Put this in your pipe and smoke it

June 26, 2017 by
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Suppose I am a notary who works near you. I call you and offer to provide my services to your clients for a few hours each week, at no cost to you or your clients.

Interested?

You can promote this as an added benefit to your clients. You can put “free notary services” in your advertising and on your website and attract more prospective clients.

And it won’t cost you a dime.

I’m willing to do it because it lets me introduce my services to lots of new clients.

Do we have a deal?

Okay, you like the idea but you’re not getting calls from notaries offering this.

Well, you could ask someone in your office to take the class and become a notary, or you could do it yourself. That’s good, but how about thinking bigger?

How about picking up the phone and calling some notaries, to see if they like the idea of getting some free exposure. Why is this better than doing it yourself?

Because some of their notary clients will need legal services.

And there you are.

Many real estate agents are notaries, and open to a bit of creative marketing. Or you might partner up with a real estate attorney who has a notary in the office (assuming you don’t compete with them). Accountants, escrow officers, mortgage brokers, and banks also have notaries.

If free notary services doesn’t work for your practice, find something that does.

Make a list of the types of professionals and small businesses that target the same clients you target. Contact them and see if they have a free or discounted service you could offer to your clients. Or a free consultation. Or free information.

Then, see if you can do the same for their clients.

Are you picking up what I’m laying down?

More ways to work smarter

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

Are you a finicky lawyer?

June 23, 2017 by
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I told you about a program I saw profiling a 20-year-old woman with a strange and dangerous addiction to sugar. She drinks 30 cans of cola a day and is on the fast track to a major illness.

The program is called “Finicky Eaters”. My wife found replays on YouTube. We’ve since seen episodes about a guy who has eaten nothing but cheeseburgers for the last 25 years (yep, three meals a day), the gal who eats nothing but french fries, and another about a man who likes to eat raw meat and little else.

As far as I’m concerned, this is more than finicky eating, it’s a sickness. Had these folks not received professional help, they would no doubt be looking at debilitating illness or death.

I was thinking about these poor souls on my walk this morning. It made me think about how many lawyers also have unhealthy habits with respect to their practices. Although usually not fatal, these habits prevent them from reaching their potential.

Many lawyers steadfastly refuse to delegate, for example. Doing all the work themselves can add stress and lead to burnout. It also limits their income. (I know, there’s a trade-off. If you’re not careful, delegating can lead to other problems. Note to self: delegate, but be careful.)

When it comes to marketing, many lawyers also have bad habits. They get set in their ways, refusing to try new strategies, or update old ones, and find themselves falling behind the competition.

How about you? Do you have any bad habits about how you manage your practice? Things you do that you shouldn’t, or things you should do but don’t?

Do you continue doing something a certain way because that’s how you’ve always done it, or because that’s how everyone else does it?

Do you stay in a bad partnership out of habit or fear that the alternative might be worse?

Do you continue paying for products or services you no longer need or could replace with lower-cost or better alternatives?

Start a new habit today of regularly examining what you do and how you do it. Pay attention to your habits, routines, and go-to strategies and consider what you might change or improve.

If you decide that you’re doing fine and no changes are necessary, I have one last suggestion for you: get someone else to take a look. Ask a friend, or hire a professional, to examine your ways and tell you what they see.

Because most of those finicky eaters didn’t realize they had a problem until someone else pointed it out to them.

Are you getting all of the referrals you want? 

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

Stop chasing clients and make them chase you

June 20, 2017 by
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An immigration lawyer agrees with the concept of offering more value to prospective clients but is frustrated. He says, “more than 90% of the people out there want free information and advice.”

He sent me some correspondence he’s had with a prospective client. “I’ve been following up with him for more than a month,” he says.

In a nutshell:

The wealthy would-be client wants to know if he has a case. The lawyer explains why he needs to interview him to answer that question and asks a modest fee. He spends a good deal of time explaining everything, making the case for the interview, describing all the work that goes into it, and laying out his qualifications.

The client doesn’t see the value/doesn’t want to pay.

What’s wrong with this picture? What’s wrong is that the lawyer is trying too hard. It makes him look like he is chasing the client.

A lawyer shouldn’t have to personally make the case for the client taking the next step. The lawyer shouldn’t have to personally “sell” the client on his ability to do the job. The lawyer should let his website (reports, brochures, recordings, articles, etc.) do (most of) the selling for him.

By the time you correspond with a prospective client, they should be nearly ready to hire you. They may have a few questions, and that’s fine, but if those questions are answered on the website, the lawyer (or better, an assistant, so the lawyer can maintain posture) should point the client at the documents that address those questions.

The website should have a sales page for the consultation. It should explain why it is necessary, describe (in detail) what you will do, and enumerate the benefits.

What will the client learn? What will they get? How will they better off?

Spell out what they get, e.g., a summary of the law, an analysis of the facts, instructions for improving their odds of success, advice and recommendations, clarity, peace of mind, etc.

Consider hiring a professional to write this for you.

Consider offering 100% credit for the consultation fee if they go ahead and hire you to do the work.

If your consultation delivers a lot of value to the client, and the sales letter does a good job of selling it, you should charge more than a modest fee. Weed out the cheapskates and freebie seekers and create a higher perceived value and demand for your services.

And, no matter how much you charge, if they don’t see the value and they’re not willing to pay, wish them well and move on.

Don’t chase.

It may seem that most people want everything free but if that were literally true, there would be no immigration attorneys making a living and that’s obviously not the case.

What do the best ones do? They charge top dollar, and get it, all day every day, from people who sell themselves on hiring them. By being the pursued, not the pursuer.

Be generous with free information but charge dearly for your time and advice. Make it easy for clients to sell themselves on hiring the best and paying top dollar for the privilege.

How to make your website sell

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Filed Under: Marketing legal services

In the midnight hour she cried, more, more, more

June 19, 2017 by
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The secret to success isn’t really a secret. You already know it. You know that the key to building a successful business, career, marriage, or life lies is giving people more than they expect.

More than they want, more than they need, more than they deserve.

Even more than they paid for. When a client pays you $1000, give them $1100 of value.

If you can’t do more, do it better. Faster. Or cheaper. When the client expects the work to be done in two weeks, do it in one. When they expect to pay $5000, send them a bill for $4500.

Give your referral sources more referrals and more introductions. If you pay referral fees, give them a bigger percentage. Give your prospects and subscribers more information and more attention.

When you give people more than they expect, you earn their appreciation, their (repeat) business, and their referrals.

No, not everyone will reciprocate. Some will hire you, some won’t. Some will send you lots of referrals, some won’t send you any. Some will promote your events, share your content, and give you positive reviews, some won’t lift a finger.

That’s okay. Because giving more isn’t about quid pro quo. It’s about establishing a mindset of abundance and a reputation for generosity. It’s about invoking the Law of Attraction.

When you give everyone more, you will get more. You just won’t know when or from whom.

You don’t have to go crazy and give away the store. Value comes in many different colors. Write and call a little more often. Be a little nicer or a little more accessible. Serve a better brew of coffee in the office (and use real half-and-half, not that powdered stuff, k?).

Continually ask yourself, how can I do more in this situation? How can I exceed expectations?

When giving more becomes your default, you will find yourself getting more.

One way to exceed expectations is to manage expectations. This shows you how

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Filed Under: Marketing legal services Tagged With: ,

Use ‘before and after’ photos to sell more legal services

June 12, 2017 by
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In our community, mailboxes are uniformly displayed on wooden posts, four boxes to a post. After nearly twenty-five years, our post was looking shabby. My neighbors and I chipped in and hired a guy to repair and paint the post and replace the mailboxes.

He did a great job and we’ve recommended him to some of our other neighbors.

On a recent walk through the neighborhood, I saw some mailboxes that could use his services and I thought about what he might do to get more work. One thing he could do is create a flyer with before and after photos of his work. Those photos tell most of the story. “If your mailbox looks like this [before] and you want it to look like this [after], give me a call.”

How can you use this idea to sell more legal services?

No, not by taking photos of your clients. By using word pictures to describe their situation before and after they hired you.

On your website and in your marketing materials, describe how some clients “looked” when they first came to you, and how they looked at the end of the case or matter.

If you handle divorce, for example, you would describe your client’s marriage situation in sufficient detail to let prospective clients “see” it. Include the facts, the legal issues, the emotional turmoil, and what was at stake.

Follow that with a word picture of the client’s situation after you worked your magic.

It’s storytelling, pure and simple, something you should be doing in most of your writing but especially in your marketing documents.

Facts tell but stories sell.

The best stories are dramatic, of course, but with a little effort, you can inject some drama into even the most mundane or routine legal matters.

Give it a try. Think about a recent client and describe their before picture. What did they want or need and why? What was at stake? What did they fear? What might have happened if they didn’t hire you?

Then, describe the after picture. Resolution. Protection. Compensation. Peace of mind.

Before and after. Photos or word pictures. It’s the same formula. It works for marketing mailbox repairs and legal services.

Marketing is easier when you know The Formula

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Filed Under: Copywriting, Marketing legal services

What will you do today to bring in some business?

June 9, 2017 by
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I got an email this morning from a representative of the company that develops Write!, a text-based writing app. He offered to set me up with a free account so I could try the software and, perhaps, mention it or review it on my blog.

I’m a good candidate for that since I have mentioned my use of Scrivener and other writing apps before, and because lawyers do a lot of writing. But I already own the app. I bought it several months ago and use it nearly every day. I like it and recommend it. You should go take a look.

So there. I mentioned it. I won’t review it because that’s not something I ordinarily do.

The email I received is a good example of simple but effective marketing that anyone can do.You probably won’t contact strangers and offer free legal services but you might offer a free report or book. (If you don’t have one, get cookin.)

But there’s another point I want to make about the pro-active nature of contacting people you don’t know.

Most lawyers do little or no outbound marketing. They sit and wait for their ads to work or for search engines to send them traffic. They wait for someone to find them and invite them to speak at their event. They wait for someone to send them referrals.

There’s so much more they could do.

Reach out to someone you don’t know, by email or phone, and introduce yourself. Invite them to submit a guest post for your blog or ask if they would like you to provide one for theirs. Offer to interview them for your podcast or video channel. Query a publication about an article. Post comments on someone else’s blog. Go to a meeting and shake some hands.

Attraction marketing is good. I love it when people find me and send me money (or free software). But we shouldn’t always wait for something to happen. We should get off our bums and make something happen.

How to write a report that could get you more referrals

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Filed Under: Marketing legal services

The second most important question to ask your new client

June 2, 2017 by
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You know that the most important question to ask a new client is, “Where did you hear about me [us]?” If they were referred, you need to know who to thank. If they found your website through search, you need to know what they searched for so you can focus on that keyword. If they saw one of your ads or articles or heard you speak or saw your video or heard you interviewed. . . you need to know.

You need to know what’s working in your marketing so you can do more of it. You also need to know what’s not working so you can reduce or eliminate them.

But there’s a second question you should ask new clients, and in some respects, it’s even more important than the first:

“Why did you choose me [us]?”

There are lots of other attorneys they could have hired. What was it that convinced them that you were the better choice?

It could be any reason or a combination of reasons. Maybe they liked a certain article on your site. Maybe their friend said you were nice. Maybe they liked the way you treated them when they called to ask a question.

Maybe they saw all the good reviews you have on online. Maybe they’ve been on your list for awhile and your emails helped them get to know, like, and trust you. Or maybe they chose you because they can see that you focus on helping people like them (e.g., same business niche, same ethnicity, same neighborhood, etc.)

You won’t know unless you ask.

Ask, “Where did you hear about me?” upon greeting the new client. Or ask them when they are on the phone, in case they don’t make or keep an appointment.

Ask the second question after they’ve signed your retainer agreement and put some shekels into your sweaty palm.

One more thing. If you have thick skin (and an elastic heart), you should also ask prospective clients who DIDN’T hire you why they went with someone else.

How to get your clients to send you more referrals

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Filed Under: Marketing legal services

Sorry for your loss, sign here

May 31, 2017 by
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I heard a story on the radio. It seems a real estate broker team sent a condolence letter to a recent widow, and by recent I mean a few days after her husband’s death. The letter expressed condolences, acknowledged that it must be a difficult time, and then pitched the woman on using them to sell the family home.

Classy, huh?

Obviously, surviving spouses are a good target market for real estate brokers, and for other professionals, e.g., probate lawyers. Brokers target recent empty nesters–homeowners with kids graduating, getting married–and that’s fine. It makes sense to target people who are more likely to need your services. Lawyers should, too (assuming there are no ethical restrictions).

But a letter like this, so soon after her loss and so obviously a shameless attempt to take advantage of her situation, is no bueno.

Is there anything these brokers could have done to leverage the “opportunity” presented by the demise of this woman’s husband?

Yes.

They could have mailed a letter that simply introduced themselves, without referencing her loss. As though they were sending that same letter to everyone in the neighborhood.

Offer a planning guide, a free market analysis, and make the case for using them for buying or selling, as brokers do. Let her decide when and if she wants to sell.

Get there early, before other brokers fill up her mailbox. And mail frequently with more information and offers.

In other words, invest more time and money targeting recent widows and widowers, as a group. Just don’t tell them why.

Does your website make your phone ring?

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Filed Under: Marketing legal services Tagged With:

Why some firms charge more for the same services 

May 30, 2017 by
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A friend sent me an email he got from a company that offers law firm management consulting. He’d spoken to them about what they could do for his practice and wanted to know if I knew anything about them or if I had any advice.

I didn’t know them. My advice? Get more information. A lot more.

Granted, all I looked at was the email. I didn’t see a website or any other marketing materials. But what I did see left me less than impressed.

They have different packages ranging from $1500 per month up to more than $4000 per month, which isn’t expensive if they can help you grow from six-figures to seven-figures, something they allude to.

But can they? And what exactly do they do?

The email was a model of vague generalities. It talked about meetings and coaching, but not much about the subject of those meetings or that coaching. It talked a lot about bookkeeping and accounting. It mentioned the word marketing once.

Why anyone would talk so much about counting beans instead of getting more beans to count is beyond me.

So yeah, not impressed.

But here’s the thing. Some lawyers are paying these guys thousands of dollars a month to do whatever it is they do. So I have to assume that they deliver some value to their clients.

Whether or not they’re good at what they do, one thing they’re doing right is packaging their services in ways that make it difficult to compare what they offer with what other consulting firms offer.

And that’s the point, my little droogies.

When you offer the same services your competition offers, and you charge the same range of fees, you make it easier for clients to compare you to everyone else.

Sometimes they choose you. Sometimes they don’t.

On the other hand, when you offer something your competition doesn’t appear to offer, you give clients a reason to choose you. You can charge more, too.

Don’t offer what other lawyers offer. Package your services in ways that allow you to emphasize results and benefits and not the activities or time needed to deliver those results. Charge monthly fees or flat fees, not hourly.

A little slight of hand? Smoke and mirrors? Maybe. Or maybe just good marketing.

For more good marketing, go here

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Filed Under: Marketing legal services Tagged With:

Stop talking about yourself all the time

May 24, 2017 by
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Not everyone in your target market needs your services right now. Not everyone is ready to hire you. Not everyone has someone they can refer.

Someday? Sure. Just not today.

So when they talk to you or read your blog post or email, a lot of what you say goes in one ear and comes out the other.

They may hire you (again) someday. They may love you like a brother. But if they don’t need your services right now, they probably aren’t interested in hearing you endlessly talk about what you do.

What if you talked about something else once in awhile? What if instead of talking about what you do and promoting your practice, you promoted someone else?

Do you know any real estate brokers? Anyone you think highly of and openly recommend? How about promoting them?

Write a post or article about them. Interview them. Put one of their cards in the envelope when you mail invoices and attach a sticky note saying something nice about them. Put a link to their website on yours.

When you hear someone talking about buying or selling property, tell them you know a great broker. When you speak with another professional, bring up the subject: “By the way, if you have any clients looking to buy or sell property, I have a great broker I can recommend”.

You could promote any professional you know, any contractor, car dealer, insurance agent, or small business. Do you have a VA you use and like? A graphic artist, video whiz, or website developer?

They don’t need to be a client, just someone you know and trust.

Why wouldn’t you do this? If you would recommend them when anyone asks for a referral, why not recommend them before anyone asks?

The people you talk to (who don’t need your services right now) may be looking to buy or sell a home. When you bring up the subject of a good broker, they may be all ears. They’ll appreciate you for helping them find someone and remember you when they do need your services.

They’ll also appreciate you for talking about someone other than yourself.

Oh yeah, the broker you promote? They’ll appreciate the hell out of you. And maybe they’ll promote you, too.

If you want other lawyers to recommend you, get this

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Filed Under: Marketing legal services
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