David M. Ward – Page 251

3 Keys to promoting your event or offer

April 13, 2015 by David M. Ward

So you want to get people to register for your seminar, hire you for your service, or buy your new book. What should you do?

Promote it.

Promoting isn’t announcing. Announcing is merely stating the facts. Promoting has an emotional element to it. Here are 3 keys to promoting your event or offer.

(1) Get excited

If you’re not excited about what you are promoting, you can’t expect anyone else to get excited. If they’re not excited, they’re probably not going to look at what you’re offering, let alone sign up.

Start by asking yourself why you are excited about your offer. What’s new about it? What’s different? What will it allow people to do that they can’t do now?

Put your thoughts on paper or record them. Tell people why you are excited and, more importantly, make sure you sound excited.

Don’t go over the top, and don’t make up things. Just share how you feel about it.

Instead of just saying that you are excited, illustrate it. For example, you might say that as soon as you heard about this, you ran to your laptop and started writing. Or at breakfast, you couldn’t stop talking about the upcoming seminar, “just ask my wife!”

(2) Urgency

Tell people why they need to act immediately. Tell them why they should not delay.

What will they gain by taking action now? What will they lose if they don’t?

If there is limited seating or phone lines or quantities, tell them, and be specific. If you’re offering an added benefit for the first ones who respond such as preferred seating, additional bonuses, or lower pricing, tell them.

Make sure they know why they shouldn’t wait, and then tell them what to do: go here, do this, do it now.

(3) Repetition

Don’t tell them once, tell them several times.

They may not have received your email, or read it. They may have been busy with other things and forgot. They may not realize that what you are promoting is as good as you say it is, or believe you when you say you’re not sure it will be repeated.

So tell them again, and tell them in different ways.

In one version of your message, appeal to their desire for gain by emphasizing the benefits. In another message, appeal to their fear of loss by telling how many others have signed up or how many seats are left.

Get excited, use urgency and repetition to promote your event or offer and you’ll get more people signing up.

Filed Under: Communication, Copywriting, List building, Marketing legal services, Presentations, Writing Tagged With: promoting

It’s official: I’m running for President (but don’t vote for me)

April 10, 2015 by David M. Ward

No matter what you think about politics, there’s no question that it can be a great way to advance your professional career. You get to meet a lot of influential people. You get your name and face in front of potential supporters and future clients. You get to sharpen your speaking and networking skills. And for the rest of your life, your bio will note that you are a former candidate for office, meaning you aren’t the average schmo.

So consider running for office. Just make sure you don’t win.

If you win, and you’re honest, you’ll have to take a big pay cut. If you want to continue to win, you may have to sell your soul.

Okay, it might be alright to win an unimportant local office, but only if you can serveÂ part time. Just don’t get carried away and think about running for higher office, unless of course you are already wealthy and/or idealistic to the extreme.

Another way you can ride this pony is to work behind the scenes to support a candidate. Your name may not become well known to the public, but you get to go to rubber chicken dinners with people who can send you business, teach you about marketing and building your brand, and introduce you to other influential people.

So yes, I’m running for President; if you want to work for my campaign, let me know. I can’t pay you anything, and remember, we’re not going to win this, so if you’re really talented or hard working, please don’t apply for the job.

That’s all for now. I’ve got to finish working on my concession speech.

Filed Under: Marketing legal services, Networking, Public Speaking, Referrals

When people need you but don’t hire you

April 9, 2015 by David M. Ward

I spoke with a guy who does websites for attorneys. He told me he has a client who is getting approximately 20 leads a month via his website but very few of them make an appointment. He wanted to know if I could help.

Of course I can help. I’m friggin Batman.

I took a quick look at his website and saw a lot of issues, but one issue tells most of the story. He doesn’t offer free consultations.

If you want to talk to the attorney, you have to pay.

He handles high end divorces and his site says he charges for a consultation so clever spouses can’t talk to him and thus eliminate him as a lawyer for their spouse (conflict).

True or not, I’m not sure prospective clients buy this explanation, and this is coming from a guy who practiced in Beverly Hills where this tactic is common. If prospects don’t buy this (or understand it), you’re not scoring points on the trust meter.

If you want to charge for a first consultation, “sell” the consultation by telling prospects all of the value delivered during that consultation. What do they learn? What do they get? How do they benefit? You should do this even if you offer free consultations.

Anyway, not the point.

The point is, is he making money? He gets a low percentage of leads converting to appointments, but if he closes them at the appointment, he might be doing just fine. Perhaps he doesn’t need to convert more leads to appointments, perhaps he should work on getting more traffic.

Charging for consultations weeds out people who aren’t serious or who might not be able to pay his fee if they wanted to hire him. He saves a lot of time by not talking to them, and time is money, even if you don’t bill by the hour.

On the other hand, he might earn more by offering free consultations. He would undoubtedly set more appointments, and this might lead to more clients and more revenue. He could screen out low-percentage prospects by speaking with them for a few minutes on the phone before setting an appointment, or having someone in the office do that.

If the conflict of interest issue is on the level, so be it. Otherwise, I would suggest running a test. Offer free consultations for a month or three and see what happens.

He might get more calls and more clients and conclude that he’s better off offering free consultations and very glad he found out. Or he might find that while he’s getting more appointments, he’s not getting more sign-ups and he can go back to his original plan.

Make sense? Good. Now go make some dollars.

For more awesome ideas on marketing online, get this

Filed Under: Online Marketing, Web traffic Tagged With: free consultations, Testing

Don’t stop to pick up pennies or you’ll miss out on the dollars

April 8, 2015 by David M. Ward

At one point in my legal career, another lawyer and I were flipping real estate. The market was hotter than Hades and we were making a boatload of money.

I thought, “Why not get a broker’s license and get a piece of the commissions, too?”

Bad idea.

Many brokers didn’t want to work with me. Others were willing to do so but brought their best deals to other investors first.

If you compete with people who bring you deals, you get fewer deals.

I got rid of my broker’s license.

I also realized that if I wanted brokers to bring me the best deals, I had to make it clear that I would never try to cut their commissions, as many investors do. But I took it a step further. I told them that if I made money on the deal, I would cut them in on the profit. In addition, when it came time to put the property back on the market, I assured them that they would get the listing.

Guess who they brought their deals to?

If you want insurance agents and financial advisers to send you referrals, get rid of your insurance and securities licenses. If you handle divorces and you want referrals from business lawyers, think twice before you include business law on your list of practice areas. If you have bar licenses in other jurisdictions where you don’t actively practice, consider retiring those licenses.

When you compete with people who send you referrals, you get fewer referrals.

Think about where you earn most of your money, or want to, and focus on that. Don’t stop to pick up pennies or you might miss out on the dollars.

Filed Under: Referral sources, Referrals, Specializing

Getting addicted to getting things done

April 6, 2015 by David M. Ward

I’m about to finish a book project and it feels good. Not just because I will have another tool I can use in my business, not just because it represents another source of passive income, but because it really does feel good to get things done.

You know this is true. When you wrap up a case or finish something you’re working on, you have a pleasurable sense of satisfaction. Finishing feels good.

It turns out that there is physiological explanation for this feeling. When we finish a task, our brains release Serotonin, the so-called pleasure drug. This motivatesÂ us to take on more tasks, and bigger tasks.

We can use this to condition ourselves to be more productive.

“What we want to do if we want to set ourselves up for increasing productivity is put minor or smaller challenges in front of us so we build up that â€˜doneâ€™ moment,” psychologist Leslie Sherlin says.

One way to do this is to break down your tasks into smaller chunks. Instead of writing an entire 90-minute closing argument, for example, write just the outline. It feels good to finish this and you are motivated to take the next step.

You can also break up your work into smaller increments of time. Instead of planning to work two hours on something (and trying to find the time to do that), do it for ten minutes. (Consider the Pomodo Technique where you use a timer to work 25 minutes, followed by a five minute break.)

Smaller tasks and shorter time intervals gives you more opportunities to “finish”. The more you do, the more you want to do more. You are literally addicted to getting things done, and that’s probably a good thing.

Filed Under: Productivity, Time Management Tagged With: getting things done

Too much of a good thing is AWESOME!

April 3, 2015 by David M. Ward

Indulge yourself. Throw caution to the wind. Eat the whole thing. Buy the one you want.

You’ve earned it. You can afford it. You want to do it, so do it.

Go on a bender once in a while. Spend more than you think you should. Pig out, goof off, go blow off some steam.

You won’t die from eating too much today. Neither will you go broke from a one-time purchase. It’s what you spend or eat or do EVERY day that counts.

So after you have a crazy day or a crazy moment, get back to work. Don’t make binging a habit, unless you’re binging on good books. Even then, you have work to do and too much of a good thing could be too much.

You’ll have another binge day at some point. You might even plan it. And look forward to it. Of course it’s more fun when it’s spontaneous, as in, “Screw it, I’m not going to work today, I’m going shopping!”

Mini-splurges are also fun. Go to a nice restaurant this weekend instead of the usual place. Leave work early one day a week. Stay in bed an extra hour on Sunday.

If you’re like me, knowing that you could indulge yourself feels good, even if you don’t do it.

I’m not going to buy the laptop I really want (but don’t need), but it feels great knowing that I could.

Filed Under: Dealing with stress, Inspiration, Just for fun, Personal development

What will you do next?

April 2, 2015 by David M. Ward

I’m working on a project. I still have a fair amount left to do but I already know what I’m going to do next. In fact, I’m already working on it.

I’m collecting research, making notes, and creating an outline. When I finish project A, I’ll be ready to move immediately into project B.

It’s exciting to know I have a pipeline of things to do. It inspires me to finish my current project, and allows me to start the next project with some momentum. It’s even better because my next project is somewhat related to the currentÂ one.

I don’t know what I’m going to do after I finish project B, but I have lots of ideas and I will choose one long before I finish project B. Of course, while I’m working on that one, I’ll choose the next project.

How about you? What are you working on now? What will you do next?

Filed Under: Productivity, success, Time Management

How to earn more by working less

April 1, 2015 by David M. Ward

No doubt you’ve heard of Parkinson’s Law, which says that, “Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion”.

Translation: most people waste time.

You can get more done in less time by allocating less time to tasks and projects. That means allocating one hour for a task instead of two hours. Or assigning a due date inÂ 48 hours instead of a week.

Having less time available gives you greater focus. You make quicker decisions. You let go of perfectionism. And you work faster.

You get more done in less time because of Horstmanâ€™s Corollary to Parkinsonâ€™s Law: “Work contracts to fit in the time we give it.”

Translation: you waste less time.

The problem is, when you’re in charge, you can do what you want to. If you want to extend a self-imposed deadline, you do it. Hey, nobody will know.

One solution, which I have talked about before, is to make sure that somebody does know. Make yourself accountable to your clients, your spouse, your employer, your staff, or your Maker. Tell people what you’re doing and when you’ll finish. Make it a promise or guarantee. And ask them to hold you accountable.

You can also train yourself to set and keep shorter deadlines by continually reminding yourself of the benefits for doing so.

Every day, spend a minute or two cogitating about the benefits of getting more done in less time. Think about how much more you earn by completing projects in less time. Think about how much extra time you have for other paying work. Think about how much extra time you have with your family or for doing other things you enjoy.

At the start of your day, look at your task list and calendar and make a conscious effort to shorten due dates and assign less time to tasks. At the end of the day, record how much time you saved onÂ each task. At the end of the week, add up the amount of time you put into your “bank”.

What about work that is billed by the hour? If you can draft a document in one hour instead of two, you must do so. Raise your hourly rates accordingly because apparently, you are worth more than you thought.

Or, as I have repeatedly suggested,Â moveÂ away from hourly billing to flat fee or project based billing, which is ultimately better for you and for the client.

Don’t sell your time. It’s limited. Sell your advice, value, or work product, and earn more by working less.

More on how to earn more and work less: The Formula

Filed Under: Attorneys fees, Fees and Billing, Productivity, Time Management Tagged With: flat fees, Parkinson's Law, value billing