I wish I knew this before I opened my law practice

May 30, 2012 by
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In high school and college I did some entry level work during the summers. I was a stock clerk at a department store, delivered flowers, that sort of thing. In law school, I worked as a law clerk.

By the time I graduated law school, the sum total of my work experience was. . . nothing to write home about.

I opened my own law office about a year after graduating and passing the bar exam. I had very little experience as a lawyer, no clients, and no money. Most importantly, my network of contacts was almost non-existent.

As you can imagine, my first few years of practice were very difficult. If I had known what it would take to start a practice and make a go of it, I might have done things differently.

Yes, I knew it would be rough. But I naively thought I would make up for what I lacked with hard work and determination. Like Mary Richards, Mary Tyler Moore’s character on the 1970’s TV show, I had spunk.

Unfortunately, spunk doesn’t buy groceries.

Anyway, things would undoubtedly have been different if I’d had a network of contacts before I opened my office. When you have relationships with the right people, you can leverage those relationships to get clients, leads, introductions, and advice. You can hit the ground running in a new practice. You’re not starting completely from scratch when you can tap into other people’s established networks.

The lesson is this: build your network before you need it. Or as Harvey MacKay puts it, “Dig Your Well Before You’re Thirsty.”

It’s more difficult to build a network when you need it. “Hello, I’d like to introduce myself and ask you if you can send me some business.” And yet, it can be done. If you approach them the right way, and you approach enough of them, strangers will help you. But it’s much easier to get that help from people who already know, like, and trust you.

If you’re thinking about opening your own practice, build your network before you make the move. You don’t need a huge network–a few well-connected individuals is all you need to start. They can lead you to others.

First, identify by category the types of people you would like to know. Then, look for ways to find and meet people in those categories.

If you have already opened your own practice, it’s never too late to start building your network.

The best day to plant a tree is 100 years ago. The second best day is today.

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Filed Under: Marketing legal services, Networking, Referral sources, Relationship marketing Tagged With: , , , , , ,

How to get new referral sources over the phone

April 24, 2012 by
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I talked to an attorney the other day about a class action he was thinking of filing on behalf of himself and similarly aggrieved attorneys. (I’m not at liberty to disclose the subject matter.) He wanted to know the best way to find other attorneys who might want to join him.

We talked about ads in his bar journal and on Facebook or other PPC. And then I suggested my favorite marketing method: picking up the phone and calling.

It should be easy to get other attorneys on the phone to see if they have had the same experience he’s had. He could find potential class members and also get feedback on his case. If an attorney wasn’t interested in joining, perhaps they could refer him to someone else.

But there’s another benefit to cold calling attorneys: making new networking contacts.

“So tell me about your practice. . .” is guaranteed to get attorneys talking. Naturally, they will also ask you to tell them about yours. Just like that, you have a new contact. You have opened the door to follow-up conversations that might lead to referrals, intorductions, or information.

It’s all good.

Calling about a potential class action on behalf of attorneys will certainly arouse curiosity and get other attorneys to take your call. But there are other ways to get attorneys to take your call. You can conduct a “sixty second survey” for an article you’re writing, offer them a free copy of your new report, or invite them to join your new LinkedIn group. Or, you can simply call to introduce yourself and offer to buy them a cup of coffee.

Like most forms of marketing, you can make a lot of progress by doing a little bit every day. If networking with other attorneys works for your practice, call three attorneys every day and see what happens. In a month, you will have reached out to sixty new contacts. If just one sees you as worthy of referrals, at the end of the year you’ll have 12 new referral sources.

And yes, you can do the same thing with other professionals, executives, and business owners.

Marketing is simple. Call someone and see for yourself.

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Filed Under: Marketing legal services, Networking, Referral sources, Relationship marketing Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,

Success in legal marketing is yours for the asking

April 23, 2012 by
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Marketing your services is so much easier when other people help you. And help you they will. All you have to do is ask.

So ask.

Ask for referrals. Ask for introductions. Ask for advice from other attorneys. Ask your clients for information about your target market. Ask people to Like your Facebook page. Ask people to forward your newsletters and recommend your seminars. Ask clients what you can do to better to serve them and ask prospects how you can win their business.

Ask and ye shall receive. Seek and ye shall find.

Often, attorneys have trouble asking for help for themselves. They have no problem asking a judge or jury for relief for their client but when it comes to asking people to help them, they get uncomfortable. Their ego gets in the way. They think it makes them look weak. But the opposite is true. Asking for help is not a sign of weakness, it’s a sign of confidence and strength.

And people want to help you. It makes them feel good to do it. It makes them feel appreciated and important. You flatter them when you ask.

Don’t you feel good doing favors for others? You know you do. You like being asked and you like being able to help. It feels good when someone says, “thank you”. So look at asking for help as an opportunity to make others feel good.

Now, I want you to do me a favor. I want you to ask someone for help today and let me know what happens. It will make me feel good to know that my advice worked for you. So will you do me that favor? Thank you, I appreciate your help.

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Filed Under: Client loyalty, Client relations, Communication, Marketing legal services, Personal development, Relationship marketing Tagged With: , , , , ,

If I could use only ONE marketing tool

March 27, 2012 by
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I started this post intending to make the case in favor of email as my favorite marketing tool. There’s no question that it is one of the most effective ways to deliver messages to people who can hire you or refer someone who can. It’s (almost) free, almost everyone has an email address, and email is still more popular than social media.

With the click of a button, you can send out an email to hundreds or thousands of people, and almost as quickly, get orders or phone calls and appointments.

Strange that so many attorneys (most?) don’t use email in their marketing, at least not as much as they could. Or should.

You may have a list of people–clients, former clients, and business contacts–but if you’re not communicating with them on a regular basis, you’re not going to get their business. They forget about you, or they forget how to contact you, or they’re just not motivated to contact you because. . . you haven’t contacted them.

The point of having a list, indeed, of all of your marketing efforts, is to stay in touch with people. Or as I put it, “. . .to be in their minds and their mailboxes so that when they are ready to hire a lawyer, or know someone who is, there you are. . .”.  Email is one of the most effective ways to stay in touch.

So, I was going to say email is my favorite marketing tool, but that’s not quite accurate. Nope. My favorite marketing tool is. . . a sales letter.

Lawyers may not call it that. We’ll call it a newsletter or information or anything but a sales letter (because we don’t sell, right?)–but whatever you call it, and however you disguise it, if it’s designed to get someone to do something, it’s a sales letter. My favorite marketing tool.

A sales letter is words, on paper (or electrons), that communicate a message and an offer or a request. People read it and call for an appointment, Like your web page, or sign up for your seminar. You can send it by postal mail, or by messenger. Hand it to someone in person, or deliver it via fax or text message. You can post it on your blog, web page, or on Facebook.

Oh, and guess what? Every time you talk to a prospective client on the phone or in person and you tell them about your services and what you can do to help them, you’re delivering a sales letter. A spoken sales letter.

Do yourself a favor and write it down, so you can send it by email.

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Filed Under: Communication, Email, Newsletters, Online Marketing, Relationship marketing, Salesmanship, Writing Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

A stupidly simple way to get referrals

March 23, 2012 by
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So you want more referrals, eh? Okay, here are two questions you can ask people that should do the trick:

  1. “Who do you know who. . .?” (and yes, I know it’s “whom”), and
  2. “Will you introduce me?”

Yep, that simple.

Of course you have to finish the first question so that it frames the referral request properly. If your request is too broad (i.e., “. . .who might need my services”) you’re making it too hard on the person you’re asking. They can’t see, in their mind’s eye, anyone who fits that description, at least not without a lot of work on their part.

If your request is too narrow, (i.e., “. . .who owns an ios app development company and wants to file a patent claim against Apple”) you’re probably not going to get a lot of positive response.

Your work is to write a question that’s not too hot, not too cold, but just right for the person you are asking. Don’t ask them to mentally inventory everybody they know in search of someone they can refer to you. Help them narrow their focus to a handful of candidates so that they can spot someone who fits the description.

You can do the same thing to get referred to prospective referral sources instead of directly to clients: “Who do you know who is a fee-based financial planner in West LA or the South Bay?”

Even though you ask the right question, you’ll still get people who don’t know anyone they can refer, or don’t realize that they do. That’s okay. You’re follow-up question is, “Who do you know who might know someone who does. . .?”

If they don’t know a fee-based financial planner in West LA or the South Bay, they might know an accountant who does. Or a commission-based planner who does. Or a planner on the other side of town who does. Help them to help you by asking a question they can answer, and they will.

Oh, and always ask, “Who do you know,” not “Do you know anyone. . .?” The former assumes they know someone and, through the power of suggestion, makes it more likely that they will come up with a name or two. The latter begs them to say no.

Ask enough people, “Who do you know. . .” and “Will you introduce me?” and before you know it, you’ll be talking to someone who can hire you or refer you to someone who can.

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Filed Under: Referrals, Relationship marketing Tagged With: ,

To build your practice faster create a “Focus 30 List”

February 23, 2012 by
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Most attorneys know a lot of people. Hundreds, perhaps thousands of people–clients, former clients, attorneys, referral sources, prospects, friends and family, business contacts, community leaders. Your contact list is your most valuable marketing asset.

People who have inquired about your services are more likely to hire you than people who don’t know your name. People who have hired you before are likely to hire you again. People who have referred clients in the past are likely to refer in the future. The best way to grow any law practice is to stay in touch with the people who know, like, and trust you. Nurture this list and the people on it and your practice will grow.

But you can’t possibly give everyone on your list the same amount of attention. There simply isn’t time. And some people are more valuable to you than others. Your best client is obviously in a different category than someone who has never hired you. Someone who refers you two or three clients every month deserves more attention than someone who sent you one client last year.

You need a “Focus 30” list– a list of your 30 most valuable contacts.

These are your best clients and referral sources, your most promising prospects, the most influential and helpful professionals you know. Put their names on a list and carry it with you. Post it next to your computer. Keep it in front of you everywhere you go.

Why 30? Because experts tell us that’s about the maximum anyone can effectively work with at any one time. Whereas you will write and occasionally call the people on your master list, the people on your Focus 30 list get your personal time. You will talk to them every week, maybe even every day. You will meet with them every month. You give them your time and energy because they are the 30 most important people in your professional life.

Build or strengthen your relationship with your Focus 30. Call them, just to see how they’re doing. Send them business. Get to know their families, their employees, and their best contacts. Dedicate 80% of your time to your Focus 30 list, 20% to everyone else.

Your list will change over time. You will add people as they play a more prominent role in your life and remove those who drift away. Someone you thought deserved to be on the list will disappoint you. Someone who isn’t even on your radar today will emerge as a valuable ally tomorrow.

Your list may start out with only five or ten people. No hurry. Start with them.

When you get to thirty, you’ll need to pare some names to make room for others. Continually upgrade your list so that you focus on the best. And when you have 30 of the best, upgrade your list to the “best of the best”.

Eventually, you will have 30 people who send you so much business you won’t be able to handle it all.

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Filed Under: Client relations, Leverage, List building, Marketing legal services, Referrals, Relationship marketing Tagged With: , ,

How to get your clients to support your law practice

February 14, 2012 by
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My wife and I are continuing to unclutter. Yesterday she brought our daughter’s Irish Dance costumes to her old school to see if they could use them.

The school today is much smaller than it was ten years ago when my daughter attended. My wife noticed that there isn’t room for the parents to congregate inside the school like we used to do. It looked like most parents dropped off their kids.

When the school was bigger, many parents stayed for the class. We spent time together–at the school, during competitions, and eventually, outside the school envirnonment–and we got to know each other and our families. The school became a social incubator and helped foster relationships that still exist today, five or ten years after our children attended.

When we were active at the school, there were competitions and shows and we parents contributed much time and effort building sets, working lights and music, and selling tickets to the shows to our friends and neighbors. Yes, we were supporting our children, but the amount of effort we contributed would not have been anywhere near the same had our social group of parents not been so strong.

Today, I’m sure they don’t get anywhere near the amount of parent involvement we had, simply because the parents don’t know each other as well. As a result, the smaller school is more likely to stay that way.

A business can leverage their customer base by creating a social environment where their customers can build strong ties among themselves and, therefore, also with that business. A law firm can do the same thing.

Most lawyers have a one-to-one private relationship with their clients. They don’t “cross pollinate” their clientèle. Because of privacy issues this is to be expected. Most clients don’t want anyone to know they’ve hired a bankruptcy or criminal defense lawyer. But not all practices are so constricted.

A small business practice, for example, has clients who can benefit from knowing each other. They can refer business, exchange ideas, and recommend vendors. If you hold a monthly event–a mixer, a breakfast or lunch, a seminar series–where your clients regularly come together, they would build a social network of their own. Your clients would benefit and as the organizer of these events, so would you.

When you have strong relationships with your clients, they are much more likely to remain your clients. No other lawyer will get their referrals. And if you need a favor–sending traffic to your web site, promoting your seminar, or distributing your new report–your clients will help. In fact, they’ll probably be more likely to do so because of the added accountability of the social network.

If there’s any way to build a social element into your practice, I suggest you give it a try. If this isn’t appropriate for your clients, you can do the next best thing–organize a breakfast or lunch or other regular social event for your referral sources and friends of the firm.

Strong relationships with your clients and referral sources help you strengthen and grow your practice. When they have strong relationships among themselves, your growth can be accelerated.

You don’t have to be the sponsor of that group, just the organizer. And the best part is you won’t have to listen to accordion music.

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Filed Under: Client loyalty, Client relations, Relationship marketing Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Don’t read this unless you want to quickly bring in a bunch of new clients

February 10, 2012 by
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If you have a few minutes today, there’s a very good chance you can use this time to bring in more business. I’ve been preaching the value of this “technique” for many years because it is an incredibly effective way to put people in your waiting room.

I put “technique” in quotes because it’s not a technique so much as common sense. You don’t have to study or practice. You don’t need any special tools. There’s nothing to prepare. You can do it as soon as you finish reading this post.

One lawyer who did this eventually wrote to me to tell me he was getting so much new business, his secretary made him stop!

So what is this brilliantly simple way to bring in more business? Simply this: Call your clients and say hello.

Call your current clients and your former clients and tell them you are calling to say hello and see how they are doing.

That’s it.

The first thing that will happen is that your clients will be amazed and delighted that you thought enough of them to reach out and say hello (without the meter running). They will appreciate you even more than they already do.

Ask them about their family or their work or business. They will be even more impressed that you remembered something personal about them. Let them talk.

Don’t ask for anything or offer anything. Remember, you’re just calling to say hello.

Now what?

Well, your presence on the telephone will prompt your clients to think about legal issues or concerns they’ve had recently and they will ask for advice. Or, they will think about a friend from work or someone in the family with a legal issue and ask you if you can help them.

Before you know it you will be talking to people who want to hire you.

Of course, you will also be talking to people with issues you don’t handle. You will refer them to lawyers in those practice areas and score points with the client and the lawyers you refer them to.

Not everyone will have business for you today. In fact, most won’t. But in reminding them that you still help people solve legal problems, when they do need your services, or know someone who does, guess who they are going to call?

If you get voice mail, leave a message and tell them you’ll call again. Call them again in a few days at a different time.

Your clients know, like, and trust you. They hired you once and they will hire you again. They know people who need your services or who will need your services in the future, and they will be only too happy to send that business to you.

And you don’t even have to ask.

—

If you want to grow your practice even quicker, go buy The Quantum Leap  Marketing System for Attorneys. It will show you how to build a large (or larger) practice quicker than you ever thought possible.

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Filed Under: Client loyalty, Client relations, Marketing legal services, Relationship marketing Tagged With: , , , , ,

How to get more clients with joint venture marketing

February 9, 2012 by
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John Jantsch shared a great marketing idea today and he used attorneys as an example. The idea is to get together with other professionals and businesses who target the same market you do and create a content-filled blog as a resource for that target market.

So the small business attorney pairs up with an insurance broker, an expert in employee benefits, a CPA, and a marketing expert, all of whom contribute articles or blog posts speaking to the issues business owners want and need.

The site or blog will get search engine traffic, attracting prospects who will learn about the individuals who write the posts and the services they offer.

Jantsch provides recommendations for WordPress plug-ins that will help you organize and run the blog. Here’s another post I saw today that recommends 15 plug-ins for multi-author blogs.

But what if you’re not up to the task of organizing and running this little venture just now? Is there anything else you can do to utilize this idea?

Yes there is and thanks for asking.

You can organize a one time collaboration where you and other profoessionals contribute articles, posts, reports, audios, or other content. You can put that on a web site that won’t necessarily attract a lot of search engine traffic because the site wouldn’t be regularly updated, but it would be a tremendous resource for each of the contributors who send traffic to the site.

You can put the content on a cd or dvd or in an ebook and use it as a reward for opt-ins to your regular web site. Or as a gift to people who attend your seminar, webinar, or teleconference. Or as a giveaway to your clients and contacts, encouraging them to send copies to their friends and contacts.

You can also organize a live event in your local market, with half a dozen speakers, each of whom invites guests.

The value of a collaborate marketing effort like this is that each of the participants is repsonsible for creating only their article or report, but each of you benefits from the content of the others. In addition, with each of you sending visitors to the site or otherwise distributing the content, each of you will get the tacit recommendation of the other professionals, as well as exposure to their clients and prospects.

If even a simplified version of this idea seems like too much work to take on right now, find one other professional or business owner who targets your market and do something together.

Send an en email to each other’s lists, offering a free consultation or a free report. Do a guest post for each other’s blog or newsletter. Invite each other to attend a networking group you belong to and introduce each other to centers of influence you know.

Cooperative marketing is effective because it instantly exposes you to a large group of prospective clients, all of whom have the implied or explicit recommendation of a professional they know, like, and trust. It’s a great idea no matter how you go about it.

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Filed Under: Blogging, Marketing legal services, Online Marketing, Referrals, Relationship marketing, Web traffic Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
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