faster than the other lawyers and stay ahead of the bears, you must continually work to

  • Improve your core lawyering skills
  • Improve your other skills, e.g., writing, speaking, networking, sales, etc.
  • Attract better clients (e.g., more affluent, more “at risk,” better connected, etc.)
  • Run a profitable practice (e.g., manage overhead, hire good employees, improve operations)
  • Look for new target markets
  • Expand and improve your marketing

Do these things no matter what’s going on in the marketplace and you’ll be golden.

Oh, one more thing. Don’t believe everything you read in the news.

Make sure your marketing plan is up to date

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Filed Under: Legal industry, Marketing Plan

The best time for marketing

November 17, 2016 by
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Okay class, as you know, we’re having an essay exam today so take out a sheet of notebook paper and a pencil and write today’s date and your name in the upper right corner.

At the top of the page, write, “The best time for marketing”. That’s the subject for the exam. You have 30 minutes to write your essay. Are there any questions? Okay. Ready? Begin.

[Teacher: reading magazines, making shopping list, checking students to see who’s cheating. . .]

Time’s up. Pencils down. Please pass your paper to the front.

Okay, we have a few minutes left until next period so does anyone want to share a few thoughts about the subject of the exam? Yes, David?

[David]: Most people will say that marketing should be done all the time, that is, every day, and while that’s true, the question is about the BEST time for marketing. In my essay, I said that the best time is when things are going well in your business, when you are busy and really don’t need new clients or customers.

The reason is that there will come a time when business will drop off and that’s the worst time to ramp up your marketing because you’re under pressure to make payroll and you don’t have time to do the kinds of marketing that are likely to have a big, long-term payoff. It’s harder to say no to lower-quality clients when your rent is overdue.

Also, when you’re busy, the marketing you do is often more effective. Success breeds more success. When your phone is ringing and you’re constantly signing up new clients, you’re excited and confident, and those qualities attract even more clients.

Nobody wants to hire someone who is desperate, they want to hire someone who exudes success. When you’re busy, there’s a positive vibe in your office and clients pick up on it, signing up more quickly and with less resistance. That vibe also leads to more positive word-of-mouth and referrals.

When you’re busy, you have the resources to try out new marketing ideas. If they don’t work, you can absorb the loss. If they do work, you have some new arrows in your marketing quiver.

The bottom line is that when you need clients, you’re playing catch up and marketing is more difficult and less effective. When you’re busy, marketing is easier and you get better results.

So yeah, the best time for marketing is when you don’t need it, just like the best time for exercise is when you’re healthy and in shape.

[Teacher]: Uh. . . thank you David. Class dismissed.

Get on board the attorney marketing train

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Filed Under: Marketing legal services

Can you really earn more by working less?

November 16, 2016 by
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We’ve all been taught that more is better so how is it that some people earn more and achieve more by working less?

They do it by choosing the right things to do.

The most successful among us focus on doing things that allow them to take giant leaps instead of incremental steps. The kinds of things that let them leverage their resources and get “eighty percent results with twenty percent effort”.

It’s not that they ignore the little things. It’s that at any given moment, they’re able to zero in on the one thing they can do that will give them the most bang for their buck.

Real estate entrepreneur, Gary Keller, made this the theme of his bestselling book, The ONE Thing. He says that we can become much more successful by finding and doing the one thing (activity, task, decision, etc.) that can allow us to achieve extraordinary results.

Keller suggests that we look at our goals and for each one, ask, “What’s the ‘ONE Thing’ [I] can do such that by doing it, everything else will be easier or unnecessary?”

If your goal is to bring in ten new clients per month within 90 days, for example, out of all the things you MIGHT do, you should find and do the one thing that is likely to make it most likely that you will achieve that goal.

Start by brainstorming possibilities. You’ll probably think of hundreds of ideas, and if you don’t, read through my blog and courses. Put your list aside for a few days, come back to it and look for your ‘one thing’.

You may reason your way to a decision, but it is just as likely that your “gut” will tell you. If you’re not sure, go through your list slowly, think about each idea and see how you feel about it. If it feels good to think about it, if you find yourself getting excited about it, the odds are that’s what you should choose.

Your ‘one thing’ will likely be different than any other lawyer’s. You might decide that your one thing is to hire someone to create a new website for you. Another lawyer might decide that his or her one thing is to meet prospective new referral sources. Someone else may decide that advertising is the right thing for them.

All of these things, and others, might help you reach your goal, but you should consider them later. Right now,  you should find your one thing and do it.

Your website can bring you a lot of new clients

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Filed Under: Leverage, success Tagged With: , , ,

Four keys to selling more legal services

November 15, 2016 by
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Yep, I used the “S” word–selling. Because lawyers sell legal services and if you want to sell more of yours, the first thing you need to do is get comfortable with the idea that you are in sales.

Because you are.

You find or attract prospective clients. You qualify them as to interest and ability to pay. You show them what you can do for them and why they should choose you. You handle their questions and objections. And you close them. And if you didn’t do these things, you wouldn’t have any clients.

So, once you catch your breath about this whole sales thing, do yourself a favor and learn to get good at it. You can start with these four keys to selling more of your services.

(1) Sell yourself before you sell your services

Since you sell professional services, you are your product. Clients buy “you” before they buy your services. That means getting good at building rapport with prospective clients and helping them get to “know, like, and trust you”.

One way to do that is to listen more than you talk. Ask questions to get them talking about themselves and their problems and desires. That information not only helps you to diagnose their problems and prescribe solutions, it helps the client see that you understand them and care about helping them.

(2) Sell solutions

Once you have diagnosed the client’s situation, show them a positive outcome or result. Don’t focus on your technical skills and resources, focus on showing them the “better future” they will have when you use those skills and resources.

In other words, sell the benefits they get when they hire you.

(3) Appeal to emotions

Sometimes, prospective clients are on the fence about taking care of their problem. They don’t realize how bad things are or how bad they can get. You’ll sign up more clients who are emotionally involved in their problem and your solution.

If they are angry or fearful about their problem, if they are hopeful and excited about eliminating the problem or achieving their objective, they will be one step closer to hiring you.

Make sure your marketing materials speak to their fears and desires. In consultation, ask how their issue is affecting their business or their personal life, or how it might do that if the problem continues.

(4) Prove it

Don’t just tell them what you can do for them, prove it. Share success stories of other clients you have helped. Use testimonials from satisfied clients and endorsements from lawyers and other prominent people that speak to your abilities, your accomplishments, and your character.

Prove your bona fides by highlighting your awards, speaking engagements, books you have written, classes you have taught, and other third-party indicia of a lawyer who is good at what they do.

Don’t just show prospective clients why they need a lawyer, show them why that lawyer should be you.

Selling legal services is easier when you know the formula

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Filed Under: Closing the sale, Salesmanship Tagged With: ,

Tell them what to do NEXT

November 14, 2016 by
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You run an ad. Write an article. Or give a talk. Whatever you do to push your name and message out into the world or into the hands of a prospective client, at the end, you should tell them what to do next.

Eventually, you want them to hire you. But it’s usually too early to tell them to do that.

If they’re sitting in the office with you after a free consultation and they need your services, yeah, tell them to “sign here”. Hiring you is the next step. The next step at the end of a presentation, article, email, or when you hand someone your business card, however, is different.

The next step might be to visit a webpage to get more information, access your report, fill out a form, sign up for your webinar, or subscribe to your newsletter. Or it might be to call your office to ask questions or to make an appointment. Whatever it is, that’s what you should tell them to do.

The right “call to action” will depend on:

  • The nature of their problem or objective
  • Their level of sophistication
  • Whether they already know and trust you/hired you before
  • What else they’ve read or heard from you or about you
  • Your offer or offers
  • And other factors

But it’s usually not “sign here”.

How do you know what’s best? You try different calls to action and track responses. You test and re-test to find which one brings the best response.

“Call for an appointment” vs. “Visit this page for more information”. “Download my free report” vs. “Download my free planning kit”. “Call my office to schedule a free consultation” vs. “Call my office for a free phone consultation”.

You can also offer more than one call to action to accommodate those who are further along in the buying process, that is, closer to making a hiring decision: “Call to schedule a free consultation” and “Visit this page to learn more about your rights”.

Tell people what to do next and you’ll get more people taking the next step.

How to talk to people about referrals

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Filed Under: Copywriting, Marketing legal services Tagged With:

Commit first. Figure out the details later

November 11, 2016 by
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You have a new project or idea. If you’re like a lot of people, especially lawyers, your natural tendency is to research it, ponder it, and worry about it, to the point that you talk yourself out of doing it.

How many great ideas have you abandoned in their cradle?

You’re smart. No doubt you have lots of ideas, some of which could transform your practice, your life, or the world. Most of your ideas never see the light of day, however, because you feel the need to figure out everything in advance.

You over-plan. Better to under-plan and figure things out as you go along. Grant Cardone, author of, The 10X Rule, says, “Commit first. Figure out the details later.”

Successful entrepreneurs don’t charge forward blindly, mind you. They do their homework before they invest a lot of time or resources. What they don’t do is insist on preparing for every contingency before they take the first step.

Yeah, that means taking risks. And failing. But also learning from the failures and using what you learn to do it better the next time.

It also means getting a lot of “at bats,” which leads to more hits and more home runs.

When you see something you’d like to do but that little voice in your head nags at you and points out what could go wrong, note what that voice is saying (because it might be right) and come back to consider it later, after you have made some progress and have more context. Don’t let your fears stop you. If you are to be stopped, let reality do it.

You don’t need to know everything before you start. If you like an idea, commit to it, start it, and figure out the details as you go along.

Referral rock. If you want more, here’s how to get them

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Filed Under: Personal development Tagged With: ,

What to do when a client says they can’t afford your fee

November 10, 2016 by
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What do you do when a prospective client tells you they can’t afford you? You have three options:

(1) Help them to see the light

Many clients who say they can’t afford you have the money, they just don’t want to spend it. Others can borrow the money, liquidate a retirement account, sell something, or otherwise find the money to pay you and they will do that, but only if they want to.

Point out the greater expense and/or dire consequences that may arise if they don’t hire you, or the immense benefits they will get if they do. Help them to see that hiring you isn’t an expense, it is an investment in their better future.

You can also show them that while you may be more expensive than other lawyers, you’re worth it. You have more experience, offer something others don’t offer, and provide more value and better “customer service” than other lawyers.

Most of this can be done before you speak to them, that is, via articles and posts on your website and in your marketing documents.

(2) Offer to “work with them”

That is, suggest that they hire you for part of the work today and the rest at a later date. You can make things more attractive for them by allowing them to “lock in” the fee they would have paid had they hired you for everything at once. You can also allow them to use a credit card or other financing options.

(3) Let them go

Tell them, in essence, “I’m sorry, let me know when things change for you”. When they want what you offer enough, they’ll find a way to pay for it. Stay in touch with them and remind them that you can still help them.

You can also offer to refer them to another attorney who charges less, which often helps them to decide that no, they really want you.

What you shouldn’t do is cut your fee.

Quoting fees (and getting them) starts with an unshakeable belief in the value of what you do. You can’t possibly expect clients to see this value if you don’t see it yourself.

Remember, there will always be people who can’t afford you and people who can. Target those who can and you won’t have to worry about the ones who can’t.

How to quote fees, invoice properly, and get paid. Go here

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Filed Under: Closing the sale, Fees and Billing, Salesmanship
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