Rainmaking 101: The two things you need to be successful

February 10, 2014 by
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Last week, I got an email from an attorney who gets it. I wanted to share it with you to illustrate the two things you need to be successful in marketing. See if you can read between the lines and deduce the “two things”:

Dear David:

I have written you before thanking for the daily dose of encouragement, tips, etc. Thank you again!

I think I have purchased every one of your materials and have implemented your strategies. I am in my 7th month as a “solo.” Through networking, utilizing your suggestions, I was able to land a huge client last week. Prior to that, I brought in several smaller clients that amounted to the same net income as that one client. Also, my website is generating traffic and things are looking up on that end, as well. Your tips/hints/etc. work.

With your help, I am transforming myself into a rainmaker. I have been approached by a seasoned practitioner to move forward with him in his practice. Together we would be able to hunt down bigger animals. We are currently revamping his website and billing system. Hopefully in the next 6-8 months we will be in an even better financial position.

I can’t say it has been all rainbows and sunshine – you know that as well as any other who has gone through the gauntlet.

Please excuse my short rant. I just got excited about rainmaking and wanted to share with you.

Yours,
Vasko Alexander

So, what do you think? It should be pretty obvious that the first of the two things is “action”. Mr. Alexander didn’t just think about it or talk about it, he did it.

For starters, he actually read my stuff. I have people on my list who get my emails but never (or rarely) read them. Or, they buy my courses but never “crack” them open. I’m sorry, you can’t bring in business through osmosis. You can’t “grok” the information, you actually have to read and internalize it.

Then, he actually tried things. Lots of them. Some worked, some didn’t. Some worked well, some not as much. But he is taking action and getting results. One day at a time.

What made him take action where many others don’t? And, what made him keep going when he hit a bump in the road?

Attitude. He has a positive attitude about the process. He believes in what he’s doing and knows that if he takes action and keeps an open mind, he will eventually get where he wants to go.

Some people have a positive mental attitude. Some have a positively mental attitude.

Attitude is the second of the two things and it precedes action. If you have a positive attitude, you’ll take action and figure out a way to make it work. If you don’t, you won’t.

NEGATIVE ATTITUDE

  • It won’t work
  • It won’t work for me
  • It will take too up too much time
  • It’s too hard
  • It’s taking too long
  • I shouldn’t have to do that
  • I don’t want to do any marketing
  • I already knew that (but you aren’t doing it)

POSITIVE ATTITUDE

  • I’ll start and learn as I go along
  • I’ll do my best
  • It’s worth it
  • I’ll try lots of ideas and see what works best for me
  • I’ll find something I like and I’m good at
  • If it’s worked for others, it can work for me
  • I know I have to put in time and effort to get results, and I will
  • I’m not expecting big things to happen overnight
  • I’ll make the time

Napoleon Hill said, “Remember, the thoughts you think and the statements you make regarding yourself determine your mental attitude. If you have a worthwhile objective, find the one reason why you can achieve it rather than hundreds of reasons why you can’t.”

Some say, “What if it doesn’t work?” Mr. Alexander said, “What if does?”

Rainmaking is easier when you know The Formula

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Filed Under: Inspiration, Marketing legal services, Personal development Tagged With: , , ,

Miscellany Friday (no, it doesn’t rhyme)

February 7, 2014 by
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Today, I thought I’d share a few miscellaneous items with you and let you choose what interests you. If you like “round-up” posts like this one, let me know.

1. Find Out How Much You Are Overbilling Your Clients

A discussion about how lawyers who delay recording of their billable hours, usually until the last two days of the month, routinely overbill clients by an average of 23%.

Don’t forget to check out my ebook on the subject: Get the Check: Stress-Free Legal Billing and Collection

2. Longer is Better for Blog Content: Truth or Myth?

Do longer blog posts draw more search engine traffic? Apparently so. But do most people read 2000 word posts, and do you have time to write them?

I’ve written before about this subject and have concluded that you need a mix of longer, authoritative posts, to draw traffic, and shorter posts to engage browsing visitors.

3. Legal ethics: Are blogs governed by advertising rules?

Is writing a blog advertising? I don’t think so, and neither does Kevin O’Keefe, the author of this post. And yet various jurisdictions seek to regulate blogs as advertising. Frankly, I don’t think we need specific rules for lawyer advertising at all. General rules (don’t misrepresent, full disclosure, et. al.) do quite nicely.

4. OneTab extension for Chrome saves up to 95% of memory

I always thought I was pretty good about staying focused on whatever I was doing. Throughout my day, I’ll keep a couple of browser windows open, each with six or seven tabs. No problem for a stud like me, right? Boy was I wrong.

I just installed OneTab, an extension for Chrome. It’s a simple thing that collapses all of your open tabs (or whichever ones you designate) into a single tab with links you can click to re-open those tabs. I’ve found that not only does this reduce the drain on memory, up to 95% we are told, so everything works faster, videos don’t stall, and so on, it’s also making me way more productive.

For example, instead of checking email every 15 minutes, I check it when I’m done with whatever I’m working on. Stupidly simple, but it works.

I’m sure there are equivalent extensions for different browsers and platforms.

So, there you go.

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Filed Under: Attorneys fees, Blogging, Fees and Billing, Legal industry, Productivity, Technology

How to get more search engine traffic

February 6, 2014 by
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Would you like to get more search engine traffic from prospective clients who are looking for a lawyer who does what you do? I thought you might. Okay, let’s write a blog post together and make that happen.

The title of your post is, “What to ask a _______ lawyer”. (Fill in the blank with words that describe one of your practice areas.)

Why this title? Because every day, prospective clients type the following words into a search engine: “What to ask a ________ lawyer?”

Are you with me? You’re going to write a post that uses the exact keywords that your prospective clients are searching for. Put those keywords in your title and again in the body of your post.

Later, you can write variations on this original post with similar keywords they may use in their query, i.e., “What questions to ask. . .,” “What do I need to know about. . .,” “What information should I find out about. . .”, and so on.

Now, write five to ten questions prospective clients should ask a lawyer in your field. Start by jotting down the questions prospective clients typically ask you. Add some questions they don’t ask, but should.

Here are some ideas to help you get started:

Background/experience: Years in practice, practice areas, certification/specialty, awards, jury verdicts, etc.

Doing business: Fees/payment plans, free consultation, satisfaction guarantee, etc.

Procedural: How long, what happens first, what happens after that, what if X happens?

Law/advice: Why do I need to do X? or  When would you recommend x instead of y?

Why you: Why should I hire you instead of any other lawyer in your field? or What do you do/offer that other attorneys don’t do/offer?

Personal/philosophy: What do you like best about your practice?or Why do you do what you do?

Once you have the questions, answer them. Obviously, you should have a good answer to these questions yourself.

Many, if not all of these questions, should already be answered on your website, on a FAQ page, your “About” page, and in articles or posts. Then, in this new post, link to those other pages or posts so the reader can get more information.

And, that’s all there is to it.

Now, when someone searches for “What to ask a _______ lawyer?” in your market, there’s a good chance your post will come up at or near the top of the search results. When the reader clicks through and reads your post, they’re going to find exactly what they have been searching for and see that you have some really good answers to those questions.

Targeted traffic made simple.

Want more ways to get more search engine traffic? Click here.

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Filed Under: Blogging, Marketing legal services, Online Marketing, Web traffic Tagged With: , ,

Being good isn’t good enough. Or is it?

February 5, 2014 by
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Being good isn’t good enough is a stunningly beautiful song about determination and greatness, a personal anthem for anyone who has ever wanted to be the best at something, like the athletes in the forthcoming Olympic games.

For most of us, however, the lyric, “I’ll be the best or nothing at all,” is inspiring, but hardly practical. Who is the best singer, football player, or lawyer?

Besides, we don’t have to be “the best” at what we do to be happy or successful. In fact, we don’t even have to be good.

We can hire people (or take on partners) who are good at things we don’t do well or don’t enjoy. You don’t like research? You’re not good at networking? It doesn’t matter. You’re good at something and that’s what you should focus on.

Speaking of focus, I was reading a review of Daniel Goleman’s book, Focus, about what it takes to achieve excellence. It’s not as simple as “10,000 hours of practice” or intelligence. There are a lot of factors, one of the most important of which is determination or grit.

Think about the successful people you know, especially the ones who aren’t particularly gifted, disciplined, or hard working. How did they make it big when so many others in their field did not? Often, the answer is simply that they wanted it more, and believed they could have it. Their desire, and refusal to settle for anything less, made the difference.

You don’t have to be the best at what you do. You just need to know what you want and keep going until you get it.

Need more referrals? Here’s a great way to get them.

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Filed Under: Inspiration, Personal development, success Tagged With: , , ,

Quick and painless blogging for lawyers

February 4, 2014 by
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One of the reasons lawyers often cite for not writing a blog is that it takes too much time. But it doesn’t have to.

This morning, I was reading, 12 Most Tedious Blogging Tasks You Can Outsource, and thought, “great topic for lawyers.” But as I went through the list of tasks, I thought, “I don’t do that”. In fact, I don’t do many of the things on the list, and the ones I do take me very little time.

Here’s the list of tasks, and what I do:

  1. Editing. I do my own. If I’m unsure about something, I run it by my wife.
  2. Finding photos. I used to add photos but I rarely do now, primarily because it takes too much time to find the right one and make sure I have the right to use it.
  3. Resizing and retitling photos. See above.
  4. Formatting. This takes seconds. I paste my text into the WordPress composition window, add bold or bullets or numbering, and done.
  5. Writing social media updates to promote the post. I paste the url of the post into Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google+. If my title is well written, that’s usually enough. I could do more here, I admit, but social media isn’t a major focus for me, so I don’t.
  6. Posting multiple updates once the post is live. I don’t do this either, but if I did, I’d automate it, as the author suggests.
  7. Social media mentions for anyone referenced in the post. If I want to reach out to someone I’ve written about, I’ll send them an email, and this doesn’t happen too often.
  8. Monitoring blog comments. I don’t get a lot of comments (lawyers are busy, yo), so not a problem. If I did, and it took too much time, I would consider outsourcing this. Or, just turn off comments.
  9. Monitoring social media activity. Again, I don’t do much with social media, so I don’t have much to monitor.
  10. Handling guest contributions. To date, I have one guest post on my blog. If I was doing this regularly, I would turn this over to an assistant.
  11. Managing audio and video files and slideshows. Nope.
  12. Writing. I like to write and make time for it. If I was still practicing, I would probably post once or twice a week, instead of daily as I do now. If I still didn’t have enough time, I’d have an assistant help with ideas, research, rough drafts, editing, polishing, and so on.

Blogging for lawyers doesn’t have to be tedious, time consuming, or painful. For one thing, as I wrote in a previous post, having a blog doesn’t make you a blogger.

I see writing a blog as, (a) a strategy for generating traffic, mostly from search engines, and build my list, and (b) a way to show website visitors what I know and what I can do to help them. This doesn’t (have to) take a lot of time. You could write a weekly blog post in an hour or less.

I don’t do much with social media. Many experts say that blogging and social media are inexorably intertwined. That may be true for (some? most?) bloggers but not for me. If you’re not writing a blog because you don’t have time for social media, or don’t like social media, you could do what I do. Or you could get some help.

I wrote a course on getting traffic (and clients) online. Click here.

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Filed Under: Blogging, Marketing legal services, Online Marketing, Social media, Social media marketing, Writing

What’s your addiction?

February 3, 2014 by
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So another actor dies of a drug overdose. Those who knew Phillip Seymour Hoffman are saddened by his loss, but not surprised. He’d been a heavy drug user for many years.

According to one of the CLE courses I took recently, 50% of lawyers have a drug or alcohol problem. I’m having trouble believing that number, but even if it’s 25%, it’s too much.

But I don’t want to talk about drug or alcohol problems. I want to talk about other kinds of problems. We all have them. Not addictions necessarily, but bad habits. Things we do that are bad for us. We know we shouldn’t do them, but we do.

Like eating poorly and not exercising. Like smoking. Like texting while driving.

Many people are habitual procrastinators. Or leave too many loose ends. Or associate with the wrong people. One day, those habits may bite them.

Many lawyers resist change. Okay, most lawyers. That can actually be a good habit, however, because change involves risk and lawyers need to manage risk for their clients and for themselves. In the context of marketing, however, stubbornly avoiding change can hurt you. Not having an effective website, for example, is marketing malpractice.

I’m certainly not equating a drug addiction with everyday bad habits. We don’t have to go to rehab to give up our addiction to watching reruns of Gilligan’s Island. But bad habits of any kind can be deleterious to our physical or fiscal health.

What are your bad habits? What’s holding you back from achieving your goals? What should you eliminate or cut down on?

Take inventory of your weaknesses, bad habits, and addictions. The first step towards change is recognizing what needs to be changed.

Does your website need a makeover? This will help.

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Filed Under: Personal development Tagged With: , , ,

One of my favorite words is also one of my least favorites

January 31, 2014 by
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One of my favorite words is “why”. It’s better than “how”. How is easy. Look it up. Ask someone how they do it. Hire someone to do it for you.

“What” is a great word. It’s vital to know what you want, what the client wants, what the world wants. Without knowing what we want, our life is dictated by randomness.

“When” is an important word, but one of my least favorite. Deadlines, due dates, promises, statutes of limitations, all necessary, but a major source of anxiety.

“Who” can be good or bad. Who we marry, who hires us, who we associate with, can bring us great joy or great despair. Often, it’s neither because most of our relationships aren’t especially deep or overly time consuming.

Which brings us back to why.

Why connects us with our deepest desires and purpose. You may know what you want, and that’s essential, but why you want it is the emotional lubricant that gets you moving towards it. And when you are having a hard time and feel like quitting, remembering why pulls you back from the abyss and back on track.

Why bypasses logic and transcends limitations. Why is your inner child speaking. Why is raw emotion and gut feeling.

Think about something important you want to accomplish this year. Perhaps you want to earn a certain amount of money. That’s “what”. But it’s never the money, it’s what you could do with that money. That’s your why.

Think about your why. It should feel good. Put a smile on your face. If you are tense right now, thinking about your why should relax you. Give you hope. And inspire you to act.

Yes, why is one of my favorite words. But sometimes, why can also be one of my least favorite words.

Why didn’t you finish? Why did you say that? Why isn’t this important to you? Why is this taking so long?

Questions like these speak to our deepest emotions because they make us aware of our frailties and faults and remind us that we don’t have what we want.

You must not dwell on these thoughts. Answering them is useless and harmful. Let them go.

Think about what you want, and why. Everything else will take care of itself.

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Filed Under: Inspiration, Personal development Tagged With:

Hack away at the unessential

January 30, 2014 by
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I just heard about a hoarder who had 30 years of newspapers and magazines stacked floor to ceiling in nearly every room of his house. Yeah, he had a lot of issues.

(Rim shot.)

So last weekend, I cleaned out my closet and armoire and got rid of a lot of old clothes. There’s empty space now, and it feels good. Next stop, my office.

Once a year, I get the bug to de-clutter. I like to, “Hack away at the unessential,” as Bruce Lee said. Getting rid of things I don’t use, simplifying my life.

It’s not just about possessions. I try to do the same in my digital word. Eliminating (or at least filing away in a place I won’t see them) forms, emails, notes, and assorted paperwork. I pare down the apps on my iPhone, too.

I like looking at an empty email inbox and a slimmed down “My documents”. It gives me a sense of peace and control over my world. Fewer things to look at, think about, or update.

Bruce Lee talked about getting rid of the unessential to better focus on the few things that mattered most. He concentrated his work outs, his energy, and his focus on a few things. It made him more efficient, quicker and more powerful. He may never have described it as such, but he appears to have embraced the Pareto Principle, eliminating the “trivial many” so he could focus on the “precious few”.

In a law practice, that might be achieved by getting rid of (or filing away) eighty percent of your forms (letters, checklists), so you can focus on the twenty percent you use the most. You’ll have time to make them even better.

You could do something similar with client intake. Identify the most important parts of the process and spend more time on them. Do you really need to know all of the facts or review all of the documents at the first meeting or might some of this be done later? Freeing up some time at the first meeting would allow you to get to know the client better and he, you.

It could also mean paring down your client list, getting rid of marginal clients who pay the least or give you the most trouble, so you can focus on your best clients.

Bruce Lee believed that simpler is better. When you hack away at the unessential, you aren’t mired in complexity or distracted by minutia. Fewer moving parts makes you more agile. You get better at the most important things.

How can you hack away at the unessential in your law practice?

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Filed Under: Law office management, Personal development, Productivity Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Trust me, I’m a lawyer

January 29, 2014 by
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We all know that if people don’t trust you, they won’t hire you. And trust is not automatic. You have to earn it. 

Many people will give you the benefit of the doubt, at first, especially if you were referred to them. But their trust can be lost in a heartbeat.

My wife used a referral service she likes to have some roofers come out for an inspection. First one, great. On time, friendly, plain spoken. He showed her photos of some minor issues that need work and gave her an estimate. She liked what he said and he’s in the running.

Yesterday, the second one showed up (from the same referral service), but there was a problem. He couldn’t get up on the roof. It seems he had a short, fold-up ladder, which he transported in the trunk of his car, and it wouldn’t reach. When my wife asked why he didn’t bring a longer ladder, he explained that he would need to drive a truck and the gas would be too expensive.

Done. My wife instantly knew this guy wouldn’t get the job.

He said he could send someone with the truck later in the week. Right, after waiting for this guy to show up and experiencing his bewildering lack of preparedness, my wife will happily sit around waiting for one of his guys to show up. Guess again.

“I don’t trust him,” she told me. And I don’t blame her.

So now, he’s not getting the job and he’ll get a bad review on the referral service website.

Booyah.

Prospective clients aren’t looking for a reason to hire you so much as they are looking for a reason to disqualify you. And it doesn’t take much. If you are unprepared, if you squawk about your costs of doing business (build the gas money into your fees, bub), if you do anything that says “unprofessional,” that’s it. You’re off the list.

Anything can knock you out of the running. Someone doesn’t like your photo on your website because you look mean, or there is no photo on your website so they can’t look at your eyes, or you didn’t call them back right away, or you yawned on the phone and sounded like you didn’t care.

Anything.

Am I saying you have to meet certain minimum standards to even be in the running? Yes. Getting the basics right only gets you in the game. If you want to get the job, you have to do even more.

Yes, it’s hard. You have to be ever vigilant and pay attention to detail. When you are in a service business or a profession, it’s not just the quality of your work, it’s about the entire client experience.

But hey, you’re lucky. At least you don’t have to schlep a ladder.

Want more referrals? Get The 30 Day Referral Blitz

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Filed Under: Client relations, Closing the sale, Marketing legal services, Salesmanship Tagged With:

Imagine there’s no clients

January 28, 2014 by
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Imagine there’s no clients. It’s easy if you try. Yes, I have the Beatles on my mind.

But I really do want you to imagine that you have no clients. (Don’t panic. You’ll get them back in a minute. If you want to. . .).

I want you to think about what you would do if you were starting your practice today. Knowing what you know now, what would you do differently?

Would you choose a different practice area? Would you target different clients? Would you have partners? Employees?

Where would you office? Would you use a different billing system?

What would you do to bring in new clients? What would you NOT do?

You may want to partner up with another lawyer or a friend and do this exercise. Tell each other what you would change about your practice, knowing what you know now.

So, what do you think? What would you do differently if you were starting over?

Here’s the thing. Whatever it is you said, no matter how weird or frightening it might seem, you should do it now. Make those changes, or at least start in that direction.

You don’t have to turn your practice completely upside down or do anything reckless. You don’t have to tell all your clients to get lost. But you know things today you didn’t know before–about the market, about the day-to-day activities of a practicing lawyer, and about yourself–and you should use what you know.

In fact, knowing what you know now, taking it step by step, you could completely remake your practice in just a year or two. You could be in a completely different (and happier) place in less time than you spent in law school. If you start now.

What if you told yourself you wouldn’t go into private practice, you’d do something else? If imaging there’s no clients made you smile, don’t ignore the feeling. It may take a bit longer, but you should probably think about doing something else. Find something you would love to do and start working towards it. Three or four years from now, you could be there.

And, if you discovered that you wouldn’t change much of anything, that’s good, too. You’ve done a “level three diagnostic” and been cleared for your continuing mission.

Hellen Keller said, “Life is either a daring adventure or it is nothing.” I agree. You may say I’m a dreamer but I’m not the only one.

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Filed Under: Career satisfaction, Inspiration, Law office management, Marketing Plan, Personal development
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