Explain and grow rich

November 2, 2017 by
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We had our carpets cleaned yesterday. Excellent service and excellent results from a top rated company. But, in my humble (but accurate) opinion, they dropped the ball on something that could have a profound effect on their business.

They didn’t explain how to prepare for their visit.

When he arrived, the technician complimented my wife on her preparation–vacuuming thoroughly, removing cat hair from the furniture (lint rollers), and said that many customers don’t do this. They expect that he will vacuum and he doesn’t. I’m there to clean the carpet, he tells them, and when they don’t vacuum, his job takes longer and often leads to poorer results.

You can argue that vacuuming should be included in the service and that customers aren’t out of line to expect this, but that’s beside the point. The point is that the company should explain this to the customer well in advance of the appointment. Send them instructions on how to prepare, and what will happen once they start the work.

And, why not offer some add-on services like vacuuming, at additional cost, for those who want it?

But no, other than explaining that the workers don’t move heavy furniture and that the carpets would be cleaned around it, nothing else was explained.

How difficult would it be to send customers an email with a list of what to do and what to expect? How many issues would something simple like that eliminate in advance?

Wait, there’s more.

After the work was done, the worker explained to my wife some things to do to make sure the carpet dried properly and quickly. He also told her what not to do. He was thorough and patient but again, why not put this in writing? Hand customers a booklet that explains everything?

If they supplied customers with written information about preparation and aftercare, they would have happier customers, with even better results.

Happier customers mean more repeat business, more five-star reviews, and more referrals.

I’m sure you have something you send to new clients so they can prepare for their first visit to your office, or take away after the first visit. I’m sure you also have something you give them at the end of the case or matter. I’m also sure that both of these documents answer common questions and tell the client what to expect and what to do in a variety of situations.

If you don’t have these, you should. If you do have them, now would be a good time to review them and make sure they are as thorough and helpful as they can be.

NB: in the aftercare instructions, also explain what to do if they are satisfied with your work: where to post a review and how to make a referral.

How to get (a lot) more referrals from your clients: instructions here

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Filed Under: Client relations

Marketing is simple

November 1, 2017 by
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Yesterday, I told you about the dentist who sent a gift card to old patients (i.e., me) and how you could do something similar to activate old clients and/or get some referrals.

No doubt you loved the idea. You want old clients to hire you again. You want more referrals. You want to get this done.

But. . .

What if your old clients are unable to hire you again, at least right now?

Or, what if you really love this idea and want to scale it up big time.

No problem.

All you need to do is contact other professionals or business owners and ask them if they would like some business. When they say, “Yes I would, kind sir/madam,” you say, “I’m going to send a letter (email) to my clients and former clients, tell them about you, and offer them a $100 [$500, or whatever] discount card [coupon, voucher, etc.] for your services [products]. Would that be okay?”

If it’s not okay, go find someone else who wants a bunch of new clients or customers.

If they say, “I love it, what do you need from me?” work out the details and send your clients an early Christmas gift, courtesy of your new friend.

Your clients will love you for helping them find a professional/business who does good work and for saving them some cash.

Your new friend will love you for helping them bring in new business.

And you’ll love you because your new friend will be obliged to send your offer to their clients or customers.

Hello? McFly? That means you’ll have a bunch of new clients. Quickly. Which means you’ll love me for telling you about this.

And then? And then, go find another professional and make them the same offer.

Note, your offer (or your friend’s offer) doesn’t have to be a discount. It could be a free consultation, an ebook or report, a checklist of important items to keep track of or do (eg., information to collect when they are in an auto collision, an estate planning guide), or anything else folks like your clients would find valuable.

Whatever it is, you can set this up quickly and start pulling in business long before Rudolph’s nose starts blinking.

Find someone with a list of customers, clients, prospects, or other contacts who might be a good fit for your services. Show them your discount card (or whatever). Tell them the results you got sending it to your older clients (if you did that), and off you go.

Marketing is simple. Try it, you’ll like it.

Getting more referrals from other professionals made simple

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Filed Under: Marketing legal services, Referrals

Dead clients don’t pay your bills

October 31, 2017 by
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One of the best sources of new clients is old clients, that is, former clients who haven’t hired you for a while. That’s one reason I repeatedly pound on you about the value of staying in touch.

Anyway, if you haven’t been doing that, or even if you have, there’s something else you can do to “re-activate” lapsed clients.

In the mail yesterday was a letter (remember those?) from a dentist I don’t know but with a return address that sounded vaguely familiar. I’m always curious to see how professionals market themselves so I opened it. Inside was a $100 gift card, good towards any treatment with this dentist.

I don’t live anywhere near his office so why was he mailing this to me? With a quick search online, I figured it out.

It seems that the dentist I went to nearly ten years ago has retired and moved out of state. Before he retired, he took on a young partner, the dentist who send me the gift card. So, basically, my dentist sold out and moved out.

Mystery solved.

Anyway, the gift card is the size of a credit card and made of hard plastic. If you’re using gift cards in your practice, this is a good way to do it. Doesn’t cost you anything unless they use it and if they use it, well, Bob’s your uncle.

So, if you have former clients you’d like to bring back to the mother ship, why not send them a gift card? (The company that produced this card is www.vivaconcepts.com. I don’t know anything about them and don’t endorse them, I just wanted to tell you where you could get some information.)

The letter enclosed with the gift card said that the end of the year is almost upon us and that “now would be a good time to give the gift of a bright holiday smile, and remind you to utilize any unused insurance before it expires.”

Following this, it says, “Enclosed is a gift card for any treatment you may need addressed. You can also give this card to a family member or friend.”

Bingo. Don’t need any dental (or legal) work? You may know someone who does.

It’s called a referral, in case you’re new around here.

Clients can and do give referrals. Here’s how to get more

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Filed Under: Client loyalty, Marketing legal services Tagged With:

Know thy enemy

October 30, 2017 by
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I’m like that teacher you hated who always gave homework. Today is no exception.

The bad news? This will be an ongoing project, something you need to do for the rest of your career.

The good news is that it’s not difficult and shouldn’t take up a lot of time. In fact, most of the assignment can be done by a virtual assistant and I won’t mark you down for cheating.

The assignment is to set up files for tracking the activities of your competition. Doing this will provide you with ideas for doing a better job of managing and marketing your services.

If you can identify firms or individual attorneys who regularly compete with you with ad dollars or at networking events, or elsewhere, start with them. Otherwise, pick someone (at random), in your building or at your networking events, who has the same practice areas you do.

Five or ten competitors is enough to start. Once you have identified them, look at their websites, do a search for their name(s), and see what you can find out:

  • What market(s) do they target?
  • Where do they advertise, network, speak, or publish?
  • What is their theme, message, or USP?
  • What kinds of content do they publish on their website(s) or blog(s)?
  • What do they offer prospects to drive traffic to their sites and/or get them to opt-in?
  • How and where do they use social media?
  • Which centers of influence (referral sources, endorsers, publishers, etc.) do they associate with?
  • What services do they offer? What don’t they offer?
  • Which keywords do they appear to target? Which do they seem to overlook?
  • What resources, talents, and connections do they have that you don’t have or are weaker in?
  • What are their weaknesses?
  • Who are their biggest competitors?
  • How do they manage their practice in terms of personnel, equipment, and workflows?

Read their content, save copies of their ads, and make lists of where they speak or write and about what topics.

Don’t obsess over this. Just observe and make notes.

Then, periodically review your notes and look for opportunities to improve your marketing and management based on what your competition is doing:

  • Identify new target markets or market segments
  • Identify categories of referral sources you don’t currently have in your arsenal
  • Look for ways to improve your marketing messages, content, website(s), and external content (e.g., guest posts, comments, social media posts)
  • Examine your strengths and weaknesses relative to the competition; find ways to make your strengths even stronger and eliminate or marginalize your weaknesses
  • Brainstorm ways to exploit your competition’s weaknesses and overcome their strengths
  • Look for ways to improve your workflows, tools, and resources

Keep an eye on your competition. You may learn something you can use.

Marketing is easier when you know The Formula

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

What if you don’t like what you do but can’t change that?

October 27, 2017 by
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In response to yesterday’s trip down memory lane, attorney RG asked, “What if you don’t like what you do (law but can’t change that). . .”

I love a good challenge and “can’t change that” is about as good as it gets.

Of course you can change that, RG.

It might be difficult, emotionally wrenching, expensive, and take a long time, but it can be done. Many lawyers do it and so can you.

Start by asking yourself questions like, “How can I change my situation? What would I like to do instead? How do I find a way to “like” what I do?”

You can change your situation but first you must give yourself permission to do it. Before you can do that, you must give yourself permission to believe that it’s possible.

Onward.

I don’t know what it is that you don’t like about your work but I peeked at your website and see that (a) you are a sole practitioner who offers an array of services, and (b) you do litigation.

My first suggestion is to look at ways to reconstitute your practice areas.

Choose a practice area you like (or hate less) and focus on that. Take a partner or refer everything else out.

If litigation is a source of stress and long hours and “don’t like,” you can change that too. You can outsource some or all of it. Get an “of counsel” relationship with a firm and let them do the heavy lifting. Hire someone and keep it in house. Or refer it out.

Hold on, I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking that if you have fewer practice areas and outsource your litigation you’ll lose income and you can’t afford that. Am I right?

Well, what if that didn’t happen? What if you find that specializing allows you to increase your income? And what if the time you free up by outsourcing some or all of your litigation gives you room to bring in more of the work you enjoy and that pays well?

That’s what I found when I did it.

At first, turning away business was scary. But the vacuum i created by doing so was soon filled with work that paid more and required less time. If you’ve read my stuff, you know that I quadrupled my income and reduced my work-week to three days.

I’m sure there are other issues that cause you to want to “get out”. Many of these are fixable, too.

But if you can’t fix them, start working on a plan to get out.

Here’s how I did it:

I got good at marketing and built up a war chest that gave me options.

I started two side businesses The first helped me to replace my practice income. The second provided me with passive income which allowed me to retire and do what I love.

I don’t know who said it but this quote seems to fit: “You should either do what you love, or find something that gives you enough time and money to do what you love.”

How to choose your specialty (and why you should): here

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Filed Under: Career satisfaction, Specializing

Faking it

October 26, 2017 by
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Do you remember the day you learned that you had passed the bar exam? Sure you do. We all do. We also remember how we felt when we got the news.

Me? I was relieved. Not excited. Okay, maybe a little excited but more relieved than anything else because I knew I would never have to go through that again.

I was also proud of myself. Passing the California Bar, arguably the toughest in the country, first time out–yeah, I was proud of that. All that hard work had paid off.

I boxed up the books and the notes, got sworn in, and got to work.

I had clerked throughout law school so the work was familiar. The moment I opened my own office, however, everything changed.

Having that license meant I was responsible. People depended on me. If I messed up, I had nobody to blame but myself.

Eventually, I got comfortable being in the captain’s chair. Okay, who am I kidding? I was scared to death. I was sure that my clients would see right through me and know I didn’t know what I was doing.

I would be unmasked as a fake. A fraud. A boy in his father’s three-piece suit.

But I did know what I was doing. Enough, at least, to get the job done.

As I gained experience, the work got easier. I became more confident. Case by case, client by client, I grew into the role of a trusted advisor and successful professional.

Building my practice was hard but worth it. I enjoyed the challenge and I enjoyed helping people and when the money was good, it was very good.

My practice eventually led me to other things. Other mountains to climb. I was (mostly) successful there, too, but I often wonder if I would have been happier doing those things instead of going to law school.

I don’t know. All I know is that things have worked out well. Probably the way they were supposed to. And that’s exciting.

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Filed Under: Career satisfaction

When a herd of zombies is coming at you

October 25, 2017 by
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You hear it a lot in movies. The characters are having problems. Zombies are crashing through the gate. The bad guys are coming to take their stuff, and everything looks hopeless. Someone wants to give up and someone else says, “C’mon, we can do this. We’ll figure it out.”

And somehow, they almost always do. Although that might not happen until the next season.

There’s a lesson in less. No matter what you’re going through, whether you’re struggling to bring in business, your clients aren’t paying your bill, or a herd of zombies is coming at you, you just keep going.

Whatever the problem, action is the cure.

You can think. You can research. You can pray. You can ask others for help or advice. But at the end of the day, those zombies aren’t going to cut off their own heads.

Of course, building a law practice is very much like fighting zombies.

When I opened my own practice, I rented an office from an attorney who had an extra room in his suite in Beverly Hills. It was expensive but I had big plans and needed to look like I had something going on. Unfortunately, I didn’t. I had trouble paying the rent.

But I kept going.

After a while, I moved to another office closer to where my prospective clients lived. The rent was cheaper and gave me more breathing room. More time to keep going. And I did.

I continued to struggle and eat peanut butter sandwiches for dinner, but eventually I was doing better and got my own suite of offices.

It took years but I made it.

Some of my success came from improving my legal skills. Even more came from learning how to market my services. But most of my success came because I didn’t quit.

I had problems. I made mistakes. I lost money. Hell, in my first year I had to appear at a state bar hearing (without representation) to explain to a panel how I wasn’t violating ethical rules by running ads offering to pay referral fees to attorneys. (The law had just changed to allow this and when I pointed out that I was abiding by the rules, I won the case.)

No matter where you are right now, keep going. Nobody’s coming to rescue you. But you can get through this. Just keep moving and I promise, you’ll figure it out.

Need clients? Here you go

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Filed Under: Inspiration, success

How many people work for you?

October 24, 2017 by
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How many people work for you? I don’t just mean employees. Or freelancers. Or outside companies you hire from time to time. I mean everyone who helps you in some way and gets paid to do so.

One? Ten? Twenty? Fifty?

Not even close.

The answer is probably in the hundreds. Maybe a lot more.

Impossible? Not really. Not if you re-think the meaning of “work” and “paid”. See, you’re forgetting about all of your clients and former clients. They work for you, too, even if they don’t show up at your office every morning.

How’s that?

They work for you by keeping their eyes and ears open for people who need your services. They work for you by sharing the content on your blog or newsletter or your posts on social media. They work for you by inviting people to your events.

True, they may not be very good at their job. But that’s just as much your fault as their’s.

If you don’t talk to your clients about referrals and other ways they can help you, most won’t know what to do. Or if they do but they haven’t heard from you in months or years, they forget to do it.

It’s up to you to educate them so they can do their job.

You can do that by posting a “How you can help us” page on your website and putting a copy in your “New Client Welcome Kit.” You can do that by staying in touch with them so they see your name and think about you and what you do.

It’s also up to you to praise them when they do a good job and, if possible, to recognize them for their good work in front of others.

You do that with real employees, don’t you? Praise and recognition? (If you don’t, you might want to put that on your list).

Okay, you get it. You see how all of your clients and former clients and everyone else on your list of contacts can help your practice grow. You also know that with a little help from you, they will be more likely to do it.

So we’re good, right? You know what you need to do?

Hold on. I said they get paid and you want to call me out on that. You can’t pay clients for referrals, nor would you want to.

Ah, but there are other ways to get paid in this world besides cold cash.

Why do you suppose anyone ever gives you a referral? Or forwards your email or report to someone they know?

Because they know someone who needs your help and they want to help them. They feel good doing that, helping a friend or client avoid pain, achieve a goal, or solve a problem. They feel good when their friend thanks them for introducing them to you, sparing them the risk and time of trying to find someone on their own.

Your clients also enjoy helping you. Yes they do.

Sure, they paid you and they got what they paid for (or more). But they like you and want to see you succeed. It makes them feel good to know that they were a part of that success, especially when you express to them your appreciation.

You do that, right? Say thank you to your clients when they do something nice for you? You should. It’s part of their “compensation” and if you don’t pay them, if you take them for granted, they might not want to work for you anymore.

Yes, there’s a big workforce available to you. Help them do a good job for you and they’ll make you glad you did.

Here’s how your clients can help you

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Filed Under: Client loyalty, Referrals

One day you might not need a website

October 23, 2017 by
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When I started practicing there was no Internet, few attorneys had computers or even fax machines, there was no social media, email, or instant messenger. We talked to people in person or on the phone. Or we mailed them a letter.

Marketing was done the old-fashioned way: networking, speaking, writing, and referrals. Oh yeah, we also had the Yellow Pages.

Yes, I’m an old fart.

By the time I retired from active practice, most of my business came from repeat business and referrals. It took a long time to get there but when I arrived, it was nice.

My father would tell you a similar story. So would my accountant, who is still practicing. To the best of my knowledge, neither have ever had a website or social media account.

The point?

If you’ve built your practice to a point that it sustains itself and continues to grow through repeat referrals and referrals, mazeltov. You can do whatever you want.

If you haven’t done that, if you are struggling, or if you still have big plans and a lot of gas in the tank, you need to consider doing some other things.

For starters, you need a decent website.

Today, when someone tells a friend about you, that friend goes online to check you out. If you don’t have a website where you can tell your story, show the world what you do and why someone should hire you, that friend may wind up in some other attorney’s waiting room.

If you have a website but it looks like something circa 1998, or you use AOL as your email provider, you’re not doing yourself any favors.

I’m not saying you need a great website. Just one that looks like it’s from the 21st century with some good content. Get your own domain name. And make it easy for visitors to call, email, follow you, share your content, and sign up for your newsletter.

This is not difficult to do. Or expensive. And if you do it right, your website can do a lot of your marketing for you.

When someone searches for a lawyer with your qualifications, or when someone (that includes you) sends them to your website, it can show them what they need to know, answer their questions, overcome their objections, and persuade them to take the next step.

Nice.

One day, you might not need a website. Until then, you might want to turn off the Starsky and Hutch reruns and get to work.

If your website needs an overall, get this

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Filed Under: Online Marketing

Start chopping, already!

October 20, 2017 by
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Abraham Lincoln famously said that if he has six hours to chop down a tree, he would spend four hours sharpening the ax. Or something like that. His point, of course, was that taking time to prepare before you do a job will make that job easier and the results better.

Okay, we all get that. But sometimes, we use “preparation” as an excuse to procrastinate.

“I’m not ready,” “I need to do more research,” “I need to think about it a bit longer,” we say. Too often, we never start.

Starting isn’t nearly as important as finishing but it’s a close second because you can’t complete a task you never start.

So start, before you’re ready. In the end, you’ll get more done.

If you make mistakes and have to fix them, if you mess up and have to start over, if you have to admit defeat and abandon the project, you’ll still get more done.

Now, I’m not saying don’t prepare. That would be silly. I’m saying don’t over-prepare. Wherever possible, do only as much preparation as you need to start.

Maybe you don’t need a week to do research before you begin. Maybe an hour will let you get rolling. If you find you need more, you can do more. But at that point, you’ll know more about the project and that might make the additional research go faster or be more useful.

Of course, you might find that one hour was all you needed.

If you have big, overwhelming projects, break them up into smaller parts, things you can do in a few minutes, an hour or two. Start those, and finish them, so you’ll be able to start and finish something else.

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Filed Under: Productivity
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