The shortest distance between you and new clients

October 28, 2015 by
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How many people in the world know what you do? How many clients, prospects, friends, and colleagues know the kinds of problems you solve and the services you offer?

Whatever the number, whether it’s in the hundreds or the tens of thousands, all of these people can help you build your practice.

If they can’t send you a referral right now, they can send traffic to your website, share your content, and say nice things about you on social media.

The people who know your name are the shortest distance between you and new clients.

Unlike other methods of marketing, you don’t have to do much more than keep your name in front of them.

Yes, you can teach them how to recognize your ideal client. You can provide them with content they can share. You can tell them what to say and what to do to make a referral. But most of the heavy lifting is done by simply being there, in their minds and their mailboxes, when they need your services again (a self-referral) or know someone who needs your help.

It’s so simple, and yet most attorneys don’t do it.

Most attorneys don’t stay in touch with former clients and other people they know. Or they don’t do it enough. They look for new people, in a costly and time-consuming effort to win their business.

It’s so much easier to leverage the networks of the people who already know, like, and trust you.

Build a list. Email is easy. Add a form to your website, connect an autoresponder, and offer visitors an incentive to sign up.

Tell your clients to join the list, or email them manually.

What do you send them? Honestly, it almost doesn’t matter. Send them anything that might interest them or help them in their role as a consumer or business person.

Ideas, tips, opinions. Articles, blog posts, videos. Something you create or something you find online. Send them information, links to resources, photos, and stories. Send them your favorite cookie recipe, a holiday greeting, or a review of the last movie you saw.

Let them see that you’re not just a legal technician, you are a person they might want to know better.

Stay in touch with the people who know you. It’s the shortest distance between you and new clients.

Learn how to build a list and what to send them. Get this

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Filed Under: List building, Marketing legal services, Online Marketing, Referrals

Are you getting stale?

October 23, 2015 by
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You’ve been a lawyer for more than a few years and you’re good at what you do. So good, you could do most of your job in your sleep.

You know the forms to use and the words to say. You know the best places to park at the courthouse. You know the judges and other lawyers, and they know you.

Your job has become routine. Easy. Life is good.

Don’t get too comfortable. Before you know it, some rookie lawyer will come along and eat your lunch.

They may not know what you know or be able to do what you can do, but they’re fresh and hungry. Everything is new and exciting. They’ve got energy and drive and something to prove.

And let’s not forget that they have been using computers since pre-school.

If you’re not careful, as their practice grows, you may see yours diminish.

But you can stay ahead of them by re-inventing yourself and your practice. Become a new lawyer again. Look at everything with fresh eyes.

Imagine that you have just opened your doors and you don’t have any clients. Get hustling and bring some in before the end of the month.

Take classes in your practice area and also in practice areas you know nothing about. Take classes in business, marketing, sales, writing, and speaking.

Take some cases you’ve never handled before. Find another lawyer to associate with you or mentor you.

Start over, from scratch, and build your practice again.

In the military, for a day or for a week, a unit will periodically stand down and review all of their operations. You should do the same thing. Examine all of your office management procedures and forms, look for holes that need to be patched, find expenses that can be reduced or eliminated, and processes that can be improved.

Do the same thing with your marketing. Find ways to make it better. Eliminate things that aren’t working, do more of  the things that are, and find new ways to bring in business you’ve never tried before.

Examine every piece of paper in your office and every electron in your computer. Resolve to get organized, eliminate clutter, and streamline your workflow.

And from this day forward, do something new every week. New ideas, new projects, new people, will keep you fresh and alert and sharp and open new doors for you.

Get excited about the future you are about to create and then go eat someone else’s lunch.

Get your marketing plan here

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Filed Under: Career satisfaction, Goal Setting, Increase your income, Inspiration, Law office management, Marketing legal services, Marketing Plan, Personal development, Productivity, success

How to write your first book (or your next book)

October 22, 2015 by
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Admit it, you know you’d love to write a book.

You’re smart. You know that being an author will look great on your bio. You know that a book can bring traffic to your website and prospects for your practice. You know that having a book can help you acquire new business contacts and referral sources and open doors to many other marketing opportunities.

But you haven’t written a book because you don’t know what to do and you don’t think you have the time.

So it’s on your “someday” list.

Forget that. Let’s get your book done in the next few days.

How? I gave you the answer yesterday, when I announced my latest book, “How to Build a Successful Appellate Practice.” If you read the book, you know that the quickest and easiest way to write a book is to not write one at all.

I “wrote” this book in a few hours by interviewing an expert. I asked questions, he answered, and 90% of the book was done. I added an introduction and summary, which were taken from the interview, and my bio with links to my website.

Done and done. Bada bing, bada boom.

It’s a short book, but a good book. Solid information presented in an interesting way.

And you can do the same thing. You can use the interview method to write your first book, or your next book.

Then, promote the book and let the book promote you. Tell everyone you know about your book. Post it as a pdf on your website. Give it away to clients and prospects. Your book provides them with helpful information and shows them that you know important people, reinforcing the notion that you too are important.

And, in case you haven’t figured it out, the person you interview will also promote the book. Proudly. They’ll tell everyone about it, and thus, tell everyone about you.

In “The 30 Day Referral Blitz” I told you about the many ways you can use a report to grow your practice. If you haven’t read that, you owe it to yourself to do so immediately. But as good as a report is, a book is even better.

So here’s your homework.

Call an attorney you know in another practice area, one that complements yours. If you handle personal injury, for example, call someone who does workers compensation or Social Security disability.

Then, interview each other, and turn the interviews into books. You’ll thank me later.

Get “The 30 Day Referral Blitz” here

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

How to build a successful appellate practice

October 21, 2015 by
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When I was a brand-new, wet-behind-the-ears attorney, I had a case that went up on appeal. I wrote the brief and argued it before the state appellate court. I lost, but I thoroughly enjoy the experience and remember thinking it would cool to have an appellate-only practice.

I never achieved that, but I recently interviewed an attorney who did.

Steve Emmert is a Virginia attorney who built an appellate-only practice when other lawyers told him he couldn’t. He went on to become one of the most successful appellate attorneys in the Virginia.

This morning, I published a short Kindle ebook with the complete transcript of that interview. You can download it for just .99 cents, or free if you have Kindle Unlimited.

And you should download it, even if you don’t do appeals or have no interest in doing so.

In the interview, Mr. Emmert shares advice for building a successful law practice that applies to any practice area. Go look at the sales page and you’ll see what I mean.

Please let me know that you downloaded the book, and please leave a review. And if you know any appellate lawyers or lawyers who would like to have an appellate practice, please tell them about the book.

But there’s another reason why you should grab this book. You will see how easy it is to turn an interview into an ebook, something every attorney should do.

A book like this can bring traffic to your website. It can bring you new clients and new referral sources. It can lead to new speaking and networking opportunities, and it can help you build your list.

In fact, I’m writing a book on how to that. (Stay tuned).

Get How to Build a Successful Appellate Practice

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

Don’t be an Askhole

October 20, 2015 by
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I learned a new word today: Askhole. It means, “A person who continually asks for your advice and then always does the opposite of what you told them.”

You’ve got clients like that, right? So you know how frustrating it is to give them your expert (and expensive) advice only to see them ignore it.

Even lawyers do it. In fact, lawyers probably do it more than regular folks. I’ve done hundreds of consultations with lawyers who seek out my advice, pay for it, and then, I’m pretty sure, do nothing.

Oh well. As long as their check cleared.

Here’s what’s interesting. I can almost always tell that they’re not going to follow my advice at the very moment I’m giving it to them.

They’re only half listening. They’re not asking questions or writing anything down. They’re going through the motions of getting advice but their voice tells me they aren’t going to follow it.

Why? Because they don’t want to.

They don’t want to change what they’re doing. They don’t want to hear that they’ve been doing something wrong. In fact, I suspect that many lawyers hire me not because they want to learn something but because they want me to validate what they’re currently doing.

When I don’t, they stick their fingers in their ears and say, “la la la, I can’t hear you.”

Does it bother me? Hey, I’m not their mother. I can’t make them follow my advice.

Okay, it is frustrating. But when I talk to a lawyer who “gets it,” it makes it all worthwhile.

Last week, I did a consultation with a personal injury attorney who wanted my help with his advertising and his website. The ads he’s been running for a long time aren’t doing as well as before. Within 30 seconds, I knew what the problem was and told him what to do.

Problem diagnosed. Problem solved.

I don’t know if he’ll follow all of my advice, but I’m pretty sure he’ll do what I suggested about his ad and website. I could hear it in his voice. He got it. It made sense to him. I could almost hear his palm slapping his forehead.

While there’s no guarantee that it will work, at least he’s got something to try. Which is better than being an Askhole and doing nothing.

Fix your website and make the phone ring

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Filed Under: Marketing legal services, Mentors & Coaches, Personal development

Word of mouth referrals: How to get your clients talking about you

October 19, 2015 by
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How do you get your clients talking about you? The answer is simple. Give them something to talk about.

Most of the positive word of mouth you will receive about you and your services will come from providing your clients with a great client experience. I’m not just talking about the work you do. I’m talking about the way you make your clients feel.

Appreciated. Hopeful. Protected.

The same goes for your prospects and business contacts. They talk about you, too. Their referrals count.

Make people feel so good about themselves and their decision to hire you or associate with you that they feel compelled to tell someone about you.

But don’t stop there.

Make it easy for them to talk about you and send you referrals. Equip them to do a good job of spreading the gospel.

Tell them what to say. Give them “sound bites” they can use to describe you and what you do–the problems you solve, your ideal clients, why you are the best lawyer for the job.

Give them tools they can use to show people why you’re the one to choose:

  • A great website, with lots of helpful content
  • Reports and ebooks and videos they can hand out or share online.
  • Emails they can forward; social media posts they can like and share.
  • A stack of your business cards to hand out when they meet someone who might need your help.

Then, when someone does send you referrals or traffic or mentions you on social, say thank you. send them a thank you note, and if appropriate, thank them publicly, too. Showing appreciation for what they do is the best way to show them you appreciate them, and the best way to get them to do again.

What else?

Ask for referrals. This can be as simple as saying, “Here are some of my cards. When you talk to someone who needs X, please give them a card.” It can be as simple as asking them share your post, forward your email, or allow them to invite people they know to your free webinar.

Finally, stay in touch with them. Let them know when you add something to your website. Share other people’s content you find online. Update them about your interesting new case or client.

Keep your name in front of them, reminding them that you still exist and you’re still helping people solve legal problems.

Getting word of mouth referrals is really that simple. Can you do more? Yes. But if do these things, you probably won’t have to.

Here’s everything you need to get referrals from lawyers and other professionals

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Filed Under: Marketing legal services, Referrals

Are you too good at your job?

October 16, 2015 by
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Your clients want you to solve their problems. The quicker you can do that, the better, right?

Maybe not.

If you’re too good at your work, if you finish too quickly and display an apparent lack of effort, your clients may not appreciate your superior ability and may object to the amount you charge.

Psychologist Dan Ariely tells a story about a locksmith who told him that as he got better at his job, his customers didn’t value what he was able to do.

“He was tipped better when he was an apprentice and it took him longer to pick a lock,” he said. “Now that it takes him only a moment, his customers complain that he is overcharging and they don’t tip him.”

“What this reveals is that consumers don’t value goods and services solely by their utility, benefit from the service, but also a sense of fairness relating to how much effort was exerted,” Ariely explains.

So what should you do if you’re too good at your job?

Perform some magic. A little slight of hand.

Don’t let clients know that you did the work without breaking a sweat. If you can prepare a document in 30 minutes, because you have the forms and because you’ve done it 100 times before, consider holding onto it for a few days before sending it to the client. Let them think that you worked and re-worked the document to get it just right.

Caveat number one: Don’t lie. It’s okay if they think you took three days to do it, but don’t tell them you did. Also, if you bill by the hour, obviously you shouldn’t bill for more time than you actually took. (Yet another argument in favor of jettisoning the billable hour.)

Caveat number two: Don’t overdo it. Many clients do see a benefit to your ability to get the work done quickly. In fact, quick turnaround might be a marketing point of differentiation for you. So don’t drag things out.

The best course of action is to manage your clients’ expectations. Under-promise so you can over-deliver. If you can do it in 30 minutes, promise to deliver it in a week. Then, deliver it in three or four days.

Marketing legal services is easier when you have a plan

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Filed Under: Attorneys fees, Fees and Billing, Image, Law office management, Marketing legal services, Salesmanship

Stop trying to make everyone like you

October 15, 2015 by
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Believe it or not, some people don’t like me. Okay, maybe it’s not me they don’t like, they don’t like my writing.

They think my ideas “aren’t for them”. My writing style makes them uncomfortable. They don’t think I understand them or can help them.

You know what? I don’t care.

For one thing, I never hear from them. They quietly leave my email list or stop visiting my blog. They’re gone, like a fart in the wind, and will probably never return.

The other reason I don’t care is that they aren’t my target market. I don’t write to them, or for them. If they don’t “grok” me, they probably don’t trust me and my ideas and thus they aren’t going to hire me or recommend me.

If I cared about what they thought and tried to appeal to them, I would have to water down my style or homogenize my ideas. If I did that, I would be doing a disservice to the ones who do like me: my prospects and clients.

So, I ignore them and continue to do my thang. And the more I do that, the more I attract people who like what I say because they know I’m talking to them.

One of the reasons I pound on the idea of targeting niche markets instead of marketing to “everyone” is that it allows you to connect with the people in that niche on a deeper level. By your examples and stories and yes, even your style of writing, they think, “he gets me”. That synergy leads to more clients, more referrals, and more positive word of mouth.

That doesn’t happen when you try to please everyone.

Seth Godin put it this way recently:

When we hold back and dumb down, we are hurting the people who need to hear from us, often in a vain attempt to satisfy a few people who might never choose to actually listen.

It’s quite okay to say, “it’s not for you.”

Write to the people who get you. Ignore the ones who don’t.

Marketing is easier when you know The Formula

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Filed Under: Client loyalty, Communication, Marketing legal services, Presentations, Public Speaking, Referrals, Writing

Don’t say thank you unless you mean it

October 14, 2015 by
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I’m on an email list. The owner of the list is a successful entrepreneur who offers his own products and other products for which he is a commissioned affiliate.

Nothing wrong with that. But like many marketers, the only emails he sends me are sales pitches. Buy this, watch this video (and then buy this), last chance to buy this, and so on.

Again, nothing wrong with sales pitches. Sales make the world go round. The problem is that he never sends me anything else.

No information I could use in my business. No valuable content. No ideas. Not even anything interesting to read that might make a pleasant diversion.

Just pitches.

As a result, he’s always just a hair away from losing my subscription.

If he sent educational information in addition to the pitches, he would sell more products, and not just because more people would stay on his list.

More people would read his emails, and look forward to them, because they know they’re going to read something valuable or interesting. Now, I’m guessing that most people delete most of his emails, as I do.

More people would also trust his recommendations because he wouldn’t simply be the deliverer of advertising material, he would be a mentor or adviser.

Why don’t I leave his list? Because occasionally he recommends something that catches my eye and I do go and look at it. That may change, however, the next time I do an email subscription purge, or I’m in a bad mood.

One more thing. At the end of every email, before his signature, he closes by saying, “As always, thanks for supporting our site!”

Ugh.

What’s wrong with that? Isn’t he just being polite?

Well, when you say thank you to everyone every time you write to them, it makes “thank you” meaningless. It’s a throwaway line, a marketing gimmick, not a sincere expression of gratitude.

Say thanks when I buy something. Say thanks when I pay you a compliment or do something for you. Say thanks when you appreciate something I’ve done, and show me that you mean it.

Here’s another thing he doesn’t get. If I buy something from him, I am not doing it to support his site. I’m doing it because I see value in what’s being offered. Nothing more, nothing less. Like any consumer, I do what’s best for me and mine. I care about us, not you.

But here’s where it gets interesting.

If he was sending me valuable content instead of nothing but pitches, I would be grateful to him for that. If I was also interested in the product being offered, I would probably buy it from him instead of anyone else. (I’m on a lot of lists in this niche). I would “support” him because I appreciated the benefits I was getting from his content.

It works the same way for marketing legal services.

When you offer the same services as other lawyers, more clients will choose you if you give them value, not just sales pitches.

How to bring in more client via email: Click here

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Filed Under: Email, Marketing legal services, Newsletters, Online Marketing

The one thing you need to do to build a successful law practice

October 7, 2015 by
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Do you remember the Billy Crystal movie, “City Slickers”? There is a scene where Jack Palance’s character, Curly, is about to tell Mitch (Crystal) the secret to life? “There’s just ONE thing,” Curly says, holding up one finger. All eyes are fixed on Palance. What will he say? What is the “one thing”?

Curly never does answer. When I saw the scene, I thought he would say, “That’s what you have to figure out”. That’s your quest. Figure out the one thing and everything else will take care of itself.

I don’t know if that’s what he meant, but it makes me wonder, is there “one thing” for building a successful law practice? One thing that can take a lawyer from where they are to where they want to be?

Yes there is. For most lawyers in private practice, the one thing that would make all the difference is getting more clients.

Getting better clients is important, of course, and should be on every lawyer’s to-do list. But for both short term and long term success, getting more clients is the one thing that changes everything.

More clients means more money. More money allows you to improve your lifestyle. More money means you are able to help more people and leave the world a better place.

Yes or yes?

Okay, so more clients is the main ingredient. With a side dish of better clients. The next question, of course, is what’s the one thing about getting more clients?

You know the answer to that, amigo. It’s marketing. That’s how we get clients, after all.

But marketing is big and scary. There are too many variables. I don’t know what to do. Tell me, is there “one thing” about marketing?

Hold on, now, you want me to sort through everything there is to know about marketing professional services and tell you the “one thing”?

Okay, I will.

It’s referrals. Get referrals right and you may not have to do much of anything else.

Referrals have always been the number one way clients find attorneys and it still is today. The Internet is important, vital even for many types of practice, but it’s number two on the list.

Okay, now we’re getting somewhere. To build a successful law practice, referrals are king. But. . . but. . . what’s the “one thing” about getting referrals?

You ask a lot of questions, Chachi. No worries. That’s what I’m here for.

Anyway, whether it’s referrals from clients, other professionals, or anyone else, the one thing, the Holy Grail about getting referrals is. . . delivering value.

Not just doing good work and treating people with respect. That’s expected. That’s the standard of care. Every lawyer should do that, and most lawyers do. No, if you want to get more referrals and stand out from the crowd, you have to do what most lawyers don’t do.

You have to do more than do your job.

The lawyers who get the most referrals are the lawyers who do things for their clients and contacts that transcend their work and their professional relationships. They help them, unselfishly, without being asked and without expecting anything in return.

Yes, the golden rule.

There, I said it. Call me a sentimental fool, but there you go. Help others, give to others, treat others the way you would like to be treated.

What’s the “one thing” when it comes to the golden rule?

That’s what you have to figure out.

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Filed Under: Client relations, Increase your income, Marketing legal services, Referrals, success
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