How to network without leaving your office

February 28, 2012 by
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No, I’m not talking about social media although you can use that as a starting point. I’m talking about the phone. Pick up the phone and call someone you might like to know.

It doesn’t have to be a prospective client. In fact, for most attorneys it probably shouldn’t be. Call someone who works in the market you are targeting, someone who sells to, advises, or is otherwise influential in that market. It could be another professional, someone who owns or manages a business, a blogger, or the head of an association. Anyone who (a) knows people who might (one day) need your services, or (b) knows people who might know those people.

What do you say? It almost doesn’t matter. Just call and reach out to them. Don’t ask for business or talk about yourself (other than introducing yourself), talk about them. After you introduce yourself, tell them you called to. . .

  • See if you could interview them for your blog or newsletter
  • Ask them to participate in a 90 second survey for an article you’re writing
  • Ask for their take on an article you read in one of their industry’s journals
  • Offer to send them a report, ebook, article reprint
  • Invite them to coffee
  • Invite them to your seminar/webinar/event
  • Invite them to be your guest at your networking group’s next meeting
  • Compliment their web site/ad/brochure
  • Tell them you have a mutual contact

Just get the conversation started. Then ask about them their business. Find out what they do and how they do it. What are they looking for? What can you do to help?

Of course you know they will ask you about your practice. Tell them briefly and change the subject back to them.

Afterwards, send them an email or better yet a hand written note and tell them you enjoyed the conversation. Follow up with the next logical step or if there isn’t one, just stay in touch. If you can, send them a referral. Send another article they might find helpful. Calendar a few weeks or a month or two and call again.

Networking is a courtship. You go on a date and if you like each other you go out again. If things go well, you get engaged. That’s when referrals, joint ventures, and other good things happen.

Most attorneys never do this. They let their egos get in the way or they don’t think it will do any good. That’s sad. There are people out there who would love to meet you but they aren’t going to call you. Go ahead, call someone today. Introduce yourself and see if they want to date.

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

The two elements of productivity (and why you need both)

November 29, 2011 by
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In his excellent article, “27 Productivity Killers: Why Nothing Ever Gets Done!” author Matt Tanguay presents a laundry list of reasons for failed productivity.

He begins with a “top level” view:

  • You have too much on your plate. Whether you don’t want to say no, you don’t know how or you can’t, you end up having too much to do.
  • The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. Your body has needs. You need to give it the proper food, exercise and time off to stay optimally healthy.
  • The flesh is willing, but the spirit is weak. Your attitude is greatly affected by external factors such as your relationships, your finances and the kind of work you’re doing.
  • There’s always tomorrow. Procrastination is caused by obstacles and friction. These tips will help you make sure you stop procrastinating altogether.
  • Stuff keeps coming up. Interruptions from email and phone calls, distractions from your personal life, as well as meeting overload can easily kill your productivity.
  • Doing the wrong things. Clarity is power. And once you’re clear about what you want, you need the right strategy and plan of action.

He then presents “productivity killers” in each of these areas.

But what is productivity? Is it

  • Getting things done?
  • Getting MORE things done?
  • Efficiency?
  • Effectiveness?

Productivity isn’t about getting things done, it’s about getting the right things done. Getting things done means you’re busy; getting the right things done means being effective.

But productivity is also about producing desired results efficiently, meaning as quickly and abundantly as you want.

You may be effective at bringing in clients but inefficient if this takes up too much of your time. You may be efficient at organizing your files but if this isn’t helping your practice grow (desired result), you’re not being effective.

Productivity requires effectiveness and efficiency.

By and large, Tanguay’s 27 “productivity killers” are really “efficiency killers”. They don’t necessarily stop you from producing desired results, but they could be slowing you down or making you pay too high a price for those results.

There are some good suggestions here. Just make sure you don’t use them to become efficient at the wrong things.

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Filed Under: Productivity, Time Management Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Getting things done when you have “vacation brain”

November 22, 2011 by
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books reading kindleOne of the precepts of the Getting Things Done or GTD methodology is that it’s not necessary to prioritize your Next Actions in advance, nor is it recommended. For one thing, priorities change. What seems important today might be completely unnecessary a week from today.

Also, priorities are contextual. Picking up a new cartridge for your laser printer is something you do while running errands, not at ten o’clock at night.

Priorities, then, should be established during your daily planning, which I contend should take place the night before, and “in the moment”.

To prioritize, review your action lists and determine what you want to do based on three factors: time, energy, and importance (priority).

So today, I may see a task that is important but will take a block of two hours and I don’t have that much time. Or it requires a fair amount of energy and I’m tired. Or I have lots of time but the task under consideration really isn’t that important. These tasks will have to wait.

Some people partially prioritize tasks as they add them to their lists, noting time (how much time they estimate the task will take) and energy (how much they will need, i.e., low, medium, or high). This way, when they don’t have a lot of time or energy, they can scan their lists to find tasks that match.

I usually don’t prioritize in advance. I add a lot of tasks to my list each day and I don’t want to take the time to think about whether something will take ten minutes or twenty minutes or whether I will need high energy or just medium. To some extent, I make these decisions when I review my lists and often, I simply choose what I am inspired to do.

This week is Thanksgiving week in the United States. Some people are working like crazy to clear their desks before the long weekend and some are already in “vacation mode”. If you are in the latter category, at work but finding yourself unable to get much done, go through your lists and look for low time/low energy activities you can do.

If you have “vacation brain” and don’t have a list of low energy tasks to dig through, or your list doesn’t inspire you to take action, check out this list of mindless, but productive tasks that inspired this post.

Or, if you’re like me, you’ll just catch up on your reading.

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Filed Under: Productivity, Time Management Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,