Get my book free on Kindle

August 4, 2016 by
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You may recall that I interviewed appellate attorney Steve Emmert and published that interview as a Kindle book. In the interview, we talked about how he built his “appellate only” practice at a time when other attorneys told him that was not impossible.

He explained what he did to defy the odds and become the top appellate attorney in his market. He offered advice for attorneys who want to start an appellate practice or take theirs to the next level.

Of course, we also talked about marketing and much of what he does is applicable to marketing any practice area.

If you haven’t read “How to Build a Successful Appellate Practice,” for the next few days you can get a free copy here (Note, you don’t need a Kindle device to read Kindle books.)

I’m giving the book away because I have another book coming out about how I conducted the interview and turned it into a book. It shows you how to use “expert interviews” to quickly write and publish a book and use it to promote your practice.

I’ll let you know when the new book is available. In the meantime, get your copy of How to Build a Successful Appellate Practice.

 

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

Don’t wonder what will happen next, decide what happens next

August 3, 2016 by
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Life is a series of decisions. You decide on your career path, your school, your job, your first client and your next. This morning you decided which suit to wear, what to eat for breakfast, and what time to leave for work.

You decided which file to work on first, which message to return first, and what to work on after that.

Most of the decisions you make are not very important or difficult to make. Some are critically important and gut wrenching.

But everything is a decision. Letting a boss, a parent, or a spouse decide for you is a decision. Leaving your fate to God is a decision. Not making a decision is a decision.

Things will happen that you couldn’t have anticipated. But when they do, you decide how to respond.

It’s your life and you get to decide what happens next. As someone put it, “Don’t wonder what will happen next, decide what happens next”.

Don’t let the immensity of your power overwhelm you. You don’t need to plan out the rest of your life or even the rest of the year. You only need to decide what’s next.

When you’re done reading this, what will you do?

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Filed Under: Personal development Tagged With:

Why you should offer a deluxe version of your services

August 2, 2016 by
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Call it whatever you like–elite, exclusive, gold package, platinum package, diamond package, deluxe package, or anything else that suggests a higher level of service and value. Or don’t give it a name at all. But do create a deluxe version of your services and offer it to your clients.

Doing so will allow you to appeal to the higher end of the market that wants or needs additional services, or wants more convenience or the personal touch and are willing to pay for it. You will appeal to a class of clients who want to know they are getting “the best” you offer.

With higher margins on your deluxe package you’ll earn more profit. You’ll also bring in better clients who can refer their well-heeled friends.

But something else will happen, even if you sell very few (or none) of your deluxe packages. The existence of the deluxe package will enhance the perceived value of your regular package.

Prospective clients who can’t afford or don’t want to spend $25,000 on your deluxe package will see your $10,000 package as more affordable and an easier decision. You are more likely to sell more of your regular packages, then, even if they are priced higher than what other lawyers offer.

It’s called juxtaposition. Each package looks different when compared to the other than it would look if you only offered the one. It also gives clients two options, to buy package A or package B, instead of choosing between package A and nothing.

Having a deluxe version also allows you to go back to new clients and offer to let them “upgrade,” giving you two bites at the apple.

What if you already cater to the high-end market and all of your offerings could be considered deluxe compared to what other lawyers offer? Go ahead and create an even more exclusive package. More value, even higher fee.

You could also consider creating entry-level packages that offer fewer services at a lower fee, to appeal to a segment of the market that currently passes you by. Some of these clients will want to upgrade at some point.

Can you do this with contingency fees? Why not? If your regular fee excludes trial, for example, for a slightly higher percentage your deluxe package could include it.

If you only offer hourly fees, it’s time to start thinking about offering flat fees and packages. You’ll thank me later.

Marketing legal services is more profitable when you know The Formula

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Filed Under: Marketing legal services

Do you know your numbers?

August 1, 2016 by
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How many inquiries, leads or calls do you get each month from prospective clients? You need to know that, and you need to know where they are coming from. Which ad? Who referred them? What were they searching for when they found your site?

If you don’t know these things, you won’t know what’s working so you can do more of it, and what’s not working so you can either fix it or move on to other things.

You also need to know how many of your inquiries convert to clients. How many make an appointment? How many keep the appointment? How many sign up?

You need to know this so you can improve your marketing funnel at every step.

Are you getting lots of calls from people who don’t have money to hire you? You need to know that. Are you seeing lots of people who can’t make a hiring decision until they talk to someone? You need to know that too.

You also need to know your numbers so you can establish a baseline and spot trends. Are your numbers different at different times of the year? Are you doing better this month than last month?

You need to know.

Knowing your numbers is a key component to increasing your gross and net income and growing your practice. Set up a simple system to record your numbers on a daily basis and then look at those numbers at least once a month.

If I call you next month and ask you, “How many leads did you get last month?” you should be able to give me a number. If I ask for a breakdown of where they came from, you should be able to provide it. If I ask you how many clients in each category signed up, the answer should be at your fingertips.

Because if you don’t know your numbers, you’re not running your practice, you’re letting it run you.

How to earn more than you ever thought possible

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Filed Under: Law office management Tagged With:

What to do about the legal assistant with a messy desk

July 29, 2016 by
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I once worked in an office with someone who’s desk looked like it had survived World War III. Files and papers strewn across the top, as though a file cabinet had thrown up.

How could anyone work that way? How could anyone get anything done?

I had files on my desk but I kept them in neat stacks. I could quickly find what I needed. I wrote phone numbers and notes on legal pads, not scraps of paper, and then I transferred those notes to the appropriate files.

Reasonably neat and organized, but not obsessively so.

Despite his messiness, the guy did get things done. I’m sure he spent extra time looking for things, but he did his work and did it well.

He had his own style of working. We all do, don’t we? We work at a different pace, our energy levels differ, our short-term priorities might not match, but as long as we get the work done, it shouldn’t matter how we get it done.

You may be aggressive and work at a fast pace and have an employee with a completely different style. He may work slowly, put things aside and come back to them later, and be a perfectionist. You want the work done immediately and your employee’s style may drive you crazy, but do they really have to do it the way you would do it?

The best employers, like the best leaders, don’t micromanage. They lay out the big objectives and let the individuals figure out how to accomplish those objectives.

That’s difficult to do sometimes, especially since your employees are the face of your practice. But you can usually find a way to accommodate an employee’s style without compromising your interests. If you don’t want your clients to see your assistant’s messy desk, for example, you could have them see clients in the conference room.

On the other hand, you could always tell them to shape up or ship out. It might not make you boss of the year but what the hell. If you don’t put your foot down once in awhile, the next thing you know your employees will show up with green hair and spikes in their face.

It’s good to be king.

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Filed Under: Law office management Tagged With:

Never apologize for wanting to get rich

July 28, 2016 by
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More than two hundred years ago, Adam Smith wrote, “it is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker, that we expect our own dinner, but from their regard to their own self-interest.”

Some people mistakenly accuse Adam Smith of promoting selfishness. He was merely pointing out the economic truth that a society prospers because of the collective pursuit of its citizens’ self-interest.

The merchant and the lawyer make the world a better place by pursuing their own needs and wants. They want to do more for their families and themselves. To do that, they create better products and services and sell more of them.

As individuals pursue their own self-interest, they become more industrious. Competition forces them to make better products and offer better service and lower prices. As they do better for themselves, society does better. And the more that society prospers, the more that society can do for others.

Americans are the most generous people on earth, we are told. One reason is that we have more to give.

Everyone is driven by their own self-interest. Even Mother Teresa.

She lived modestly and gave herself to others, with little thought to her own material needs. She was driven by her spiritual needs and worked hard to get her message heard. She wanted others to heed the call to help others. That was her self-interest. By pursuing her self-interest, she did make the world a better place.

Never apologize for wanting to do better. Never feel guilty for earning more than your neighbors, or for wanting to earn more still. You work hard and you deserve it. And the more you do for yourself, the more you can do for others.

If you only do for yourself, however, it can lead to selfishness.

Andrew Carnegie, of the richest men in the world in his day and also one the biggest philanthropists, earned a fortune and then gave most of it away. He said, “Successful men should help the unsuccessful into more productive lives, and a man who neglects this duty and dies rich, dies disgraced.”

Earn as much as possible so you can give away as much as possible. Because avoiding disgrace is clearly in your self-interest.

The formula for earning more than you ever thought possible

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Filed Under: success Tagged With: , ,

Finding your badassery

July 27, 2016 by
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If you’re ready to take your practice to a much higher level, you might have to make a few changes.

Changes in your attitude and your policies. Changes in how to present yourself to prospective clients.

First up: accessibility. You shouldn’t be available to everyone who calls. You’re busy. Highly sought after. Important. And your time is valuable. When someone calls for the first time, they don’t get to speak to you. Maybe not the second time, either. Maybe not until their first appointment. And maybe not even then.

The same goes for email and social media. You shouldn’t reply to every email or every comment on your blog. In fact, you should consider turning off comments altogether.

You can’t be seen spending hours on social media. Nobody wants to hire a lawyer who has time to play games, post pictures of their dinner, and share every detail of their life. Yes, they want you to be “real” but if you’re too real, you’ll scare them off.

Next up: money. You need to charge top dollar and you need to get most or all of it up front. No explanations, no exceptions, if they want to hire you, this is how it works. How can you expect anyone to see you as the best of the best if you do otherwise?

On that note, prospective clients shouldn’t be made to think that hiring you is a given. You are selective. You don’t work with everyone. There is a waiting list and you turn down more clients than you accept. Prospective clients need to fill out a questionnaire and convince you to accept them as a client.

You don’t go to see clients, they come to see you. You don’t use an “away” message in your email because it’s nobody’s business whether you are or aren’t in the office. You don’t explain when or if you will respond to them. You have people they can talk to, but not you.

You’re a rockstar. Everyone wants you, but not everyone can have you.

Rockstars have lots of people who want to hire them and are willing to pay more for the privilege. When you’re a rockstar, clients respect you and your time. They won’t pester you with silly questions or ask for freebies. They’re thankful they can work with someone of your caliber. They don’t want to hear you say, “No soup for you!”

They’ll tell their friends about you but let them know that you are very selective. They might have to wait in line, and even then, you might not accept them as a client.

Of course, you have to deliver. You have to offer services (and service) that are different and better than what everyone else offers. And you have to specialize because people won’t believe that you’re “the best” at everything.

Okay, you get the idea.

Can anyone pull this off? Probably not. You would have to have a little badassery in you to begin with. But maybe you can adapt parts of this approach, and add parts later.

The point is that people want what they can’t have. They don’t want any attorney, they want the best. They want expensive things that not everyone can have. They want to be an insider, a groupie, someone with a backstage pass.

If it’s too easy to have it, they don’t want it as much. So don’t make it easy.

Because if it’s too easy, they might conclude that you need them more than they need you.

The keys to building a successful law practice can be found here

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Filed Under: Image

Opening your own law practice: where do you start?

July 26, 2016 by
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Many lawyers ask me how to go about opening their own law practice. At the risk of sounding glib and too clever for my own good, my short answer is “you just do”.

You find a place to park your carcass and see clients and then you go get some.

Okay, let’s see if we can break this down a bit. I will assume that you don’t have a lot of cash, or you don’t want to spend it up front, which is a good plan even if you do have a lot of cash.

You may be able to do most of your work from home initially, but you will need a place to see clients. So the first step is to find someone who will let you use their conference room or a spare office to do that. You can offer to pay them by the hour or a flat monthly fee or you can do appearances or other legal work to pay for it.

You could do this in any office but there are advantages to renting space in an office occupied by attorneys: access to their library, surrounding yourself with colleagues who can help you when you have a question, and the ability to get overflow work.

Which leads to the next step: getting clients.

First, set up a simple website. Get your own domain name (youname.com) and at least a single page site that describes who you are, what you do, and how to contact you.

Put your domain name and email address (firstname@yourname.com) and phone number on everything: business cards, stationery, email signature, social media profiles, etc.

Next, if you worked for a firm before, contact clients you did work for or know and let them know you’ve opened your own office. Call them personally. Don’t pressure them, just let them know your news. Give them your website. Make a note to contact them again in a month or two.

After that, tell everyone else you know that you’re open for business and send them to your website. Don’t send announcements. Nobody reads them. Send letters or emails. Explain why you opened your own office and the services you are now offering.

Call five or ten of these folks a day and ask how they are doing. You’ve got the time, bub. Ask if they got your letter or email. At the end of the call, say what every new real estate agents says: “If you know anyone who needs/is thinking about. . . please send them my way”.

Plant the seed that you’re open for referrals.

Add this: “Also, I know a lot of attorneys in other areas of practice, so if you know someone with ANY legal need, let me know and I’ll refer them to a good attorney”.

One of the best ways to get referrals from other attorneys is to give them referrals.

When they say they will, say thanks and tell them you’ll be sending them some additional information.

Onward.

When I opened my office, I got most of my first clients from other attorneys, so contact every attorney you know and let them know you’re available for overflow and appearances. See Lawyer to Lawyer Referrals to learn more.

Next, write something. A report or ebook that helps people understand problems and solutions. At the end, tell them how you can help them and the people they know.

Then get that report into as many hands as possible, through as many methods as possible. Let the report sell you and your services. See The 30 Day Referral Blitz on how to write an effective report and how to distribute it.

Now what? Now, you explore other ways for marketing yourself and there are many others. Many ways to get your name in front of people, build a list, expand your website and get more traffic, get more referrals, and otherwise bring in business. Once you start getting clients, there are ways to leverage your relationships to bring in even more.

You can expect the early days to be rough going. They were for me. But today, you have the Internet and a lot of other tools for finding clients, and you also have me. Read my blog, get my courses, educate yourself, and take action every day. Focus on marketing and you will make it.

Is it scary? Hell yes. But so is being unemployed and not knowing what to do, or wanting to open your own office and thinking there’s too much to do and you don’t know where to start.

Now you know where to start. And starting is everything.

The keys to building a successful law practice: click here

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

Do you go to the office on Saturday?

July 25, 2016 by
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When I was practicing, I would often go to the office on Saturdays. Even if it was only for an hour or two, I was able to get a lot of work done because there were no interruptions or distractions.

No ringing phones, no appointments, no secretaries bringing me papers to sign, updating me, or asking questions. Just one block of quiet time and nothing else to do but concentrate on the work.

I would dictate letters and pleadings and instructions, review documents and make notes, and chew my way through a big pile of files. The quiet also allowed me to dive deep into problem files I might not want to look at during the week.

A few hours on Saturday allowed me to catch up on work that had piled up during the week and get ready for the upcoming week.

I often brought files home with me but it wasn’t the same. Unless I had court on Monday and had to prepare for it, those files usually sat unopened.

Once in awhile I would go to the library or a coffee shop and do some work in a different environment. But nothing beat the office, especially when I had come in a little later and knew the air conditioning was going to be turned off at 3pm.

I know, if you’re successful, you shouldn’t have to work on weekends. Or so some say. All I can tell you is that I was successful because I worked on weekends, even if it was just for a few hours.

Building a law practice is easier when you know the formula

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Filed Under: Productivity

It’s cheaper to keep a client than to find a new one

July 22, 2016 by
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Before you invest another dollar or another minute looking for new clients, do yourself a favor and invest in retaining the ones you already have.

It’s cheaper.

They already know you and trust you. They already know what you do and they’ve seen you do it. You don’t have to go looking for them and woo them. You don’t have to do much to get them to hire you again.

Make sense?

So how do you retain clients? For starters, make sure you don’t chase them away.

A recent survey revealed that 23% of “customer complaints” are about rudeness or bad attitude. Hey, that’s an easy one to fix. Be nice, and if you’re already nice, find ways to be nicer.

Next on the list: don’t ignore them. Clients may run away from a rude lawyer, but most clients drift away from the lawyer who doesn’t pay attention to them.

If you ignore your clients, they may forget your name or the reasons they hired you and be easily seduced by the next lawyer who comes along.

That’s also easy to fix. Stay in touch with your clients.

What’s that? You’ve already done the work for them and they are unlikely to need your services again?

Silly boy. Have you forgotten about the referrals they could send you? Have you forgotten that those referrals are  easier to sign up than prospects who hear about you through an ad or online search?

Are you forgetting that if they refer you a client with a legal matter you don’t handle, you can refer them to another lawyer and earn their referrals in return?

Are you ignoring the other ways clients can help you like sending traffic to your website or telling their friends about your free report?

You worked hard to attract prospective clients. Once they hire you, you don’t have to do nearly as much (or spend nearly as much) to retain them.

Is there more to client retention than this? Sure. There are affirmative things you can do to strengthen your relationships and make your clients an advocate for your practice.

But let’s start with being nice and staying in touch.

Your clients want to send you referrals. Here’s how to help them do it

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Filed Under: Client loyalty, Client relations Tagged With:
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