What to say when someone asks, “What’s new?”

February 21, 2013 by
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How do you typically answer when someone asks you, “What’s new?”

One expert says that answering, “Nothing much,” squanders an opportunity to promote your practice. She says, “Highlight recent successes or certain aspects of your practice.”

What do I think? I think that most people don’t really care about what’s new in your world, they’re just being polite.

They really don’t want to hear about how great you are doing, unless it benefits them. “I just settled a multi-million dollar case,” would be great news to share if you are talking to your spouse or partner. Nobody else cares.

Most people aren’t listening, anyway. They’re thinking about themselves. Their problems. Their unfinished business. If they have good news, they’re thinking about that and waiting for you to stop talking so they can tell you about it.

Yeah, maybe that’s a bit cynical. But no less true.

If you do have some good news, it’s okay to share it. But be brief. If they don’t pick up on it and ask for details, move on.

If they do pick up on it and ask questions, the odds are they’re still being polite. Don’t fall into the trap of telling them all about it. Turn the conversation back to them.

Let the other guy do most of the talking. Ask about his work or what he’s doing for fun. Ask him, “What’s new with you?”

If you don’t have good news to share, please don’t tell them about your problems. Yes, they might be happy to hear that your life is actually worse than theirs, but you can forget about them hiring you.

“What’s new?” “Nothing much. How about you?”

Works for me.

Want more clients? Click here.

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Filed Under: Marketing legal services, Networking Tagged With: , ,

Your clients hate when you do this

February 20, 2013 by
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When you have a client in the office, have you ever said “hold my calls” to your receptionist or whoever answers the phone? You shouldn’t have. It should be understood that unless there is an emergency, when you have someone in the office, you don’t take calls.

And yet, I know many lawyers do. Not you, of course. But we all know someone.

It’s rude. People don’t like it. It tells the client, “you’re not as important as the person on the phone, or as important as me, and I don’t care if I’m wasting your time.”

Even if the call is just a few seconds. Your next appointment calling to tell you they are running late, or opposing counsel telling you the case is settled and you don’t have to go to the settlement conference that afternoon.

The same goes for text messages. Unless your wife is about to go into labor, you shouldn’t be looking at your phone. And if your wife is about to go into labor, you should tell your client that’s why you’re checking your phone so he doesn’t think you’re a boob.

Aside from being rude and selfish, it’s bad posture. It tells your clients that you are poorly organized. Or hungry for new business and lacking self-confidence. You answer the phone because it might be a prospective client and you don’t want to lose them.

Weak.

I think some lawyers think taking calls actually gives them better posture. They think it says, “I’m very important. Look at all the people who want to talk to me.”

Notsomuch.

Here’s an idea you might want to run with.

Create a document, pledging your commitment to never taking calls or looking at texts during client meetings. Let people know that your clients are important to you and deserve your full attention.

Send this to all of your clients. Put it in your “new client kit”. Post it on your web site. Have it engraved and put it up on your wall. When a new client or prospect is in the office, call their attention to it. Let them know you really mean it.

It doesn’t matter that most attorneys don’t take calls during client meetings. Most of them don’t have a pledge. So when you do, you stand out. People talk about you. Remember you.

Marketing is everything we do to get and keep good clients. This is one of those things.

The Attorney Marketing Formula will teach you how to get more clients and increase your income. Click here to learn more. Go ahead. You know you want to.

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Filed Under: Client relations, Marketing legal services, Personal development Tagged With: , ,

How to get more clients like your best clients

February 18, 2013 by
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Who are your best clients? You know the ones I’m talking about. The ones who pay more. The ones who cause the fewest problems. The ones who send you referrals and promote your practice. The ones you like being around.

You know, the clients you’d like to clone.

You can get more clients like your best clients. Here’s how:

DEFINE THEM

Who are your best clients? What attributes do they have in common?

Demographics: Industry, occupation, background, ethnicity.

Legal work: Most work, highest fees, bigger cases, repeat business.

Referrals: How many? How often? What quality?

Other factors: Who can they introduce you to? Do they have lists and are they willing to promote you? Are they influential on social media? Do they like you and want to help you?

PAY ATTENTION TO THEM

Give your best clients more time and attention than other clients. Call them, just to say hello. Write them, to share information. Spend time with them: coffee, lunch, networking events.

Thank them for their patronage, their referrals, and their friendship.

HELP THEM 

Business clients: Send them referrals. Help them find employees, suppliers and joint venture partners. Feature their business or practice in your blog or newsletter. Introduce them to people they might like to know.

Consumer clients: Help them find better deals.  Introduce them to trusted advisers, reputable contractors, high quality service people. Help them get reliable information and advice.

In short, if you want more clients like your best clients, you should build relationships with them. They will lead you to people like themselves with similar needs and values.

We get what we focus on. Focus on your best clients and you’ll get more of them.

Need help identifying your “ideal client”? Click here.

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

The hidden cost of social media marketing

February 13, 2013 by
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Social media marketing isn’t free. You pay with your time.

It takes time to

  • Read incoming tweets, stories, posts, and mentions
  • Reply and/or re-post incoming tweets, stories, posts, and mentions
  • Create or find content to share
  • Create and update your profiles and pages
  • Stay up to date with all the new tools and techniques
  • Try out new apps to manage all of the above
  • Read posts like this one. . .

Whether you do this yourself or you hire others to do it for you, there is a cost to social media marketing.

I’m not saying it’s not worth it. It could very much be worth it. If you spend $1500 a month (your time or someone else’s) and bring in $10,000 a month in new business, that’s a good thing.

But that’s a big “if”.

I don’t think most people get this kind of return on their investment.

If you’re not making a profit on your investment in social media, or you don’t “do” social media marketing because you don’t believe it will be worth it (and you don’t want to spend the time to find out), I have a suggestion.

Keep your social media profiles up to date. Promote your web site content to your social media connections so they can push it to THEIR social media connections. But instead of trying to interact with hundreds or thousands of fans, followers, and connections, instead of “one” (you) to “many,” use social media as a tool for marketing “one to one”.

Use it to find one person who targets the same market you do. Another professional, a business owner or executive, a consultant, a blogger. Someone who would be a good fit.

Learn about them. Approach them. And begin the process of networking with them, the old fashioned way. In case you’ve forgotten, that means talking to them and meeting them for coffee.

Find out what you can do for them and they for you. Networking. One to one.

Marketing is simple. If it wasn’t, you wouldn’t do it. Here’s proof.

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Filed Under: Marketing legal services, Networking, Referral sources, Referrals, Social media, Social media marketing, Time Management Tagged With: ,

Easy way to get fresh content for your blog or newsletter

February 12, 2013 by
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Last night, I hosted a one hour conference call for one of my businesses. There were six speakers, each of whom spoke for a few minutes. My job was to introduce them, let them share their story, and ask a few follow-up questions.

Easy.

We got good feedback on the call. People liked the stories and the information. Told me I did a great job. Hey, I just asked questions. Someone else lined up the guests.

Anyway, if you’re looking for an easy way to get some fresh content for your blog or newsletter, here’s what to do:

  1. Contact one of your referral sources (or a professional you would like as a referral source) and ask if you could interview them for your blog or newsletter.
  2. Jot down five to ten questions, things you think your readers would want to know about the expert’s area of expertise.
  3. Interview them on the phone, in person, or via email. Post the audio or a transcription on your blog or newsletter.

Easy.

Your readers get valuable information from a subject matter expert. You get content for your blog or newsletter. The expert gets exposure to your list.

What’s next? The expert interviews you for their blog or newsletter, of course.

Marketing is easy when you know The Formula.

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Filed Under: Blogging, Marketing legal services, Newsletters, Referral sources, Referrals Tagged With: ,

Eight ways to use audio recording apps for marketing

February 7, 2013 by
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I was reading some of the reviews for Dictamus, the dictation app I use on my iphone. Many lawyers and physicians extol its virtues, saying things like, “best on the market, ” “replaced my 0 dictation equipment,”and “I use it every single day.”

I don’t dictate to a secretary these days, but I do dictate to myself. My phone is always with me so it’s very convenient to capture notes or ideas on the fly. I also dictate entire articles, letters, and other longer documents, using Dictamus’ “insert” function to insert new thoughts into the middle of already recorded sentences. Yep, just like  the old cassette and belt dictation machines I used to use.

Anyway, I started thinking about how audio recording apps (any app will do) can be used for marketing. In addition to the obvious use of recording ideas for articles, people to call, things to do, and dictating complete articles, emails, and letters, here’s what I came up with:

  1. Networking: record details after meeting new contact (where, when, what you talked about, etc.)
  2. Interviews with subject matter experts for podcasts, or transcribe for written articles
  3. Record audio track to add to video slide presentation
  4. Practice your next presentation
  5. Record consultations with prospective clients, give to them as added bonus
  6. Create audio book to sell or give away for lead generation
  7. Record brainstorming sessions with partners, staff
  8. Record consultations with hired consultants, live trainings, teleconferences, or webinars

Do use audio recording apps (or digital recorders) for marketing in your practice? What do you do? Which apps do you use? Please add to the comments.

Want more marketing ideas? Of course you do. Click here.

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Filed Under: Law office management, Marketing legal services, Productivity, Technology Tagged With: , , , ,

Void for vagueness: Does this describe your marketing plan?

February 6, 2013 by
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Freeman Dyson, theoretical physicist, mathematician, and all around smart guy, once said, “It is better to be wrong than to be vague.” He was not referring to marketing, but I thought he might as well have been.

Some attorneys have a marketing plan that is filled with generalities. Their plan is too broad and long term. You’ve got rent due on the first, you’ve got to bring in a new client this week–whatcha gonna do?

Some attorneys have a plan, usually created by a high paid consultant who never practiced law, that is waaaay too complex and detailed. It usually winds up sitting in a file because nobody really understands it or wants to do it.

Of course, most attorneys don’t have any plan at all.

Here’s what I can tell you about marketing plans:

  1. You need one. Otherwise, you won’t know what to do next.
  2. It must be simple. You won’t do it if it’s not.
  3. It must be specific. What exactly are you going to do and when?

You may have a goal to “get six new clients in the next 60 days.” Pretty good goal. Now, how are you going to accomplish it?

Networking? Writing? Contacting former clients?

Too vague. Be more specific.

A good plan would be something where 60 days from now, if I ask you, “Did you do it?” you can answer yes or no.

A good plan would look something like this:

  1. Write one article of 300-500 words every week [every other week/every month] to post to my blog/web site/newsletter.
  2. Every week day, send three emails to clients/former clients saying, “I’m just checking in, hope you are well. . .”.
  3. Once a week, have lunch [coffee] with a new professional/executive/business owner from my networking group. Learn about their business or practice. Ask what kind of referrals they want. Send a thank you note. Schedule a follow up for 30 days.

Specific. Simple. Something you can do.

Will it work? I think so. Quite well, in fact. But. . . I could be wrong. But then it’s better to be wrong than to be vague.

If you want help in creating a marketing plan that really works, order The Attorney Marketing Formula.

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Filed Under: Marketing legal services, Marketing Plan Tagged With:

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:

Marketing legal services by offering digital document signing

January 30, 2013 by
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Technology allows us to get legal documents signed without ever printing them. This post on the Evernote blog shows how to do that with two free apps, Docusign and Evernote (or Box, Google Drive, Dropbox).

I have Docusign and several other apps like it. I have pdf’s emailed, open them in the app, sign them, and send them back. It saves time, paper, postage and/or the cost of a messenger. And saving a copy in Evernote allows me to access those documents everywhere. (For more on how to use Evernote for storing client and other documents, check out my ebook, Evernote for Lawyers: A Guide to Getting Organized & Increasing Productivity).

If you have a tech savvy client, they can download the app to sign and return the documents to you by email. If you don’t, or if you need to explain the document to the client before signing, you can meet with them and have them sign on your tablet.

Offering digital signing is a benefit to you and to the client. If you offer it, you should promote the fact that you do. Make a big deal out it. Let clients and prospects know what you do, how it works, and how it saves them time and money.

Even if other attorneys do it the same way, most of them don’t promote it. When you do, you will “own” that benefit in the eyes of your target market.

To stand out in the crowd, you must show people how you are different. Click here to learn how.

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Filed Under: Law office management, Marketing legal services, Technology Tagged With: , ,
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