How is important but don’t forget why

March 21, 2012 by
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I did a presentation last night for some of my business partners and their guests. The objective was to get the guests to either invest in our business directly or provide referrals to our partners.

I talked about the history of our company, the value of our services, and the size of our market.

Lots of facts and figures. Very compelling, if I do say so myself.

But in order to get the ball over the goal line, I made sure I also told them why.

Why the facts I recited are important. Why I got involved, and why they should, too.

I did this by telling stories about some of our partners, their backgrounds and motivation, and also my own. I showed them what motivated us. Facts are static and lifeless. Stories have people in them and everyone wants to know “what happened next”.

Whenever you want to persuade people to act, tell them why. What’s in it for them? What will they get if they do? What might they lose if they don’t?

On your web site, tell people why they should opt-in to your newsletter. What’s the benefit? What do they get? Why will they be better off as a result?

In your demand letters, tell them why they should say yes. Why is it in their best interest? What might happen if they refuse?

In your oral arguments, explain why something was said or done. Tell the judge why he should accept your version. Tell him why he should grant your request.

You may have the weight of evidence in your favor, but it’s your job to interpret that evidence and tell people why it matters. Don’t assume they will know. It’s not always obvious. And even if it is obvious and even if they do know, tell them anyway. Tell them stories that reach beyond their intellect and pluck the heart strings of their emotions.

How is important but don’t forget to tell them why.

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Filed Under: Communication, Copywriting, Presentations, Public Speaking, Writing Tagged With: , , , , , ,

How to get a bigger return from your seminar or conference

March 20, 2012 by
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I was reading some tips on planning a successful conference and thought there was one tip that was missing. Every event you run should be recorded.

It doesn’t matter whether it’s a speech, an all day seminar, a webinar, teleseminar, or a multi-day conference, why settle for only what you can get from a one time event?

If you record it, you can

  • Make it available for those who couldn’t attend
  • Sell the video, or create products from portions of the content
  • Run the video periodically on your web site
  • Offer the video, or portions thereof, as a lead generation incentive
  • Transcribe the event and create reports, articles, blog posts, and audio content
  • Watch the event so you can make the next one better
  • License the event to other lawyers in other jurisdictions

In fact, with any content you create, whether it’s a live event or something you write on the weekends, always look for ways to get a bigger return on your time and investment. Evergreen content that you create once and use over and over again is a smart, leveraged use of your time.

Wouldn’t it be great to do the same thing with your services? No, it’s not possible with a service, but you can do the next best thing. Every time you create a form, a checklist, a template, or a script, something you can use over and over again, you are leveraging your time and increasing your return.

To earn more and work less, never settle for a one-to-one return on your time or investment.

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Filed Under: Leverage, Marketing legal services, Presentations, Productivity, Time Management Tagged With: , ,

Going from huh? to duh! The four stages of learning how to market legal services

March 19, 2012 by
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When I opened my first law office, I had no idea how I was going to get clients. Had I known how tough it was going to be, I may have given up before I began.

But I was motivated by the need for independence and the stubborness of youth and I found myself with an office, a typewriter, and no work.

What to do. . .?

I had read a lot about mail order and direct marketing in my youth, but I didn’t know anything about marketing legal services. I didn’t think I could use mail order to bring in clients (although I think that now) and so I took out some ads (to other lawyers) and that did bring in some work. Not the best work–overflow and some appearances, mainly. It helped pay the rent.

I knew there had to be something else I could do. Other lawyers brought in clients, why couldn’t I?

Experts in learning would say I was a “conscious incompetent”–I knew that marketing could bring in clients and I also knew that I was clueless about how to do it.

Years later, I learned that there are four stages to learning:

  1. Unconscious incompetent: You don’t know what you don’t know. Think of the young child in the car seat with one of his parents behind the wheel. The child doesn’t know what “driving” is, let alone how to do it.
  2. Conscious incompetent: You know what you don’t know. The child is aware that his parent is doing something to make the car go but he does not know what or how.
  3. Conscious competent: You are able to do it with focus and mental effort. You are aware that you are doing it. After drivers’ training and some practice, the child is able to drive, but he has to think about what he is doing.
  4. Unconscious competent: You can do it effortlessly, without thinking about it. Eventually, like the rest of us, the child is able to drive on autopilot.

As a “conscious incompetent” in marketing legal services, I made the decision to start learning. I read every book I could find on the subject. I studied ads and brochures and seminar sales letters. I talked to other lawyers and asked them what they were doing.  And I tried lots of different things. Eventually, I had some success.

But I wasn’t good at everything. Some things came easily to me. Writing, for one. And speaking. But other skills I am not as good at. I know how to network, for example, and I’ve certainly done enough of it, but it’s not my favorite thing to do. As a result, I have to think about what I’m doing while I’m doing it. (“Jeez, why on earth did I say that. . .!?”) With networking, I am a conscious competent.

Knowing these four stages of learning has helped me to appreciate my strengths and weaknesses. Whatever you’re trying to learn or improve, it helps to know where you are and what you need to do to get to the next level:

  1. Unconscious incompetent: Read, listen, observe, ask questions. Find out what you don’t know. You’ll discover things you’ve never heard of before, (especially in the social media arena–and let’s use that as an example) and you will become aware of what you don’t know.
  2. Conscious incompetent: Now that you know, you need to do more reading, listening, observing, and asking even more questions. You need guidance and support from others. And you need to try it. Open an account, set up a profile, play around with it. Practice and you will get better.
  3. Conscious competent: So you know what to do. You’re posting regularly, networking online, integrating your web site, and downloading the newest apps. You know what you’re doing but it’s still something you have to think about and remind yourself to do. You need to continue doing what you’re doing (more practice) and you need to get feedback and advice from others.
  4. Unconscious competent: You have mastered it. You tweet and post and link like a pro and you can do it in your sleep. The risk here is that you will get bored and stop learning and stop growing, so make sure you stay up with all the new tech and trends and continue to challenge yourself. Even better, help others learn because the teacher always learns more than the student.

If you find yourself stuck in stage two or three and you never get to stage four no matter how much effort you put in, the odds are this is not a natural strength. You might want to get someone to do it for you so you can go do something else.

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

How to get that creative project (finally) started

March 16, 2012 by
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I want to help you get your project started. You know the one I’m talking about. It’s the one you’ve had in the back of your mind that you can’t stop thinking about.

It might be writing a book. Starting a blog. Or planning the trip of a lifetime.

You want to do it. You just don’t know how or where to begin.

The first thing is to give yourself permission to not do it. That’s right, let it go. You don’t have to do it. You can let someone else do it, you can keep it on your “someday” list, or you can let the opportunity pass and suffer the consequences. You will survive.

Too often we become attached to things we think we want to do, or believe we have to do, and our attachment gets in our way. It clouds our judgment, our sense of priority, and basically, messes us up. We begin projects when our heart isn’t in it and we do a poor job or we give up. It may have been a great idea, but if the timing wasn’t right, we haven’t done ourselves any good.

Let go of the idea. Let it ruminate in your subconscious. If you’re meant to do it, you will. When the time is right and you are ready.

I’ve got hundreds of creative projects that will never get done. They will remain “someday” for me and that’s just fine.

The creative projects I move forward with let me know I need to do them. I wake up thinking about them. I see something online and I am drawn to it. The idea nags at me and inspires me and excites me. When it won’t let go of me, that’s the project I do.

But there’s a process I go through between “idea” and “do”.

When I have an idea, the first thing I do is write it down. I use Evernote, but you can use anything you want: a text file, Word document, spiral notebook, whatever, but get it out of your head and onto paper (virtual or otherwise).

Guess what? It will still be in your head. Writing it down simply helps you to see what the idea looks like from a different perspective.

Once the idea is recorded, I add notes. I may write a bunch of bullet points, tasks, and ideas for categories or steps, or I might free write–letting my thoughts flow as I talk to myself about the project. I may record audio, talking about the idea, why I want to do it, issues I may have to resolve.

Next is research. Nothing formal, just reading and collecting snippets of information, blog posts, quotes, web clips, and anything else that catches my attention. I might collect a large volume of information in a short period of time or I might do a little here and there, over a period of months. You can’t force creativity. At least I can’t.

With Evernote, I have a tag for the project, so everything I collect is tied to the project. If I have other notes on the subject or documents I’ve saved from other projects, I’ll add the project tag or “note links” in Evernote.

And then I put the idea aside to let it germinate and continue working on whatever I’m already committed to completing. But I still think about the project and record notes and ideas. I may re-write my original idea and see if it still looks good, but always, I give it time to take root and grow.

At some point, either my interest in the project will have waned and I will again put it aside (or kill it), or my interest will have grown. If I still want to do the project, the next step is to make a list of tasks.

Sometimes I put all those tasks into one continuous list. Sometimes I set up separate notes for each task. Of course some tasks are themselves projects (i.e., having more than one step), but I’m not really fussy about how I list what I need to do. I just make sure everything is tagged and/or linked.

Some of the project’s tasks I begin right away. Others, I schedule (or delegate). And some, I need to do further research before I know what to do.

There is a logical progression to most projects, but it can also be a messy process. Many projects are mundane. Beginning, middle, end. But big projects, especially ones that invoke creativity, are a journey of discovery. You may have a general idea of where you want to go but no idea how you will get there. Sometimes you wind up in a place you never expected.

With everyday projects, you’re the boss. With creative projects, you are merely the scribe.

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

“Who the hell are you and why are you contacting me?”

March 15, 2012 by
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Begin rant. . .

I got this voice mail message the other day: “Hi David, this is Joe Blow. Please give me a call at [telephone number]. . .”.

He didn’t say who he was (other than his name, which I did not recognize) or why he was calling. He didn’t give me any reason to call him back.

Guess who I didn’t call back?

I shouldn’t have to tell anyone this but it happens often enough so I guess I do: when you leave a message, tell people who you are and why you are calling.

Are you a client? A colleague? A fan? Do you want to hire me? Is there an issue I need to look into? Do you have something to propose?

When you leave a voice message, give them a good reason to call you back.

And. . .

State your name clearly. Spell it (unless it’s very common). Say your number slowly so they can write it down. Repeat the number so they don’t have to listen to the message again. Give them your time zone and the best time(s) to reach you. Say please and thank you.

Common courtesy and common sense.

And. . .

The same goes for email.

Tell people who you are and why you’re writing. What do you want them to know or do? Give them a web site so they can find out more. Use correct grammar and spelling. Format your email so it doesn’t look like a DECLARATION OF WAR! And get to the friggin point!

When you contact someone for the first time, you’re making that proverbial first impression. The only thing they have to go on is that email or voice mail message. Make it professional. Show them you care. Because if you don’t care, why should they?

Rant over. . .

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Filed Under: Communication, Email, Image, Law office management, Personal development, Salesmanship Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , ,

How to get better at anything

March 14, 2012 by
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Writing, oral argument, marketing, parenting–whatever it is that you want to get better at, you’ve got to DO it.

You can read about it until you’re blue in the face, you can attend seminars, and you can hang out with experts and watch what they do, but at the end of the day, you have to get out there and do the thing yourself.

You’ll make mistakes. That’s how you learn. At one point in your life, you didn’t know how to walk. Now you can. You learned by trying and falling, again and again and again.

There are no shortcuts. The only way to develop a skill is to do what you’re not good at until you get better.

This means getting out of your comfort zone, risking embarrassment, frustration and failure.

But, you can also get some help.

Whatever is it you want to improve, you can find someone who is better than you and ask them to mentor you. One of the best things about having a mentor is that they allow you to fail in a relatively safe environment. Yes, you risk criticism but it’s not public.

You can formerly hire a coach or consultant or you can find someone who is willing to give you a few minutes here and there to critique you and give you advice.

Find someone who is good at what you want to do. Ask them if they would be willing to mentor you. Make it easy for them to say yes by letting them know you’ll respect their time. You can learn a lot from an expert, even if you only talk to them for ten minutes once a month.

And if you’re good at something, be a mentor. Share your skills and experience with others. Pay it forward.

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Filed Under: Mentors & Coaches, Personal development, success Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

The one thing attorneys need to know about advertising, networking, and social media

March 13, 2012 by
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I’ve run a lot of ads in my lifetime. Big ads, small ads, and everything in between. And direct mail. And with every ad or campaign, there’s only one thing I wanted to know: the rate of response.

How many calls, opt-ins, or return cards? How many leads or appointments or new clients?

Response is the only that thing that matters.

You need to know which publication or web site is producing more response. Which headline, which offer, which key words.

You have to track response and then test one variable against others. It’s the only way to know if you’re wasting money and it’s the simplest way to increase your profits. One ad, letter, or web page can sometimes pull fifty times more response than another. FIFTY TIMES! Wouldn’t you want to know which one?

“What about “branding”–getting your name out there, isn’t that worthwhile?” Sure, but while you’re doing that, why not also get a response?

So, if you have a web page you need to track your stats. Google’s analytics is free and provides lots of information. If you do any offline advertising you need to put codes in your ads (and articles) so you can see which ad (article) is pulling best. At the very least, ask people who call your office how they heard about you.

One more thing. Track the time you spend networking offline and on social media. If you’ve been attending a group’s meetings for several months and you’re not getting any clients, growing your list or seeing any kind of response you can measure, don’t continue. The same for social media platforms.

You might not know as quickly as you might with an ad. I’ve run ads one time and pulled them when the response wasn’t there. Building relationships and getting referrals almost always take longer. But eventually, you’ll know. If nothing is coming from your networking with group A, either change what your doing or move to group B.

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Filed Under: Advertising, Networking, Social media marketing, Technology Tagged With: , ,

How would you answer these interview questions?

March 12, 2012 by
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I’ve hired a lot of people over the years. I always tried to go beyond the standard interview questions so I could gain some insight into the real person sitting across the desk from me.

But I didn’t have any “sure-fire” questions to get them to reveal themselves. I played it by ear.

Today, I think I would have a few additional questions ready to ask. This morning, I read a collection of unique interview questions and I was fascinated by them, for two reasons.

First, there’s no way a job candidate could prepare for questions like, “Here’s a roll of duct tape. What are ten things you can do with it?”, “Why is a manhole cover round?” or “How many cars are there in the US?”

Answers to questions like these will show how creative they are but also how they handle the pressure of trying not to sound like an idiot. Do they have fun with the question or do they fall apart? Are they willing to admit they don’t know or will they try to fake it? Will they respond to the question with a question (e.g., “Why do you ask?”)?

The second reason I was fascinated by these questions is they made me wonder how I would answer them. There were several questions I knew I’d bomb. What does this mean? What if I was interviewing myself for the job, would I be unqualified to work for me?! And is it fair for me to ask questions like these if I wouldn’t have good answers?

What say you? How would you answer these questions? And will you use any of them with the next job candidate you interview?

Okay, here are my ten ways you could use duct tape: (1) Get your client to keep quiet in court; (2) dip in sugar water to make an ant trap; (3) fix a book with a broken binding; (4) seal a perforated air hose; (5) tape index cards to the wall when you don’t have push pins; (6) keep statues from falling over on your desk; (7) emergency rain gear; (8) fake suicide bomber vest for Halloween (!!); (9) slap a “Kick Me” sign on your friend’s back; (10) emergency handcuffs.

Now I know I wouldn’t hire me. . .

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

How I collect and organize articles and documents to read later

March 9, 2012 by
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I read a lot. I know you do, too. I also know that the volume of articles and documents that cross our paths every day is overwhelming.

We can’t stop the river of information. It would be foolish to ignore it. All we can do is manage the information that comes at us every day, and I want to share with you how I do that.

Here’s what I do to collect, organize, and read the articles and documents in my life:

  1. I subscribe to (over 100) blogs with Google Reader. I can read them later, on my laptop or on my iPhone (I use Mobile RSS).
  2. On my iPhone, I also use Zite, an intuitive app that learns what you like to read and serves up similar content. This brings posts from a wide spectrum of blogs I would never know about. I also use Flipboard and Twitter.
  3. I use Instapaper as a web app (Chrome) and their app on my iPhone. This is where I send posts I can’t read at the moment. I send them from my RSS reader, from Zite, Flipboard, by forwarding emails and via a web clipper.
  4. Every morning I go through my RSS feeds and Zite and Flipboard, scanning the headlines of the posts. I delete 98% of them. A few, I read on the spot. I may send five or ten to Instapaper. If it’s something I know I want to save, I send it to Evernote. If I’m reading it on the web, I’ll open it first with Evernote Clearly, to remove ads, etc. (Evernote is my go to app for saving everything I need to save (for reference or a project) or do. (If you haven’t tried Evernote, go check it out (it’s free). If you have Evernote and have not been using it much, get my ebook, “Evernote for Lawyers: A Guide to Getting Organized & Increasing Productivity”. You’ll be amazed at what you can do with Evernote.
  5. For blog post ideas, I go through Instapaper and when I find a post that catches my eye, I’ll read it. I may use the article as the basis for a post or it may give me other ideas. I also go through Evernote. I have a tag, “blog-post-ideas,” and with one click I can call up hundreds of notes with complete articles or one line ideas.
  6. I save documents (pdfs, Powerpoint, Word, etc.) in Evernote. I usually add a few key words to the body of the note and assign tags. Most of these documents are saved for reference purposes, or to use in connection with projects I am working on or plan to work on. However, I also use a couple of tags to identify notes for later reading. One is “Read/Review,” which is assigned to notes I know I want to read at some point. I will also assign a “When” tag (i.e., Now, Next, Someday, etc.) if I know when I want to read it. The other tag I use is “ebooks” for pdf ebooks I’ve saved. I can browse this tag to find things to read or for ideas.
  7. If there are emails I need to read or save or take action on, I forward them to my Evernote account. I now maintain “inbox zero”.
  8. Every day I focus on getting my work done, not on how much I can read. This is key. If I don’t read articles I’ve saved for later reading, I don’t worry about it. We’re talking about electrons here, so there is no problem with running out of storage space. The articles I’ve saved in Evernote are searchable and thus a repository of reference materials I may use in the future. So again, I do the best I can and I don’t worry about what I don’t get to.

So that’s my routine. I know there are many other methods and apps available for collecting, organizing, and reading. I’ve tried many of them and continue to try new ones when they come out. I like keeping things simple, however, and that means using as few apps as possible. Evernote is my “information hub” because everything is synced and available to me wherever I am, and because there are so many ways to get information into it.

How about you? What do you do to collect, organize, and read articles and documents? Please share in the comments.

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

The one thing attorneys need to know about getting more referrals

March 8, 2012 by
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If you’re not getting as many referrals as you think you should, the primary reason is that you don’t deserve them.

Ouch.

“But I’m good at what I do. I work hard for my clients and I produce results.”

Sorry, that’s not enough. That’s the minimum standard for any professional. If you aren’t competent and you don’t consistently get results for your clients, you shouldn’t be practicing law.

I can’t give you a checklist of things to do or say that will qualify you to deserve referrals. It’s not that simple. And yet, it’s not complicated, either.

Mostly, it’s common sense and common courtesy. It’s answering your client’s questions before they ask them. It’s offering them coffee because you truly want them to be comfortable, not because it’s expected. It’s speaking to them and making eye contact and shaking their hand and letting them know you’re listening.

It’s not taking phone calls during the client meeting or talking about other clients or cases that are on your mind. It’s showing up early at court not because you need to but because you know your clients are probably nervous and you need to be there for them.

Look at what you do from your client’s perspective. What do they expect from you and what do they get? From the moment they first speak to you on the phone to the last time they meet with you, and everything in between, what do you say and what do you do? What do you not say and not do?

Everything is important. Everything counts. It’s hundreds of little things and you have to get most of them right.

Your clients want to feel like you understand them and care about them as people, not as names on a file. They want to know that although you’ve done this 1000 times before, they are in that moment your most important client. They want to know that you truly appreciate them and that you know they could have gone to 100 other attorneys but they chose you.

Even more than your legal services, they want your respect.

I know an attorney who doesn’t get it. He’s technically good at his work, he’s friendly and patient with his clients and he works hard for them. But there’s something missing. He doesn’t do the little things that make his clients feel like he really cares. He says a lot of the right things, but you can tell he’s just going through the motions. His mind is on other things. He does what is expected of him and delivers results, but he does not go the extra mile.

He does get referrals from his clients. But he could get so many more.

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Filed Under: Client relations, Marketing legal services, Referrals Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , ,
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