End with the start in mind (. . . not a typo)

November 3, 2026 by
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You’ve heard it many times before: “Start with the end in mind” meaning decide in advance the result or outcome you desire before you take action. In marketing, the “end” is more clients, better clients, higher income, bigger cases, and so on. 

Decide what you want before you create the plan, buy the ad, book the room, or create the content. 

It makes sense and I agree. You have to know where you’re going before you start the trip. 

So, why have I reversed this classic piece of advice? Why do I tell you to “end with the start in mind”? 

Because it is also good advice. It means developing the habit of deciding, in advance, the action you will take after you complete what you’re working on, or about to start. What’s the next step? What should you (will you) do after you start the project or do the first task on your list? 

If “find three ideas I can use for an article” is the first step, what’s the second step? If the first step is to go through your list of business contacts and invite someone to lunch, what will you do when you arrive at the restaurant? (Hint: asking them ‘what are you working on’ is a good option).

Okay, choose the next step. Don’t end the first step without deciding on the second step. 

Yes, but you’ve got other things on your calendar or todo list. Contracts to read or write, calls to make, emails to reply to. 

You’ll get to them. But before you start something new, take a minute to choose the next step you’ll do with the thing you’ve already started. Do it now, while the idea is still fresh. 

It’s all about creating and sustaining momentum and compressing time between steps. It’s about finishing more of the things you’ve decided are important before starting other things you may never finish.

It’s about being proactive about your work so you can achieve better results. 

Try it. When it works, do it again.  And keep doing it. As Seinfeld said, “Don’t break the chain”. Which is why I know that after I’ve finished writing and posting this article, my next step is to choose an idea for the next one. 

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

More about the primacy of ‘first impressions’

October 29, 2026 by
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I recently wrote about the importance of making a good first impression on prospective clients, and how it is fundamental to your successs in “closing” more clients. Today, I have some additional thoughts on the subject: 

  • Whenever possible, meet them yourself (instead of your assistant). Remember, the goal is to get them to like and trust you, and while you also want them to like and trust your staff and other members of your firm, it’s you they will hire and work with. 
  • Do it in person. Research shows that a face to face meeting is very different from a virtual meeting, online via Zoom, for example, “seeing”meeting” you via a recorded video, or as a member of the audience at a presentation. Meeting in person, one-on-one, allows you to shake hands, make eye contact, respond to their questions and body language with your own questions and body language, in a way that shows them you understand them and “feel” something about what they’re saying.
  • Ask how they found out about you. What caught their eye in your ad or post or website; what did the referring party tell them you? Their answers will help you connect better with them. 
  • Get to know them before you ask about their legal situation. Ask about their business and/or family. And, let them do most of the talking. It helps them relieve their stress and makes them more likely they will “like” you as a result.
  • Ask if they have talked to or worked with other lawyers about their situation (or others) before contacting you. If they had a bad experience with another firm, you want to know what happened so you can explain what you do instead.
  • Give them something: your card, a brochure, a copy of an article related to their situation. It shows them you’re prepared and professional and might create a psychological “debt,” i.e., feeling obligated to hire you or take the next step. 
  • When you talk about their case or situation (what you think, what you can do to help), look for opportunities to describe what you’ve done for other clients with the same or similar situation. It’s a gentle way of “selling” them, without pushing them. 
  • Focus the conversation on benefits, not features. Yes, tell them about your bona fides and experience with their type of business or case, but translate that into how that experienes benefits them. A good transitional phrase to use is, “What that means to you is…”.
  • Assume the “sale” (sign-up) but don’t push. You might ask if they’re ready to get started or if they have any additional questions before you get started, or hand them something to fill out where doing that is an indication of their readiness to take the next step. They know it’s their decision, of course, but will appreciate you letting them make that decision.

A final thought: make sure to introduce them to members of your staff or firm, especially if they are “nicer” than you. Let’s face it, sometimes lawyers focus too much on the legal issues or the work, and not enough on the clients. (Ask me how I know.) This is a simple way to borrow some of our staff’s likability and improve the client’s first impression.

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Filed Under: Client relations, Closing the sale, Law office management

Clients hire lawyers more often because of one thing

October 22, 2026 by
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It’s not a lawyer’s qualifications or reputation. It’s not how they describe their services, the value they promise, their fee and billing practices, the size of their client list, or the quality of their marketing. 

All of these things are important. But clients will hire you more often based on one factor: their first impression of you. 

When you meet them, do the things you say (and don’t say), make them believe you can help them? Do they like and trust you? Do you make them feel good about you, their case, their future?

Objectively, you may or may not be the best choice for them. You may not offer everything they need or want. But that’s not as important as how you make them feel and that’s primarily determined by their first impression. 

It comes down to the things you say and how you say them. It’s the questions you ask, your body language, how you dress, how you greet them and how you treat them. 

Do you talk more about them or about yourself? Do you try to impress them with your knowledge and experience or do you make them feel you care about helping them?  Do they believe you respect them and truly want to help them or do they believe you’re doing what you have to do to get their business?

Yes, it’s complicated. There is no checklist for you to follow. You can’t learn everything you need to do in a book or a course. You learn it through experience, putting clients before cases, people before fees, and treating clients like you would like to be treated if your roles were reversed. 

But learn it you must. 

Because that first impression is crucial to your success.

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Filed Under: Client relations, Closing the sale, Law office management, Marketing legal services

Some lawyers write two newsletters. Should you?

October 13, 2026 by
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Two newsletters? A second blog? More than one podcast or video channel? Why on earth would you do that? 

Because you have more than one practice area, target market, types of cases or clients or niches  and one market doesn’t want or need or relate to the other. If you target consumers for injury cases, for example, but also offer services to small business owners, or a sizable segment of your list speaks another language, a single newsletter or blog might not do what you want it to do. 

You start another blog or newsletter to bring in a different type of case or client. It’s a smart way to grow a general practice or a multi-disciplinary practice, or to target another niche.

So, should you do it? In theory, absolutely. In practice? Don’t be ridiculous. 

It’s challenging enough to build one marketing channel successfully; how can you possibly do it with another? 

So no, don’t do it. You don’t have the time. You’ll lose focus. You have enough on your plate already. So no, don’t start another newsletter or channel. Don’t even consider it.

Unless…. 

Unless the idea excites you and makes total sense for your practice. And you have sufficient resources, e.g., time, employees, ideas for content, technical know-how, etc., and, most importantly, you’ve thought about the idea for awhile and can’t stop thinking about it. 

In that case, do it. 

If you’re still not sure, test the waters. Tell your subscribers or followers what you’re thinking about doing and see if they show interest. Ssend out a survey, talk to some of the leaders in the market, post a sign up sheet on social. 

See what your folks think about your idea. 

Or, just start and see what happens. 

Does anyone think it’s a good idea? Something they would sign up for? Encourage you to do it? 

After you’ve done it for a couple of months, do you still love the idea? Look forward to writing the next article or post?

And, what is the market showing you? 

Are you getting a steady stream of comments, questions, success stories, and engagement from subscribers and followers? Are you getting new appointments and signing up new clients?  

If it’s working, keep going. If not, you can back off. 

That’s the way marketing works. You try things, see what happens, do more of what’s working and eliminate (or fix) what isn’t. 

Try things. And keep trying them. You might be very glad you did.

No matter what happens, you’ll get better at marketing, writing, and talking to clients and prospects about what they need and want, and showing them how you can help them get it.

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Filed Under: Content creation, Law office management, Marketing Plan, Newsletters

I wish I had done this sooner

August 18, 2026 by
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If you’re like me, and you are, more than once in your life you’ve said to yourself, “I wish I had started this sooner.”

It might have been a diet, a productivity method, a new habit or approach, or anything else you hadn’t done before, have started recently and regret not starting sooner.

Because it’s providing you with some amazing benefits. And you’re excited.

Maybe you didn’t know about it before. Maybe you’d heard about it but stubbornly refused to try it. Or maybe you started and stopped and now wish you had continued.

Don’t beat yourself up. You’re doing it now, it’s working, and you can continue.

Yay you.

One thing I wish I had started sooner is doing more self-improvement activities. As one blogger put it, “Regularly look for opportunities to do something your future-self will thank you for.”

What might that be for you?

In the context of building your law practice, what could you do this year or this month that you might be glad you did next year or next month?

Hire someone new? Start a new practice area? Finally, use ai?

How about marketing?

Some lawyers do little (or no) marketing. Or do things that aren’t working, are too expensive, or take too much time.

Or force themselves to do things they hate doing and wish there was another way?

Ring any bells?

You might already have a few ideas in your planner or on a “Someday/Maybe” list. Maybe it’s time to look at them again and choose one.

If it doesn’t work, or you hate it, no worries. Try something else.

On the other hand, you might not have any ideas. You’ve been busy working or putting out fires.

You’re willing to try something, but you need ideas.

In which case, I suggest you make “ideation” a regular part of your workflow.

Schedule a recurring task on your calendar or in your task app, even just ten minutes per week, to brainstorm, search, read or watch videos. Let yourself discover, or rediscover, options for bringing in new clients, increasing your income, decreasing expenses, or finding more satisfaction in your work.

Take notes. Write down questions. Talk to someone who might be able to help.

At the very least, plant the idea in your brain; let it create more ideas for you, and remind you to look at them.

And then try one of those ideas.

Who knows, it might be the one thing you wish you had started sooner.

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Filed Under: Law office management, Marketing Plan, Personal development, success

Do you have a ‘client loyalty plan’? Should you? 

July 2, 2026 by
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It sounds like a great idea, doesn’t it? Encourage first-time clients to hire you again, occasional clients to hire you more often. A plan that helps you increase revenue and decrease the expense and effort of attracting new clients–what lawyer or firm wouldn’t think that’s a good idea?

Maybe lawyers who think the whole idea smacks of commercialism, leaving a bad taste in their mouth. Maybe lawyers who see this as appropriate for a retail business, not a professional. “Are coupons and discounts next?”

Me? I say, “it depends”. It depends on how you do it. 

If you announce the launch of a ‘client loyalty plan” and promote the idea to your clients and prospects and to other professionals, you might be playing with fire. If you quietly embrace the idea, and carefully and selectively implement it, you might be onto something big. 

When a client gives you more business or otherwise demonstrates their patronage by providing you with referrals, testimonials, endorsements, invitations, and introductions, when they mention you in an article or quote something you said or mention something you did in their newsletter, when they hire you again for the third year in a row, when they invite you to speak at their networking event, why not acknowledge this and yes, reward them? 

Maybe return the favor and introduce them to someone they should know. Maybe hold off for another six months or a year on fee increases your other clients are getting because they’ve been with you a long time. Maybe provide them with an extra service you ordinarily charge for, or promote their business or event in your newsletter.

Or maybe volunteer (i.e., without being asked) to write a recommendation for their child’s college application, because they are a valued client. 

Show people you appreciate them. That’s the kind of client loyalty plan every lawyer should implement. 

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Filed Under: Client loyalty, Client relations, Law office management, Relationship marketing

It’s simple

May 12, 2026 by
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Building a successful practice isn’t easy. There are no shortcuts or hacks. Even if you have a lot of money and experience, even if you’re very good at what you do and have a great reputation, it takes a lot of blood, sweat, and tears (and years) to build the career and lifestyle I’m sure you want. 

Stop looking for the secret sauce. Success is complicated. 

But it’s also simple. 

Yes, you have to get a lot of things right, but most of those things are small and obvious. You probably do most of them already.

Treating clients like you would like to be treated if you were in their shoes, for example. Being nice. Patiently explaining things. Going the extra mile. 

Simple things like that. 

But there’s a catch. You can’t be complacent. You have to keep doing the little things and you have to continuously improve them. 

Professional services, after all. 

So, here’s your plan: 

Take inventory of every element in your marketing, client relations, and practice management. Brainstorm, talk to your employees and partners, and write down everything you do to get and keep clients and perform your services. Everything you do to attract them, get them to hire you, get them to return, and tell others about you. 

It might be things you already do well but it could also be things that need fixing, or things you don’t do at all. 

It should be a long list. Because success is complicated. 

Next, the part that’s simple. 

Choose something on your list you believe can be improved. Even a little. Because in any business, but especially in professional services, small, incremental improvements can make a very big difference. Attorneys work closely and directly with clients and those who can refer them, and little improvements get noticed. 

All those little improvements compound and help you grow.

So, pick something and work on it. Make it better. Do it faster. Help clients and prospects feel a little better about you and your office. 

Pick something you can improve and improve it. Then, look for something else and do that. 

That’s the plan. And you can start on it immediately. 

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Filed Under: Client loyalty, Client relations, Law office management, success

Marketing do’s and don’ts for lawyers (and doctors)

April 21, 2026 by
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Several years ago, I had an appointment with a dermatologist. No, I don’t remember why but thanks for asking. Anyway, I got an email from them yesterday. From a marketing perspective, the email got two things right and several things wrong. 

See if you can tell what’s what. 

The email subject line: “We’d Love to See You Again”

The body of the email: 

“Hi there,

It’s been a little while since your last visit, and we just wanted to check in.

Whether you have a concern you’d like to discuss, or are interested in cosmetic treatments, we’re here for you.

Please schedule your appointment online, [website], request a callback here [link], or call us directly at [telephone]. 

Sincerely,

(Name of the clinic)

-— 

That was the entire email. 

What did they get right? 

First, they contacted me. Many professionals don’t do that. You hire them once and never hear from them again. Bad for them since they get less repeat business or referrals. Bad for patients and clients who might need help but not get it. 

So, kudos to them for contacting me. 

The second good thing they did was to give me several options for contacting them. The easier it is for a patient or client to contact you, the more likely it is that they will. 

A professional will get more business doing those two things. But they could get a lot more:

  • It’s been years since I heard from them. Staying in touch with patients or clients means contacting them more often than once every several years. When you’re out of their mailbox, you’re out of their mind. Even if they don’t need your services immediately, they might need them soon and remember hearing from you, or know someone they could refer. 
  • They didn’t tell me who they were and it’s been a while. They mentioned the name of the clinic and I had to think about who they were, which I did for the purpose of writing this post. Most patients wouldn’t bother. 
  • They listed the generic-sounding name of the clinic instead of the name of the doctor. It would be easier to remember the name of the doctor. Make sure your name in all of your communications, not just the name of your firm. 
  • “We’d love to see you again” (subject line); “We just wanted to check in” (body). Sorry, Charlie, nobody cares what you want. What does the patient or client want or need? You can’t get the attention of a patient or client or prospect by talking about yourself and what you want; talk about them. 
  • They didn’t tell me why I should make an appointment. They leave it up to me to figure out if I might need or want to see them again. Their message should reference problems I might have or want to avoid. Tell your list what you can help them with and you’ll get more appointments. Leave it up to them and you’ll get fewer because clients don’t know what they need or even what they want.
  • Why this clinic? Why should I see them (again) instead of any other doctor or clinic? Always tell clients and prospects why they should hire you or talk to you instead of any other doctor or lawyer. What do you do that’s different or better? What do you specialize in? What’s new I should know about but might not hear from other lawyers?

Finally, they should have made an offer. A free consultation, a discount, an invitation for a friend, or information–a report or checklist, a seminar or video or some other incentive will get more calls and appointments. 

Some things to keep in mind the next time you contact clients and prospects, and I hope that’s soon.

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Filed Under: Communication, Copywriting, Email, Law office management, Marketing legal services

It might be time to put your marketing on a diet

April 16, 2026 by
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Have you heard of the elimination diet? It is described as “a short-term diagnostic tool. . . designed to identify food intolerances, sensitivities, or allergies by removing suspected trigger foods and then reintroducing them systematically, to see if symptoms resolve during the elimination phase and reappear upon reintroduction.” 

Basically, you eliminate foods or supplements that might be causing you issues, reintroduce them one at a time, and see what happens. Do your symptoms stop? Improve? Stay the same? Get worse? 

Last year, I wanted to see if I could improve my sleep so I stopped drinking coffee for a few months. I didn’t get more sleep or better sleep and (not surprisngly) had less energy throughout the day. When I started drinking coffee again, my energy improved, my sleep didn’t worsen, and I’m (happily) back to enjoying the bean. 

I’ve done similar experiments with vitamins and supplements I’ve taken and discovered that some bothered me, some weren’t helping, and some could be eliminated completely. 

That’s the idea behind an elimination diet. And if your marketing and practice development efforts aren’t working the way you would like, you might consider doing the same thing.

If you suspect your advertising is costing more than it should, for example, turn it off and see what that does to your numbers. You’ll probably get fewer leads and cases or clients but your net income might actually be higher. if you think the time you spend networking or creating content isn’t worth the effort, stop doing what you’re doing and re-introduce each activity one at a time. 

You can also do an elimination diet (in reverse) for strategies you’re not doing. 

If you’ve never advertised, for example, or it’s been a long time since you’ve done it, if you’ve eliminated advertising from your marketing, consider introducing or reintroducing it and seeing what happens. 

I’ve cut out ads and publications that were no longer pulling, started them up again after a period of time and found they were profitable. I don’t know why but I didn’t question it. 

That’s how marketing works. 

We’d all like our marketing to be consistently profitable but things change and we need to accept that and roll with those changes. 

Yes? Yes. And now it’s time for another cup of Joe. 

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Filed Under: Advertising, Increase your income, Law office management, Marketing Plan

How to increase your legal fees

March 12, 2026 by
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When my accountant completed my tax returns last year, he sent them to me for my signature, along with his bill. Everything looked good, except for one thing. His fee was a lot higher than it was the previous year, and that was higher than the year before that. 

And it was a big increase. Almost shockingly so. 

What did I do? 

I paid it. 

I thought about making a stink, even finding another CPA, or at least telling him I wasn’t happy about the increase and asking him why. But I’ve been with him for decades; he does good work and I trust him and I’m pretty sure he saves me more than his fee. And, let’s face it, inflation has been bi-otch for the last several years. 

So I said nothing. 

But the increase still rattled my bones.

So, if you’re thinking about increasing your fees anytime soon, I have some advice. 

First, don’t agonize about it; do what you have to do. Clients understand that the price of everything goes up and that things tend to cost more this year than last. But don’t just send your clients a higher bill—give them a heads up. 

Tell them in advance that your fees are going up and tell them why.

Mention inflation or other factors. If it’s been a while since the last time you increased your fees, mention that, too. And don’t wait so long next time because the longer you wait, the bigger the increase, and the more shock and awe your clients might feel.

Also, do what you can to take care of your most loyal clients. The ones who have been with you for a long time. Consider delaying the increase for them and tell them that. “As one of our most valued clients, we’re keeping your rate the same for the next 3 months,” for example. 

I would have appreciated getting a note from my accountant along those lines. 

In short, show your clients you don’t take them for granted. Put yourself in their shoes and do what you would like them to do if your roles were reversed.

They might be shocked at the size of your next bill, but if you’ve done things right, they’ll pay it. 

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