RainmakerLawyer Blog

How Successful Attorneys Choose Their Clients

2009-11-04T16:00:55Z

How do you choose your clients?

Finding clients is not difficult. Once you know where to look, finding clients is easy. The challenge comes in finding clients who are the perfect fit for you.

Let’s face it, you wouldn’t go to a store and buy a pair of pants unless you were certain they fit. You wouldn’t buy a car unless you test drove it and made sure it was safe. You wouldn’t buy a house unless you inspected it.

Yet most attorneys have little or no standards to apply when accepting a new client.

If you have ever had a bad experience with a client or if you have ever agreed to reduce (or waive) your fee just to make a client go away, you need to give some thought to this idea.

You get to choose who you work with.

Everyone should have their own specific criteria for selecting clients. Here are some universally applicable standards to consider each time someone new asks for representation:

Will this client and this situation afford you the opportunity to do your best work? Your clients should benefit from your talent, skills, knowledge and experience. You should learn and grow through the application of the same. If this client doesn’t allow you to do your best, you are doing a disservice to both parties.

Can you legally, morally and ethically work with this client without reservation? This is between you and the person you see when you look in the mirror. If you can’t stand your client, he shouldn’t be your client.

Can this client afford a lawyer of your caliber? You are not a charity. Your law firm is a business. Don’t negotiate fees. Give 100% effort and provide your client with 100% of your talent, skills, knowledge and experience. They should pay 100% of your fee. If your client can’t afford it, they should not be your client.

Can this client adequately help you do your job? All too often clients want you to just make the problem go away. Unfortunately they don’t want to (or are incapable of) participating in their own matter. (Note: If they are incapacitated that’s different than if they are stubborn). You must decide at the outset of your relationship whether or not your client can help you get the best possible result. If they can’t, you should let them go somewhere else.

Is there opportunity for work beyond the initial engagement with this client? Does the person in front of you have other matters he could refer to your firm? Is he influential within the community and can he send other people to you? Each client offers two possibilities within this area: They can send you business that they personally control or they can influence others to work with you when the need arises. At some point during your intake process, you should probe about the prospective client’s ability to do one or the other.

Your time is incredibly valuable. You cannot waste it on people who are not your ideal client. These are the main criteria my clients use when they interview potential clients for their law practice. Add your own criteria to the list.

Of course, implied in this entire lesson is the idea that you get to choose your clients. If you don’t have that luxury, you have a marketing issue and you definitely need to call me. 888.692.5531

The Foundation of Law Firm Marketing

2009-10-27T16:00:43Z

The foundation of business development is good communication. This means sending a message that is received and acted upon. In order to motivate the receiver to take action, the message must be relevant and it must be delivered in a way that will resonate with the target audience.

There are four primary audiences you must engage regularly with your communications efforts. These are the groups of people who are responsible for bringing your firm 90% of your business. These groups are:

1. Suspects
2. Prospects
3. Clients
4. Evangelists

Here are some details about each group to help you determine how to engage them.

Suspects are people who you think have a need for your service. Here are some examples: For an immigration attorney a suspect is someone from another country who wants to live in the United States for an extended period of time. For a divorce attorney a suspect is someone who is thinking about leaving his/her spouse. In the world of the litigator, a suspect is someone who is seeking justice as the result of a perceived wrong-doing.

Suspects don’t know who you are or what you do. They fall into this grouping because they MAY have a need for your services.

Prospects are people who have expressed a need for the services you offer. They have called you or requested information from you. Prospects may or may not have a sense of urgency about resolving their issue. The key is that they have identified themselves as being interested in your services.

Clients are people who have paid for your services within the last calendar year. If they have not paid they are not a client (I realize there are pro-bono clients but we are not addressing them in a business development context).

Evangelists are your referral sources. They are clients who work with you multiple times and/or refer you to others. I would also put referral sources (other attorneys) into this category.

Good business development begins with understanding the people who are in each category. Each of these groups is at a different point in their relationship with you. Your communication should be designed to advance people from one group to the next.

Think of it as climbing a ladder.

You want suspects to climb up to the next rung on the ladder and become prospects. You want prospects to climb up and become clients and you want clients to climb up and become evangelists.
This happens almost exclusively through education and relationship development.

Suspects become prospects when you educate them on the need for your services. Prospects become clients when you educate them on the need for urgency in taking action on their situation. Clients become evangelists when you deepen your relationship with them to the point of intimacy.

Here is an example:

Jack Long is a trust and estate attorney in Dallas, TX. Every month he does a no cost seminar for the clients of a local insurance agency. About 20-25 people hear him speak on the importance of having a will and the value in hiring an attorney to help you prepare one. At the start of his presentation the folks in that room are people Jack suspects may need his services.

After each presentation, about 3 or 4 people come up to Jack and ask him questions. He stays until the last question is answered and he immediately follows up with the people who sought him out. These folks are prospects.

Of the 3, 4 or 5 people who contacted Jack after the presentation, one or two usually hire him to draw up their will. They become clients. When Jack brings them on board he lets them know that he also provides other services such as a living will and a durable power of attorney. If his new clients don’t have Jack provide those services, he will continue to educate them (through newsletters, events and other forms of media) on the importance of those instruments.

Jack also hosts quarterly client appreciation events, sends out a monthly printed newsletter and a weekly email newsletter. These communications tools are often passed on to other people as his clients become evangelists. (Jack encourages his clients to bring their friends to his client appreciation events).

Great communication is one of the keys to success in any business. Effective business development starts with matching the right message to the right market. Suspects need a different message than prospects. Prospects need a message that is different than the message you deliver to your clients.

Get the message right and deliver it to the right market and your revenue with grow exponentially.

How will you engage each of these groups of people in your law firm communications? You should have a plan that includes multiple messages delivered via multiple media for each group. If you don’t, you need to call me right away. 888.692.5531

There is No Shame in Being a Wealthy Lawyer

2009-10-20T16:00:39Z

Some lawyers don’t want to be wealthy. You read that correctly. They want to make enough money to be comfortable and they have no desire to grow their practice beyond that point.

That’s fine if the attorney really feels that way.

There is a disturbing trend in the United States today and I am seeing it more and more among lawyers. This trend is the distain being expressed for wealthy people.

I’m not talking about an endorsement of redistribution of wealth and I’m not talking about forcing the rich to pay more in taxes. This is something much more sinister and debilitating. This is a mindset that will keep YOU from achieving financial success.

Why is this mindset dangerous?

Our subconscious minds control a good portion of our activity. If you actually HATE wealthy people you can rest assured you will never be like them. Your subconscious mind will reject everything about them – including money.

Every time you make a little more than your subconscious thinks is appropriate, your behavior will change to help you meet your lowered expectations. You will procrastinate. You’ll refuse to delegate. You’ll abandon your strategic plan in favor of the latest fad.

Sometimes your subconscious goes overboard. You shut down all productive business development activity when you hit the point your psyche has set for financial success. If you’ve ever had a month where you didn’t sign up a new client you understand what I mean.

What causes this?

There are three things that cause attorneys to behave this way:

Misplaced Ideology

In legal circles there are folks who do not view a law firm as a business. They view it as a semi-public service in which an attorney is allowed to make a comfortable living but he is looked down upon if he takes aggressive action to grow his practice and become a BIG LAW firm. In these circles, big is synonymous with bad. Like the Big Bad Wolf.

Once a sole practitioner decides to hire other lawyers and focus on business strategy he is viewed as a scourge by these ideologues. Those who sit in judgment forget that big firms often do good work. Big firms often charge fair fees. Big firms often zealously represent the client.

Being a good lawyer and getting rich are not mutually exclusive. You can grow a business – like a law firm – and be ethical.

Personal Insecurity

It happens in all professions. People who are not comfortable in their own skin often criticize those who possess the qualities they lack. Lawyers who work long hours yet do not know how to translate that effort into significant income often hate those who can.

If you find yourself gritting your teeth the next time a lawyer with more money walks into the room, do a self examination. What does that person have that you do not? What have they done differently than you? How can you bridge the gap between where you are and where you’d like to be?

Success starts by looking in the mirror and liking what you see. If you don’t like yourself you will never be successful.

Laziness

The distain for wealth is often an excuse for lack of quality work or lack of effort. People who show distain for the success of others are not performing the right activities or enough of the right activities to realize success for themselves.

If you don’t want to get off the couch and learn how to build a thriving law practice, that’s fine. But do not hate those who are putting in the effort and earning the rewards.

The bottom line: People who despise folks with money usually have none. There is no shame in being successful and making a great living.

If you need some help shifting your mindset, give me a call. 888.692.5531

Time For an Ethical Enema

2009-10-13T16:00:21Z

Most of my work is done with sole practitioners and small law firms. I enjoy working with them because they are generally highly receptive to the things I teach. Big law firms on the other hand often have stupid requirements that get in the way of old fashioned commonsense.

Recently I met with a BIG LAW firm attorney (let’s call him Mr. Big) as part of an interview series I am doing with successful lawyers. This guy came highly recommended by his Managing Partner. My interview with him was short.

I ended it after the first question.

My first question to Mr. Big was: “What makes you so successful?” I thought he would say something about client service or a dedication to quality research or diligence in pursuing justice for his clients. I thought he would share a secret with me that I could, in turn, pass along to my clients.

Here was his answer: “I’m successful because I bill the crap out of my clients.”

I was stunned. Mr. Big went on the regale me with stories of how he has billed over 300 hours each month for the past 3 months. For those of you who are not great with math that means he is billing 12.5 hours per day, six days a week or billing 10 hours a day for an entire month straight (for three consecutive months).

So Mr. Big bills all of this time and he NEVER takes a day off right? Absolutely not. He works a half day one day on the weekend and takes the other day completely off. He says he usually makes up for that half day by “cutting out early to play golf one day during the week.”

I can’t say I was shocked by this. I know it happens quite a bit. The problem comes when these people submit their bills. If they submit an hourly bill and it is not true they are perpetrating a fraud.

The argument people make to counter this point is that they are billing for “the time it would take if someone else did the work.” In other words, because the attorney is highly experienced in this area of the law, he can get something complicated done quicker than others with less experience.

That’s great. If you have that experience you should receive a premium for your services just don’t extract it by padding the number of hours worked. Charge a flat fee, a value-based fee, and explain to your client that they are receiving the benefit of your experience.

There are no less than 30 different ways to structure fees in an attorney/client relationship. I cover these ways with my clients each and every day. Hourly billing is BY FAR the worst billing method. Not just because the client will get screwed (early and often) but because the lawyer will often get screwed as well (if you don’t think clients report overbilling to the state bar, think again).

If you need some help crafting an alternative billing methodology, give me a call 888.692.5531. Don’t put yourself and your client in an uncomfortable position – the position of a person who has received an ethical enema.

How to fix the thing that is keeping you awake at night

2009-10-06T10:10:30Z

Many people are having a hard time sleeping these days. They are worried about money. The bills are coming in quickly and the clients have disappeared.

This keeps them awake at night.

You are good at your craft. You are a good lawyer. But no matter how many times you add the numbers up, there is still not enough.

As the clock turns from 2:59 am to 3:00 am your mind begins to contemplate the “what if’s”…

What if this client leaves me?
What if that client decides not to pay?
What if I never get another new client?

The stillness of the night lends itself to the wild wandering of the imagination. You are instantly transported from the comfort of your bed to an island where you alone have this problem. And you feel like the main character on a television drama with 50 million viewers are watching as everything you have worked so hard to build is slowly slipping away.

This haze of uncertainty becomes a full blown panic just as the sun rises. You have not slept much and now your mind is full of thoughts that drag you down emotionally.

After a few days or weeks or months of this, people around you begin to notice. New clients stop signing up because you are in this state. They sense your desperation. They sense your neediness. This forces the cycle to perpetuate.

The purpose of this email is to help snap you out of this “cycle of doom”.

Below are three things you can do today, actually three things you can do RIGHT NOW to help you get back on track. Focus on these things and you’ll notice an improvement in your emotional outlook almost immediately. Once your emotional outlook (your attitude) improves, the clients will follow.

1). Realize You Are Not Alone

Millions of people are feeling the same way. The economic crisis has taken its toll on almost every industry. When it comes to money, people are reluctant to discuss their status. I can almost guarantee that dozens of your neighbors are up late at night with the same concerns you have.

The action item here is to find a group of likeminded people who will not judge you but help support you as you work through this situation. Just knowing that you are not alone will go a long way toward making you feel better.

2). Focus on the Things That Are Working

Money is an important aspect in life but it is not everything. Before you go to bed every night think about, in fact obsess over, the things in your life that are good. Think about your family. Think about your friends. Think about the people who love you unconditionally.

Instead of worrying about the bad things that MIGHT happen, focus on the things that HAVE happened in the past that are GOOD. It helps some people to make a list of all the good things they have in their lives and review that list whenever a negative thought creeps in.

3). Take Positive Action

Send an email to a perspective client. Send a dozen letters to people who were your clients in the past thanking them for their business. Offer to give a talk, pro bono, to a group of people at your school or in your community.

The key is to do something, anything to develop some positive momentum.

If you’d like to discuss some of the ways you can effectively and inexpensively take positive steps to improve your cash flow give me a call 888.692.5531.
In the meantime, remember you are not alone.

How Often Should a Lawyer Communicate with Clients or Prospects?

2009-09-29T16:00:51Z

One of the questions I am asked most often is: “How often should I communicate with my clients and prospective clients?”

Many people are afraid they will annoy their clients and prospective clients if they communicate with them too often. Lawyers (in my client group) are particularly concerned about the frequency of delivery of email and print information. They ask: “Is a weekly email newsletter too much?” And “Is a monthly print newsletter too frequent?”

The answers are: “NO” and “NO”.

If you provide your clients and prospects with the right kind of content they will happily read it no matter how often you send it to them.

This is not some academic theory (although it is supported by substantial academic evidence). It is something I have learned through experience.

My email tip – The Rainmaker Minute —is distributed weekly to my clients, my referral partners, people who may be clients some day and my friends and relatives. These are all people who I have met or have otherwise given me permission to correspond with them. Less than one percent of people I have sent this email to have ever opted out.

My monthly newsletter – The Rainmaker Letter – goes to Clients and VIPs (people who request it). Every 30 days these folks receive a 4 page newsletter from me. And every month I get several requests to send copies to friends of the recipients.

The bulk of my new clients, by far, come from people who have been reading my newsletters, books and blog articles regularly. They know me. They like me and they trust me.

This works for attorneys too.

The secret to keeping your clients and prospects engaged is contained within four key qualities of the content you create. Here are the four qualities of effective communication:

Interesting Content

This is, by far, the most important component of any communication system. Your content must be interesting and relevant to your audience. People change the channel on boring television programs. People unsubscribe from boring newsletters.

A shot of spice also never hurt the content of a newsletter or email. You’ll notice I occasionally pick fights with my competitors or tweak a lousy vendor or talk about sex just to make sure you are still with me.

Make sure your material is interesting and informative.

Frequency

People want to hear from you more often than you think. If you are providing value in your newsletter or email, there is no reason to worry about sending something to people too often. A good rule of thumb is to think about how often you call your best friend. You call when you have something interesting to say and your call is welcomed.

The standard for my clients is a weekly email and a monthly newsletter. I have clients who send an email out daily – like an inspirational quote of the day or a stock market update (recapping yesterday’s results). Although these things are not relevant to their law practice, they are important to the person receiving them.

Consistency

The Rainmaker Minute is sent out each Wednesday at 12 noon (Eastern). Every week, same time. People know when to expect it. The Rainmaker Letter is sent out each month on the 15th (unless it is a Sunday – then we send it out a day early).

People like things that are consistent because they are reliable. They trust people who are consistent.

If you send out a newsletter one month and then you skip a few months, people will think you are unreliable.

Personality

Your writing should fit your personality. Many people say they can actually hear me speaking when they read my email and my newsletter. You are not writing an academic work when you sit down to compose your newsletter. You are having a conversation with a friend. You are helping them get to know you. Inject your personality into the writing.

Monthly newsletters and weekly email may seem like a lot of work – and it can be. But remember, doing this consistently, over time, will provide you with a handsome reward in new clients down the road.

Someone is finishing reading this article right now and they are going to implement a weekly and monthly communication system. Will it be you or will it be that competitor you are most concerned about?

If you need help, call me. 888.692.5531

The Worst Number for Law Firm Business Development

2009-09-22T16:00:56Z

ONE is the worst number in law firm business development. Yet every attorney I meet is obsessed with it. Every attorney wants that ONE great client that they can live off. To get that client most attorneys call me looking for the ONE way to boost their revenue or the ONE thing they should be doing to get more clients. Then they want to know why their client acquisition tactics don’t work when they only apply them ONE time.

Indulge me now as I take us back to a campaign past when I quote a good man but a failed Presidential Candidate: “My friends it’s time for a little straight talk”.

The number ONE is disastrous for a law firm. Here are three reasons why:

First Reason: If you only have ONE major client you are doomed.

Imagine if you had ONE big client who delivered 80% of the revenue to your law firm. Life would be great, right?

Only ONE person calling on the phone each week/day/hour. Only ONE set of problems to address. Only ONE personality to adjust to handling. And if that client is big, I mean really big, that could be all you would ever need. Right?

I got a call a few weeks ago from an attorney in exactly that situation. He had a great client. They had been a client for 20 years. They made his family comfortable. They made him comfortable. He was so comfortable that he had not done any marketing in 18 years.

The client was an automotive company. A big automotive company.
Once they filed for bankruptcy, they no longer needed him.

The name of the client and even their business stature is unimportant. You can apply the example to your firm on a smaller scale. If you have one client who makes up more than 10% of your business, you are in trouble.

Second Reason: If you only have ONE way of acquiring clients you are doomed.

Have you ever been to an attorney’s website and seen their fantastic blog? (A blog is simply a website that can be updated regularly with articles, video or audio files. Don’t be mesmerized by the fancy language.) Many attorneys are blogging like crazy -updating their sites daily. The trouble is, that’s all they are doing in the way of marketing. The write articles, post them on their site and they wait.

In the past week, three lawyers told me that this was their marketing strategy -blogging . That’s it. (To be fair, one guy is going to networking meetings too, but the other two are writing more articles than a newspaper columnist and that is their only marketing tactic.)

Now they may get two or three clients a year as a result of better Internet placement from the blog. They may boost their credibility when people go to their website and read their fantastic articles. They may hone their writing skills and become good writers. But they will not be able to feed their families solely from the business that comes from their blog.

You need a minimum of 20 - yes 20 - different ways to attract clients to your law firm. These should be spread over as many media as possible. This means 2-5 tactics on the Internet, 2-5 networking events, 2-5 speaking venues, 2-5 trade magazines to which you submit articles, 2-5 key referral sources, 2-5 groups of people you mail to, and so on.

The more ways you have of building a client base the faster you will grow your firm.

Third Reason: If you only apply your client acquisition tactics ONE time you are doomed.

If you do any of this stuff ONE time it will not work. I have clients who get an article placed in a trade magazine once and they wonder why they don’t have thousands of new clients. The same holds true for a speaking engagement. A client told me last week that he only got five new clients from his last speaking gig…and he was upset.
Marketing tactics are like sex. If you only do it once you will not be happy.

Give every marketing tactic at least three opportunities to succeed. Three times. If it doesn’t work, move on.

As you can imagine, most people will ignore the advice contained in this article. So the one person who takes action based upon it will beat his competitors’ brains out.
Will you be that person?

Hey Lawyer I have a problem…

2009-09-15T10:00:10Z

I have a problem…

Those are the magic words every attorney wants to hear. Unfortunately many of the people who have problems you can solve don’t even know you exist.

So what is an ambitious, ethical attorney supposed to do to gain some visibility?

Here are three things you can do RIGHT NOW to gain greater exposure within your community:

Market to Your Referral Sources

All attorneys have a natural pool of referral sources that should be regularly reminded of your value proposition.
For example:

Real Estate brokers and loan officers should regularly receive communication from Real Estate Attorneys.

Trust and Estate Attorneys should be well known in the local community of financial advisors, insurance professionals and accounts.

Personal Injury Attorneys should reach out to other attorneys, doctors, chiropractors, members of the local clergy and bartenders.

Criminal Defense Attorneys should be well known within the courthouse. Bailiffs, guards, clerks, court reporters and process servers should all be treated like potential clients since they see and hear many of the people who may need your services.

There is a list equally as long for each and every practice area specialty. Market to your referral sources just as hard as you would market to potential clients.

Educate the Community

Hold educational seminars whenever possible. Host these seminars on your own as well as in conjunction with other attorneys or referral sources. These seminars serve two purposes:

1). They provide valuable information to people who need it.
2). They position you as an expert in your field.

Holding a seminar on a different topic each month gives you a reason to get some folks together in your office. Even if you only have 10-15 people attend, those are now 10-15 “sales people” who will be referring you to their friends and neighbors.

If you can work with a local civic organization or religious group and have them host or sponsor your educational events, you may have a more significant audience and a larger “sales force”.

Write Articles

Look for trade magazines in your niche and submit articles regularly. Many of these publications need content and their editors are thrilled when people send them high-quality information.
Local newspapers often have guest columns written by influential members of the community. Find out how you can become one of those influential people.

Send your newsletter to editors of all trade magazines and local newspapers. You never know who will read it and call with a potential lead.

There are probably twenty more things you can and should be doing to raise your profile in the community. The real key is not so much WHAT you are doing…The key is that YOU ARE doing SOMETHING.

Doing NOTHING is easy. Doing NOTHING gets you the results you already have.

Get up, get going and get clients.

Rainmaker Habits that Make Lawyers Money

2009-09-09T09:00:42Z

If you are a solo attorney or if you work in a small firm, chances are good that you cannot afford to advertise with much frequency.

This doesn’t mean that you can’t be an effective rainmaker.

In fact, we’ve found that the opposite is actually true. The smaller the firm, the better the attorneys are at bringing in the business without advertising.

This makes sense since there is no one else available in a small law firm to assume the responsibility for new business development.

But how do those small law firm rainmakers manage to fit in activity that helps their practice grow?

The answer lies in something that can not only make you successful in business; it can make you successful in life…your habits.

I’m not talking about brushing your teeth after every meal and watching your sugar intake. I’m talking about the little things that add up to big dollars in the long run for small firms.

Here are three habits many rainmakers use to build their client base with a limited amount of time and a tight budget.

Write Something First Thing in the Morning

Good marketing involves writing.

Articles on your website help you build your visibility and credibility. A monthly newsletter helps educate and inform your pool of prospective clients. Being published in a trade journal can attract several new clients and position you as an expert. Direct mail to other attorneys helps them remember to refer business to you.
The challenge comes in finding time to write.

Rainmakers write every day. Most do their writing first thing in the morning. This not only gets the day off to a productive start, it also helps them build a library of marketing collateral. Get up early. Put on a pot of coffee and write a 500 word article.

Save your articles and at the end of the week pick one and put it on your website. Take another one and submit it to a trade journal. Turn a third one into a letter that you send to your colleagues to help them keep you in mind.

Set Up a Mailing Each Week

There is an open secret among people who are really good at marketing. It is a secret we teach to everyone but only the most successful follow….

The secret is repetition. A prospective client must hear your message at least seven times before he/she will be ready to work with you.

Rainmakers communicate with their clients and prospects regularly. They use email and regular United States Postal Service mail to stay in touch with their client base. They use the mail to educate, inform and motivate clients, prospective clients and referral partners.

The best rainmakers mail often. Some of them even send out a mailing each week to a different audience. A typical schedule could look something like this:

Week one - mail a newsletter to existing clients.
Week two - mail an educational piece to prospects.
Week three - mail to clients who have worked with you in the past but are not currently active.
Week four - mail to referral partners.

The key to success with this approach is consistency. Reach out to each audience every month.

Schedule Lunch with a Client Every Day

There is nothing to be gained by eating lunch at your desk. You can’t be 100 percent focused if you’re crunching on a salad or slurping soup while reading depositions. If you truly want your lunchtime to be productive, use it as marketing time.

Invite a client or prospect to lunch. You don’t need to focus on business. The reason you are going to lunch is to build or strengthen your relationship. Deep client relationships mean more work for your firm. Clients do business with people they know, like and trust. Spending non-business time with your clients is a great way to deepen your relationship with them.

Good marketing does not have to be time consuming. It is a matter of doing the right things, consistently. It is a matter of good habits.

Your Law Firm is Leaking

2009-09-01T16:00:14Z

Each and every month you lose influence over your clients. Each month some of the people who have paid you the highest fees or done the most work with you become less and less interested in you. Each month your stellar reputation fades a little more in the minds of the folks who refer you new clients And most people are probably not doing anything about it.

Why?

Because most people are lazy.

You lose 10% of your influence with your clients, prospects and referral sources for every 30 days you do not have contact with them.

This means ten months from now, the great client you had lunch with today will have forgotten all about you. It means the doctor who sent you that great referral last week will have a hard time remembering what you do for a living. It means the business owner you met at the networking event yesterday will not recognize you if you hit him with your car next spring.

So what is the solution?

The answer is to start communicating with these people. Each month you should have some kind of communication with your clients, prospective clients and referral sources. This communication can be a newsletter, it can be a card or it can be a phone call or an email. It really doesn’t matter how you interact with them. You simply want to remind them that you are here and ready to help them and the people they know.

Some people will say: “I don’t have the money!”

Do you have a real business or are you just playing around? You need to invest money in your client acquisition efforts in order to develop a real business (a law firm is a business by the way).
It costs less than a dollar to purchase and mail a greeting card each month. It costs about $2 to send out a printed newsletter (in small quantity). Email is practically free – just type and hit send.

But some people will need to be convinced. Here’s how the math works:

You mail 1000 newsletters at $2 each (the cost for printing and mailing). You mail 1000 greeting cards at $1 each. You type and send 1000 emails to the people within your database (only to those from whom you have received permission). You do these three things every month. That is a total monthly expense of $3000.

Let’s say it takes you three months to see any business from these efforts. So you have spent $9,000 in keeping up with the most valuable 1000 people in your database.

On the first day of the fourth month you get a client as a direct result of these efforts. This client is your average client. And your average client pays you $10,000 in fees.

Was your investment worth it?

Yes.

Will you get more than one client from these efforts?

Most likely. There is a cumulative effect to this kind of system. After about six months you will start to see more and more interest in your services. It takes some people a little longer to absorb the information and react.

Will you get more clients by doing this compared to doing nothing?

Definitely.

What are you waiting for?

If you need a kick in the rear end and want some help in setting up this type of system, give me a call. If you want me to show you how, I will. If you want me to set it up, I will. If you want me to do this for you each and every month I will.

You can be lazy and outsource this system to me or I can show you how to do this for yourself. The choice is yours but doing NOTHING is the worst choice you can possibly make.

Call now. 1.888.692.5531

How Smart Attorneys Double Their Revenue in a Year

2009-08-25T10:48:51Z

As you may have heard from me (several times) it is better to have 100 ways to get one client than it is to have 1 way to get 100 clients.

But there is one thing you should do first, actually NOW, if you really want to grow your client base in the next twelve months. In fact, this activity is possibly THE BEST way to ensure you will DOUBLE your revenue.

It is not sexy.

But it works.

What is this mysterious client acquisition tactic? Is it something on the Internet? Is it social media? Is it some new form of technology?

No.

It is called follow-up.

Good, old fashioned, follow-up.

Here’s how it works:

Let’s say you are introduced to someone by a client, friend or referral source. You have a brief conversation and you believe this person has the potential to become a client in the future or refer you to potential clients. What happens next? Usually nothing.

Replace “nothing” with these steps and you will double your revenue in a year:

1). Go to lunch: Take your new friend to lunch and learn everything you can about his business. Don’t sell yourself. Learn about him and his business.

2). Send a hand written note: Let him know you enjoyed meeting him. Enclose a business card.

3). Send your contact information in electronic form. People like to have your information in their PDA or Smartphone. Make it easy for them. Send your contact info in an email.

4). Introduce this person to someone who can help his business. This point is critical. You need to go the extra mile and actually HELP your new prospective client. You must give something before you can expect to receive something.

5). Provide them with something of value a least every month. This means you should send them something they will enjoy every month. It can be a newsletter. It can be a greeting card. It can be a phone call where you touch base and help them solve a problem. The key is to help them remember you by providing them with something valuable.

People do business with people they know, like and trust. If you implement a simple follow-up and monthly contact system you will reap the rewards.

It takes about six months for people to get used to interacting with you on a consistent basis. But once they realize you are interested in helping them, they will warm up to the idea of trusting you with their most important matters.

Four Approaches Lawyers Take to Acquire New Clients

2009-08-19T01:44:29Z

There are four basic approaches most lawyers adopt when it comes to client acquisition. If you read them carefully, I’m sure you will see someone you know in each of them. They are:

Do Nothing: “The Field of Dreams” Approach

If you build a law firm they will come.

These folks sit in their office and wait for the phone to ring. They may occasionally hand out business cards to friends, family and acquaintances. Most of the time these attorneys work hard on the matters that fall into their lap.

Some of the people in this category believe that business development is evil. Some believe that if you are a good lawyer, the universe will reward you with clients.

Do Something: “The Throw Stuff Up Against the Wall” Approach

These attorneys try all kinds of marketing gimmicks and they hope that one of them delivers a truck load of new clients.

Billboards, bus stop benches, Yellow Pages ads with fists full of cash, subscribing to a referral service. Do something, do anything, just give it a shot.

These folks are looking for a lawyer lottery ticket that will pay off with new clients.

Do Something Right: “The One Hit Wonder”

These lawyers are on the right track.

They take their time and decide who their ideal client is. Then they do some research on how to target the ideal client. Finally they develop a message that resonates with their audience and they deliver it.

They run into trouble when they only do it one time.

Do Things Right Consistently: “The Natural”

These attorneys are good lawyers and good at developing new business.
They use ethical, legal methods for attracting clients. They test their messages with their market before spending big dollars. They do the fundamentals as well as the new stuff. By this I mean they network, they publish papers in trade journals and they keep in touch with their past clients while they blog and tweet and update their LinkedIn Profile.

But the real key to success is that they do the right things consistently. They develop systems that help them keep on top of their business development activities. They work hard to make client acquisition easy.

Their reward for investing in client acquisition systems is a better client base that appreciates them and gladly pays their fees.

If you want to learn how to develop systems that will help you attract new clients who are IDEAL clients, give me a call and ask about my new Rainmaker Underground Client Acquisition System. It is Super-Affordable and it comes with a 2-year guarantee.

How many ways do you have to get new clients?

2009-08-12T19:16:34Z

One of the first things I review with attorneys is the variety of ways they attract new clients. At first, I am usually greeted with a blank stare when I pose the question: “How many different ways do you have to attract new clients?”

The puzzled look is followed by a statement like:

“I can’t afford too many marketing initiatives. I rely on referrals and word of mouth.”

The folks who offer up this response have three specific problems:

They have made a decision to cap their income. The fewer ways you have of attracting new clients the less opportunity you have to grow your firm’s revenue. Keep in mind, I love referrals. I think you should have a system for nurturing referral relationships. But referrals will generally come from people who know you, like you and trust you. Most of us – even the super-networkers – will have a limited sphere of influence from which we can attract referrals.

They do not know that there are more personal forms of marketing. Networking is a great way for attorneys to make contact with potential clients but the follow-up from networking (which is marketing by the way) is how the relationship grows. Educational events are fantastic ways to introduce the value you provide to potential clients. Writing articles, giving speeches and serving on the board of directors of a charitable organization are all ways to develop new relationships and new potential clients.

They are looking for the magic bullet. They want one way to attract 100new clients. They want the easy money that comes with running ads or mass mailing. The trouble with these forms of marketing is that they are expensive and their effectiveness is often fleeting.

The key to developing new client relationships lies in the diversity of your marketing efforts. I have been developing business strategy for my entire career (22 years) and I say with confidence that I have seen very few individual marketing methodologies that consistently attract hundreds of clients – yet I have seen hundreds of ways to attract one client. The key to growing your law practice lies in improving the diversity of your client attraction tactics.

How Attorneys Can Make a Great Living and Live a Great Life

2009-05-18T10:00:24Z

There are two kinds of law firms in existence today:

FREE Law Firms and FAKE Law Firms

Your law practice or your professional service firm is either FREE or it’s FAKE.

A FREE Firm is:

Fun – You enjoy what you are doing and who you work with.
Rewarding – Your work helps fulfill your personal mission.
Easy – Your work comes naturally to you.
Engaging – Your firm magnetically attracts others.

You know your law firm is FAKE if it is:

Frustrating – You can’t seem to break through to the next level.
Annoying – Going to work bothers you.
Killer – Your business is literally taking years off of your life.
Exhausting - You’re tired all the time and you don’t know why.

My mission is to help FAKE firms become FREE firms.

If you feel like you have been stuck in a rut in your law practice…

If you have not eaten dinner with your family in months…

If you can’t believe that you have to see that difficult client AGAIN…

If you are just flat out tired of busting your butt today to pay yesterday’s bills…

Listening to this interview may be the most valuable time you have ever spent.

Press play on the audio player below to listen to a nationally syndicated interview that has the tips, strategy and tactics that successful attorneys use to move their firm from FAKE to FREE.

Thick Skin and Unsolicited Advice

2009-05-04T10:00:01Z

NOTE: This article contains adult language for emphasis. If you are offended by slang words used to describe poop and donkeys, please do not read this article.

Being uncomfortable prevents thousands, (maybe millions) of people from becoming financially free. This is especially true of attorneys.

An example: Most lawyers I meet tell me they use their current method of billing because “that’s the way everyone else does it”. Essentially they fear the discomfort of being different. This fear is so great they refuse to buck the current trend.

They tell me that people will not work with them if they are different. They say they must conform or face financial ruin.
Of course that is a huge pile of crap.

It is just fear that prevents them from developing an alternative billing model. Fear and insecurity. Nothing more.

But this is not an article about billing. It is an article about you and the way you deal with “unsolicited negative feedback”.

We all fall victim to unsolicited feedback offered by other people.

In many cases, the person who gives you “a little friendly advice” is not actually being friendly. They are being destructive.

Why do they do this? Why give you unsolicited advice that only serves to bring you down?
I don’t know the technical term for it but at a deep psychological level, for some people, making others feel less successful fills some kind of need.

It happens to everyone and it can get inside your head…if you let it.

I fell victim to this just the other day.
Click Continue Reading for more of my foolish behavior and learn how you can avoid the mistake I made