Great advice on starting a new law practice (or growing your old one)

April 10, 2012 by
Share

Marketing legal services is simple. A lot of common sense, really. You don’t need a bunch of high tech solutions or a complicated process. What you need are people.

An article in today’s Forbes Magazine tells the story of a Los Angeles lawyer who started her own practice in the summer of 2010 and in less than two years built a successful estate planning practice.

In, How I Got My First Client and You Can Too, attorney Sonia Tatiyants outlines what she did to get her first client and beyond.

She didn’t advertise or build a powerful web site. She didn’t have the money to do that, even if she wanted to. What she did is decidedly low cost and low tech. She began by contacting everyone she knew to announce the opening of her new practice.

It doesn’t get simpler than that.

By the way, if you’re not new, find a reason to contact everyone in your database and remind them that you are still here. Someone on your list needs your services, or they know someone who does.

Tatiyants followed that up by starting a lunch group where she could network with other estate planning attorneys. She also networked with “like minded, driven, entrepreneurial individuals. . .,” who collaborated with her and became a source of referrals.

Taking things a step further, Tatiyants also realizes that her clients can not only send her referrals, they can become a source of business for the professionals in her network. In positioning herself as a “trusted advisor,” her clients and contacts look to her for referrals when they have a problem or need. She refers them to the other lawyers, CPAs, financial planners, and insurance agents in her network.

She also understands the importance of keeping her clients happy. One way she does that by making sure they know what to expect with their case. By managing their expectations, her clients don’t get frustrated with delays or when they get something in the mail.

Finally, she understands that for her practice to continue to grow she needs to put systems in place that will allow others to do administrative tasks so she can focus on the lawyering (and marketing).

Great marketing advice for new lawyers and old. Even lawyers who are very old.

But there’s something she left out of the article that I know every lawyer would like to know. How did she get featured in Forbes magazine?!

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

Can lawyers establish a brand?

April 9, 2012 by
Share

Investor, entrepreneur, and best-selling author Robert Kiyosaki said, “If you are not a brand, you are a commodity.” But can a lawyer be a brand?

Probably not in the sense that “Clorox” or “McDonalds” are brands. Most lawyer’s names will never be household words. But within our various market niches, and certainly among our colleagues, we can indeed establish a successful brand.

You are an estate planning attorney who targets physicians in your local market. If a survey is done of those physicians and a preponderance of them mention you when asked if they could name an estate planning attorney, I think we can agree that you qualify as a brand.

And that’s a good thing.

Being a brand gives you pre-eminence. You get more clients, more easily. You can charge premium fees. Clients tend to be more loyal. You’ll be thinner, better looking, and have whiter teeth.

Okay, but what about the opposite end of the spectrum: being a commodity. If we define that as being “average” is that necessarily a bad thing? No. Earning what the average attorney earns is nothing to be ashamed of. But why settle for less than you can achieve?

Developing a brand is not easy to do on a national scale. It’s much easier for a lawyer targeting a niche market.

How do you do it? By crafting the right marketing message for your target market and focusing all of your time and creative energy delivering that message, and no other. No mixed messages. No ambiguity.

But you don’t sell a product, you sell yourself. And so more than merely delivering a marketing message, you must “become” that message.

Your identity must be fully aligned with your message and market. You can’t merely be a lawyer who happens to handle a certain type of client or case. You must be perceived as the top expert in your market, completely dedicated to that market and the people in it.

Donald Trump is a brand because everything he does, and everything he is, is consistent and aligned with the image he has crafted. When you think of real estate and business, you think of The Donald. And when you think about The Donald, you think about real estate and business.

Donald Trump is the brand. You must become your own brand.

Fortunately, you don’t have to spend as much money as Trump, or engage in the pompous rhetoric that has become his trademark. And yes, you can have normal hair.

Share
Filed Under: Image, Marketing legal services Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Are you paid enough for the risks you take in your law practice?

April 6, 2012 by
Share

“The choice isn’t between success and failure; its between choosing risk and striving for greatness, or risking nothing and being certain of mediocrity.” — Keith Ferrazzi

Every day you make decisions in your law practice. You’re usually right but sometimes you make a mistake. It’s okay because when you make a mistake, you can usually fix it. If you can’t fix it and your client suffers a detriment, you have insurance.

Your clients pay you to make decisions. It’s what you do. It’s what you get paid for. Every time you make a decision, however, you take a risk. But are you being compensated for those risks?

In business, the bigger the risk, the bigger the potential reward. When you are the principal, your fortunes rise or fall on the outcome. As advisors, however, we are paid by the hour or the case or the work product. Other than contingency fees, our compensation is almost never commensurate with the risks.

You prepare a “simple” will. You get paid a few hundred dollars. But what if the client needed something different? What if you leave something out? Hundreds of thousands of dollars could be are at stake, but you are paid a few hundred dollars.

It seems to me we should be paid according to the risks we take in our work. Our insurance carriers are. Our business clients are. But we are not and we probably never will be. We can’t charge thousands of dollars for a simple will.

But while we probably won’t get paid more for taking risks in our legal work, we can get paid more for taking risks in our marketing. Ironically, these are risks most attorneys avoid.

If you want to reap bigger rewards in marketing your services, you need to take bigger risks.

Time, money, ego–invest more, risk more. Yes, you might waste that time or money, or take a big hit to your ego. But you might also get rich.

Share
Filed Under: Attorneys fees, Fees and Billing, Law office management, Legal industry, Marketing legal services Tagged With: , , , ,

How to find the time for marketing your legal services

April 5, 2012 by
Share

You’ll often hear me say that you can get appreciable results in marketing in just 15 minutes a day. Why is this so? Because marketing is doing a lot of little things, like taking a few extra minutes to make a new client feel welcome, writing the first draft of an article or blog post, or calling a fellow professional to invite him for coffee.

You can do a lot in 15 minutes. The key is to do something every day. An apple a day keeps the doctor away; seven apples on Sunday will give you a stomach ache.

But marketing is also doing bigger things, like joining a new networking group. You’ll spend a couple of hours a week at the meeting, plus additional time on committees, special events, and meeting with new contacts. This is a commitment of several hours a week. Where do you find the time?

The key to bigger marketing activities is being selective. You don’t join four networking groups, you join one. If it’s the right group for you, the extra time you spend will be well worth it.

When it comes to marketing, attorneys are often “a mile wide and an inch deep”. They try to do too many things and get poor results at most of them. Choose one or two marketing techniques or platforms and get good at them. Learn everything you can about LinkedIn, for example, and master it. Put your time and energy into it and don’t worry about Facebook or Twitter or anything else you could be doing.

When you approach the big things in marketing this way, you’ll find that not only do you have the time to do it, you get much better results.

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

How to find out what your clients want (so you can give it to them)

April 4, 2012 by
Share

Attorneys ask a lot of questions. We ask to find out what our clients want and need so we can prepare the right documents. We ask questions through discovery, to avoid surprises, develop a strategy, and gain an advantage. Questions are how we tell a story in the courtroom or negotiate a settlement in the hallway. Questions are even how attorneys answer questions they don’t want to answer.

We’re good at asking questions.

We know when to ask open-ended questions and when to ask leading questions. We know how to question a hostile witness, an expert witness, and our own client. We know when a question is proper and when it is objectionable.

All day, every day, we ask questions in our work. Why don’t we do the same thing in our marketing?

Your clients and prospective clients can tell you what you need to do to grow your practice. They can tell you what you need to say to get them to say yes. They can tell you what you need to do (or not do) to make them happy. They can give you information you can use to improve every aspect of your practice.

All you have to do is ask.

You can ask about the specific handling of their case, what they liked best in your latest newsletter, or how they were treated when they called to make an appointment.

You can ask what topics they would like you to write about in your newsletter, whether they are interested in other services you’re thinking about offering, and whether they think your fees are too high, too low, or just right.

You can ask them what you did well for them, and where they felt you could have done better. You can ask which headline they like best, which blogs or magazines they regularly read, or whether they want paper copies mailed to them or if email is just fine.

You can ask in person or over the phone, through email or online surveys and polls. You can ask directly or, for more honest feedback, let them answer anonymously.

You can ask anything, and they will tell you, and what they tell you could be worth a fortune to you.

What if you have always assumed your clients wanted updates only when there is something important to report but in reality, most of them want to hear from you every month? What if you’ve been writing about how to avoid infringing on others’ patents but they want to know is how to minimize employee lawsuits? What if you have always assumed your receptionist is doing a good job but half of your clients think he is rude?

And guess what? People like being asked. They like giving their opinions and they will appreciate you for asking. It tells them that you care about what they think, and that you want to make them happy.

Make a list of questions to ask your clients and prospects and business contacts. Get in the habit of regularly asking people what they want, what they like, and what you can do to improve. And then do something even more important: listen.

Share
Filed Under: Client relations, Communication, Law office management, Marketing legal services, Salesmanship Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Get bigger results with a DMO (daily method of operation) with these 4 components

April 3, 2012 by
Share

Most attorneys handle their day by (a) looking at the calendar and (b) responding to phone calls, emails, and regular mail. They handle the work in front of them and never seem to find time for much of anything else.

They know they “should” spend some time on marketing, for example, but that time never seems to materialize.

The solution is to create a “daily method of operation”–a written list of daily activities that help you move forward towards your long term and short term goals.

Your “daily method of operation” is a broad plan for the day. Rather than spelling out the specific tasks you need to do each day, a DMO focuses on the big picture. It reminds you to pay attention to what’s important, rather than what’s in front of you. It allows you to run your practice instead of your practicing running you.

Every attorney’s DMO should have these four components:

  1. Professional and personal development. Every day you should be reading or listening to training, learning new ideas, and finding ways to improve what you already know and do. Without continual development, you will stop growing and eventually begin to decay. This category includes continuing legal education, but also things like practicing your next presentation in front of a mirror, reading books on sales and business, and spending time with a mastermind group or a workout partner.
  2. Money making activities. This is work that brings in revenue. Make sure you’re doing things that allow you to bill or settle cases, not wasting time in pointless meetings.
  3. Marketing. Marketing is everything you do to attract clients and you must do it every day. It includes staying in touch with former clients and making sure your current clients are happy. In fact, from a marketing standpoint, there is nothing more important than “client relations”. Whatever you do for marketing–blogging, speaking, networking, social media, advertising–schedule time and do it every day.
  4. Administrative. If you run your own practice, there will always be things you need to do or to supervise to make sure things are running smoothly. If you aren’t in charge, there are things you need to do to stay organized and out of trouble. Schedule time each day to make sure you’re on top of things, but not so much time that the other components get short-changed.

To stay on track, you should also set goals for each component. There are two types of goals–activities and results:

  1. Activities: e.g., make one “how are you?” call each day to a former client, attend one networking function per week, etc.
  2. Results: e.g., one new client per week via online marketing, increase revenue 25% this quarter, etc.

Create a daily method of operation for your practice and schedule time for all four components. If you spend only 15 minutes a day on marketing but do it every day because it’s part of your DMO, you’ll be amazed at what you can accomplish.

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

Save time, reduce anxiety with a DON’T do list

April 2, 2012 by
Share

It is said that successful people make up their minds quickly and change their minds slowly, if at all. As someone who often spends waaaay too much time thinking about things, that’s not what I wanted to hear.

But when you’re intelligent, you can see many possible outcomes. Things are rarely black and white and we should never decide anything important without taking time to reflect.

At least that’s what I tell myself.

Actually, what I think happens is that we often do decide quickly, but as human beings with ingrained self-doubts, and as lawyers trained to see both sides, we go back and forth challenging our decisions in an effort to justify them. We’ll go through the motions of trying to find fault, but usually, we’ve already made up our minds.

I don’t think we can’t change the way this works. We can, however, eliminate much of the anxiety and time wasting that occurs by re-thinking and second-guessing our decisions.

One way to do that is with a “don’t do” list.

If you’re married or otherwise monogomous, there are certain things you don’t do. You don’t go to single’s bars for example. In fact, you don’t spend any time thinking about single’s bars. It’s on your mental “don’t do” list. Why not create a similar list for other areas of your life?

For example, as you read this blog, you are presented with many ideas for marketing your legal services. Some ideas you like. Other ideas you have considered and rejected. They’re not for you. And yet you continue thinking about some of those ideas. Even though you have rejected them, you continue reading about them, you download apps, and you talk to other lawyers to see what they think.

I suggest you make a decision and be done with it. Put it on a “don’t do” list.

Open a text file or an Evernote note and start recording a list of things you’re not going to do. Once something is on the list, don’t read about it, don’t think about it, and by all means, don’t worry about it. You considered it and made your decision. Move on.

Your list might include advertising, for example. Your practice area might be one where many attorneys advertise and you’ve thought about it. Make a decision–will you or won’t you?

Maybe “advertising” is too broad. It might be something you can see yourself doing at some point. No problem. It doesn’t go on your list. But perhaps you’ve decided that yellow pages advertising is something you aren’t going to do (or no longer do) and you can put that on your don’t do list.

Maybe you don’t like social media and have decided you’re not going to have anything to do with it. Fine. Think of all the time you’ll save by not reading about it, exploring the different platforms, or actually engaging in it. You should feel good about your decision.

You see an article about lawyers getting clients through Pinterest. Tempting, eh? But you’ve already explored it and put it on your don’t do list. Not for you. So you don’t read the article or ponder the issue (“maybe there’s a new angle to this. . .”). Next subject. . .

On the other hand, social media marketing can produce a lot of business and just because you don’t have time for it right now or you don’t want to do it right now, you might not want to write it off completely. Don’t put it on your list. But if you’re camera shy and you know you don’t want to make youtube videos, put that on your list.

This doesn’t mean you never re-consider your decisions. I do many things today I never saw myself doing a few years ago. People change, technology changes, circumstances change. So, periodically, perhaps every six months or once a year, re-visit your don’t do list and see if there’s anything you want to remove.

Every day we are confronted with issues that require a decision. The less time we spend deciding, and the less time we spend re-considering our decisions, the more time we will have to do the things we’ve decided we want to do. A don’t do list can help.

So, what’s on your “don’t do” list? I know, I know, you want more time to think about it.

Share
Filed Under: Dealing with stress, Personal development, Productivity, Time Management Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Get more writing done in less time with OmmWriter

March 30, 2012 by
Share

I wrote this post in OmmWriter, an application that creates a quiet, uncluttered writing space. Just a simple, full page of blank writing surface, a few basic fonts, and little else.

The idea is to be able to write without being distracted by Facebook, email, or other web sites or applications. It gives you a quiet place to be alone with your thoughts, so you can get more writing done in less time.

I remember going to the library in high school to write papers I didn’t want to write. Once I settled down and resigned myself to getting started, the quiet helped me to focus. Applications like OmmWriter create a similar environment.

On the other hand, I usually don’t need a quiet setting to write. In fact, like many people, I enjoy having some distractions. I think that’s why you see so many people writing or doing homework at Starbucks.

Also, when I write I usually refer to notes or articles I’ve saved or have open in a browser. Being in a writing app that takes over the full screen means I have to close the app to get to those notes or articles.

I do enjoy writing in OmmWriter, especially when I’m writing about something I know a lot about or have strong feelings about. The writing is quicker and flows more freely. What I mean is that I’m not so much engaged in the act of writing as I am in connecting my thoughts with my keyboard. For first drafts especially, it’s a more intuitive, natural process, and in some ways, the writing is better.

Applications like this are a good idea for writers who need that quiet space where they can let their creativity flow. If you ever find yourself unable to settle down and get into your writing, this is a good solution.

I’ve tried other applications like this. Some are browser based, some, like OmmWriter, you download. OmmWriter offers a feature I like, background colors and sounds (music) they have found to be conducive to writing. They provide a sort of “white noise” that helps me focus better.

OmmWriter is free and there is also a paid version (donation-ware) with more colors and sounds. I have used it off and on since I first downloaded it a month ago and I will continue to use it. It’s easier than driving to the library, and a lot cheaper than Starbucks.

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

Smart marketing by a smart lawyer

March 29, 2012 by
Share

Yesterday, I was interviewed live via a new video broadcast service, Spreecast. The interviewer was my friend and fellow attorney, Mitch Jackson. The subject was using Evernote in a law practice and my Evernote for Lawyers ebook. You can watch the replay here.

In the interview, you’ll note my comment to Mitch that his Spreecasts are smart marketing on his part because it allows him to network not only with the experts he interviews but with a large number of attorneys and allied professionals who come to watch. It positions him as a leader and gets his name in front of a lot of people who can either directly refer clients to him or who can lead him to others who can.

Although these Spreecasts are new, I know Mitch has for many years done a great job of networking in this fashion, promoting others’ law practices, books and events to his large network. I also know he gets a lot of referral business.

Smart marketing, and you can do the same thing. It’s called being a connector.

Being a connector can not only help you grow your practice, it is also a great vehicle for learning. I’m sure Mitch will tell you in reading the blogs and books of the experts he interviews, he learns the best ideas and latest techniques, which help him become a better lawyer and a better marketer.

To become a connector you need two things.

First, you need a platform. This can be a blog, a Facebook or LinkedIn Group, a newsletter, your own Spreecast channel, or a local breakfast group. This is where you match up content (writing, speaking, interviews) with your audience. You are the organizer, the master of ceremonies, the interviewer, the publisher. Everything goes through you.

The platform is easy. Just pick something and plant a flag.

The second thing you need might be a little more difficult. It’s not something you sign up for, it’s something you must have within you. To be effective as a connector, you need to truly enjoy helping others. It’s true, the more value you create for others, the more you promote them and champion their practice or product, the more you will benefit. But you must be willing to help others without any agenda, other than the pleasure you get from seeing others succeed.

Mitch has a series of great interviews lined up. Follow his Spreecast Lawyers Group (channel) and invite your friends.

Share
Filed Under: Marketing legal services, Networking, Online Marketing Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,

How to get your tweets re-tweeted

March 28, 2012 by
Share

I am not an expert on twitter. So when an expert says something, I’m inclined to listen. But sometimes, what an expert says doesn’t feel right to me. Case in point:

This article quotes a social media expert (a professor–hmm, maybe that’s the problem) who says that every Tweet should include:

  • One @ mention (This makes it more likely that someone will read the Tweet)
  • One hash tag (Makes the Tweet more searchable)
  • One link: (Links represent value and value is more likely to be shared)

I agree, we should make an effort to include these in Tweets, but all three? In EVERY Tweet?

If I Tweet a link to my latest blog post, who am I supposed to @ mention? I don’t know about you, but it kinda bothers me when someone mentions me for no apparent reason other than to get me to read something that doesn’t necessarily pertain to me.

I think a better rule of thumb is to do what’s natural. Tweets, like any social media message, are meant to communicate, and that should be the operative rule. If you force these three things into every Tweet, you may write the “perfect” Tweet but find nobody is reading it. As one comment to the post put it,

“Ick. I’m afraid that if you include one of each of those in every tweet, I for one will not follow you! I prefer the people I follow to be original, not simple link factories or repliers to someone else’s thoughts.”

The article has some good advice on the best times to Tweet, best practices for link placement, and other expert tips. But here’s this expert’s advice: don’t listen to any advice without having your BS detector in the on position.

Share
Filed Under: Social media, Social media marketing Tagged With: ,
« Previous Page
Next Page »