A simple way to get clients to choose you instead of other attorneys

October 22, 2012 by
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I know something about you. At least I think I do. I know that the services you offer are pretty much identical to what other attorneys in your market offer.

Am I right?

If I am, you have a problem. And an opportunity.

The problem is that when you offer essentially the same services other attorneys offer, it’s harder to stand out. “Why should I choose you?” clients want to know.

There are many ways to differentiate yourself from other lawyers. One of the simplest is to enhance the “value proposition” of your services by offering something different.

No, not radically different. A divorce is a divorce after all. A small change or addition to what you offer is enough to differentiate you.

What could you add to the services you offer that would make you “a little bit better”? Could you add a bonus service? A guarantee? Free updates or reviews?

Fill in the blanks: “When you hire me to handle your _____________ (legal matter), not only do you get _______________ (services), you ALSO get_____________ “.

A divorce lawyer might give clients a free “Will/Living Will package”. A bankruptcy attorney might provide information and advice on “Re-Building Credit after Bankruptcy”. A PI lawyer might provide an insurance policy review, showing clients how to save money and improve their coverage.

By the way, the “something extra” you offer can be provided by another professional. For example, our divorce lawyer might offer his clients a “financial makeover” provided by a financial planner or CPA.

Offering something extra, something other attorneys don’t offer (or don’t promote) could be just enough to get clients to choose you instead of other attorneys. But there’s something else it might do: allow you to charge more than other attorneys.

When you offer more value to your clients, you are worth more. Clients can fill in the blanks, too. If they say about you, “Yes, he charges a little more but with him, I also get _________”, not only will they choose you instead of other attorneys, they’ll pay more for the privilege.

Get The Attorney Marketing Formula and learn more ways to differentiate yourself from the competition. 

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

What do you like best about practicing law?

October 12, 2012 by
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“What do you like best about practice law?” I was asked that 1,000 times when I was practicing and I’m still asked that today. I’m sure you are, too. My standard reply is that I liked helping people and I liked making money, and that’s the truth. That’s why I went to law school, after all.

Do I like the title or the prestige of being a professional? Actually, it’s not important to me. When I’m introduced to people and they find out what I do [did], something changes in the dynamic and while sometimes it’s a good change, just as often it’s not. I can’t put my finger on it but I’m sure you know what I’m talking about. They look at you like you’re not a regular person. They become guarded, as if you’re going to ask them some tough questions and find out their secrets.

What about the work itself? There were some things I really enjoyed and some things I despised. Most of what I did I found boring.

But that’s me. How about you? What do you like best about what you do?

Make a list of all of things you do as a lawyer, and all of the things that being a lawyer means to you. Write down the big things and the little things, about the work, the people, the challenges and the rewards. Look at your calendar, look at the files on your desk or in your computer, look at how you spend your time.

Write down everything and when you’re done, look at your list and put a star next to the things you like best about what you do. And then, focus on those things.

Do more of what you like. The rest–the things you don’t like or the things you are bored by–don’t matter. Eliminate them, delegate them, or just do them, but focus on the things that you do like.

In my case, I focused on the people. My clients. Much of the work may have been routine and boring, but the people never were. They were unique. Every one of them. I enjoyed meeting them and finding out about their lives. I enjoyed explaining how things were going to get better for them and then helping make that happen. I enjoyed delivering the results and watching them smile and say thank you. And I enjoyed getting calls from their friends who had heard about me and wanted me to help them, too.

That’s what I enjoyed and that’s what I focused on. It made everything else, all of the things I didn’t like, relatively unimportant. It’s also what made my practice grow.

Whatever we focus on grows. By focusing on what you like about your practice, you will create more of it. Focus on your problems and you’ll have more of them. Focus on what frustrates you and you’ll have more to be frustrated about it. Focus on what you love, what gives you meaning, and you will create the life that you want because you will be doing more of what you want.

You don’t have to know how it works, just know that it does work, and do it.

If you want to earn more than you ever thought possible, download The Attorney Marketing Formula

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Filed Under: Career satisfaction, Client relations, Increase your income, Inspiration, Referrals Tagged With: , ,

What to do when the yogurt hits the fan

October 9, 2012 by
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Something in Seth Godin’s post today caught my eye. He said, “Most things that go wrong, go wrong slowly.” That’s true, isn’t it? If you’re having challenges in your law practice, they usually take time to develop.

If you’re income is going down, it probably hasn’t happened all of a sudden. It’s probably been happening for months, maybe years. The good news is that because it happens slowly, there’s time to fix it.

When you are experiencing a downward cycle, Seth says the wrong thing to do is rationalize it and ride it out. Or, in the case of declining income, think that cutting costs is the only thing you can do.

The right way to deal with a downward cycle, he says, is learn to recognize it and replace it with an upward cycle. “Understand what triggers [a downward cycle] and then learn to use that trigger to initiate a different cycle,” he says.

So if your income has been declining, instead of waiting for the economy to improve, you have to do something to bring in more income.

But what?

Start by asking yourself some questions:

  • What did I do, or fail to do, that contributed to this situation? How can I change this?
  • What have I done before to turn things around?
  • What are other lawyers doing that’s working?
  • What do I need to learn?
  • What bad habits do I need to eradicate?
  • Who can help me? (Start with categories, i.e., CPA, marketing expert, banker, then look for candidates)
  • What do I need to do more of?
  • What do I need to get better at?

If I were coaching you, among other things, I would tell you to look at where most of your income is coming from now, or has in the past (practice area, referral sources, marketing methods, etc.) and expand this. Leverage your strengths. Do what has worked before.

And focus on what you can do, not on what you can’t do. You can’t change the economy, but you can make some calls.

If you want to learn how to earn more than you ever thought possible even if you’re in a downward cycle, download The Attorney Marketing Formula.

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Filed Under: Increase your income, Law office management, Leverage, Marketing legal services, Personal development Tagged With: ,

Should you upgrade or repair your law practice?

October 4, 2012 by
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The title of this post comes from an article I saw today, “Should you upgrade or repair your computer?” It had advice about how to repair software, how to repair hardware, and what and when you should upgrade.

I thought this was a good analogy for a law practice. Things slow down, they break, they need repairing and replacing. And, even if everything is working just fine, if you want to get to the next level, you need to continually upgrade what you’re doing.

Periodically examine the inner workings of your practice. What’s not working? What needs to be repaired or replaced? What can you upgrade?

Here’s an inspection list to get you started:

  • Broken relationships with clients and professional contacts
  • Sluggish client communications; “thank yous” and other initiatives that fail to show clients how much you value them; boring newsletters and blog posts
  • Malfunctioning processes that leave your clients vulnerable or in the dark
  • Out of date web pages, forms, form letters, templates, and checklists
  • Unnecessary or overly expensive overhead
  • Ineffective ads, social media, and networking
  • Offers that aren’t getting prospects to call
  • People who answer the phone but don’t get prospects into the office
  • Presentations that aren’t converting prospects into clients
  • Fees that don’t produce enough profit
  • Employees who aren’t worth what you’re paying them
  • Employees who are worth more than you pay them
  • Clients who leave; clients who don’t return; clients who don’t refer
  • Tasks that take too long to complete
  • Tasks that can be delegated, outsourced, or eliminated

Think of your practice as a machine. If you do regular inspections, maintenance and repairs, your machine will continue to function. If you don’t, it will slow down and ultimately cost you more when things break and have to be replaced.

And, every so often, upgrade your practice. Make things better and faster. Equip yourself and your staff with the latest tools. Stay ahead of the changing demands in the marketplace.

A brand new computer may be obsolete in six months. So can a law practice.

Does your marketing need an upgrade? Get The Attorney Marketing Formula and find out what to do.

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Filed Under: Increase your income, Law office management, Marketing legal services, Productivity, Time Management

When should an attorney hire (more) people?

September 20, 2012 by
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I don’t have any employees right now, but over the years I have hired, trained, and supervised many. Having employees allowed me to substantially increase my income and decrease my workload. It gave me the leverage I needed to grow my practice.

But just because I don’t have employees today doesn’t mean I don’t have that leverage. There are many ways to utilize the time and talents of other people without having them fill out a W-2.

In one of my businesses, I “work with” hundreds of independent contractors who contribute to my income. I’ve never met most of them. And in my attorney marketing business, I use outside contractors who provide professional and technical assistance and are very good at what they do.

Lawyers can do the same thing by using the services of paralegals, attorneys, virtual assistants and other independent contractors. The more you hire, the more time you will have to do high-paid legal work and bring in more clients.

If you’re trying to do everything yourself, not only are you working harder than you need to, you’re not earning as much as you could. You don’t have to take on the headaches of hiring employees, you have other options.

Some attorneys say they can’t afford to hire others because they don’t have enough work. I say they don’t have enough work because they’re not hiring others.

There is an African saying: “If you want to go quickly, go alone. If you want to go far, go with a group.”

Learn how to use other people’s efforts to earn more and work less. Get The Attorney Marketing Formula.

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Filed Under: Increase your income, Law office management, Leverage, Productivity

The three stages of lawyer marketing (where are you?)

September 17, 2012 by
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The other day I wrote down an idea for a blog post: “The day I decided to get serious about marketing.” I was going to talk about how I came to realize that a law practice is a business and that if I wanted to be successful, I needed to put marketing first.

The truth is, that day never occurred.

I don’t remember waking up, slapping my forehead, and saying, “of course!” No light bulb appeared over my head. The realization that marketing must come first didn’t occur at any particular moment, it was a process, over time.

At first, I didn’t want to believe that marketing was important. I was young and idealistic and I wanted to believe that if I did great work, I would be noticed and rewarded. I knew other attorneys who didn’t seem to do any marketing and they were doing just fine. Why not me?

What I didn’t realize is that the attorneys who seemed to be completely disengaged from marketing, were actually very good at marketing, so good in fact, you couldn’t tell by looking at them.

And it’s true. If marketing is defined as, “everything you do to get and keep clients,” (and it is), then marketing must include all of the little things we do for our clients to keep them happy and sticking with us and sending us referrals. The little things that maintain loyalty and create positive word of mouth aren’t readily apparent to the outside world.

Most marketing, certainly the most valuable marketing, isn’t public, it’s private. It’s done through letters and phone calls and newsletters to our clients. It occurs one-on-one, networking with key people. It’s done by leveraging the relationships you already have with clients and professional contacts, to meet the people they know and show them why they should hire you instead of anyone else.

Advertising, public relations, public speaking, blogging, and other public marketing activities are important when you’re starting out and need to build momentum, or when you are already successful and want to generate additional income. But they are never more important than what you do privately.

As I came to realize these difference, and accept the importance of marketing in building my practice, I went through three stages:

Stage One: Indifference

At first, I didn’t know what I didn’t know. I had an opinion about marketing and that was that. Many attorneys are at this stage, although fewer and fewer today, due to (a) the economy and increased competition, and (b) The Internet.

Obviously, if you are reading this post, you aren’t at this stage. You know that marketing is important. But there are attorneys who still don’t care about marketing. Generally, they fall into two categories:

  1. Successful, and don’t realize that they are engaged in marketing (the private kind) or how much more successful they could be if they paid attention to marketing, or
  2. Arrogant, stubborn, and destined to struggle.

I’m sure you know lawyers in both categories.

Stage Two: Acceptance

After months of struggle, I still didn’t get it. I did busy work and told myself things would change. Eventually, I realized that nothing would change unless I did. Necessity (paying rent, eating) became the mother of invention. Once I accepted that what I was doing wasn’t working, I opened the door to change.

Most attorneys in private practice today, at least those who aren’t newly minted, well- financed, or well-connected, understand why marketing is important, and most of them do something that could be called marketing. They want to do more and get better results, but don’t know how. There are two reasons:

  1. They dabble. They don’t do anything long enough to get meaningful results. Or they do things they think they’re supposed to do but their heart isn’t it so they do them poorly and get poor results, and/or
  2. The focus on “public” marketing and ignore “private” marketing. They bring clients in through the front door and lose them through the back door because they don’t take care of them.

Does this describe you? Do you feel like you are spinning your wheels and not getting great results? Are you getting clients on the front end but they don’t come back or you’re not getting enough referrals on the back end? The good news is that you can change your results by making a commitment to marketing.

Stage Three: Commitment.

Once I accepted the importance of marketing, I began studying it and trying different things. I didn’t get good results, however,because I was dabbling. It was a start and it allowed me to see which direction I might eventually go, but it wasn’t until I committed to marketing that things really began to change.

How did I make that commitment? I found something that worked and I got excited.

“More, please!”

I did more and worked harder and eventually, I fell in love with marketing and what it could do.

And that’s when my practice really took off.

I think a lot of attorneys are afraid to commit to marketing because they are afraid of what it means. Being committed to marketing doesn’t mean compromising your values or spending time or money doing things you don’t want to do.

Commitment to marketing means two things:

  1. Mindset. You must believe that a law practice is a business and that you (the professional) work for that business (practice), and that without clients, you are out of business. You must believe that marketing isn’t beneath you and that it is benevolent because the more successful you become, the more people you can help. You must believe in the primacy of “private” marketing and understand that if you can’t start there (because you don’t yet have enough clients), that this is where you can eventually go. And you need to get excited about marketing and what it can do.
  2. Consistency. You don’t have to spend a lot of time on marketing. You can make a lot of progress in just 15 minutes a day. The key is to do something every day. If you don’t, you are a dabbler. If you do, your efforts compound and your results accelerate.

So, what stage are you in? Are you a dabbler or are you committed to marketing? Do you have the right mindset and are you prepared to do something every day?

If you are committed to marketing, The Attorney Marketing Formula is required reading.

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Filed Under: Career satisfaction, Client loyalty, Client relations, Increase your income, Marketing legal services, Personal development Tagged With: ,

New marketing course shows attorneys how to dramatically increase their income

August 27, 2012 by
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The Attorney Marketing Center has released The Attorney Marketing Formula, a new course for attorneys who want to increase their income but don’t have a lot of time for marketing.

The course is based on the work of attorney David M. Ward, founder of The Attorney Marketing Center. “Every day I talk to attorneys who could dramatically increase their income by leveraging their existing talents, assets, contacts, and opportunities. This course shows them what to do and how to do it.”

More and more attorneys have realized that marketing is essential to their success. Unfortunately, their efforts often produce poor results. Ward says one reason is that they are using tactics without mastering the strategies that make them work. “It doesn’t matter which techniques you use–networking, social media, blogging, advertising–without the right strategies, you’re not going to get optimal results. The good news is that with the right strategies, almost any technique will work.”

The course presents strategies in six key areas: focus, value, trust, money, people, and time. “Implement one strategy,” Ward says, “and you’ll increase your income. Implement all six and the results will be staggering.”

Busy attorneys will be glad to know that marketing doesn’t have to take a lot of time. Significant progress can be made in just 15 minutes a day. “If you’re doing the right things and doing them consistently, you can build a big practice without working harder. “Using the strategies in this course,” Ward says,” I was able to quadruple my income and cut my work week from six days to three.”

The course brings everything together in a bonus module that helps attorneys create an effective marketing plan.

The Attorney Marketing Formula is $79. For a limited time, it is available at the introductory price of $59.

For additional information, visit The Attorney Marketing Formula.

David M. Ward practiced law for more than twenty years. He is the author of several marketing programs for attorneys. His blog, The Attorney Marketing Center, provides free tips and resources for attorneys who want to earn more and work less.

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Filed Under: Increase your income, Law office management, Marketing legal services, Marketing Plan Tagged With: , , , , , ,

How to grow your law practice by establishing routines

August 17, 2012 by
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Lifehack has a post today on improving productivity by turning important tasks into routines. The idea is that you are more likely to do something when it’s part of a regular routine, just like you do, for example, every morning when you get ready for work.

How might this be applied to marketing?

We know it’s important to regularly reach out to clients and former clients, via email, regular mail, phone (and possibly, social media). The return on your investment of time, in terms of repeat business and referrals, is tremendous. A few minutes a day spent connecting like this could bring you thousands of dollars in additional revenue every month.

Arguably, there is nothing more important to the growth of your practice.

It’s important, you know it’s important, you WANT to do it, but somehow, you’re not doing it. Life keeps getting in the way.

What if you established a new routine whereby every day at lunchtime, before you eat or before you leave for a lunch meeting, you take ten minutes to connect? You send out ten emails, make three phone calls, or write and mail a handwritten note.

Easy stuff. And because it’s your part of your daily routine, you do it.

At first, you schedule this ten minutes on your calendar. You see it there every day, reminding you to take action. You have an app send you an alarm. Later, when you’ve been doing it for a month or three, when it has become a habit, you won’t need to be reminded. It’s as much a part of lunchtime as eating.

Make a list of marketing activities you do, or know you need to do. Look for ways to make them routine.

Marketing is easy. The hardest part is remembering to do it.

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Filed Under: Client loyalty, Client relations, Increase your income, Law office management, Marketing legal services, Personal development, Productivity, Time Management Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Why you need to get rid of all of your clients and start over

July 23, 2012 by
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You need to get rid of all of your clients. No, not literally. Emotionally.

What I mean is that you need to detach from the need for your clients to be something they aren’t.

You can’t make your clients appreciate you if they don’t. Let them go. Mentally release them and your need to change them.

You can’t change the complainers, the price shoppers, and the trouble makers into model clients. Let them go.

You can’t change your clients. All you can do is. . . change your clients.

Let go of the wrong ones to make room for the right ones. The clients who value what you do for them, and tell you so. The clients who follow your advice, pay your bill, and re-tweet your brilliance. The clients who come back to you again and again and refer others, again and again.

You know the kinds of clients I’m talking about. The ones you’d like to clone.

Let go of all of your clients to make room for the right clients, the best clients, the clients that make everything you do worth doing.

They are out there and they will find you. But only if you make room.

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Filed Under: Career satisfaction, Client relations, Increase your income, Personal development Tagged With: , , , , , ,

The easiest way to increase law firm profits

July 12, 2012 by
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In medicine, The Hippocratic Oath includes the Latin phrase, Primum non nocere, meaning, “First, do no harm.” Attorneys need a similar pledge, not just to protect our clients, but to protect our bottom line.

According to a study from The George Washington University (ppt–not worth downloading, IMHO), the cost of a dissatisfied customer is staggering:

  • The average business does not hear from 96% of unhappy customers
  • For every complaint received, there are 24 people with unvoiced problems; six are serious
  • 90% who are dissatisfied with the service won’t return
  • The average customer with a complaint will tell 9-10 people; 13% will tell more than 20 people

Other studies confirm numbers like these. The bottom line: losing one client could cost you a lot more than you earn from one new client.

Therefore, the easiest (and smartest) way to increase your profits is to stop losing clients.

There is some good news from the study:

  • Of those who complain, 50-70% will do business with you again if the complaint is resolved. 95% will return if it is resolved quickly

Therefore, you must encourage your clients to let you know when they aren’t happy so you can fix the problem quickly and can take steps to make sure the problem won’t occur with other clients.

Remember, most unhappy clients don’t complain. They just leave–and tell others that you are a Bozo.

Here’s how you can solicit this extremely valuable feedback from your clients:

  • Include feedback forms in your “New Client Kit”
  • Post surveys on your web site
  • Tell clients (repeatedly) that if they ever have an issue of any kind, you want them to call you personally (and give them your cell phone number or direct line)
  • Put a “Suggestion Box” link on your web site. Allow people to contribute (or complain) anonymously. Promote this box via your newsletter and blog
  • Put stories in your newsletter about suggestions you received and implemented.
  • Interview clients at the end of the case. Ask them, (1) What did we do well? and (2) What could we do better?
  • Thank everyone for their ideas and feedback, publicly if possible

In other words, if you want feedback, create an environment where feedback is encouraged, appreciated, and most of all, acted upon.

Often, perhaps most of the time, unhappy clients aren’t unhappy because the attorney did something wrong, they are unhappy because of poor communication:

  • Something wasn’t explained properly.
  • The attorney didn’t keep the client informed.
  • The client’s phone calls weren’t returned.

If you ever drop the ball in any of these areas, don’t worry, these are easy to fix. If any of your clients were unhappy with their previous attorney for any of these reasons, celebrate. This is a tremendous opportunity for you to convert them into raving fans.

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Filed Under: Client loyalty, Client relations, Communication, Increase your income, Law office management Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , ,
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