Attorney marketing and making money from people who don’t hire you

December 11, 2015 by
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I know, I know, you’re busy thinking about what you’re going to get your aunt for Christmas, but I’ve got a couple of things you might want to make time for this weekend.

The first is an interview I did with attorney Christopher Small for his podcast, The Art of Lawyering. We talked about the essential elements of attorney marketing, the keys to a good website, referrals, and of course, my story in all it’s sordid details.

Chris asked me some interesting questions. I hope you think I gave equally interesting answers. You can download the mp3 or listen online on this page.

I also recorded a new video for my YouTube channel. The title is, How to Make Money From Clients Who DON’T Hire You. It’s about a simple way attorneys are earning more income in their practice. Simple, but probably not something you would have thought of. I know I hadn’t, until another attorney told me about it.

It’s also about how I was able to retire from practicing law. Yep, the truth is finally revealed.

Here’s the link to the video.

I’m going to do more YouTube videos, so make sure you subscribe to the channel and you’ll be notified whenever new videos are posted.

Peace!

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Filed Under: Marketing legal services Tagged With:

How to get good at marketing legal services

December 10, 2015 by
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Getting good at any skill, including marketing, is by and large a process of learning and doing. The more you learn, the more knowledge you can call upon. The more you do, the more your decisions will be informed by your experiences and the more agile you will be in performing the activities.

You’ll get faster, make fewer mistakes, achieve better results, and eventually earn your boy scout badge.

But it’s not a matter of learning it once and then doing it. Once you do the activities and observe the results, you go back to learning.

You re-read what you read before, but get more out of it because of the context of having done the activities. You read (watch, listen to, etc.) more advanced materials and pick up nuances that would previously been over your head. You talk to experts and learn new systems and methods you can incorporate into your mix.

And then you go back to doing.

Back and forth, learning and doing, learning and doing. Until you are good enough that others look to you as someone who knows what they’re doing.

And that’s where something else comes into play: teaching. When you are able to take your new skill and and help others develop that skill, that’s when you will learn the most.

And you can start doing that sooner than you think.

You may not know everything there is to know but you know more than others. If you want to get really good at marketing legal services, for example, find some lawyers and teach them what you know. Start a newsletter, blog, or Facebook group and invite them to join you.

Then, watch how much better you get at the skills you’re teaching, because the teacher always learns the most.

If you are go through one of my courses tonight to learn it so you can use it in your practice, you may miss things, at least the first time through. If you know you have to teach that course to other lawyers tomorrow, however, you’ll read more intently, take better notes, internalize the information, and be a step closer to mastery.

If you want to get good at any subject, learn it and do it and keep at it until you can teach it.

Start learning about marketing legal services with this

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Filed Under: Marketing legal services, Personal development

3 ways to make networking less painful

December 9, 2015 by
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You know that networking is a great way to build your practice or advance your career but you avoid doing it because it makes you uncomfortable. One reason you feel that way, no doubt, is because you feel compelled to perform.

You’re supposed to be calm, cool, and collected, but you’re not. You’re supposed to come home with a pocketful of business cards but you get tongue-tied and beat yourself up for not meeting your quota.

You’ve read the books about how to make a good impression, start a conversation and keep it going, but there’s too much to remember and you’re not sure you’re doing it right.

No wonder you hate networking. It’s like handling a jury trial the day after you’ve been sworn in.

You don’t have to be good on day one. Give yourself permission to be bad:

1) Forget the rules

Be yourself. Relax. Meet a few people, shake a few hands, and go home.

If you’re uncomfortable, don’t try to act like you’re not. In fact, tell people how you feel. Poke fun at yourself. Watch and listen and don’t worry about anything else.

No agenda, no goals, no pressure. Just go somewhere there are people you don’t know and be normal.

When the pressure is off and you can be yourself, you might actually enjoy yourself, or at least not hate the experience as much as you thought you would. From there, you can grow.

2) Get a wingman

If you’re attending an event for the first time and not looking forward to it, bring someone with you, someone who is outgoing and can help you. Someone who can talk you down when you feel like calling it an early night.

If not, eventually some good soul will see you standing by yourself, come talk to you and take you under their wing. Hang out with them. Watch them introduce themselves to other people. Listen to how they start conversations.

They will introduce you to others. If they’re real good, those others will have something in common with you and you’ll be able to take it from there.

3) Start with easy

Your first time out, go to an event that is unlikely to have prospective clients or referral sources. That way, there’s nothing at stake and you can practice meeting people without fear of embarrassing yourself or blowing a great opportunity.

Go to a car show, for example, if you know something about cars, and talk to some of the vendors. Ask questions and have fun.

Allow yourself to be not very good at networking and you might just keep at it until you are.

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Filed Under: Marketing legal services, Networking

Marketing legal services when you don’t want to

December 8, 2015 by
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Real estate investor and business expert Barbara Corcoran said in an interview that chasing unfamiliar new markets is a fast track to failure.

“I’ve watched so many people much smarter than me loses much money as I’ve made. You know what they forgot? They forgot to invest in their own backyard-what they knew. They heard [another] market was phenomenal and off they went, and lost their shirts”.

When it comes to marketing and building your law practice, are you investing in your backyard? Are you doing what you know and understand? Or are you taking on initiatives you know nothing about?

Many attorneys are so inexperienced and timid about marketing that just about everything is unfamiliar. That’s how they get hoodwinked into writing big checks to companies that promise to deliver a steady stream of clients. That’s how they wind up getting poor results from marketing techniques they dabble with and abandon.

Most attorneys who are successful at marketing use only a handful of techniques to find and reach out to prospective clients and referral sources. Ultimately, you’ll probably find that this is true for you. But specific techniques, like getting a more effective website, networking, advertising, and the like, are less important than the strategies behind them, and this is what you have to get your head around first.

It does you little good to commission a new website if you haven’t first bought into the strategy of creating valuable content for people who are searching for it. Networking with other lawyers who might send you referrals is a waste of time if you aren’t committed to helping them.

When I consult with an attorney, I ask about what they are doing presently to market their practice. I want to know which techniques they are using but I’m really listening to find out if they embrace the strategies behind them. If they don’t, I know we have a lot of work to do.

To my dismay, I often find that the attorneys I’m speaking to haven’t accepted the need to do any marketing.

Yeah, that’s a problem.

If marketing is unfamiliar territory for you, before you take the plunge and possibly lose your shirt, you must examine your beliefs about marketing. If you believe you can build a successful practice without it, if your ego makes you say things like, “I shouldn’t have to do any of this,” you’re not going to get very good results no matter which strategies or techniques you use.

On the other hand, if you believe that marketing is essential and you are open to learning what to do and getting better at doing it, your attitude will make all the difference.

You can conquer unfamiliar territory by becoming familiar with it. But you won’t do that unless you want to.

New to marketing legal services? Start here

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Filed Under: Marketing legal services, Personal development, success

Running a law practice like a restaurant

December 7, 2015 by
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The restaurant business is an especially challenging business model. There is so much money at stake, and so many things that can go wrong, it’s no wonder that so many restaurants fail. And yet, when you get it right, a restaurant can be remarkably profitable.

Customers come back again and again, word-of-mouth brings more business, and before you know it, you’re hobnobbing with the culinary elite. Or something like that.

In a way, a law practice is like a restaurant. You’re in the service business. You have to get a lot of little details right. Your menu is similar if not identical to the menu offered by the lawyer next door. If you want your customers to come back, you have to please them. If there’s a problem, you have to fix it.

When a restaurant insists on being right, they often win the battle and lose the war. Charging an extra $1.50 for a slice of cheese on a burger, or being overly aggressive in pushing customers to order appetizers or dessert, may earn a higher profit on that customer’s visit but it may also be decidedly shortsighted.

When a customer comes into your establishment, as the owner of that restaurant your primary goal shouldn’t be to earn as much as possible from each transaction. Your primary goal is to make the customer want to return.

Running a law practice is no different.

Even if you predominately have one-time clients who never need your services again, you should bend over backwards to please them because each one-time client can send you referrals. And they will, if you treat them right.

Opening a law office requires only a fraction of the capital investment required by a restaurant. Your investment comes later. Each time you give your clients more value, you are investing in their return and referrals.

I hear tales of lawyers arguing with their clients over a $100 billing issue. That’s silly. Let them win, even if they are wrong, even if they are taking advantage of you. In most cases, your investment will pay off.

No, don’t be a sucker. If a client fights you over everything and is making you and your staff miserable, you have to draw the line.

Tell them to try the restaurant down the street.

How to handle billing issues like a pro

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Filed Under: Client relations, Fees and Billing, Law office management, Marketing legal services, success

Yes, you’re busy but are you getting things done?

December 4, 2015 by
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You keep a list of things you need to do each day, right? If you’re good at this list making thing, you highlight the two or three (or five) most important tasks of the day. Even better, you write your list the night before so you can hit the ground running the next morning.

Good stuff. You’re getting things done. Important, valuable things that create value for you and your clients and advance you towards your most important goals.

Or are you?

Some list-makers aren’t that good at deducing their most important tasks and spend too much time putting out fires and doing whatever else is put in front in front of them. Others are good at making lists of important tasks but not so good at getting them done.

If that describes you, even a little, I have a suggestion. At the end of the day, before you write your list for the morrow, write down what you did that day. A “done” list, that shows you what you actually did.

Actually, if you’re especially clever (and unafraid of the truth), instead of writing down what you did, write down what you accomplished. Because being busy isn’t worth squat.

At the end of the day, ask yourself, “What did I achieve today?” If you like the answer, great. You will be motivated to accomplish more the following day. If you don’t like the answer, if you realize that you’re keeping busy but you’re not accomplishing important things, you’ll either do something about that or you’ll stop writing a list of accomplishments and go back to just being busy.

Because success is a choice.

Building a successful law practice starts with having a plan

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Filed Under: Personal development, Productivity, success, Time Management Tagged With: ,

How to make rain at holiday parties

December 3, 2015 by
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I got an email from an attorney friend and subscriber who is hosting a holiday party for 80 clients, referral sources, and prospective clients. He asked me for ideas about how to get more business out of the event, “either at the event itself or soon thereafter”.

He’s a sharp cookie and an astute marketer. He buys all my stuff. Yeah, he’s that smart.

Anyway, his question is a good one. What can you do to leverage the event to build your practice? What might you say to the guests? Do you hand out anything? Announce anything? Invite them to see or do something?

The answer is no. Don’t do any of those things. Just be a good host.

You don’t want to be “that guy” who turns a festive gathering into a sales pitch. You don’t want people to question your motives for inviting them to a party.

Be a good host. Enjoy the event and make sure your guests do, too.

As host, your job is to introduce your guests to each other. Say something nice about each one and make sure the other person knows what they do. This will stimulate conversations among your guests, which is always a good thing, especially if they talk about you and how you’ve helped them. Your guests may make some new friends. They may also get some business from those new friends.

And you get the credit for introducing them, you yenta, you.

By the way, you should do this at parties where you aren’t the host. At networking events, too. Be a matchmaker. Introduce people to other people.

After your party, send everyone a note thanking them for coming. Tell them you enjoyed seeing them again (or meeting them) and you’d love to get together with them sometime soon.

No agenda. No offers. Just friends.

Later, when you meet with them or talk to them again, look for ways you can help them in their business or personal life. If you have something going on–an event, a special offer, news–go ahead and share it. But keep the focus on them.

When these people see your name on caller ID, or see your email or letter, you want them to smile and eagerly take your call or read your letter. You want them to think fondly of you and be glad to know you. You don’t want them to lump you in with everyone else who is pitching something.

They already know what you do. Stay in touch with them, help them, and when they need your services or know someone who does, they won’t call anyone else.

Learn how to grow your practice and income: The Attorney Marketing Formula

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Filed Under: Marketing legal services, Networking, Relationship marketing Tagged With:

What you focus on grows

December 2, 2015 by
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What are you focused on right now? If you said, “doing client work,” or something similar, I understand. You have bills to pay so you draft documents, negotiate settlements, or attend hearings because, well, that’s what you do.

If you want more work like that, great. Keep thinking about that, because what you focus on grows.

But what if you want more? What if you want better clients or bigger cases? What if you want to dramatically grow your practice and income?

If you do, you have to stop focusing on your work and maintaining the status quo and start focusing on the future you’d like to create.

Because what you focus on grows.

Think about the kinds of clients and cases you want. Think about the bigger fees you’d like to charge. Think about getting referrals every day, and about what your practice will look like when it is running smoothly and efficiently and helping you create the lifestyle of your dreams.

When you change your focus from your current reality to the way you’d like things to be, your subconscious mind goes to work and helps you create that future. It causes you to notice things you have previously ignored. It helps you meet the right people and say just the right things, organize your thoughts and priorities, and re-distribute your energy.

Your thoughts create your reality.

So think about the reality you’d like to create. Pretend you have a magic wand and can make it come true with a simple flourish. What would your new reality look like? Write that down.

Then, think about it often. Read your description several times a day. Imagine your better future in all it’s glory. If those thoughts feel good when you think them, you’re on the right track. You will be guided towards the activities you need to start or modify or eliminate, and you will start moving towards your better future.

If you have doubts, if a “yes but” inserts itself into your thoughts, acknowledge it and then let it float away. Those are old tapes playing old messages and you should just let them go.

Think about what you want, not why you can’t have it, and you will attract what you want. Because what you focus on grows.

You need a marketing plan. You can get one here

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Filed Under: Increase your income, Inspiration, Personal development, success Tagged With:

What won’t you do today?

December 1, 2015 by
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Just because someone called doesn’t mean you have to call them back. You could have someone call them for you, you could send them a letter or email, or you could ignore them.

The choice is yours.

Just because people want to talk to you, meet with you, or have you look at something doesn’t mean you have to do it. You could say no.

Warren Buffett once said, “the difference between successful people and very successful people is that very successful people say “no” to almost everything.”

What will you say no to today?

What meeting won’t you attend? What tasks won’t you do?

If you say “no” to almost everything, you’ll have more time, won’t you, to do the few things that matter most? You’ll be able to work on projects that advance you towards your most important goals, instead of simply getting things done.

Go through your lists of tasks and projects and ideas and choose a few that allow you to use your skills and create value for your clients. That’s what you should be doing, and that means saying no to just about everything else.

If you’re like most people, saying no to most things might free up several hours a day. What important projects could you complete if you had even an extra hour per day?

To be more productive and more successful you must first know your priorities. If you have 100 things on a list only a few will make the cut. What are those few? What are your top priorities?

Once you know, the next step is to prioritize your priorities. Every day ask yourself, “What are the two or three most important tasks to do today?” Do them, ideally early in the day, before you do anything else.

If you finish early, you can choose another important task and do that, you could do a few less important tasks, or you can go home.

Yes, go home.

If you do your most important tasks today, your day will be successful. Even if you don’t do anything else.

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Filed Under: Personal development, Productivity, success, Time Management

Dragon NaturallySpeaking demo

November 30, 2015 by
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I just posted a YouTube video demo of me using Dragon NaturallySpeaking software. It’s not a complete review but you’ll get to see how it works. You will also see errors, but those are my errors, not the software. The software is extremely accurate and that’s why I use it now in all my writing.

Direct link: https://youtu.be/oXeAWB190G0

Post any comments or questions below or on YouTube.

These videos are fun to do and I’m sure I’ll do more of them. (I’m sure I’ll get better at them, too!) Subscribe to the channel and you’ll be notified whenever I post a new video.

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Filed Under: Productivity, Technology, Writing Tagged With: , ,
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