Law office management Archives - Page 24 of 45 - The Attorney Marketing Center

What’s next?

August 20, 2015 by David M. Ward

What are you working on right now? What will do after that?

What project(s) have you lined up for next week, next month, and later this year?

It could be anything: hiring a new virtual assistant, updating your website, or getting trained on a new contact management system. Whatever it is, you need to know what’s next.

I just finished a project (Lawyer to Lawyer Referrals) and I’m already working on the next one. I also know what I’ll do after that.

For me, knowing my next project gives me time to think about that project before I start it. I can do research, outline and plan. My subconscious mind will cogitate on the subject and prompt me with ideas and questions.

Knowing what’s next also means I don’t have any “dead air”. I go from one project to the next without missing a step. And if I have any challenges with a project, or it fizzles out, I always have something else to turn to.

It’s exciting to think about what I’ve got lined up. Thinking about future projects inspires me to finish the current one.

I don’t know my next ten projects, just the next two or three. But I have a list of hundreds of ideas to draw from, and as I complete the next few projects, I’ll have the next few lined up.

Mind you, I’m not obsessed with planning. I like a little spontaneity in my life. When I stumble upon a new idea that excites me, I’m fine with pushing aside my other projects to make room for it.

No matter what productivity system or method use, or if you don’t use any, develop the habit of always knowing what’s next. Whenever you start a project, ask yourself, “What’s will I do after this?”

When you know what’s next, your productivity will soar.

Filed Under: Law office management, Marketing Plan, Productivity, success

Lawyers make the worst clients

August 14, 2015 by David M. Ward

Just as most doctors will tell you that doctors make the worst patients, I think most lawyers would say the same thing about our species.

It’s because we know how things are supposed to work. And it’s because of ego. We’re not comfortable letting someone else call the shots.

And soÂ we routinely handle our own legal affairs, often to our detriment. Nowhere is this detriment more apparent than when we have a dispute with another lawyer.

A lawyer friend contacted me the other day and told me about one of his clients, another lawyer, who has become the proverbial clientÂ from hell.

She isn’t happy with anything and blames him for things outside of his control. She wants what she wants and steadfastly refuses to compromise, despite his many attempts to accommodate her. At first, he wanted to save the client. Now, he just wants to save himself.

How bad is it? She’s reported him for imagined ethical violations and is threatening to file a criminal complaint.

As I say, the client from hell.

He asked for my take on it. Naturally, I suggested he turn it over to another lawyer. Not just because of the ethical and criminal risks, but because the whole thing is making him miserable.

“You’re too close to the situation and she will continue to push your buttons,” I said.

If he’s lucky, she will get a lawyer, too. Then the two lawyers can negotiate without the animus or emotion that has gripped this situation. It will cost him, but can you put a price on your sanity?

I’ve met lawyers who swear they will never again have a lawyer for a client. What say you? Have you represented any lawyers who made you wish you hadn’t?

Filed Under: Career satisfaction, Law office management, Legal industry

You can expect what you inspect

August 13, 2015 by David M. Ward

In marketing legal services, you need to know your numbers. You need to know whereÂ prospects and new clients and website traffic are coming from so you can do more of what’sÂ working and less of what isn’t.

Knowing your numbers allows you to cut expenses (time, money) and increase profits.

For starters, ask your new clients how they heard about you. If they found you through aÂ search engine, ask which one, and which keywords they used. If they saw one of yourÂ articles or blog posts or videos, on your site or elsewhere, ask them to identify it. IfÂ someone shared one of your blog posts or social media posts, which one?

Do the same for prospects who call to ask questions or schedule a consultation.

If the client or prospect was referred to you, you need to know the source of theÂ referral. Was it a client? Another lawyer or other professional?

Who was it? What did they say about you?

You need to know so you can thank the referral source, even if the referral doesn’t become a client. When you show people that you appreciate what they have done, they are more likely to do it again.

What you recognize, grows.

Of course you also want to know which of your referral sources deserves more of your thanks and your attention. You may know 100 lawyers, but ifÂ four or five are sending you more referrals (or better referrals) than the rest, you’llÂ want to send your referrals to them.

When someone calls your office, they shouldÂ routinely be asked where they heard about you.Â Your intake form should ask this question.

Because you need to know.

You can track referrals and other metrics with a simple text document, a spread sheet,Â or on a legal pad.

Once a month, examine your global numbers, i.e., how much new business (traffic, opt-ins,Â etc.) you got for the month, and from what sources. If one of your articles is drawingÂ lots of traffic to your site, you need to know this so you can write more articles likeÂ it. If you’re getting more business from referrals and less business from social media,Â knowing this will help you know where to invest your time.

In addition, once a month, look atÂ your numbers for each individual source of business–each ad, your blog, speaking, individual referral sources, etc.

Know your numbers, because you can expect what you inspect.

Filed Under: Law office management, Leverage, Marketing legal services, Marketing Plan, Referral sources, Referrals

What would you do with a $200,000 line of credit?

August 7, 2015 by David M. Ward

What would you do with a $200,000 line of credit, or a windfall in that amount?

What would you buy? Who would you hire? What would you do to grow your practice or free up more time?

Would you hire more or better employees? What would you have them do?

Would you invest inÂ additional web assets?

Would you invest in advertising, or increase your ad buys?

It’s up to you.

You might pay off higher interest debt. Maybe you’d open a second office, or move to a bigger one. Maybe you’d buy new computers or furniture or invest in training your staff to work more efficiently.

Think about your SWOT: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. How would access to cash allow you to maximize your strengths, minimize your weaknesses, take advantage of opportunities, or neutralize threats?

What do you want to accomplish this year? Where do you want to be in five years?

Maybe you would invest in a business venture outside of your practice. For additional profit, for retirement, or just something you’ve always wanted to do.

AsÂ you think this through, you might decide to do nothing. You know you’re on track to meet your goals and you don’t need a pile of cash to get there.

The point of this exercise is to make you think about where you are and where you want to be. It’s to make you see what’s possible if money wasn’t an issue. It’s to give you ideas you can put on the drawing board.

If cash or credit would help you accomplish your goals more quickly, begin working towards acquiring a line of credit or amassing a pile of cash.

If you don’t need capital to get to the next level, however, consider building a line of credit anyway, because once you get to the next level, you might need cash to get to the level after that.

Do you know The Formula?

Filed Under: Goal Setting, Law office management, success, Technology

You don’t know what you don’t know

August 6, 2015 by David M. Ward

I’ve hired hundreds of people in my career (law and business). I’ve looked at thousands of resumes and conducted more interviews than I can count. One thing I’ve learned is that while resumes and interviews and checking references help, you really don’t know how someone will do until you give them a try.

Some people look good on paper but aren’t right for the job. Some don’t present well in an interview but turn out to be great at doing the work.

You make an educated guess, but you don’t know until you hire them.

This is also true in the world of marketing. You don’t know how something will work out for you until you try it.

If you don’t have a blog, how do you know it’s too much work or won’t be worth the effort?

If you’ve never tried advertising, or only advertised (unsuccessfully) in the yellow pages, how do you know it’s not for you?

If you tried networking once or twice and hated it, how do you know you won’t love it if you find the right crowd?

You don’t. Because you don’t know what you don’t know.

Just as you have to hire a lot of people to find the ones who work out and stay with you long term, you have to try out lots of marketing techniques to find the ones that are the right fit. If something doesn’t work out, fine. But before you “fire” that activity, you might want to give it a second chance.

With a little time and a little coaching, it might turn out to be an amazing addition to your team.

Filed Under: Law office management, Marketing legal services

If Donald Trump managed your law office

August 5, 2015 by David M. Ward

If Donald Trump managed your law office, you’d be in for one hell of a ride. On the first day he arrived, he’d call a meeting and lay out the plan to take you into the big (or bigger) leagues.

Before he arrived, he would have had his people study you. They would know your operation better than you do, and they would have recommendations. Lots of them. They will have briefed The Donald and he will be ready to sell the plan to you and your staff.

And that plan would be breathtaking.

Everything that you have always taken for granted would be back on the table. Every document, every procedure, every employee would be examined, and that includes you. Some of your staff will be given raises. Some will be fired. New people will be brought on board.

Waste will be eliminated. Opportunities will be exploited. Everything will run smoother, faster, and more profitably.

I imagine The Donald will tell you (repeatedly) why a business person and not a lawyer should run things. He’d point out that lawyers aren’t good at taking risks, they don’t appreciate marketing, and they are often better with paper than people.

Yes, he’d ruffle feathers and leave you breathless trying to keep up, but as a result of implementing his plan, new clients would come in, bills would go out, and your bank account would grow.

The lesson? Hire a business person to manage your law firm. Or change your thinking, crack the books, and become one yourself. Embrace the notion that your firm is a business and needs to be run like one. Change the way you think about things, and change the things you do.

Because Mr. Trump is a little busy right now and probably won’t show up at your office any time soon.

Here’s a good place to start

Filed Under: Law office management, Marketing legal services, Marketing Plan, Productivity

Getting the right things done

July 28, 2015 by David M. Ward

Venture capitalist Mark Suster has a rule he lives by that helps him be more productive and successful. The rule: “Do Less. More.”Â It means doing fewer things overall, and getting the right things done. “Success often comes from doing a few things extraordinarily well and noticeably better than the competition,” he says.

Richard Koch, author of The 80/20 Principle, says, “Everyone can achieve something significant. The key is not effort, but finding the right thing to achieve. You are hugely more productive at some things than at others, but dilute the effectiveness of this by doing too many things where your comparative skill is nowhere near as good.”

Koch also says, â€œFew people take objectives really seriously. They put average effort into too many things, rather than superior thought and effort into a few important things. People who achieve the most are selective as well as determined.â€

So, what do you do better than most? What should you focus on? I asked this question in an earlier post:

Look at your practice and tell me what you see.

Practice areas: Are you a Jack or Jill of all trades or a master of one? Are you good at many things or outstanding at one or two?

Clients: Do you target anyone who needs what you do or a very specifically defined â€œideal clientâ€ who can hire you more often, pay higher fees, and refer others like themselves who can do the same?

Services: Do you offer low fee/low margin services because they contribute something to overhead or do you keep your overhead low and maximize profits?

Fees: Do you trade your time for dollars or do you get paid commensurate with the value you deliver?

Marketing: Do you do too many things that produce no results, or modest results, or one or two things that bring in the bulk of your new business?

Time: Do you do too much yourself, or do you delegate as much as possible and do â€œonly that which only you can doâ€?

Work: Do you do everything from scratch or do you save time, reduce errors, and increase speed by using forms, checklists, and templates?

Leverage is the key to the 80/20 principle. It is the key to getting more done with less effort and to earning more without working more.

Take some time to examine your practice, and yourself. Make a short list of the things you do better than most and focus on them. Eliminate or delegate the rest.

Do Less. More.

ThisÂ will help with getting the right things done

Filed Under: Law office management, Leverage, Marketing legal services, Marketing Plan, Productivity, success Tagged With: focus, the 80/20 principle, the 80/20 rule, the pareto principle

How to increase your income ten-fold

July 21, 2015 by David M. Ward

What would I have to do to increase my income ten-fold?Â That’s aÂ question you should ask yourself periodically.

Yesterday, I did a consultation with an immigration lawyer and asked him a similar question. We were talking about his fees and I said, “With your experience and reputation, you could probably triple your fees, right now, and get it, no questions asked. Who’s to say you’re not worth three times what you now charge? What you need to do is figure out how you could increase your fees ten-fold. What would you have to do? How would you have to package your services in order to get that?”

Because he could. Because you can, too. The challenge is to figure out how.

Okay, too much to ask? I’ll ask a different question that might make you more comfortable. “What would you have to do to increase your income ten-fold in the next year?” The answer would entail a combination of increasing fees and getting more clients, yes?

Good stuff.

I heard an interview with an author recently who said his goal was to increase his income ten-fold within the next year. His plan calls for a combination of writing more books and selling more of them (marketing).

Will he reach his goal? I don’t know. But I do know that as a result of thinking this way, he’s bound to increase his income, undoubtedly much more than he would if he didn’t ask “how”.

Ten fold is big. But not impossible. You have to ask questions like this. It’s no fun to ask, “How could I increase my income five percent?” Snore.

So, what would you have to do to increase your income ten-fold? What new services would you offer? What new (higher-priced) markets would you target? What would you have to do to increase your fees? What would you have to do to get more traffic to your website, viewers of your ads, or attendees at your seminars? What would you do to get more referrals?

Think. And maybe you’ll grow rich.

How to increase your income ten-fold: GoÂ here

Filed Under: Attorneys fees, Goal Setting, Increase your income, Inspiration, Law office management, Marketing legal services

One two three, one two three, drink

July 16, 2015 by David M. Ward

How’s biz? Yes, I know, it’s great. But really, how are you doing this month compared to last month or last year?

You need to know.

You’ve got to track your progress. Otherwise, you won’t know if what you’re doing is working.

How many new clients did you sign up this week or this month? Write that down.

How much revenue came into your coffers? You should probably make a note.

How many leads/inquires/prospects do you have in your pipeline? You’ll want that number going up.

Look at your calendar. How many appointments do you have this week? How many of those are with prospective clients?

How many subscribers signed up for your newsletter this month?

You’re running a business. You’ve got to know your numbers. You don’t need to obsess over them, but you should at least know what they are.

Your numbers tell you if what you’re growing. Because if you’re not growing, you’re dying.

But these aren’t the only ones you need to track.

Revenue, new clients, and the like, are all “history”. They are the results of things you did in the past. They tell you what happened, not what will happen.

You need to track your activities as well as as your results.

What did you do this week that might bring you some business?

Whatever else you do that for marketing,Â I suggest you start tracking these two activities:

1) Calls

How many outgoing calls did you make–to prospects, referral sources, prospective networking partners, former clients, etc.

2) Words

How many words did you write for marketing purposes, for your blog, website, articles/guest posts, books, presentations, letters/emails, social media content, etc.

Are these numbers growing? Holding steady? Declining? You need to know.

Results are the destination. Activities are how you get there.

Grow your practice withÂ The Formula

Filed Under: Law office management, Marketing legal services, Marketing Plan

Laugh and the whole world laughs with you. . . unless you’re a lawyer

July 15, 2015 by David M. Ward

I used to have an employee who laughed after nearly everything he said. He might have asked me something completely innocuous like, “Should we open a file?” and follow that with an awkward smile and a pinched little laugh.

He was incredibly lacking in self-confidence and this was his way of coping with life.

He could get away with it with clients and others who didn’t listen to him all day long. I tuned it out, mostly, but I have to admit it bothered me. Sometimes, I would ask, “Why are you laughing?” or “Why is that funny?” Yes, I was a prick. And no, it didn’t help.

Maybe you’ve had someone like this work for you. Or maybe you’ve had an office clown. You know, the ones who are always telling jokes and making comments that aren’t in the least funny. And yet they persist, because they think they are God’s gift to humor.

Even if they are funny, too much yucking it up in a law office isn’t a good thing. A little humor is great for lightening the mood. And laughter is contagious. One or two people start laughing, it won’t be long before the entire office is enjoying themselves.

Just make sure there aren’t any clients around. You can’t let them think that what we do is fun and games, or that we’re insensitive to their problems.

But this is probably not a problem in most law offices. Just the opposite. There are too many lawyers who never crack a smile and never find humor in anything.

That’s not good, either.

You need a balance. Not too much humor, not too little.

How much is too much or too little? We must use the reasonable man standard. What is appropriate? What would a reasonable man do in the same or similar circumstances?

Wait, I guess that should be the reasonable person standard. We don’t want to be sexist.

Wait, if we say person, are we not insulting the rest of the animal kingdom? Guess we need to say, “reasonable being” standard.

Hold on, that doesn’t work. What about robots and drones and AI? They may not have feelings, but that doesn’t mean we can insult them. That’s just rude. And unfair. Probably racist, too.

Okay, someone just read this and thinks I’m a jerk for making fun of an out-of-control politically correct narrative. They don’t think this is at all funny.

But hey, calling me a jerk is hate speech.Â Lawyers have feelings, too. Said no one, ever.

Filed Under: Image, Just for fun, Law office management