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

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

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

Response is the only that thing that matters.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

How would you answer these interview questions?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Now I know I wouldn’t hire me. . .

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

How I collect and organize articles and documents to read later

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The one thing attorneys need to know about getting more referrals

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

Ouch.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What are you focused on right now?

March 7, 2012 by
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We all have problems. Some people dwell on their problems, some focus on solutions. Guess what? We get what we focus on.

Focus on the mess you’re in and you get more mess. Focus on what you can do, how you want things to turn out, and you can work your way out of that mess.

I have a mantra, something I say to myself every day. It keeps me focused on solutions, not problems. It helps me move forward with a positive expectancy, instead of being held back by concerns and regret. I don’t know about you, but I don’t do my best work when I’m worried about something. I’m at my best when I’m hopeful and excited and looking forward to a positive outcome.

What do I say to myself? I remind myself to, “Think about what you want, not what you don’t want.”

When I do this, I feel better about the situation. Instead of worrying and shutting down, I stimulate my creativity and attract the resources, people, and ideas I need. Thinking about what I want brings me closer to getting it.

Why does this work? I’m not sure. Some say it’s the “Law of Attraction” or quantum physics doing it’s thing. Others say it’s your subconscious mind which understands your thoughts as a command which it then executes. Some say it’s the hand of God.

Whatever the reason, it does work. Try it and see for yourself.

When you think about what you want, you feel better, more in control, more creative. Your mind comes up with ideas instead of being mired in negative emotion. You are inspired to take action, guided to the next step and the step after that.

Because we get what we focus on.

I do have a caveat. Sometimes, when you think about what you want you’re really thinking about the absence of what you want–why you don’t have it, why things went wrong, why you’re not able to find a solution. All that does is attract more negative outcomes. When you focus on “not having” you get more “not having”.

I know, crazy, right?

How can you tell you’re doing it right? If you think about what you want and that thought doesn’t feel better than your previous thought, you know you are focused on “not having”. If the thought feels better, if there’s an emotional uptick, however small, it means you’re moving in the right direction.

Think about something you want but don’t have. How does it feel? If you feel frustrated or angry or disappointed, change the thought to something that feels a little bit better. From there, you can reach for an even better feeling thought.

The better you feel, the closer you are to getting what you want. When you feel excited and joyous and positive about what you want, what you want is just around the corner.

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Filed Under: Dealing with stress, Inspiration, Personal development, success Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Guy Kawasaki on social media and SEO

March 5, 2012 by
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If you’re like me, you (a) want more search engine traffic, (b) you don’t know much about SEO, and (c) you find the whole subject to be overwhelming and frankly, boring.

If so, you may like what Guy Kawasaki said about the subject in a recent interview:

My recommendation for SEO is very simple. It’s Write Good Stuff. In my mind, Google is in the business of finding good stuff. It has thousands of the smartest people in the world, spending billions of dollars to find the good stuff. All you have to do is write the good stuff; you don’t need to trick it. Let Google do its job and you do your job.

Relax. Don’t worry. Write what people want to read. They’ll find you.

Of course that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t help them find us. When I can, I put key words in my blog post titles and body, but I don’t contort myself to make that happen. Yes, I want you to find me but more important to me (and you) is that when you do find me, you get value out of what you read. It means you’ll come back and read some more and you’ll tell others and they’ll come, too.

SEO is not the only way people find things on the Internet. Word of mouth is very powerful.

On the subject of social media, Kawasaki says many entrepreneurs want to hire consultants and formulate a plan before they get started. He has different advice:  just dive in. Set up a profile and “just have at it”. You’ll learn more by actually doing it.

I subscribe to a few blogs that write about SEO and social media but to be honest when I get to their posts my eyes glaze over. Most of the time I don’t read them. I use that time writing.

If the growth in the readership of this blog is any indication, I’ve made the right choice.

Write Good Stuff. People will find you. And hire you.

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Filed Under: Blogging, Online Marketing, Social media, Social media marketing, Web traffic Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Why the average law firm doesn’t grow

March 2, 2012 by
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Over the last couple of posts I talked about legal fees. The average lawyer is paid average fees and they will continue to be paid average fees as long as they don’t do anything to distinguish themselves from other lawyers.

Similarly, the average law firm doesn’t grow. They have approximately the same number of clients today as they had six months ago. Six months from now that number will be approximately the same.

They may see spikes in new business, a rapid influx of new clients here and there, but in the growth department, most law firms aren’t seeing large and steady increases in clients or revenue.

But some firms do see that kind of growth. Every month they see more clients and higher revenue than the previous month. They aren’t churning, they are growing.

What do these lawyers do that average lawyers don’t do?

They provide exceptional service.

When you provide average service, nobody cares. “Yeah, my lawyer was okay–he did the job I paid him for. . .”. Yawn.

When you do more, when you provide clients with exceptional service that surprises and delights them, they’re going to talk about you. “Wow, if you’re looking for an attorney you should definitely call mine. She is absolutely amazing!”

Lawyers who are growing give people something to talk about. They provide exceptional service that makes clients feel that they got more than they paid for. These clients will not only recommend those attorneys, they will often go out of their way to do so.

They’ll talk about them to anyone who will listen. They’ll keep their eyes and ears open, looking for people who need them. They’ll recommend them, send traffic to their web site, and invite people to their next event.

The law of reciprocity says so.

When you give something to someone, there is a psychological compulsion to reciprocate. Give them what they paid for, it’s a fair exchange. Give them more than what they paid for or expected and they will return the favor.

If you want to charge higher fees than other lawyers, or you want to bring in more clients and see your firm grow, it all comes down to service. Average service, average fees and (lack of) growth. Exceptional service, higher fees and steady growth.

Fortunately, since the average attorney provides average service, it doesn’t take much to stand out. A little creativity and effort on your part and you’ll be the one people are talking about.

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Filed Under: Client relations, Increase your income, Marketing legal services Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Why the average lawyer earns average income (and why you don’t have to)

March 1, 2012 by
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In yesterday’s post I made the point that most clients don’t price shop, that price isn’t at the top of their list of hiring criteria. A lawyer posted on Facebook that he sees price shopping all the time, the result of the commoditization of legal services.

Who’s right? We both are.

If the services you sell are just like everyone else’s, you have a commodity and if a client can buy it from someone else for less, they often will. In the age of the Internet, it’s easy to find dozens of lawyers who offer the same services. If the attorneys advertise their fees, as many who offer commodities do, it’s even easier to compare prices. When all the client has to go on is price, price becomes important.

At the same time surveys consistently tell us that price is not the number one criteria among clients. It’s not irrelevant, they are just more concerned with issues of trust and quality.

So, we have a dichotomy. Clients say price isn’t the number one factor in choosing a lawyer and yet many clients do compare prices. How do you reconcile these two statements? More importantly, how do you avoid the price shoppers?

There are two ways. The first is to not offer what everyone else is offering so there can be no comparison. When every other attorney is offering apples, you offer oranges.

Package and promote your services so that they are different from what other lawyers offer. The average lawyer offers a commodity, you don’t. You offer something different and better.

If you handle consumer bankruptcy, for example, look for ways to add value and scope to your services and offer a comprehensive bundle of benefits that goes beyond the core services you now offer. This might include loan modification, tax lien negotiation, foreclosure defense, and credit repair. You might offer these additional services yourself or partner with other professionals who do. If not a complete service, at least offer information and advice so the client can get the solutions they need.

Don’t just treat the disease, cure the patient!

Put on your thinking cap and get your creative juices flowing. But don’t start with your services, start with your clients and the problem they want to solve. What caused the problem? What do they need to do to fix it? How can they avoid having this problem in the future? What other problems do they have? What problems have they had in the past or are likely to have in the future?

The answers to these questions will allow you to create a unique bundle of services that distinguish you from other lawyers and allow you to charge more than they do.

If you offer what everyone else does, as the average lawyer does, you will continue to see price shoppers, and in today’s economy especially, downward pressure on your fees. If you offer what nobody else does, or if you promote your services in ways that nobody else does, you will be (or appear to be) unique. You can sell your oranges for more than average attorneys sell their apples.

The second way to avoid price shoppers is by getting referrals. Referred clients come to you pre-sold. Somebody they trust already checked you out, took the risk of hiring you, and gave you a passing grade. If the referred client does go looking at what other lawyers are charging, they still won’t know if those lawyers are any good. And they know they will have to “answer” to the friend who refers them if they decide to go somewhere else.

If you combine the two strategies, packing your services in unique ways and getting most of your business from referrals, your income will be anything but average.

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Filed Under: Attorneys fees, Fees and Billing, Increase your income, Marketing legal services Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

How much should you charge for your legal services?

February 29, 2012 by
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Most lawyer’s fees are too low. They don’t want to scare off any clients so they quote a rate they think is in the ballpark of what other lawyers charge. As a result, they charge less than they could.

You’re not like other lawyers. You’re different. Better. You offer more and you can charge more. At least I hope you feel that way and can back it up (or are working to get there).

Charging what other lawyers charge isn’t a good strategy anyway because most clients don’t price shop. Price is not at the top of their list of criteria. Trust, responsiveness, availability, and added service are all far more important. And clients who are aware of what other lawyers charge will still hire you if you charge more, but only if you’re worth it. So be worth it.

Okay, so you’re worth more and you raise your fees. You may get some resistance. That’s to be expected. In fact, if you don’t get any resistance you’re probably still not charging enough.

If you owned an apartment building and had zero vacancies for an extended period of time, barring other problems, you would know that your rents are too low. If you raise the rents and your vacancies get too high, your profits will suffer. And so you adjust your rents until you find the right balance. There’s a sweet spot for apartment vacancy rates, probably in the 3-10% range depending on location and other market factors. Smart apartment owners continually adjust their rents to stay in that range and maximize their profits. You need to do something similar.

If you raise your fees and lose some clients that’s okay too, so long as you replace them with clients who are willing to pay the higher fees. The hard part is losing clients before the higher-paying clients show up. Be bold. Take a chance. Make room for some new, higher-paying clients. You’re worth it, remember?

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Filed Under: Attorneys fees, Increase your income Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
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