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Social media marketing for attorneys in a nutshell

August 11, 2011 by
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This morning, I was reading an interview with Phil Libin, CEO of Evernote, which as you know is my favorite application. I’m not the only one who loves Evernote; they’re adding one million users a month, without advertising.

The company’s growth comes in large part from its enthusiastic user-base sharing their love of the product with their friends and colleagues. Libin said,

“The job of getting someone who’s [sic] never heard of Evernote to use it for the first time is the job of our existing users. The job of our marketing department is to help our existing users do that job.”

He’s talking about social media marketing, of course, also known as referrals.

It struck me that this is the essence of social media marketing for attorneys. Social media platforms are just another conduit for customers (clients) to recommend products (services) to others. Obvious? Sure. Then why do so few get the referrals they want?

The key to success in social media isn’t how many likes or followers or friends one has. Those numbers are important, of course, but far more important is “passion”.

I didn’t just recommend Evernote, I raved about it. Well, my version of raving. I wasn’t over the top, mad with emotion (the California Bar frowns on that, I think) but I hope you could hear the enthusiasm in my voice, my love for a product that has truly changed my life.

I don’t know how many readers of this blog or my social media posts and tweets will go to the Evernote web site and try it but I do know that Evernote doesn’t pay me a nickel for sending them. Social media marketing works and it’s free.

There’s another point I want to make but Libin made it for me:

“. . .we started measuring stuff and found that users who had been referred to Evernote by a friend were much more valuable to us than users who had stumbled across us by themselves. . . .”

Bingo.

Referred clients are better clients. They are pre-sold on you, more likely to pay their bills on time, and less likely to complain about something you did or did not do. Best of all, referred clients are themselves more likely to refer other clients.

If you want more referrals, do something your clients can get passionate about.

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Filed Under: Referrals, Social media, Social media marketing Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Do lawyers need a blog?

January 10, 2011 by
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The Attorney Marketing Center web site launched in 1998 and transitioned to a blog in 2007. At that time, I wrote an article detailing the change, David’s Website Diary, and promised updates. To be honest, I forgot about the article and didn’t update it until today.

Sorry, but you didn’t miss much.

From a technological standpoint, not much has changed since I switched to the blog format. I’ve changed the color and layout and added some new plug-ins, mostly having to do with social media integration, but not much else.

My site has grown because I focused on creating content, not on the latest bells and whistles. Content creates value for visitors, allows you to demonstrate your expertise, and brings traffic from search engines and from word of mouth. And so the number of subscribers to my newsletter has grown and the number of blog subscribers has grown and I have continued to sell products and services.

Do you need a blog? If you want to get more clients online I think you do.

A blog has several advantages over a static web site. As you update your content, search engines are notified and they bring visitors. As those visitors see the solutions you provide, they may (a) take the next step toward hiring you, (b) connect with you by subscribing to your newsletter or your blog feed or commenting on your posts, or (c) tell others about you via social media.

Your blog allows prospects and referral sources to see you “in action”. Your content is not just puffery about how great you are it is an exemplar of your abilities. As visitors become familiar with your style and hear your “voice,” as they get to know and trust you, your preeminence grows, your traffic grows, and your client base grows.

You can set up a blog yourself  in about an hour. WordPress makes is easy. There are many free and inexpensive “getting stated” videos available and you can hire people inexpensively to do it for you. Contact me if you would like some referrals.

Once you have your own blog, you control it; you don’t have to wait for tech support to do updates for you, you can do them yourself. It’s as quick and simple as using a web browser. And, other than paying for hosting (under $10/month), it’s free.

What about content–do you have enough to say? Trust me, you have enough. There is an endless amount of material you can supply. Everything from posts about the law and procedure in your practice areas, success stories you helped created, general business (or consumer) advice, guest posts from experts (referral sources) in allied fields, and much more. A post can be as short as a few paragraphs and as simple as you commenting on something you found on another web site or blog or in the news. And you can outsource content creation, too.

A blog may seem to be a big commitment but think of it as the front door to your online office. You won’t be there 24/7 but your presence will be. If you write an offline newsletter, publish articles, or do any public speaking or networking, you are already doing the things that are done online through a blog.

If you have a web site, you have something you can point to and that’s good. But you have to do the pointing. If you want free traffic, you need a blog.

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Filed Under: Blogging, Communication, Email, List building, Newsletters, Online Marketing, Social media, Social media marketing, Technology, Web traffic Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Lawyers: How to write emails that get results

December 13, 2010 by
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In my previous post I talked about email mistakes to avoid. Today, I want to share some basic but nevertheless vital ideas for writing emails that get opened, get read, and get results.

WRITE AN EFFECTIVE SUBJECT LINE

Your email may be powerful and persuasive but if people don’t open it, they won’t read it. The key to getting your emails opened is your subject. It is the “headline” for your email message. It has to stop the reader who is skimming his email in box and get them to click. The more effective your subject, the more often this will occur. Also, an effective subject “pre-sells” the message contained in the body of your email, making it that much more likely that the recipient will respond to your request.

  • Be specific. Effective subjects are clear and precise. They tell the reader what your message is about.
  • Include a benefit. What will the reader gain (or avoid) by reading your email? Why should they read your message?
  • Use their name. Although using the recipient’s name in the subject is overdone in some circles, it is still an effective way to get their attention. It can also convey urgency, e.g., “John, please call me as soon as you read this”.
  • Include key words. Specific nouns and active verbs communicate. Project-specific key words will also get attention.
  • Include due dates. If you have a time-oriented offer or request, consider putting the date in the subject.
  • Front load. Most email programs cut off the end of lengthy subjects so put the most important parts up front.

GET TO THE POINT

The purpose of the subject (headline) is to get readers to open the email. The purpose of the first sentence is to get them to read the second sentence. And so on. You’ve got their attention but it is oh so easy to lose it, so say what you have to say–immediately.

Put the most important things up front: due dates, requests for information, requests for action. If you bury these, they may never been seen (or seen too late). Telegraph your message so the reader cannot possibly miss it.

How long should an email be? Long enough to get the job done and no longer. Make it as short as possible but don’t worry if your message is lengthy. In a particularly lengthy message, you can always link to additional information (or offer to send it).

CLOSE FOR ACTION

  • Summarize. There’s a communication formula that works in writing and speaking. (1) Tell them what you’re going to tell them. (2) Tell them. (3) tell them what you told them. This may not be necessary in a short email but it can prove helpful to you and your reader in a longer message.
  • Tell them what to do. Repeat your request (or offer) at the end of the message and tell them what to do. Do you want them to call? Email? Go? Be specific; you’ll get more people doing what you want them to do when you tell them precisely what to do.
  • Tell them why. Studies show that when you give a person a reason they are more likely to comply with a request. This should obviously be a part of the body of your email but it’s a good idea to repeat it in your close.
  • Give them ways to contact you. Don’t assume they know your phone number or even your email address. (You might want a reply to a different email.) Provide full contact information in your signature to make it easy for them to contact you or otherwise connect with you through a web site or social media.

Writing effective emails will save you time and get you better results. Your recipients will also save time and be more inclined to not only read your messages but act on them.

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Filed Under: Communication, Copywriting, Email, Law office management, Productivity, Writing Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

What is the key to success?

February 15, 2008 by
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Bill Cosby is purported to have said, ""I don’t know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody." Have you found that to be true? I have. I’ll give you a recent example.

I just launched a new website, PassiveIncomeForLawyers.com. Passive income is a hot topic and in a very short period of time, the site got a large number of visits and subscribers. Several attorneys have already joined me in the program. I’ve heard from many others who have said nice things about the program itself and about the way it is presented. The feedback has been very positive. Of course you usually don’t hear from people who don’t like something. They usually just quietly go away. But I did get the following email from one attorney:

"Please take me off of your miserable site. At first I thought you were legitimated, now we are getting the mass marketing crap. Passive income my ass! You wouldn’t know passive income if it hit you in the face. And what’s with the long winded motley fool type advertising site. Un professional. Get lost."

I didn’t reply, I simply removed him from the subscription list, and deleted his email. But then I got to thinking about what could be learned from his response and I retrieved the email. After all, this is not just anybody; according to his email signature, this individual is a partner in a firm of at least five lawyers. I presume he is influential. He may or may not be interested in something I offer, but I’d like to think he would reject the offer, not the person (me). But not only is he not a fan, he was so angry, he took the time to embarrass himself with this email.

From a marketing perspective, what should I do? He was turned off (to say the least) by the sales-y copy on my web page, although I have to wonder why he filled out the form to subscribe if he was so offended. Should I assume that others would be, too, and change it? Should I try to please the ones who don’t like what he calls "long winded motley fool type advertising," even though most people find it acceptable and the site is successful? The Motley Fool folks seem to be doing okay.

But if I create something that is less of what he does not like and it dramatically reduces the number of subscribers, I haven’t done myself any good, have I? So no, I shouldn’t try to please everyone. That truly is a formula for failure, and it’s an important marketing lesson.

Marketing is about metrics. You do something, measure the results, and compare those results to something else. It’s called testing, and it’s crucial to the success and profitability of any marketing campaign. So, I will create other versions of the web page and compare the results to the ones produced by the current one. Whichever version produces the highest percentage of conversions (subscribers) will become the "control," against which I will continue to test, seeking to best that control. But one does this to improve results, not in an effort to please anyone, let alone everyone.

You can’t please everyone anyway, and you’ll only hurt yourself if you try. So, as you design your marketing messages, intelligently consider the ethical standards of your bar association and your own sense of propriety, and perhaps the concerns of your spouse or partners, but beyond that, do what works best, and what works best is what brings in the most results.

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Filed Under: Copywriting, List building, Marketing legal services, Online Marketing, Wealth, Web traffic, Writing Tagged With:

What is your highest and best use?

November 5, 2007 by
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As a lawyer, you do a lot of activities throughout the week, but what do you do best?

Take the time to answer this question because if you want to have the maximum success of which you are capable, what you do best is what you should do most of the time.

You may be good at a lot of things but you will achieve
more by becoming BRILLIANT at just a few.

Society pays top dollar for mastery. Your strategy should be to focus on your strengths and make them even stronger. Too often, we focus on improving our weaknesses. We realize that we don’t know how to build a web site, for example, and so we set out to learn. But learning how to build a web site is not going to make us more valuable to our clients. It is not the “highest and best use” of our time.

The 80/20 princple says that the majority of our results, probably in the neighborhood of 80%, come from a minority of our efforts (probably 20%). Conversely, only 20% of our results are derived from 80% of our activities. We can multiply our effectiveness, therefore, by spending more time on those high payoff, 20% activities that bring 80% of our results.

What are your 20% activities? What do you do best? What is it that if you could only do more of, it would add tremendous value to your practice? What brings you more income? What makes you more valuable to your clients? More attractive to referral sources?

When I set out to answer this question myself, I did an exercise that was a real eye-opener.The idea is to track all of your activities for a full week (in a spiral notebook or legal pad), noting everything you do, minute by minute, from the time you wake up to the time you go to bed. (If you want, you can limit this exercise to just your work hours, but if you’re like me, the line between work time and personal time is usually blurry.) Record everything you do, even if it takes just a minute or two, and how much time you spend doing it.

When you’re done, you should have a list of at least 50 activities you do throughout the week and the amount of time spent on each. Now, go through the list and put a star next to those things you believe are high payoff activities. They produce work product, generate revenue, or otherwise have a material role in your job description.

Now comes the hard part. Look again at the starred list and identify the THREE most important activities you do, the ones that give you the very highest payoff. What three things constitue "20% activities that produce 80% of results"? What if you come up with five things, or seven, or ten? Keep looking. Most of the time, you will be able to zero in on three things that contribute 80% of your results. You may have to combine items or describe them differently, but keep looking until you find those three.

The next step is to add up the amount of time you spent on these three activities. Based on the number of hours you work each week, what percentage of your time was spent on these three activities?

If you’re like most people, you probably spend less than 30% of your time on high payoff activities. Imagine what would happen if you could double the time you spend on those activities.

YOUR RESULTS WOULD GO UP 160%!

That’s because you would be investing two blocks of time on activities that now produce 80% of your results, so you would get two blocks of 80% results. A corollary is that by spending more time on high payoff activities, you would get more accomplished in less time. If you are satisfied with the results you are getting but want to cut your work hours, this is the way.

Where do you find the time to do more high payoff activities? By eliminating as much of your low payoff activities as possible. Look at your list. What can you eliminate completely? Be ruthless. Remember, every hour of time you reclaim will be worth much more than an hour to you when you reinvest it in high payoff activities.

Next, for anything on the list that cannot be eliminated completely, look for ways to delegate or outsource them.

Your objective is to do only what you do best and delegate the rest.

You will find a number of activities that aren’t high payoff (your list of three) but cannot be eliminated or delegated. You are the one who must do them. First ask, "Is that really true?" We often fool ourselves into believing that nobody can do what we do, when in fact, there are many who can do it as well, or almost as well, and sometimes, better! Again, if it’s not one of your high payoff activities, find someone else to do it.

For those things that you and only you can do do, look for ways to do them less often. Do you really have to do them every week? And, what can you do more quickly? Are their any tools you could use? Can you get some training on how to do it more efficiently?

Finally, give yourself permission to relinquish perfectionism. Some things just aren’t as important as others, and while we still need to do them, "good enough" might just be good enough.

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Filed Under: Productivity, Time Management Tagged With:

“The 30-second rule”: more clients and better verdicts?

October 22, 2007 by
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In a recent post, How to make people like you, I said that a positive attitude is a key to getting people to like you, especially when dealing with people facing stressful situations. Being liked may not be first on the list of traits you associate with success in the legal field, but countless studies demonstrate that people prefer to do business with people they know, like, and trust. All things being equal, clients will choose you and referral sources will refer to you, because they like you.

Let’s face it, even litigators benefit when juries, judges, adjusters, and opposing counsel like them.

Books like The Likeability Factor: How to Boost Your L-Factor and Achieve Your Life’s Dreams by Tim Sanders and 25 Ways to Win With People:How to Make Others Feel Like a Million Bucks by John C. Maxwell and Les Parrott substantiate this and offer specific strategies for achieving greater likability.

Maxwell and Parrott say the way to make people like you is to make them feel good about themselves when they are with you. One way to do that is with something Maxwell calls, "The 30-Second Rule: within the first thirty seconds of a conversation, say something encouraging to a person."

Maxwell learned this from his father who taught him that when you make contact with people, instead of focusing on yourself, search for ways to make them look good. It could be saying thank you for something they have done for you or someone you know. You might praise them on an accomplishment, or offer a word of encouragement as they work towards a goal. Or you might simply compliment their appearance.

Maxwell encourages us to ask ourselves, "What positive, enouraging thing can I say to each person I will see today?"

With whom is your next appointment? Who will you be speaking with later today? Think about what you could say to them that will make them feel good about themselves, and say it.

This may feel uncomfortable, at first, but give it a try. What might surprise you is how good you feel making others feel good about themselves.

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Filed Under: Book review, Client relations, Image, Relationship marketing Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Free advice that can make you millions

October 10, 2007 by
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One of the best ways to get from where you are to where you want to go is getting help from someone who has done what you want to do. Make a list of areas you would like help with or areas where you would like to grow. Three key areas for lawyers in private practice would be

  • Substantive practice areas
  • Marketing
  • Administration/management

Specific areas you might want to key on might be

  • Technology/internet
  • Employee relations
  • Taxes/record keeping
  • Risk management/insurance
  • Retirement planning/investments

And so on.

Of course you can always hire experts to consult and advise you in these areas, and you might. But why not find lawyers (or other professionals) who have had success in these areas and ask them to be your mentor?

Mentors help you see what’s possible by serving as a role model. They can keep you from going off course by providing feedback about your ideas. And they can open doors for you to opportunities, introductions to vendors, prospective clients and referral sources. The right mentors can spare you years of hardship and, literally, make you rich.

Once you have identified a list of areas you would like to be mentored in, start asking everyone you know for recommendations and referrals to experts in those areas. “Who do you know who is a great networker?” “Do you know any lawyers who know a lot about web sites?” “Who is the best construction litigation attorney you know?”

Next, make a list of specific points you’d like to cover in your first conversation, such as why you’d like them to mentor you and what kind of help you might be looking for.

Successful people like to share what they have learned. Properly approached, you’ll find any number of individuals willing to share a few minutes of their time with you each month.

Here’s an approach you can take:

“Hello, Mr. Jones, my name is Robert Lawyer. We haven’t met and I know you’re a busy man, so I’ll be brief. I’m a sole practictioner in the area of estate planning. I know you’ve built a very successful estate practice over the last twenty-five years. I’ve been practicing for four years now and I’m ready to take things to a higher level and I would appreciate it if you would consider being my mentor. All that would mean is spending ten minutes with me on the phone once a month, so I could ask you a few questions. I’d really appreciate it. Would you be open to that?”

Be prepared to give your mentors something in return. At the very least, give them feedback on how their advice has worked out for you. Look for information and resources that can benefit them and share it with them.

Eventually, find others whom you can mentor. There’s no better way to pay tribute to your mentors than to follow in their footsteps.

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Filed Under: Law office management, Marketing legal services, Mentors & Coaches, Networking, Productivity, Referral sources Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

David’s web site diary

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My First Week as a Blogger

I launched The Attorney Marketing Center web site in 1998. It was crude (I made it myself with Front Page and zero technical skills) and while many people told me they liked the site, I’m sure it was the content they appreciated.

I re-launched The Attorney Marketing Center on August 27, 2007. I choose a blog format because it makes it easy for visitors to navigate and easy for me to update. It also makes it much more likely to get search engine traffic than a static web site.

If you were familiar with the original version of this web site, you’ll notice things are still simple and content-oriented. My original site had no graphics, other than a logo I had made for $25 at www.gotlogos.com. I’m re-using it here, and it works, but I may replace it with something more dramatic. (What do you think?) [update–no longer using that logo but I have had other logs made by that company; same low price]. It’s the content that’s important to me, and, I presume, to you. Visuals are good if they contribute something to the message, and I will add them if appropriate. Pictures, audio, video–it’s incredibly easy to update a blog.

Prior to the re-launch, I had spent a couple of weeks poking around other sites looking for ideas on format, content, and options. I wanted to know what other bloggers were doing (and why), and I wanted to learn how to promote the web site once it was finished.

I had already decided on using WordPress as a platform, since I had used their free, hosted version for a private blog I had created for communicating with business partners in another venture. You can go to WordPress.com and have a blog up and running a minutes, but I wanted the flexibility of “self-hosting” the site and since I already had a web site, it made sense to simply convert it to a blog.

I had watched a free video tutorial [update: the original video is now outdated] and had my web host install WordPress on my site. Although the tutorial was very well done, I thought I needed a bit more help getting things up and running and I went looking to see if there was anything out there that could help me.

I finally settled on a software product a lot of pros use to create WordPress blogs. It allows you to create more functional, easier to use blogs. I also liked that it creates “search-engine-optimized” blogs. Free search engine traffic is better than paid search engine traffic! I downloaded the free version of the software and started playing with it. The next day, I bought the “pro” version, and I’m glad I did. I’ll post a full review in the near future, but you can read about the features of the paid version here.

Once the software was installed, here’s what I did:

  • I already had a lot of content, and I began posting it. With each page or post, the software pings the search engines and blog directories automatically, and I immediately started getting traffic to the site.
  • I set up (free) accounts with Feedburner and Google Analytics (which now owns Feedburner), to manage feed delivery and stats.
  • I found a blog I liked and used the layout of its front page as a model. (It’s a very popular, non-legal site; see if you can figure out which one it is!)
  • I started making lists of other law-related blogs.
  • I researched blog directories where I could submit the “feed” to my blog, and started doing so.
  • I looked at various advertising options. At some point, I will test these (and report my results).[Update: I’ve done a little pay-per-click advertising on google, but this is not a primary focus.]
  • I set up “re-directs” from my old web pages to their corresponding pages on the new blog.
  • I re-named the newsletter to reflect its expanded scope and set up my email service with the new name and a new welcome email.

This week, the second week, I have continued to post articles, in preparation for my Grand Re-Opening next week.

Here’s what I have planned for next week:

  1. Submit the site to search engines and additional blog directories
  2. Send out a press release, announcing the Re-Opening
  3. Email my newsletter list, telling them about the new site and re-named newsletter, inviting them to visit, comment, and register for the RSS feed.
  4. Contact other bloggers: (a) link to their blogs, and (b) invite them to come take a look at mine.
  5. Continuing posting.

I will continue to share my experiences, but I can tell you this right now: If you would like to get more clients through the Internet, a blog is a great way to do that. It takes a little effort to set it up, but once you have, an hour or two a week is all you need to keep things going.

Here are a few resources to get you started:

  • If you don’t have one, start with a domain name.
  • If you’re looking for something quick and simple, check out wordpress.com. [Update: You can get set up in a few minutes, learn about wordpress, and get comfortable with the process. However, for a more flexible solution, use wordpress.org and your own hosting.]
  • If you’re ready for something more advanced, start with a web hosting account–this one is recommended.
  • And, once again, here’s the software I used to set up this blog. [Update: There are thousands of free wordpress themes available and many other paid themes, too.]
  • If you have any questions about starting your own blog, or suggestions for new bloggers who might be reading this, please let me know by commenting below or by contacting me directly.

I’ll update this page as things progress.

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How to get your clients to pay you

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“How do I get my clients to pay my bill?”

I was asked this question recently, and in thinking about the answer I was reminded of my college days where I played a lot of poker. In stud poker, some cards are displayed up, some down or in your hand. These are your “hole” cards, and no one sees your hole cards until the end of the betting.

One guy we played with regularly won just about every time he played. When the betting was over and it was time to show our hole cards, he almost always had the cards he needed to win. Usually, it was an ace or a “bug” (a joker, which was wild), and it was uncanny the way he always seemed to have the best cards.

How could anyone be so lucky?

I finally found out how he did it, and it had nothing to do with luck. And no, he wasn’t cheating. The reason he almost always had the winning hole cards was simple: if he wasn’t dealt good hole cards from the beginning, he didn’t play the hand. He folded and waited until he was dealt good hole cards and then he played that hand.

The rest of us played almost every hand, hoping we would draw the cards we needed to win, but this guy was smart. He only played when the odds were in his favor (save for the occasional bluff.)

Now with clients, it’s very much the same. If you want to increase your chances of “winning,” that is, getting your invoices paid, doesn’t it make sense to only work with clients who will pay their bills? Instead of taking on every client and hoping they’ll pay, only take on clients who are “winners” from the opening deal. Here are some strategies for picking winners and otherwise making sure you are paid:

** Raise your rates. This will weed out the marginal, price-sensitive clients, and leave you with clients who will pay your bill because they can afford to.

** Get bigger retainers up front. Ideally, you will estimate what the entire matter will cost and get all (or most) of it in advance. Criminal defense lawyers demand payment in full in advance. If the client can’t pay, they don’t take the case. Why can’t you do the same?

If you can’t get 100% up front, get as much as you can in advance and require that the client replenish the retainer before it is exhausted. That way, you either have enough “in trust” to bill against, or you’ll have enough advance warning about the client’s willingness and ability to pay so that you can take steps before they owe you money.

** Get security. If it’s a sizeable retainer, get them to give you a trust deed on their home, or a security interest in their investments.

** Estimate higher. Don’t low-ball what the matter will cost, give them an accurate-to-slightly inflated estimate of the total cost, and help them avoid unpleasant surprises. Your clients will be more apt to pay bills that come in for less than what they expected, more likely to resent a bill that comes in higher.

** Take credit cards. The client can then slow-pay his bank instead of you. Seriously, credit cards give your clients more options and ultimately return more to you than they cost.

** Ask them, up front, HOW they will pay you. Will they pay you from their salary or business, from savings, borrowing, or what? If what they say doesn’t seem possible to you based on what you know about them, talk it out before you agree to do the work.

** Get their commitment. When you take on a new client, discuss your billing practices and get them to acknowledge that they understand that you won’t work without being paid. Ask for their commitment – their promise – to keep their account current, and tell them you are counting on them. (A little guilt goes a long way.)

** Bill immediately. It’s better to send small invoices, frequently, than larger invoices from time to time. Bill no less frequently than once a month.

** Institute a “discount” system. Some lawyers charge interest on the unpaid balance of outstanding invoices, and the interest penalty can be an effective motivator to pay on time. Instead of a penalty for not paying on time, however, you might offer a “reward” to those who do pay on time.

You could say that all invoices are mailed on the 28th of the month and due by the fifth of the following month. If payment is received or postmarked by the fifth, the client can take a 2% discount. After that date, they must pay the bill in full.

A positive reward is usually a better stimulus than a negative penalty. If the client doesn’t make it, he won’t resent you like he might with the imposition of an interest penalty.

** Set up a collection policy and stick with it. A late notice must be sent, a second notice should be sterner, and then there should be phone call. The squeaky wheel does get the grease.

** Make someone else the bad guy. You should not be the one who calls to collect. Have a bookkeeper, administrator, or secretary make the call. Your doctor doesn’t call you when you’re late paying a bill, and you shouldn’t call your clients. Keep your distance;  you’ll have to face these people again.

** Be ruthless. If you’ve sent notices and tried to work with the client and the bill remains unpaid, it’s time to ask them to get another lawyer. Be prepared to file a motion to be relieved as counsel. (I suggest you have this prepared in advance, leaving only the declaration.)

** Be flexible. Remember, collection is just as unpleasant for the client as it is for you. You don’t want to collect a bill and lose the client if that client has otherwise been good at paying and has temporarily fallen behind.

** Put things in perspective. Unpaid invoices are something every lawyer faces. See them for what they are, a cost of doing business. Write them off and move on. If you can keep them to a minimum (say 2%), you’re doing just fine and shouldn’t sweat the pennies in the pursuit of the dimes and quarters.

Another attorney asks whether he should negotiate fees. It seems a potential client has approached him and told him that an attorney (a competitor) has agreed to provide the same services for less. The would-be client wanted to know if he would match this.

The short answer is “no”. Here’s why:

1.     He’ll come back and say that Attorney X has agreed to an even lower fee and ask you to match that.

2.     If he gets a good deal from you, he’ll tell others that if they haggle, you’ll give them a lower “price.”

3.     If he hires you in the future, he will expect you to give him reduced fees.

4.     Reducing your fees makes you appear “hungry” for business and willing to do anything to get it. This is not a strong position for anyone in business, but especially for a professional.

Tell this person that you appreciate his interest in your services but that you have set fees and you have never discounted them for anyone. Explain that the reason you have a specific fee structure and stick to it is because of your fabulous customer service and dedication to making sure everything is done correctly the first time so that your clients don’t have to worry if they are protected or not. Say that while you may not be the cheapest, you are definitely the best, and that like buying clothing or furniture or cars, when you pay for quality you get quality.

Remind him that when someone lowers their fees, they often cut corners to make up the difference. You don’t reduce your fees because you don’t believe in cutting corners or shortchanging in some areas to make up for the financial difference.

Finally, rather than reduce your fees for a given engagement, offer a less-expensive partial solution instead. Tell the client that for the amount of money they are proposing to pay, you cannot do what was originally comtemplated but you can do [whatever you can do]. No, it might not be everything they need but it might allow them to save face and go ahead and hire you. 

Never cut your "price". Offer a less expensive partial solution instead.

 

 

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