David M. Ward – Page 232

Should you “sell” in every email?

January 18, 2016 by David M. Ward

You have an email list. You regularly mail to clients and prospects. Should every email promote (sell) something?

Yes.

You have services that provide solutions to problems. You owe it your subscribers to do everything you can to persuade them to avail themselves of those services. If you don’t, their problems and their pain will continue. They won’t get what they want and need.

So yes, sell your services in every email. But that doesn’t mean every email should be a full-on sales letter.

You can sell your services by educating subscribers about problems and solutions and providing a link where they can get more information. You can sell yourself as the provider of those services by sharing ideas and information that show people how you think and how you do what you do.

Every email should sell, but come at the sale in different ways.

Talk about your clients. Tell stories about where they were before they found you and where they are today. Talk about people who chose other solutions, or waited too long before they came to you, and made their situation worse.

Talk about things you do outside of the office, about your passions and hobbies, and about the important people in your life, to show people what makes you tick and what it would be like to know and work with you.

With some emails, you should overtly talk about the four corners of your services and why people need them. In other emails, just mention your services and provide a link so people can find out more.

Because I email frequently, most of my emails are designed to show subscribers that I know what I’m doing and that I can help them. A little education, a little entertainment, and a link to something in a P.S.

When I release a new product or service, I send out emails that talk about nothing else.

But every email sells something.

You want to get more clients and increase your income, yes? Here’s how to get more referralsÂ

Filed Under: Email, Marketing legal services, Salesmanship, Writing

If I had a time machine. . .

January 15, 2016 by David M. Ward

One of my favorite themes in science fiction is time travel. Last night, I re-watched an episode of Doctor Who where The Doctor and Amy visit Vincent Van Gogh. It seems that this is a favorite episode for many fans of the show, in particular because of the moving and brilliantly portrayed final scene.

No spoilers from me. It’s Season 5, Episode 10, Vincent and the Doctor (with Matt Smith as The Doctor). It’s on Netflix, but if you must, I think you can find the final scene on YouTube.

If I had access to a time machine, I wouldn’t visit the future. Now now, anyway. I’d be afraid of what I might see.

No, I would visit the past, including my childhood and days as a younger adult. No doubt I’d laugh at my younger world view, ideas, plans, and how I spent my time. I’m sure I would cringe at my feeble attempts at humor.

What would I tell my younger self? In truth, I wouldn’t talk to myself. That’s a time travel no no. Something about a paradox. Okay, revealing my inner nerd.

But I might leave myself a message.

What would I say? I would tell myself to think less and do more. To cherish every day of life and live it to the fullest.

I would tell myself that there will be many times when I will have a decision to make and I will choose to play it safe. Instead, I would counsel myself to take more risks. I would share Helen Keller’s observation that “Life is either a daring adventure or it is nothing.”

And then, before I came back to the present, I would leave myself one moreÂ note: “1984 Apple. 1997 Amazon. You’re welcome.”

Hey, don’t look down on me. Time machines are expensive!

Filed Under: Inspiration, Just for fun, Personal development

What would you do if you knew you could not fail?

January 14, 2016 by David M. Ward

One of my favorite quotes is from the late Dr. Robert Schuller, who, in his books and in his sermons often asked, “What would you do if you knew you could not fail?”

Asking yourself this question forces you to think about what you really want instead ofÂ what you think you’re supposed to do. It helps you to bypass your doubts and fears and speak the truth. It asks you to temporarily suspend your logical left brain and listen to your creative right side.

When I’ve mentioned this quote in the past, it has always been in the context of the big picture. Major career changes, for example.

If you asked me this question about my work right now, my answer would be completely illogical. It’s something creative, something I’ve never done before and, as far as I know, something I have no innate talent for. But if I knew I could not fail, it’s exactly what I would do.

Unfortunately, I know I could fail. So I’m not going to do it. Not now, anyway. I’ve got too much other stuff on my plate. They say, “trust your gut,” for a reason, and right now, my gut is telling me to wait.

Odd, isn’t it? My gut is telling me what to do if I knew I would not fail and also telling me to wait? I think God likes to mess with us.

Anyway, this morning, I was thinking about this question and I realized that we can also use it to make smaller decisions.

If you are scheduled to deliver a presentation, for example, and you’re not sure which topic to choose, asking the “cannot fail” question might guide you towards choosing the ideal, albeit not obvious (or logical) choice.

When I say ideal, I don’t just mean something you would prefer to do but are allowing other factors to stop you. I mean ideal in the sense that it might lead to superlative results.

One topic might get mild applause. Another topic, the one you would choose if you knew you could not fail, might attract someone in the audience who is so affected by your presentation that they invite you to deliver it again to a bigger and more influential group.

What if you’re wrong? Yes, that might happen. But what if you’re right?

How to getÂ more referrals from other professionals: go here

Filed Under: Career satisfaction, Personal development, success Tagged With: decision making, quotes

Do more of what works

January 13, 2016 by David M. Ward

Let’s talk about your practice. And get you more clients like your favorite client.

So who is your favorite client? Don’t give this a lot of thought. What’s the first name that comes to mind?

Got it? Okay, now why are they your favorite, or one of your favorites?

Is it their personality? Is it because they pay you lots of money? Is it because they don’t question you or complain?

Maybe all of the above. Maybe something else.

Whatever it is, write it down. In fact, you should probably write down all of this because once we’re done here, you’ll want to do this for your next favorite client. Maybe your top ten.

Now, think about where you met your favorite client or how they found you. What did you do that precipitated their becoming a client?

Were they a referral? Answer your ad? Did you meet them networking? Did they find you online?

Whatever it was that brought you together, you should probably continue doing it. If your ad in a certain journal brought them to your door, no doubt you’d like other clients like him to find you the same way.

If they found you online, what did they search for? What page did they land on? What did they do after that, and what finally convinced them to take the next step and contact you?

Next, it’s time to do a deep dive into your favorite client’s world. Find out what they do and who they know.

The Law of Association says that we tend to be like the people with whom we associate most. Your client’s friends and colleagues, therefore, are likely to have similar attributes, needs, and the ability to pay, and your favorite client can refer them to you.

Find out what your favorite client reads, who he listens to, and where he spends his time. Study him. Become on expert on him. This is valuable intel. Use it in your marketing so you can do more of what’s working, and get more clients like your favorite client.

How to create a profile of your ideal client

Filed Under: Marketing legal services, Marketing Plan Tagged With: ideal client, Law of Association

Bad clients are the result of bad marketing

January 12, 2016 by David M. Ward

Bad clients are the result of bad marketing.

What do I mean by bad clients? Hmm, let’s see. . . how about. . .

Malcontents who blame you for things that aren’t your fault and then post bad reviews and ratings about you.

Price shopping clients, penny pinching clients, slow paying clients, and no paying clients.

Clients who don’t follow your advice, don’t show up for appointments, and don’t remember anything you told them.

You get my drift?

Every lawyer gets the occasional lemon, but if you get more than your share, bad marketing is usually the culprit.

SoÂ what do I mean by bad marketing?

I mean targeting the wrong market, or, more commonly, no market, so you wind up with whatever shows up at the door.

I mean relying too much on Internet and advertising, which attract price shoppers and harder to please clients, instead of focusing on repeat business and referrals.

I mean failing to educate prospective clients about the law and procedure, their risks and their options, or much of anything without the meter running. Low information clients are like low information voters. They don’t understand, they don’t appreciate, and they don’t alwaysÂ make good decisions.

Bad marketing means talkingÂ only about features (what you do–practice areas, services, office hours, etc.) instead of benefits (what the client gets–solutions, outcomes, peace of mind, security).

Bad marketing meansÂ failing to differentiate yourself from other lawyers in a meaningful and memorable way.

It means failing to surprise and delight your clients with amazing “customer service,” and failing to stay in touch before, during, and after engagements.

Bad marketing also means taking on clients you know you probably shouldn’t, and failing to “fire” clients who prove themselves to be more trouble than they are worth.

Oh yeah, bad marketing also means doing all the right things but simply not doing them enough.

So yeah, bad clients are the result of bad marketing, but this is good news because bad marketing can be fixed and bad clients can be replaced with good ones.

Good marketing starts here

Filed Under: Communication, Law office management, Marketing legal services, Online Marketing, Writing

If Goldilocks handled your law firm marketing

January 11, 2016 by David M. Ward

Is your porridge too hot? Do you give prospective clients too much information on your website or in your other marketing materials?

Probably not. If you’re like most lawyers, your porridge is too cold. Your give them too little. Prospective clients can see what you do and where you are located, but not much more.

If Goldilocks handled your law firmÂ marketing, she would tell you that you have to get your porridge just right.

How much information is “just right”? More than you think. When someone goes online to find an attorney it’s because they have a problem and they want information about their problem and the available solutions before they will consider you for the job.

Don’t just list your practice areas and services. That’s not enough. That’s too cold.

Teach people about the law and procedure. Discuss the risks and the options. Tell them about other people who have had these problems and, with your help, overcame them. Tell them about peopleÂ who waited too long or made the wrong decisions and made things worse.

But don’t expect them to wade through too much information and understand how it all fits together. That’s too hot.

You need to give people enough information so they can see how you can help them, and make it compelling enough to motivateÂ them to take the next step.

You have to capture their attention with provocative and benefit-rich headlines. You have to keep them reading with a narrative thread that speaks to their emotions and shows them that you understand their pain. You have to tell them that you can help them, like you have helped others. And you haveÂ to tell them what to do next.

But don’t explain everything. You want to make them curious enough to contact you. Don’t get too specific about fees on your website, for example. Give them guidelines, perhaps, but make them call to find out more.

So that’s the challenge. That’s the art of marketing. And porridge making. Not too hot, not too cold. . . just right.

Learn how to make your online law firm marketing just right: click here

Filed Under: Communication, Copywriting, Marketing legal services, Online Marketing, Writing

Time is money. Unless it’s not.

January 8, 2016 by David M. Ward

If you bill by the hour, time literally is money. You get paid based on how many hoursÂ you work. If you offer flat fees, contingency fees, or anything other than hourly billing, however, time isn’t money. It’s just time.

WhenÂ you bill by the hour, there are only four ways you can increase your income. You can raise your hourly fee. You can work more hours. You can lower your overhead. Or you can hire people to do some of the work and pay them less per hour than you bill your client.

Unless you use one or more of these methods, you can’t increase your income. Bringing in more clients won’t do it because there are only so many hours you can bill in a day.

If you want to earn more, instead of selling your time, you should be selling your advice or your problem-solving solutions. Not only will you earn more per client, the more clients you bring in, the more you will earn.

If you charge $400 per hour and bill out $2000 per day, you’re earning $10,000 per week, which is nothing to sneeze at. But you’ll never earn $30,000 per week.

I know it’s “hard” to come up with an alternative to hourly billing that protects you when you estimate too low or when contingencies occur, but it’s not impossible.

First, you need to stop thinking like a lawyer and start thinking like an entrepreneur. Instead of trying to eliminate risk, you will intelligentlyÂ manage risk and use the law of averages to your advantage

If you take on twenty hourly-billed clients who each pay you $5000 to $20,000, or an average of $10,000, you take in $200,000 in gross fees. If you charge flat fees, however, and twenty clients each pay you $15,000, you gross $300,000. Now, if one or two of those twenty clients or cases wind up costing you more than you expected, even double what you expected, you’re still way ahead of the game.

I know I’ve said this many times before but I thought it was time for a reminder. Because time isn’t money. Unless it is.

How to earn more per client:Â hereÂ

Filed Under: Fees and Billing, Increase your income, success

The most important (and neglected) element in legal marketing

January 7, 2016 by David M. Ward

Alrighty then. You’ve got a blog and a newsletter. You crank out reports, ebooks, articles and presentations. You do email. Maybe even social media.

You’ve got this content marketing thing down.

Or do you?

If you’re like many lawyers, there’s something missing from your content. Something important. Something your clients and prospects want to see.

You. There’s not enough “you” in your marketing.

You’ve got the law down. Procedure, too. You obviously know your stuff. Anyone who accesses your content can see that you are qualified to help them. But then so are all of the other lawyers out there who do the same thing.

The thing that differentiates you from your competition, more than anything else, is you.

Because clients buy you before they buy your services.

Clients want to know what it would be like to work with you.

The law? Not that interesting to most people. Clients want to know that you understand it and can work your magic with it and get them some great results (or die trying), but in the end, they are far more interested in hearing about the man or woman behind the curtain.

That’s you.

They want to hear your voice. If not literally (via audio and video and live presentations), through your writing. They want to know your personality, your opinions, and your habits. They want to know about what’s important to you.

They want to know something about your personal life. What do you do when you’re not working?

They want to know about your other clients. How do they feel about you and what you did for them?

They want to know about your staff, your partners, and others with whom you associate, because our associations are a big part of who we are.

They want to know your opinion about things–cases and clients you’ve handled, trends in the law or in their industry or community. Maybe your predictions, too.

They want to know what it would be like to sit in your office, sharing their secrets with you, and looking to you for help.

So put more “you” into your marketing. Not too much, of course. You don’t want to sound like a politician who can’t stop saying “I”. Just enough about yourself so that people can see who you are, not just what you do.

Because people buy you before they buy your services.

Legal marketing is easier when you know The FormulaÂ

Filed Under: Client loyalty, Client relations, Communication, Marketing legal services, Relationship marketing, Writing

How much would you pay for a list of 10,000 prospective clients?

January 6, 2016 by David M. Ward

How much would you pay for a list of 10,000 prospective clients for your services? You get their name and email address and permission to contact them as often as you want.

You can send them information about your services and share success stories about how you have helped other people with similar issues. You can invite them to your webinar or seminar, offer them a free consultation, or make them a special offer on one of your services.

Of course not everyone on the list will hire you. But those who don’t mayÂ know people who need your help and you will probablyÂ get a fair numberÂ of referrals.

I promise you, this isn’t a spam list. Every single person on the list has given permission to be on that list and to have you contact them. They’re also not just a bunch of random names; these people are interested in some aspect of what you do.

Therefore, when you emailÂ the people on this list, the odds are they will know who you are and read what you write.

So, how much would you pay for this list?

Would you pay $10,000? That would actually be a pretty good deal. Some experts say that a list like this is worth $1 per name per month. So if your average client pays you an average fee of $10,000, to cover your costs, all you need is one client from this list in an entire year.

But. . . if this list pays you $1 per name per month, that would be $120,000 in fees over the course of a year.

You might do less. You might do more. It will depend on your average fee, how you go about “closing” clients when they contact you, how often you email them, what you say when you do, and lot of other factors.

Anyway, I’ve got good news and bad news. The bad news is that this list I’ve spoken of doesn’t exist. You can’t buy it or rent it anywhere, for any price. The good news, however, is that you can create a list like this yourself.

You can advertise, drive traffic to a landing page, and get people to opt into your list. You can create content on your web site that attracts search traffic and social sharing and accomplish the same thing. You can promote your website when you speak, when you network, when you write and publish articles and guest posts and whatever else you do to promote your practice.

And, you’re not limited to just 10,000 names. You can build aÂ list as big as you want.

How about some more good news? You might find yourself earning $120,000 per year with a much smaller list. One thousand names might do it, if it’s the right one thousand names and you know how to market to them.

Do you want to know how to build a list of prospective clients? It’s easier than you think and I’ll show you what to do.Â Start with this.

Filed Under: Email, List building, Marketing legal services, Online Marketing

Cheap legal services are too expensive

January 5, 2016 by David M. Ward

I don’t buy a lot of clothing but when I do I favor quality over quantity. One reasonably expensive suit not only looks better than its cheap counterpart, it lasts longer, too. The same goes for dress shirts and shoes.

An article I read this morning agrees with me. It says thatÂ cheap clothes ultimately cost more and recommends buying quality instead.

The same can be said for cheap legal services.

You don’t want people to hire you because you’re cheaper than the other guys. You want them to say, “He costs a bit more but he’s worth every penny.” And you want them to know why.

You want people to understand the risks of hiring an attorney solely because they charge less and the benefits of hiring a high quality albeit more expensive alternative.

Like you.

Most people have a difficult time discerning this difference so it is importantÂ that youÂ educate them. Help them to understand that cheap legal services are usually too expensive.

On the other hand, the smart play in marketing your services isn’t to targetÂ the masses andÂ educate themÂ about this difference. It is to target that segment of the marketÂ who already know this and are willing to pay more to get more.

Target the top 20% of your market and show them a lawyer who costs more and is “worth every penny”.Â Most attorneys don’t do that. They target the bottom 80% of the market and while they might not overtly compete on “price,” it’s obvious that beingÂ competitive on fees is baked into their essence.

You don’t need to be the most expensive lawyer in town, but you should at least be in the top one-third. AndÂ make sure you’re worth it.

How to write an invoice clients want to pay: click here

Filed Under: Attorneys fees, Fees and Billing, Law office management, Marketing legal services