I’d like to interview you

January 6, 2021 by
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Getting interviews is easy. Tell people you’d like to interview them for a book, an article or blog post, or as a guest on your podcast or channel. Most people will say yes.

Most people are flattered to be asked and excited to get exposure for their work or their cause.

What’s in it for you?

  • More content for your blog or newsletter or channel. Or a book–I turned an interview with successful appellate lawyer, Steven Emmert into a book, How to Build a Successful Appellate Practice
  • More traffic to your blog or web site or book sales page from followers of the interviewee or people searching for them
  • You get to connect with influential people you might otherwise never meet, which could lead to other marketing opportunities or referrals
  • You get to learn something you can use in your practice or personal life
  • They may ask to interview you for their blog, podcast or book

You can interview one expert or several (and aggregate them for your article or book).

You can record and transcribe the interview, as I did for my book, or email questions they can answer at their leisure.

Interviews are easy. Here are 3 tips for making them even easier (and better):

  • Before the interview, ask them to send you their profile or “introduction” and what they want to promote (their book, their website, their offer, etc., and links thereto).
  • Ask them to send you five or ten questions they’d like you to ask them. Add these to your own. Your readers or listeners will get better information and you’ll get a better (and easier) interview.
  • Ask open ended questions. Get them to open up, share examples and stories, and reveal something interesting about themselves.

Interviewing fellow professionals and other experts is an easy and effective way to market your practice. I should write a book about it. Wait, I already did: The Easy Way to Write a Book

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Filed Under: Content creation, Marketing legal services

The best marketing requires THIS

January 5, 2021 by
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I talked to a business associate today. She’s getting leads via email on LinkedIn, getting some inquires, and wanted to know what I recommend she do to follow up.

We talked about what she was doing and what she wanted to happen, and then I told her something I know she knew but needed to be reminded of.

I told her she needs to talk to these people.

You can use LinkedIn (or whatever) to get people to hold up their hand and ask for information, but if you want to sell them something (she does), the best thing you can do is transition from email or text chat to the phone, a video chat, or an in-person meeting.

It’s not the only way to sell (or get clients), by far. But it is the most effective.

You need to hear their voice and they need to hear yours. You need to ask questions and answer theirs. You need to see their body language and they need to see yours.

You need to connect with them and have a real conversation, because marketing is more than just delivering information.

When you talk to people, you can weed out the lookers and focus on the serious prospects. You can find out what they really want and what they’re willing to do about it. You can overcome objections and sign up more clients more quickly.

And if they’re not ready to hire you, you can set the stage for the time when they will be, and make sure they come back to you because they got to know you, like you, and trust you.

I’ve sold a lot of products and services without speaking to anyone. I’ll take that business all day, every day. But if I really needed to make a sale or sign up a new client, if my life literally depended on it, I’d take my fingers off the keyboard and call someone.

How to get your website to do most of the selling for you

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Filed Under: Closing the sale, Salesmanship

Why will this year be different?

January 4, 2021 by
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When you’re making plans for the coming year, the first you should do is review the previous year.

Take 30 minutes and think about what happened last year and what you can do to make this year better.

Tim Ferriss does an annual review by going through his calendar, week by week, and noting everything that was positive and everything that was negative. He uses this information to create a list of what to do more of in the new year, and a list of what NOT to do.

Another method is to go through your calendar, your project and tasks lists, your journal, and anything else you use to manage or document your life, and ask yourself 3 questions:

  1. What worked? What did you do that resulted in progress towards your goals? Which strategies were effective? What did you do well? What are you happy about?
  2. What didn’t work (and why)? What didn’t go well for you? What strategies didn’t bring good results? What disappointed you? And why?
  3. What can you do differently? What did you learn about your situation or yourself that can help you this year? Where can you improve? What do you need to stop doing? What new or better skills can help you?

If you need more prompts, here are some additional questions to ask yourself:

  • What did I discover about myself–my strengths, my challenges, my beliefs, my methods?
  • What did I discover that will help me this year: websites, podcasts, ideas, books, channels, people, methods?
  • What new habits helped me improve? What new habits can benefit me this year? What habits do I want to eliminate?
  • What did I appreciate about last year? (Experiences, opportunities, relationships, etc.) What made me happy? What was I proud of?
  • What kept me up at night? What have I/will I change this year?
  • What goals did I fail to achieve? What will I do differently this year?
  • What will I focus on this year? What are my “activity” goals? What are my “results” goals?
  • What else can I do to make this year better than last year?

To make this a better year, let go of the things you can’t change, your regrets, negative thoughts, and find a few positive things to focus on this year.

You might ask yourself the “focusing question” posed by the authors of The One Thing–“What is the ONE thing I can do such that by doing it, everything else will be easier or unnecessary?”

If that “one thing” is “improve my marketing,” let me know what I can do to help.

The Attorney Marketing Formula is a good place to start

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Filed Under: Increase your income, Law office management, Marketing legal services, success

Trust me, I’m a lawyer

December 31, 2020 by
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If people don’t trust you, they won’t hire you. At first, they may give you the benefit of the doubt, especially if you were referred to them, but that 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.

Yikes.

He said he could send someone with the truck later in the week. Right, after experiencing this guy’s bewildering lack of preparedness, we’ll sit around waiting for one of his guys to show up.

Needless to say, he didn’t get the job.

If you’re in a competitive field, where clients talk to more than one lawyer before making their choice, consider that prospective clients aren’t looking for a reason to hire you so much as a reason to disqualify you.

It doesn’t take much for them to do that.

If you are unprepared, if you squawk about your costs of doing business, if you say or do anything that says “unprofessional,” that’s it. You’re off the list.

And anything can knock you off that list.

Someone doesn’t like your photo on your website because you look mean, or there is no photo 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 or the results you deliver that count, it’s the entire client experience.

Which begins with trust.

Want more referrals? Do a 30-Day Referral Blitz

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Filed Under: Image, Referrals Tagged With:

Building your law practice 90 days at a time

December 30, 2020 by
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Art Williams was a high school football coach who became a billionaire building an insurance company from scratch. One of the things he taught his organization was the power of short-term bursts of effort. It can be difficult to maintain enthusiasm and stamina for a year, Williams said, “but you can do anything for 90 days.”

Williams built his business with a series of 90-day sprints. He put in all out effort for 90 days, never stopping or slowing down. At the end of 90 days, he was so confident and excited about what he had accomplished, after a short break, he was ready to do it again.

I’ve gone on many 90-day runs in my law practice and businesses. When you get laser-focused and work hard at something every day, momentum builds, your results compound, and you can accomplish amazing results.

Right now, you may spend 15 or 30 minutes a day on marketing. You can accomplish big things that way, if you do it consistently. But imagine what you could accomplish if, for the next 90 days, you went crazy and worked on marketing two solid hours every day. Total immersion, total focus, total effort.

90 days from now will be the beginning of April. It will be here in no time. You have a choice. You can go about your business the way you usually do usual or you can go on a 90-day run.

Where would you like to be 90 days from today?

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Filed Under: Marketing legal services, success

The perfect time management system

December 29, 2020 by
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If you ever find yourself driven by the need to get organized, if you continually try new techniques or apps only to abandon them in favor of something else, if you are on a never ending quest to find the perfect time management system, stop.

Just stop.

Many productive, happy people don’t use a system.

The have a calendar. They write down what they need to do for the day. They have files they can turn to when they need something. And. . . that’s about it.

They don’t make elaborate lists with tags and contexts for every task. They don’t use digital reminders. A post it note is more than enough.

They don’t set goals or write detailed plans. They don’t make ‘New Year’s Resolutions’. They know what they want and spend their time taking action.

And their “system” works.

They don’t forget things. They never worry about having too much to do, or stress out about what they haven’t done.

Their system works because they trust their subconscious mind to know what they want and show them what to do to get it.

I know, you’re life is complicated and you want more. You can still use your favorite tools and techniques. Just don’t obsess over them, or spend so much time tweaking them that you don’t have time for anything else.

The new year is upon us. It’s a good time to re-think your system. Get rid of things that aren’t necessary or don’t serve you and simplify everything else.

You might want to start over. Pretend you have no system. One by one, add back things that work.

And ignore the rest.

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Filed Under: Goal Setting, Productivity, success

Quicker than search?

December 28, 2020 by
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The quickest way to find a digital file is to search for it by keyword, client, or date. Tags, labels, and other meta data can also help.

But they only work if you know what you’re looking for.

Sometimes, you don’t. The only way to find what you want is to manually browse through your files and notes and hope you get lucky.

It’s worse with paper files.

Unless you have a better filing system. One that allows you to narrow your search to a small segment of “everything”.

I’ve been using Tiago Forte’s PARA method to organize things and there’s a lot I like about it. At it’s simplest, you organize everything according to 4 categories: P is for (current) Projects, A is for Areas (of focus), R is for Resources, and A is for Archive (completed projects, settled cases, things you no longer need).

Since I no longer use a separate task manager, I added one more category: Tasks.

Projects and Archive are easy to understand and maintain, but Areas and Resources often overlap. I’m still working my way through this, but I’ve discovered something else I think might help.

It’s called the Johnny.Decimal system and allows you to classify all your “stuff” using numbers, sort of like the Dewey Decimal system used in libraries (but not as complicated or rigid).

The author says that using this system, you can find anything in no more than 2 clicks, but I’m not so sure. I have a lot of stuff! On the other hand, 3 clicks would be a blessing so I’m giving it a go.

Let me know what you think about the PARA system or the Johnny.Decimal system.

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Filed Under: Productivity Tagged With:

3 reasons people avoid estate planning

December 18, 2020 by
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Even if don’t handle estate planning, you can probably guess the most common reasons people use to avoid going to the dentist, uh, lawyer. Most people believe they need to do it but many don’t. According to this article, these are the 3 most common excuses:

  • Too busy
  • It’s too complicated and/or expensive
  • Superstition (don’t want to think about dying)

The article offers a few suggestions about things to do if you’re not ready or willing to see a lawyer, such as sharing passwords and a detailed lists of assets and debts, et. al., with loved ones, and using an online service to create a Living Will and/or a Will and Power of Attorney (but isn’t this estate planning?)

Anyway, if you handle estate planning, you probably send clients and prospects a questionnaire or checklist to fill out before their first appointment

Why not use it for people who don’t have an appointment?

Here’s what I mean.

Create a checklist or questionnaire that not only has spaces for them to record information you will need when they do see you, but also explains why that information is important.

In other words, explain the rationale behind estate planning so they can see why they need to do it immediately.

Your questionnaire should also provide some simple things they can do (such as sharing passwords, making a list of assets, etc.). If they do any of these things, they will have begun to think about estate planning, which might make them a bit closer to making an appointment.

Don’t overwhelm them or you might scare them into doing nothing. You might make this a preliminary checklist, to get them started and thinking about their “stuff”. Give them a comprehensive version once they make an appointment.

You should do this even if you don’t do estate planning.

Ask an estate planning friend to provide you with a questionnaire you can send to your clients. Your clients benefit, your friend will get some new clients, and you score points with everyone.

Ready to take a quantum leap in the new year? Here

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Filed Under: Marketing legal services

Advertising for lawyers who don’t advertise

December 17, 2020 by
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My insurance company sent me a couple of face masks. The masks have a message on them, about staying safe, and the name of the company.

Just the latest in a long line of “advertising specialties” businesses and professionals send to their clients and customers. Things like pens, scratch pads, key chains, calendars, coffee mugs, and the like, containing the name and phone number or website of the business or professional.

Every lawyer should consider something like this, even the ones who don’t advertise, because the real purpose of that pen or calendar or key chain isn’t primarily to advertise your services to new prospects but to keep your name in front of the people you send them to–clients, prospects, and business contacts.

Each time they use that pen or notepad, they see your name. If and when they need legal help, or talk to someone who does, they are more likely to contact you or give your name to their friend.

Search “ad specs,” as they referred to in the trade, and you’ll see a long list of things you can send or hand out to people, everything from drink coasters to desk caddies to refrigerator magnets, and now face masks.

Along with your name and website, you can print a list of your practice areas, and any advertising jargon you deem appropriate.

If you have a slogan printed on it, here’s a tip: Don’t use ‘Lawyers do it Their Briefs’ or “My Lawyer is Better than Your Lawyer.”

Wait, that last one might actually be okay. Maybe I’ll have that printed on a baseball cap.

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Filed Under: Advertising

A better way to ask for referrals

December 16, 2020 by
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You’ve heard me say that when you ask for referrals, you get more referrals.

I’ve heard you say you don’t want to ask.

Well, there are ways to “ask” without asking.

When you write an article or blog post, for example, and share a success story about a case you handled, you can casually mention that said case or client was referred to you by another client who had a similar case or situation and received a positive outcome.

Your reader sees that you were successful in helping two clients with that problem. They also see that your clients refer other clients to you, suggesting that they can, too.

There are many other ways to “ask without asking,” and, if “asking” makes you uncomfortable, you should avail yourself of them. They are spelled out in my Maximum Referrals course.

Now, if you’re not uncomfortable asking for referrals, from clients or prospects or professional contacts, when you do ask, I have a tip for you:

Be specific.

Don’t simply ask, “Do you know anyone who needs an attorney?” That’s too broad and begs the listener to say no.

Instead, when you’re speaking to a small business client, for example, ask if they know a couple of business owners or execs who might need help protecting their assets or re-negotiating their lease (or with the legal situation you’re helping them with).

Being specific makes it more likely they’ll think about someone they know in the context of your services. You can then ask for an introduction or ask them to give them your card.

Another way to be specific is to help them think about people they know in a given context: from work, from church, in their neighborhood, or their customers or clients.

“Do you have any clients who might need help with. . .?”

Now, here’s another way to ask for referrals without asking. You can do this in person, on the phone, via email, or in your content:

“If you know anyone who could use [help or advice] with [a legal problem or situation], tell them go to [web page] to download a copy of my free report [problem-solving, benefit oriented title]. . .”

Reframe “asking” into “offering” and you’ll get more people sending people your way.

For more ways to get referrals without asking in Maximum Referrals

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Filed Under: Referrals
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