How to turn $100 a month into a steady stream of referrals

February 5, 2013 by
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In his twelve year career selling cars at a Chevrolet dealership, Joe Girard personally sold 13,001 cars. Do the math. That’s 90 cars a month, every month, twelve years in a row.

Holy cow. That’s got to be a world’s record.

Actually, it is. The Guinness Book of World Records says so, giving Joe the title of “The World’s Greatest Salesman.”

How on earth did he do it?

In his book, “How to Sell Anything to Anybody,” Joe tells all. One of his “secrets” was sending everyone who ever bought a car or stopped in for a test drive a monthly greeting card. Each month had a theme. In January, it was New Years. February was President’s Day, March was St. Paddy’s Day, and so on. The cards were colorful and fun, with a funny or charming line or two. Each card was hand signed by Joe.

If you were on his list, every month like clock work you got a card from Joe. If it was your birthday that month, you got a birthday card.

Now that’s not all Joe did, but he says these cards kept his name in front of enough people that in a very short period of time, he was getting a steady stream of referrals. Every day, people would call and people would walk-in and ask for Joe. Eventually, he had to hire assistants to handle all the customers.

Could you do something like that? Of course you could. Would it work today when nobody sends regular mail anymore. It will work even better today because nobody sends regular mail anymore.

Start with $100 a month as your marketing budget. (Yes, you can do more.) Send out 100 cards a month to clients and former clients. (It shouldn’t cost you more than $1 per card, including postage.) Do this every month for the next six months and watch what happens.

Every month you remind people who know, like, and trust you that you’re still around and still thinking about them. And every month, they’re prompted to think of you and, naturally, people they know who might need you.

Eventually, Joe’s customers looked forward to getting his cards each month. One month he was late and he got a bunch of worried calls from folks who thought he might be sick. Talk about a following.

Once you’re convinced that this is working, you can expand it to include your prospects, referral sources, and other “friends of the firm”.

Will you get referrals? Yes. Will you get 90 referrals a month and set a world record? I don’t know, but if you do, have a drink on Joe.

Marketing can help you earn more than you ever thought possible. Go here and find out for yourself.

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

A simple way to add value to your legal services

February 4, 2013 by
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Our garage door was damaged when it closed on the rear bumper of my car.

We had three companies come out to give us estimates.

The first one said it was damaged beyond repair and explained why. He gave us an estimate to replace everything except the motor for $1129.

The second one agreed. Estimate: $875.

The third one said the door was fine. He said the track was bent and he could fix it. An hour and half later, he’d fixed the track, replaced some brackets, and installed a new weather strip. Total bill: $219.

The door has never been this quiet or run this smoothly. Even when it was first installed. My wife and I keep opening and closing it, marveling at our splendid “new” door.

Oh yeah, my wife sent the guy over to talk to our neighbor about her door. One of the previous estimators had noticed a gap or something and said to tell her she needed to have it serviced. Nope. The guy who got our business said her door was fine.

Imagine that.

Yes it does pay to shop around. And yes you should be leery of what so-called experts tell you, especially when they have something to sell. And yes you should pay attention to what other people say on Yelp and other such sites. The company we hired had dozens of five-star reviews and sterling comments. We’ll be adding ours.

Now, suppose you had this experience with your garage door and the next day a client asks if you could recommend a garage door company. Would you tell him about this one? Of course you would. You’d be doing him a big favor.

You probably know other companies you would recommend to your clients and contacts, as well as CPAs, insurance brokers, and other lawyers. And if your clients call and ask for a referral, you’d be sure to tell them.

But why wait for them to ask?

If you’re looking for a simple way to add value to your legal services, it doesn’t get any simpler than this. Contact your clients and tell them that if they ever need a referral to a garage door company, auto dealer, roofer, or anything else, they should call your office. Tell them you have a list of companies you have used personally or that other clients have used and recommended.

Encourage them to call. “What do you need? I’ll help you find it.”

Your recommendations help your clients save time and money and avoid problems. Do you think they might love you even more and tell all their friends about their wonderful attorney?

Your recommendations also help the vendors and professionals you recommend. Do you think they might be thankful for your referrals and inclined to reciprocate?

What’s that? You don’t know if you have time for all those calls?

Trust me, you want your phone ringing off the hook with people asking for recommendations because every time it does, you plant more seeds that grow into repeat business and referrals.

One more thing. Encourage your business clients and referral sources to do something similar for their clients and prospects. Why? So you can get your name on their list, of course.

Marketing is simple, if you know The Formula.

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

Do you charge wealthier clients higher fees for the same work?

December 27, 2012 by
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According to the Wall Street Journal, the Staples website quotes different prices for the same merchandise based on where the user is located when he visits the site. Staples said this is based on how close the visitor’s location is to a competitor’s store and various costs of doing business, but it appears to also be based on the customer’s ability to pay.

In New York, for example, certain products are priced higher in the boroughs of the Bronx, Manhattan, and Staten Island. By contrast, the same items sell in Brooklyn and Queens at a discount. These price differences come despite no more than 20 miles separating any two locations.

In other words, a Manhattan resident would save money on an item simply by driving to Queens and making the purchase there either online or through a mobile device.”

Apparently, this is not an uncommon practice among retailers.

It’s not illegal but is it “fair”? More importantly, is it smart business?

I think it is smart, and also fair. The retailer is entitled to charge whatever the market will bear. It’s called “free enterprise”. Where it gets dicey, however, is when customers learn about these practices and object to them. A retailer may win the pricing battle but lose the loyalty war.

Of course a savvy customer who knows about this practice might play the pricing game, logging onto web sites from different locations, to see which one gives him the lowest price.

Anyway, I got to thinking about this in terms of legal services. Is it smart business for a lawyer to charge different fees to different clients based on their ability to pay? From a business standpoint, I say why not?

If your clients don’t know (and there are no legal or ethical restrictions on doing so), why shouldn’t a lawyer be able to charge what the market will bear? Some attorneys routinely do precisely that. They size up a new client by their clothing or car or occupation and quote a fee commensurate with what they think that client can afford.

I can’t recall ever charging a client a higher fee because I thought he could afford it, but in looking back, had I thought about it, I probably would have. I sometimes charged clients lower fees, either because I wanted to help them out or because they were steady clients and I wanted to reward them for their allegiance. If there’s nothing wrong with this, there should be nothing wrong with charging some clients higher fees. Of course, by definition, charging some clients less means some clients are being charged more.

What do you think? Is there anything wrong with charging some clients more than others? Have you ever done it? Please share your thoughts in the comments.

Getting ready for the new year? The Attorney Marketing Formula will show you what to do to make it a great year.

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Filed Under: Client loyalty, Client relations, Fees and Billing, Law office management Tagged With: , ,

How to piss off your clients

December 13, 2012 by
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We had a repairman to the house to fix our dryer. It’s a family owned company and we’ve used them before.

The repairman diagnosed the problem and said he had to order some parts. It would be a couple of days. No problem.

Then, out of the blue he asked my wife what kind of car she drives. Weird question. She told him. He asked her where she gets it washed. Weirder, right?

It turns out his kid’s school was holding a car wash as a fund raiser. He asked my wife if she would help out and buy a ticket. It’s only ten dollars. And then he stood there waiting for her to answer.

Awkward.

My wife said she felt like she was being pressured and she didn’t like it. She got the feeling that if she didn’t buy a ticket, the guy would mess up the repair or find something else that was wrong so he could jack up the price.

Why on earth would you do this to a client? Make someone uncomfortable like that. Feel guilty if they said no. It might be okay to hand out a flier, but to stand there staring at a client, waiting for them to buy is really bad form.

I don’t know how many tickets he sold that day but it wasn’t worth it. People are funny when it comes to money. I’m sure his employer got more than a few complaints.

When your kid’s school is having a fund raiser (bake sale, magazine sale, girl scout cookies, etc.), don’t strong arm your clients. Most people won’t complain. They just won’t return.

Need help with your marketing? Here you go.

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Filed Under: Client loyalty, Client relations Tagged With:

Marketing is easier when you use leverage

November 26, 2012 by
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As I mentioned last week, this Wednesday, at 2 pm PT, I’m being interviewed and you’re invited. Among other things, I’ll be talking about my latest marketing course, The Attorney Marketing Formula.

One of the themes throughout The Attorney Marketing Formula is leverage–getting bigger results out of the same effort. A simple example of leverage in marketing a law practice is the use of forms and checklists. You invest time to memorialize a process and then use that process over and over again, saving you lots of time, reducing errors, and impressing the hell out of your clients who see how remarkably well organized you are.

Another example of leverage is focusing on your current and former clients as a source of repeat business and referrals in preference to other ways of seeking new clients. There are much lower costs associated with marketing to people who already know, like, and trust you, and much better results. Even if someone can’t hire you again right now, and doesn’t know anyone they can refer, there are other ways they can help you. They can send traffic to your web site through social media, for example, or forward your email to their friends and colleagues.

A marketing joint venture with professionals and business owners to get exposure to their lists is another form of leverage. If you’re a small business attorney, for example, you could get together with an accountant, a tax lawyer, a commercial insurance broker, and a financial planner. Each of you contributes a report, article, audio, or video, and the four of you send (or offer) this collection to your lists. Or, you can put together a bundle of services for the small business owner, with discounts and/or free services from each of you, and offer this bundle to your lists.

Anyway, I hope you’ll join us on Wednesday and bring your questions. I’m looking forward to speaking with you!

Save an extra $10 on The Attorney Marketing Formula through 5 pm PT tonight, November 26th. Use discount code “thankful”.

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Filed Under: Client loyalty, Law office management, Leverage, Marketing legal services, News, Productivity Tagged With:

What your veterinarian can teach you about marketing legal services

November 13, 2012 by
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A couple of weeks ago, our cat had a thorn stuck in his paw and was limping. We took Seamus to a new vet, someone we’ve never visited before. She removed the thorn and gave us antibiotics for the infection. She called a few days later (personally) to ask how Seamus was doing. (He’s fine.)

Did the vet call to protect herself against possible liability? I’m sure that’s part of it. Would she have called if we had come in for a check-up and nothing was wrong? I don’t know. What I do know is that getting that call meant a lot to us.

When your clients leave your office, do you call to find out if they’re okay? You should.

See how they’re doing. See if they have any questions. See if there’s anything else you can do for them. And while you’re at it, thank them again for choosing you as their attorney.

Do this yourself if possible. At the very least, have someone from your office call. It only takes a minute and yes, you can leave a voice mail.

If you want to convert a first time client to a lifetime client, you need to get the little things right. In a professional practice, the little things are the big things.

Marketing legal services is simple, if you know The Formula.

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

How to get endorsed on LinkedIn (and why you’ll want to)

November 12, 2012 by
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Recently, I’ve gotten several Endorsements from connections on LinkedIn. I’ve been endorsed for Blogging, Marketing, Published Author, Referrals, Productivity, and other skills. If you were kind enough to endorse me, thank you!

So what do these endorsements mean? They mean pretty much what LinkedIn’s “Recommendations” mean–someone thinks highly of you and wants the world to know. So what’s the difference?

“Recommendations” come with a narrative from the endorser, a personalized testimonial from someone who has hired you or otherwise done business with you. Endorsements are more casual observations that can be added with the click of a button.

Recommendations carry more weight than Endorsements because of the personal attestation, but because they take time to write, they are harder to come by.

I think there is a place for both.

How do you get Endorsements and Recommendations? This article suggests two ways:

  1. Ask for them. Send an email to your list, post on your blog, etc., and
  2. Endorse others. Many will reciprocate.

Comments under the referenced article suggest that the ease of getting Endorsements diminishes their value. That’s probably true. But that doesn’t mean they don’t have value.

When someone visits your profile, either because you sent them there or they found you through search, having lots of Endorsements will give them an instant dose of “social proof” regarding your skills and experience. Yes, there may come a time when Endorsements are so common people don’t notice them, but they will surely notice if other attorneys have them and you don’t.

Want to earn more? Of course you do. Here’s where to start.

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Filed Under: Client loyalty, Social media, Social media marketing Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

If you do this, you won’t have to join “Underearners Anonymous”

November 7, 2012 by
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I heard from an attorney recently who said his business is off. When I asked him why he thought that was, he referred me to a page on the “Underearners Anonymous” website that lists 12 “Symptoms of Underearning”. He claimed he had all 12.

I don’t think that’s really true and I don’t think he believes it, either. He’s blowing off steam. I know he’s been very successful in the past and his current situation is undoubtedly a temporary slump. But he is correct in looking inward for answers because even in a bad economy, many attorneys are thriving.

In today’s post, I want to talk about one of these 12 systems because I see it a lot. I’ll cover a second symptom in tomorrow’s post.

Number 7 on the list is “Undervaluing and Under-pricing’ — We undervalue our abilities and services and fear asking for increases in compensation or for what the market will bear.” I’ve done hundreds of consultations with attorneys and I can tell you that “undervaluing and under-pricing” is very common.

Charging less than you could is an obvious cause of lower income and it’s an easy fix: Raise your fees. But that’s easier said than done for the attorney who undervalues his or her services. If you don’t believe you’re worth more than you currently charge, you must first reconcile that belief with the truth.

Do your homework. Find out what other attorneys with similar experience charge. If most charge more than you do, you can assume that you can safely set your fees higher, and get it. And if you can get more, then you are worth more. Yes or yes?

What if you’re not worth more than what you currently charge? Well, then you’re not undervaluing yourself, you’re undervaluing your potential.

If you’re not worth more, charging more isn’t a good idea. You can get away with it for awhile but you will be found out, eventually. Instead, you need to increase your value. When you are worth more, you can charge more.

What about the attorney who knows he is worth more and still doesn’t raise his fees? These attorneys (and there are a lot of them) are afraid that if they raise their fees their clients will leave. And this is not without justification. Some clients will leave. A lot may leave, in fact, but losing clients is not the only thing to consider.

If you increase your fees you may lose some clients. But you can replace them with other clients who pay you more. The additional revenue from these new, better-paying clients, will offset the loss of revenue from clients who leave. Eventually, when you’ve replaced enough of the clients who leave, you’ll be earning a lot more than you do now.

You’ll probably want to increase your fees in phases. Start with new clients. They only know what you tell them and you won’t tell them about what you used to charge. As you get more new clients at higher fees, you can begin to raise fees for existing and former clients.

By the way, I said earlier that you should look at what other attorneys charge, to find proof that you can safely charge more than you do now. But be careful. What other attorneys charge doesn’t preclude you from charging more than they do, so don’t let it. But many attorneys do.

Many attorneys are afraid that if they charge more than other attorneys in their market, they won’t get hired. Well, there’s truth in that, too. If you charge more, some clients won’t hire you. But guess what? There are enough who will. And those are the clients you really want.

Set your fees high, my friend, and then do everything you can do to justify those higher fees. Give more value than other attorneys give and you’ll earn more than other attorneys earn.

If your clients say things like, “Yeah, she charges more, but she’s worth every penny,” then you know you’re doing it right.

If you want to learn how you can be worth more so you can charge more, you need The Attorney Marketing Formula.

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Filed Under: Attorneys fees, Client loyalty, Fees and Billing, Increase your income Tagged With: , ,

Why lawyers should target clients who WON’T hire them

October 26, 2012 by
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Are you planning to upgrade to Windows 8? I’m not. At least not right now.

I use Vista on my PCs. It’s not the most feature rich or trouble free, it’s certainly not the fastest, and in no way would anyone say it’s the best OS. But it works. So why switch?

If I switched, I might find that like any new software, Windows 8 has bugs or conflicts or other issues that cause me headaches. Why take the chance? I remember thinking the same thing when Windows 7 came out.

So, for now, I’ll stay where I am.

Guess what? It is this same mindset that keeps your clients from “upgrading” you. They’re used to you. You’re working. You may not be the best, but they don’t want to risk switching because your replacement could be worse.

So unless you’ve screwed up, your clients will probably stay with you. If you haven’t neglected your clients, they’ll probably return. Inertia keeps me from upgrading my software and it keeps clients from “upgrading” you.

But what works for you also works for other attorneys. Their clients will also stay put. So, if your marketing strategy is based on getting clients to switch firms and hire yours, you’re going to have a tough time of it.

However. . .

Eventually, some of those those other attorneys will screw up. At that point, their clients will be open to hiring another attorney. You should be there when that occurs.

But how do you do that? How do you get in front of prospective clients at precisely the moment when they are again “in the market” for a new attorney?

You have two options:

1. Advertise. Keep your marketing message in front of your target market. When someone is ready to change lawyers, they may (finally) notice your message and respond.

2. Build relationships. Network with prospective clients in your target market, even though they are happy with their current attorney. Be “number two” on a lot of lists and when “number one” screws up, dies, or retires (or has a conflict of interest), there you’ll be.

There’s a lot of money to be made signing up clients who are ready to upgrade their attorney. Just make sure your version is bug-free.

Get The Attorney Marketing Formula and learn key marketing strategies for getting more clients and increasing your income.

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Filed Under: Client loyalty, Client relations, Marketing legal services

What do you do when you f****d up?

October 15, 2012 by
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The other day an attorney asked me, “What do you say to your client when he says “you f***d up and I’m not going to pay you?”

I told him that if he did do something wrong, the answer is easy: admit it, fix it, and be prepared to offer a refund.

Don’t blame others for your mistake. Be honest about what you did or didn’t do. Your client will understand and respect you for admitting it. Then, do whatever you have to do to fix the problem.

The good news is that when you do the right thing after making a mistake, when you fix things to your client’s satisfaction, they often feel a stronger allegiance to you. You didn’t try to hide it, you took responsibility and respected them enough to admit your mistake. And, of course, you fixed the problem.

Even if the problem cannot be fixed, if you bite the bullet and offer to pay compensation, most of the time you can save the relationship. So when you mess up, see it not so much as a problem but an opportunity.

Of course the next thing you need to do is to figure out why you made the mistake and make sure it doesn’t happen again. Ask yourself some questions:

  • Are you taking on too much work?
  • Are you taking on work outside your core competencies?
  • Are you promising too much or too soon?
  • Would a checklist help?
  • Could you get someone to help you?
  • Are you allowing enough time to review your work before the deadline?

The most successful people in the world often attribute their success to having made more mistakes than anyone else. They learned from those mistakes and got better at what they do. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes or admit to them. Use them to get better.

But we’re not done with the subject.

What do you do when a client blames you and accuses you of making a mistake you did not make? Clients often blame their lawyer when they don’t get the results they want. Do you have to take the hit?

Not at all. When you aren’t at fault, stand firm. Show the client that you did everything you were supposed to do, everything you could do, and that whatever happened was the result of something outside of your control. If the facts are on your side, and you handle things firmly and respectfully, in time, most clients will see the light. Often, they will apologize.

But we’re still not done.

You will have far fewer unhappy and ready-to-blame-you clients by managing your clients’ expectations at the beginning of the case, rather than trying to explain things at the end. Clients need to acknowledge, before you take their money, that:

  • You don’t promise results of any kind (other than best efforts)
  • They understand the risks and contingencies you have spelled out for them
  • They have declined certain options or a course of conduct you have recommended
  • They know what you will do for them and also what you will not do

You can’t be so heavy handed about this that you scare the client off, but you do need to make sure the client understands, from the beginning, what to expect of you and their case. Then, if something goes wrong, it will be clear that you are not the one to blame.

Get more clients and increase your income. Read The Attorney Marketing Formula.

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Filed Under: Client loyalty, Client relations, Law office management, Personal development
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