Should your law firm have a marketing committee?

April 15, 2008 by
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Marketing professional services cannot be done by committee. It’s something professionals should do. That means you should market "you". Assistants can help with administrative tasks, scheduling, and so forth, but building a law practice means building relationships and that’s something you cannot delegate.

Besides, it’s not the firm that should be marketed. It’s you. Clients don’t typically say, "call my law firm" when they refer you; it’s "call my lawyer" every time. Okay, larger firms can engage in activities that brand the firm’s name and establish good will in their target markets, and a committee would be appropriate for that purpose, but it’s still the individual attorneys that bring in the clients.

On the other hand. . . there are ways a marketing committee can play a role, even in a small or mid-sized firm. A committee can help coordinate the marketing efforts of the individual attorneys, for example. Newsletters, seminars, speaking engagements, mailings, public relations and advertising could well be done more effectively, and at lower cost, when attorneys aren’t duplicating each other’s efforts.

Here are a few other ways a committee could serve and assist the individual attorneys:

  • Bringing in trainers and consultants to help the attorneys improve marketing skills
  • Providing technical assistance with graphics, printing, web sites, event booking
  • Clearance of ethical questions
  • Coordination of cross-selling efforts
  • Decisions about the firm’s design issues (letterhead, decorating)
  • Recognition of attorneys for meeting goals

A committee can’t do the marketing for you. But, like a good secretary, it can certainly make you look good.

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Filed Under: Law office management, Marketing legal services, Productivity Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Referrals mean better clients, bigger income for lawyers

April 2, 2008 by
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Where did your clients first find out about you? Chances are it was one of the following:

  • They were referred to you
  • They saw an article you wrote or heard you speak
  • They met you at a networking event
  • They saw your ad
  • They saw an article about you or saw you on the news
  • They found your web site via a search engine

Whatever brought you clients in the past is probably something you should continue to do in the future.

Do it in more places, do it more often, do it better, and you should bring in more clients.

But no matter what other marketing strategies you use, the cornerstone of your marketing efforts should be based on getting more referrals.

Referred clients are the best clients. As a general rule, they come to you pre-sold. You don’t have to convince them to hire you, to pay what you ask, or to follow your advice.

Referred clients tend to be better clients, too. They are less likely to complain and more likely to come back to you again and again. And, because they were themselves referred, they are far more likely to refer other clients to you.

Lawyers who get a lot of referrals tend to have the most profitable (and enjoyable) practices.

Use other marketing methods to bring clients to your attention if they suit your style and budget. But build your practice on a foundation of referrals.

Referrals from clients are the easiest to generate. But while clients may be the most willing to refer, there are usually limits as to how much–or how often–they CAN refer.

Non-client referral sources may have the ability to refer you a lot of business, but they may not (yet) be willing to do so.

You need strategies to deal with both situations.

For clients, the simplest strategy is simply to stay in touch. Clients who don’t have anyone to refer to you today may have referrals tomorrow. Your objective is to be "in their minds and their mailboxes" when that occurs.

For non-client referral sources–attorneys, other professionals, business owners, and so on–don’t count on merely letting them know what you do. You may get some referrals that way, but your best sources are likely to come only after you have built relationships with key centers of influence.

Building those relationships doesn’t necessarily depend on your ability to refer them business. Do it if you can, but if you can’t, you can either

  • Build a personal relationship, based on friendship and common interests, and/or
  • Help them professionally in other ways. For example, while you might not be able to refer them much business yourself, you can introduce them to some of your colleagues who might be able to refer them business.

Relationship marketing means helping others first, without demanding or expecting anything in return. It means finding out what prospective referral sources want and looking for ways to help them get it. Put aside what you want for now, and help others, FIRST. Try it and watch what happens.

Zig Ziglar said, "You can get anything you want in the world by helping enough people get what they want."

Shameless plug: The number one resource for lawyers who want to build a referral-based practice is my own, "Referral Magic" marketing course. More than 5,000 attorneys worldwide are using Referral Magic to get more clients and build a successful law practice. You can learn about The Referral Magic Marketing Program on this page.

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Filed Under: Increase your income, Marketing legal services, Referrals, Relationship marketing Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The three things that matter most

March 24, 2008 by
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What are the three most important things you do in your career? Sure, you do a lot of things, but chances are, three of them are more important than the rest. We’ve talked about the 80/20 Principle before. These three things are the twenty-percent activities that deliver eighty percent of your results. They are worth identifying. If you can identity them, you can do more of them (and less of those things that aren’t of the three).

What’s more, if there are only three things, you can remember them. You don’t need a list. “These are the three areas I focus on,” you’ll say. “This is where I focus eighty percent of my time.” So what are they? If you could only do three things all day long, what would they be? Don’t think too much about this; you already know the answer.

When I was practicing (personal injury), I would have said that these are my three things:

  1. Marketing
  2. Settling Cases
  3. Managing staff

For me, litigation was not one of the three things that matter(ed) most. We did it, but the practice was a high-volume of smaller cases and litigation was not our primary focus. So, it was these three things that mattered most to my practice. If I was doing one of these three things, I was doing “twenty-percent activity”. Anything else was “eighty-percent activity” (which brings in only twenty percent of the results).

Let’s take things a step further, shall we? Once you have identified your “three things that matter most,” what about identifying the three things that matter most about each of those three things? This allows you to get more specific about how you are spending your time and how you are focusing your energy. You will perform “on purpose” instead of reacting to whatever presents itself. And, if you can recall the three things that matter most, you should also be able to recall the three things about each of those things, too. If they are truly important and you are doing them, they will be second nature to you.

In my case, I would have identified the three things about my three things, like this:

MARKETING

  • Ads in yellow pages
  • Network with referral sources
  • Client referral strategies

SETTLE CASES

  • Client interviews/evidence collection
  • Demand package
  • Negotiation

MANAGE STAFF

  • Interview/hire
  • Monitor work flow
  • Recognize and incentivize

What are your three things? And what are the three things about each of those three? Take the time to identity these crucial items and then focus eighty percent of your time and attention on them. You’ll get more done in less time and you’ll get more results. You’ll earn more and work less.

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Filed Under: Increase your income, Productivity Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

A good slogan (tagline) can be worth its weight in gold

March 11, 2008 by
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Most slogans I hear fail to accomplish their purpose: to communicate a cogent, benefit-rich, memorable marketing message. Although attorneys usually don’t use slogans, the ones I’ve heard have almost always been bad. An attorney in Los Angeles has a slogan that works, however. Miles Berman, the self-proclaimed “Top Gun Dui” attorney, uses the following slogan as the tagline for his frequent radio commercials: “Because friends don’t let friends plead guilty.”

Why does this work? First, it plays on the familiar public service slogan used to promote the use of a designated driver, “Because friends don’t let friends drive drunk”. Berman’s version is tied to something that has been drilled into our heads by millions of dollars in public service advertising, and is thus familiar. In addition to being familiar, it’s relevant. Both slogans deal with different aspects of the same issue. And because it is familiar and relevant, it is memorable, the ideal of any slogan. Finally, the slogan does what few slogans ever do, it promises a benefit. In telling the listener not to plead guilty, it suggests that there are alternative solutions, and all they have to do to get them is to call the “Top Gun Dui Defense” attorney. Very effective.

Eric Swartz is a consultant who bills himself as “The Tagline Guru.” His web site presents the benefits of a good tagline and advice on how to create one. He also has a list of “The 100 Most Influential Taglines Since 1948.” I remember most of these, and you will, too. Good examples of taglines that have created household brands.

You don’t need a tagline, but if you use one, use one that works.

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Filed Under: Advertising, Communication, Copywriting, Marketing legal services Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

How to achieve any goal you set–guaranteed

March 4, 2008 by
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I just finished reading, "Double Your Income Doing What You Love," by Raymond Aaron, which describes a unique method of setting and achieving goals. One of the perennial issues in goal setting is whether we should set big goals, which inspire us to reach high but usually leave us disappointed, or small goals, which we almost always achieve, but don’t take us very far. Aaron presents a system that provides the perfect answer, one I have never seen before.

"Instead of recording a goal, you subdivide your goal into three levels of achievement," he says. The first level is what we are almost certain to do, not based on our hopes but on our actual track record. "It is not much more than a to-do item," he says. But just because you are almost certain to do it doesn’t mean you will and so it is still a goal. This first level can be called the "minimum."

The next level is your "target". This is a stretch beyond what you are confident you can do.

The highest level he calls "outrageous" and it is the most challenging of the three, practically impossible to achieve.

By setting three levels of the same goal, you will always achieve that goal. You are guaranteed to succeed at some level, and thus your self-esteem is enhanced (the rationale behind setting easy goals) while you are simultaneously inspired by your bigger target and outrageous goals. You’ll hit your target goals often enough, and sometimes hit (or make significant progress towards) your outrageous goals. The bottom line of this system is that you hit more goals more often.

Aaron also suggests using monthly goals as your primary time line, long enough to accomplish something meaningful but short enough to be held accountable. Monthly goals are tactical, the mechanics of reaching our long term (annual) strategic goals.

He also tells us that while we are responsible for our lives and, therefore, the accomplishment of our goals, this doesn’t mean we are the ones who have to do everything (or anything) towards their achievement. Aaron is a proponent of delegation, urging us to do only what we love. "When you set a goal, you likely wonder when you are ever going to find time to complete it. When I set a goal, I wonder who is going to do it. If it’s not one of my special talents, I delegate it so that it gets done."

Over the last twenty-four years, Aaron has mentored thousands to success with his goal setting methods, and, not surprisingly, suggests everyone will benefit from "a mentored life." "You do what makes sense to you. Therefore, on your own, you keep doing the same thing all the time, because it makes sense to you. To have a giant leap forward in your life, you need to do what does not make sense to you. Only a very wise mentor can alert you to such new and strange actions you could take to make a huge change in your life."

I recommend Aaron’s book. In fact, I guarantee you’ll get something out of it.

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Filed Under: Goal Setting, Mentors & Coaches, Personal development, Productivity Tagged With: , , ,

Two-headed client gets whiplash reading lawyer’s retainer agreement!

February 25, 2008 by
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Gary Halbert was one of the greatest copywriters of all time. He wrote some of the most successful headlines, ads, and sales letters in the history of direct marketing, earning millions for himself, and billions for his clients. The headline that brought you to this page is my homage to his talent (how can you NOT read this?), based on a fake headline he wrote for one of this clients.

Halbert, who passed away last year, believed that in advertising, the headline is everything. I agree. An ad with a bad headline but brilliant copy will never be read. A mediocre ad with a GREAT headline, however, will pull far greater response simply because more people are reading it. 

Headlines are not just in ads. The title of your article or report is a headline. Same for your brochure. The title of your seminar is a headline. So is the opening line in your presentation. The “re” in your letter is a headline. And the “P.S.”

What goes at the top of your web page? That’s a headline. What’s the first thing you say when you call a potential referral source to introduce yourself? Yep, a headline.

Halbert, who styled himself, “The Prince of Print,” sometimes spent 80% of his time on a piece crafting the right headline. When you get the headline right, everything else seems to fall into place. Get it wrong, and nothing you do thereafter seems to work.

My love for copy writing began when I subscribed to The Gary Halbert Letter in the late 1980’s. I read and re-read every word he wrote. He was also the inspiration for the sales copy I wrote to promote Referral Magic marketing program and my own newsletter, The Attorney Marketing Letter. Copywriting is the highest paid skill in marketing, but I consider it essential for any kind of marketing, and that includes marketing professional services.

Copywriting can be learned. I used to write like a lawyer but I trained myself to write copy that sells. It is a skill that has earned me millions. One of the best investments you can make in your career is in studying and applying the lessons of the great masters of copywriting. There is, of course, no better place to start than by reading the back issues of Halbert’s newsletter. Fortunately, all of them are posted online at the web site that survives him, TheGaryHalbertLetter.com. I encourage you to spend some time reading through this treasure chest of brilliant lessons in copywriting. But I have to warn you: Don’t start unless you have several hours available, because once you start reading Gary Halbert, you won’t be able to stop.

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Filed Under: Advertising, Communication, Copywriting, Marketing legal services, Writing Tagged With:

Direct mail to lawyers, seeking referrals. Good or bad idea?

February 20, 2008 by
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I received a letter from a probate lawyer who is seeking referrals from large PI/Med Mal firms who need guidance in wrongful death and minors’ compromise cases. He and his partners had compiled a list of law firms and written a letter they intended to “mass mail”. The letter introduced the probate firm, described their capabilities, and requested referrals. He asked for my opinion of this strategy and letter.

I liked the idea of targeting specific kinds of cases from specific firms, (assuming they had reason to believe those firms didn’t have in-house capability to handle those matters), but I didn’t think their plan to mass mail letters would be effective.

One-shot mailings like this are unlikely to generate any business. About the only chance you have is to reach someone at precisely the time when he or she has a case they need help with and they don’t have anyone else to refer it to. While that could happen, it makes more sense to begin to build relationships with lawyers (anyone) who DON’T need your services at the moment and do what you can to be the one they think of when they do.

Marketing, especially referral marketing, is a process, not an event.

Here are some of my additional comments and suggestions:

** If you’re going to contact a cold list, you need to do something to get a response so that you can continue to stay in touch with them and win their trust, over time. I’d recommend offering to send a “Free Report” that educates them on the issues they need to be aware of so that (a) they can do a better job for their clients and (b) be better able to avoid malpractice. This will be a benefit to them and position you as an expert. You can also offer a free phone review of their case. If the list is short enough, you could SEND the report and make a second offer to get them to respond (so you can stay in touch). The second offer could be a second report, a checklist, a form, or anything else.

** I’d suggest that you find people you already KNOW who can refer you to the people on your list, OR to people who may know them, OR to people who may know people who know them. Then, you can contact these lawyers with the name of a mutual contact. Much more effective.

** I’d also consider working towards having a colleague (in this case., another med mal lawyer) write (sign off on) a letter in which they endorse your services to their fellow practitioners. They’ve used you, they recommend you, they trust you, etc. This is the strongest kind of letter you can send.

** Letters do a have a place, but, I’d prefer to see you call. You want to build relationships with these potential referral sources, and to do that, you need to talk to them.

Find a reason, and call. The reason could be because you want to interview them for an article, you’re doing a survey for your newsletter or blog, to invite them to your free seminar, to offer them a copy of your new report or a subscription to your newsletter. It could even be to simply introduce yourself and find out more about what they do.

You’ll hit it off with some of them and follow up with coffee or lunch. You only need a few good ones to start, then you can leverage those relationships to gain introductions and endorsements to others.

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Filed Under: Advertising, Communication, Marketing legal services, Referral sources, Referrals, Relationship marketing Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

What is the key to success?

February 15, 2008 by
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Bill Cosby is purported to have said, ""I don’t know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody." Have you found that to be true? I have. I’ll give you a recent example.

I just launched a new website, PassiveIncomeForLawyers.com. Passive income is a hot topic and in a very short period of time, the site got a large number of visits and subscribers. Several attorneys have already joined me in the program. I’ve heard from many others who have said nice things about the program itself and about the way it is presented. The feedback has been very positive. Of course you usually don’t hear from people who don’t like something. They usually just quietly go away. But I did get the following email from one attorney:

"Please take me off of your miserable site. At first I thought you were legitimated, now we are getting the mass marketing crap. Passive income my ass! You wouldn’t know passive income if it hit you in the face. And what’s with the long winded motley fool type advertising site. Un professional. Get lost."

I didn’t reply, I simply removed him from the subscription list, and deleted his email. But then I got to thinking about what could be learned from his response and I retrieved the email. After all, this is not just anybody; according to his email signature, this individual is a partner in a firm of at least five lawyers. I presume he is influential. He may or may not be interested in something I offer, but I’d like to think he would reject the offer, not the person (me). But not only is he not a fan, he was so angry, he took the time to embarrass himself with this email.

From a marketing perspective, what should I do? He was turned off (to say the least) by the sales-y copy on my web page, although I have to wonder why he filled out the form to subscribe if he was so offended. Should I assume that others would be, too, and change it? Should I try to please the ones who don’t like what he calls "long winded motley fool type advertising," even though most people find it acceptable and the site is successful? The Motley Fool folks seem to be doing okay.

But if I create something that is less of what he does not like and it dramatically reduces the number of subscribers, I haven’t done myself any good, have I? So no, I shouldn’t try to please everyone. That truly is a formula for failure, and it’s an important marketing lesson.

Marketing is about metrics. You do something, measure the results, and compare those results to something else. It’s called testing, and it’s crucial to the success and profitability of any marketing campaign. So, I will create other versions of the web page and compare the results to the ones produced by the current one. Whichever version produces the highest percentage of conversions (subscribers) will become the "control," against which I will continue to test, seeking to best that control. But one does this to improve results, not in an effort to please anyone, let alone everyone.

You can’t please everyone anyway, and you’ll only hurt yourself if you try. So, as you design your marketing messages, intelligently consider the ethical standards of your bar association and your own sense of propriety, and perhaps the concerns of your spouse or partners, but beyond that, do what works best, and what works best is what brings in the most results.

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Filed Under: Copywriting, List building, Marketing legal services, Online Marketing, Wealth, Web traffic, Writing Tagged With:

How would you advise this lawyer?

February 11, 2008 by
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An attorney who is struggling to build his practice asked for my help. Here’s a snapshot of what he told me:

  • He is also a CPA and former IRS agent.
  • He works three days a week as the controller for a major corporation, two days a week in his own practice.
  • He prepares 75 tax returns per year, and plans to advertise around tax time to get more (but has had limited success advertising in the past).
  • He has several PI and contract litigation cases.
  • He does unlawful detainer appearances for a paralegal firm.
  • He has tried direct mail (unsuccessfully) to build a bankruptcy practice.

Okay, now what would you tell him if he asked you for help? Would you tell him he’s spreading himself too thin and that he should choose one or two things and concentrate on those?

Of course. That’s exactly what I told him.

How can you possibly expect to have great success in anything when you do so many different things? Especially when you work at it only two days per week and compete with attorneys who do the same things full time?

I told him to first decide where he would like to be in five years, and then to look at what kind of work he enjoys. You can be successful doing just about anything so why not make it something you like? The chances are that what he enjoys and what he’s good at are the same thing, and that’s probably what he should do.

After speaking with him, my guess is that if he’s honest with himself, he would choose preparing tax returns. Now, I can think of three very good reasons why this is not the best choice:

1. Massive competition
2. Seasonality
3. He’s overqualified

But if that’s what he enjoys, that’s probably what he should do. His passion will help him overcome the challenges. He’ll develop a reputation for being the best at what he does and neutralize his competition. He’ll do corporate returns throughout the rest of the year, or build his practice so big that he doesn’t need to work the rest of the year.

If he’s happy and rich, does it really matter what his qualifications are?

There’s another point: why couldn’t he figure this out for himself? The answer is he could have, but when you are so caught up in making a living, sometimes you can’t think straight. It’s work, work, work, and there’s no time for reflection or planning. The wheel keep spinning and you can’t get off.

There’s an expression that comes to mind that applies not only in this situation but for all of us sometimes:

"Slow down to speed up."

What that means is we all need to periodically stop what we’re doing long enough to evaluate where we are and where we want to go. Will doing what we’re doing get us there? Is there a better plan?

Notice that you slow down "to" speed up. That means something. It means that if we’re not going in the right direction, if we have too much on our plate, our subconscious mind knows it and holds us back. Slowing down to re-evaluate allows us to get clear on what we’re doing, and it is that clarity that allows us to move more quickly towards what we really want.

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Filed Under: Career satisfaction, Marketing legal services, Productivity
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