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

Post-election advice

November 9, 2016 by
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You won. Or lost. You’re thrilled. Or miserable. My advice? If you need it, take a day off to have a pity party, or to celebrate, and then, get back to work.

Don’t get caught up in what someone else might do to you or for you. You are the captain of your own ship and you can sail it anywhere you choose.

Don’t wish for things to be different, make them different. Don’t focus on what you don’t have or don’t want, focus on how good you have it and what you can do to make it even better.

Dive into your work and create your own future. Your days are numbered so make the best of them. Starting today. Or tomorrow.

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Filed Under: Inspiration

I promise I will get you ten new clients

November 8, 2016 by
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When I was a nine or ten-year-old punk, I went to a summer day camp. The guy who owned the camp picked us up in a yellow school bus and took us to parks to play games and do other outdoorsy things. Sometimes, he took us to do indoorsy things like bowling.

One day, I had a particularly good bowling outing but I had bowled ten frames and was done for the day. I didn’t want to be done, I wanted to keep bowling, so I got creative.

The camp owner’s five-year-old son was with us and he had not had a good game. C’mon, he was five. He could barely roll the ball all the way to the pins. His name was Scotty (and no, I don’t know how I remember that) and I asked Scotty to let me bowl a frame for him. “I promise I’ll get you a strike,” I said.

Scotty resisted my offer but finally relented. I’ll tell you what happened in a minute.

I thought about this story this morning as I was thinking about the election. Bowling promises and campaign promises? Why not?

Anyway, as lawyers, we would love to be able to promise results to our clients, but we can’t do it. Aside from the fact that it’s ethically verboten, and the fact that we lose all credibility when we can’t deliver on our promise, it’s bad marketing because most people won’t believe you.

Better to say you’ll try. Give it your best. Or point your finger at the camera and proclaim, “I’ll fight for you!”

Your marketing messages should demonstrate your prowess by showing what you have done for other clients and making the case for hiring you. But then edit them and back off on the chest pounding a bit and inject a dose of humility into the picture. Let people can see that you’re not just saying what you think they want to hear.

It’s called verisimilitude–the appearance of truth. Because sometimes, the truth sounds too good to be true.

Unfortunately, had I told Scotty that I would do my best to get him a strike, he probably would have turned me down. I had to promise a strike. But hey, we were kids and kids will say anything to get what they want. Just like politicians.

So, what happened? I bowled a strike. Scotty was happy, I was happy (relieved), and the other campers who had heard my boast were impressed.

But I wonder if there might have been a better lesson for us kids had I not rolled that strike. Perhaps we would have learned that we can’t always trust things that are promised to us or that we shouldn’t look to others to make us successful, we have to learn how to do it ourselves.

Nah, screw that. We were kids having fun and there’s nothing wrong with that. I promise.

Get this and you might get a lot more referrals

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Filed Under: Marketing legal services

What to do when you find out your friend is a moron

November 7, 2016 by
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What do you do when you find out your friend is a moron? You see their post on social media or a bumper sticker on their car or they simply tell you who they support for President in the upcoming election and. . . you think. . . they are out of their friggin mind.

You’re shocked. Angry. Your friend is a fool. A dummkopf. A dunderhead.

How could they be so ignorant? How can they turn a blind eye to the evil that is their candidate?

You want to talk some sense into them. Convince them to change their mind.

I recommend you don’t do it. You can’t fix stupid.

You can love them, pray for them, try to see the good in them, but God knows, you can’t fix them.

And if you want my advice, you shouldn’t even try. You’ll just make things worse.

Let it go. Or. . . let them go. They’re not who you thought they were so walk away and don’t look back.

Don’t get angry. Don’t be sad. Move on. One day they might see the light.

Now, I know that a lot of people won’t follow this advice. They like to fix people. And they feel guilty if they don’t at least try.

I have some advice for the fixers of the world.

If you’re trying to convince someone that they’re wrong about their candidate (or about anything, actually), the first thing you have to do is realize that they’re probably not going to listen to you.

They know you, and while they may love you and respect you, they don’t necessarily see you as an expert on this topic. They’re not buying what you’re selling.

However, while you can’t convince them that your point of view is the correct one, you might help them to convince themselves.

How? By steering them towards information and opinions provided by someone your friend doesn’t know.

Your friend won’t listen to you but they might listen to a stranger.

It’s called “third party”. It’s what we use when we submit evidence in court. We present documented facts and expert opinions and let the evidence do the persuading for us.

But here’s the thing. When you present this evidence to your friend, you run the risk of exposing yourself and having your friend think that you’re the fool. As we are told, it is usually “Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.”

So there you go. You’re all set for this election cycle. I’ll see you on the other side.

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Filed Under: Personal development

The best way to drive the growth of your law practice

November 4, 2016 by
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What is the best way to drive the growth of your law practice? To answer that question, you must first identify your most important marketing metric.

It might be the number of leads you get each week, that is, prospective clients who call your office or fill out a form on your website. It might be the number of appointments you book for a free consultation. Or the number of subscribers to your email list.

Whatever it is, once you have identified your most important metric, focus on it, track it, and take action each week to make that number grow.

Tracking your numbers is simple. If your metric is “leads,” for example, when people call you after you speak or do a presentation, ask them where they heard you. When you advertise or write articles and offer a free report, insert a code or tag to identify where those leads originated.

This allows you to not only track your leads but identify your best sources of those leads.

Record your numbers in a spreadsheet or on a form. Report your results to your partners and your accountant. Think about your numbers every day and program your subconscious mind to help you find ways to make them grow. When you read marketing information, zero in on methods that pertain to your most important metric.

You can also work on improving your “closing” skills so you sign up a higher percentage of prospective clients. That’s always a good thing to do. But if you don’t do it, or you aren’t good at it (yet), it won’t matter. As long as your most important metric is growing, your practice is growing.

The formula for growing your law practice

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Filed Under: Marketing legal services Tagged With: , ,

You can stop marketing if you do THIS

November 3, 2016 by
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You can forget about blogging. Speaking. Networking. You’ll never have to run another ad, write another article, or push out another post on social media. Unless you’re a brand new lawyer just starting your practice, you can stop all of your other marketing efforts if you want to, if you’re willing to do one thing.

It’s what I did when I was practicing and it allowed me to build a successful practice in a short period of time. It is the quintessential method of growing a professional practice and you’re already using it to some extent.

You may know this magic elixir by its generic name: referrals. You get them now, don’t you? If you’re like most lawyers, however, you could be getting more.

A lot more.

Your clients and business contacts know people who need your services, or who will need your services eventually, and they are willing to send them to you. They also know people who know people who need your services, aka, other professionals and business contacts, and they are willing to introduce them to you.

So, why not let the people you know do your marketing for you?

You can do that by making it easier for them to send you referrals, by creating forms and letters and a simple system for getting them into their hands.

You can get more referrals by mailing or emailing or handing out a letter that does everything for you. You don’t have to say anything more than, “here”.

If you do good work and treat your clients well, they want to help you. They also want to help the people they know who need your services.

Instead of merely waiting for them to figure out what to do, give them a letter that spells it out. Make it easier for them to refer and you will get more referrals.

You can read all about it here and here.

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Filed Under: Referrals

Torturing the cat before my first cup of coffee

November 2, 2016 by
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My cat is sick. We thought it was a cold he got when we boarded him recently when we were out of town. He’s never had a cold before and we figured he would get better on his own. When he didn’t, we took him to the vet and they said it was a good thing we did because what he had could kill him.

So now we’re in the middle of twice-daily doses of two antibiotics and an antihistamine. Unfortunately, our little guy won’t let us give him a pill and he won’t eat food that is adulterated with anything else so we are forced to deliver his meds by squirting them into his mouth with a hypodermic (minus the needle).

Seamus is a feisty Tuxedo and strong as hell. I hold him while my wife does the deed. I have to let him go each time while she re-loads because he fights me and claws me. I have the scars to prove it.

My wife and I hate doing this to him and he hates having it done. But we go through this routine, twice a day, because it has to be done.

I think that somehow, Seamus knows it has to be done. Yes, he tries to hide every time he sees me coming to grab him, but there’s a look of resignation in his eyes when I do.

Okay, so the point. The point is that whether it’s dosing the cat or marketing legal services, we all have to do things we don’t want to do. That’s life.

The other point is that when you put more of yourself into your emails–your personal life, client stories, observations about world or local events or about people you know–your emails are more interesting to your readers who would rather read about your sick cat than the rule against perpetuities.

It also makes your emails easier to write. And quicker. I shot this out in about five minutes while I waited for the coffee to brew.

Don’t know what to write about? Write about your world and the people (and animals) in it.

If you want more ideas about what to write about, get this

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Filed Under: Email, Writing
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