Well it happened again. . . Right in front of my eyes this time & the lawyer didn’t even know he had been fired.
I was at a meeting with some real estate investors I know. One of them, we’ll call him "Chuck" has 20 properties he’s liquidating to get out of the residential market & into commercial. His attorney, we’ll call him "Manny" didn’t bother to learn about Chuck’s problem in all three dimensions in which every client problem exists. And so while Manny was back at his office working away for his client on one of those deals, Chuck fired him & hired another lawyer who was standing right next to me.
It happened in large part because she & I had just spoken about the fact that every client’s problem exists in three dimensions. And so she asked all the right questions & walked away with Chuck’s next five deals that are closing in a few weeks. Manny will probably be sitting around his office wondering if maybe Chuck had changed his mind about selling, blissfully ignorant of the fact that he has been fired. Maybe the lack of referrals from Chuck who knows a ton of other landlords & has even referred business to me will be Manny’s first clue that something has gone terribly wrong in his practice.
Oh well, poor Manny.
I was asked to be a guest speaker for a Law Office Management class at my alma mater last week & came away with a shocking revelation. . .
I began my talk with the 20 or so law students, most of them 3L’s by asking how much they hoped to be making one, two or three years out of law school. Since graduation is right around the corner I thought this would be a good place to begin the discussion about the fact that 56% of Bar Grievances filed have their root-cause in poor law office management skills, including poor client intake procedures and lack of proper systems to maintain top of mind awareness with current clients (which all have a direct effect on revenues). What I got instead was a bunch of blank stares. I’ll spare you the painful details, but what came out was that the silence was not so much a matter of these 20 soon-to-be-lawyers not knowing about the going rate for salaries – which would have been bad enough to have not investigated this simple piece of information which is so readily available online with a Google search. It was actually WORSE!
They actually had not thought-through what it would cost to support themselves in the lifestyles they imagined they would be living as hard-working lawyers. Instead they simply presumed that being a lawyer was enough, and that the rest would take care of itself like the magic elves who I imagine they still think pick up their dirty socks for them around the house. Like I said. . . SHOCKING!
In a related anecdote, I recently had a conversation with a friend and fellow law office marketing coach, Henry Harlow after he had a chance to review my How To Market A Small Law Firm program & we both marveled at how much value lawyers I’ve worked with have expressed over the years once I take them through the simple Budgeting Exercise, that is at the root of my approach to teaching a lawyer how to be a Rainmaker.
I’m about to head out for a late breakfast so I’ll cut this short with a simple piece of (unsolicited) advice: Jot down a simple budget over lunch today for what it will cost to live the life you would like to be leading, not necessarily the life you currently are leading. In other words, if you drive a piece of crap car & live in a dump, do not simply budget those expenses. Swing by the Jaguar dealership, open up the real estate section and give your insurance agent a call for a quote on a decent life/disability package to see what it would take to live the life you want all of your hard work to reward you with.
As for me, I’ve already done my three miles of roadwork along the beach this morning so now I’m going to reward myself with a big breakfast with lots of jelly on my toast!
Enjoy your day,
RJON
From: Jxxxxx X Xxxxx [mailto:jxxxxx@xxxxxxxx.com]
Sent: Thursday, March 15, 2007 10:24 AM
To: RJon@HowToMakeItRain.com
Subject: Patent Business
Hi RJon: How do I build a successful Intellectual Property practice.
I am a highly experienced patent attorney, litigator and trial lawyer.
But, my business base is very low. Do you have a course for IP
attorneys. Please see my website: www.pxxxxxxxxxxx.com. Thanks. Joe
Jxxxxxx Xxxxx, Esq.
Of Counsel
Oxxxxxxx, Fxxxxx & Sxxx, LLP
xxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Nw York, New York xxxxxx
This message originates from the law firm indicated above. It contains
information which may be confidential or privileged and is intended
only for the individual or entity named above. It is prohibited for
anyone else to disclose, copy, distribute or use the contents of this
message. All personal messages express views solely of the sender,
which are not to be attributed to the law firm, and may not be copied
or distributed without this disclaimer. If you received this message in
error, please notify us immediately through the above listed contact
information.
Hi Jxxx,
I don’t have a course specifically for IP lawyers, but even if I did I’d suggest that based on what you’re telling me perhaps you should begin with the basics anyway. You know, there are plenty of lawyers generating tons of great business just by mastering the basics and repeating the basic fundamentals over & over again. Sometimes I think there’s so much excitement for technology or some supposedly "latest & greatest" approach to law firm marketing that we forget that the basics have worked for a hundred years & from what I can tell, it seems they will continue to work for the next hundred years.
What you’ll learn in my How To Market A Small Law Firm program are three basic/fundamental rainmaking skills that lawyers in all different kinds of practices are using quite successfully:
PR/Advertising – From what I can see on your website you don’t seem to have a clear "message". I’m not criticizing or suggesting the solution is a bunch of fancy graphics. I actually quite like the look & feel of your design. What I’m talking about is that there’s nothing on your website, and therefore I suspect nothing in any of your other marketing materials or endeavors that really tells a story or captures a prospective client’s attention or interest and therefore distinguishes you from the pack. So you’re a great IP lawyer? I wouldn’t even be talking to you if I didn’t think that already. Now you have to make me feel like I have a connection with you and that you really care about me OR my intellectual property. Or even that you don’t give a crap about me, but that for some reason that hooks me, you’re just obsessed with protecting people’s IP rights. But there has to be a hook that lets people get excited about doing business with YOU or else you’re just a commodity. And don’t worry about offending some people. If you do anything that excites anyone, there will be someone else who is offended by it. Excited people hire you and go around telling others about you. Non-offended people don’t do much but not be offended.
Networking – It is a fundamental marketing principle when it comes to professional services that people don’t buy your services until they have bought you. Forget about driving traffic to your site or fancy/expensive ads. My program will teach you how to get out there & make connections with & maintain those connections with people who are in a position to refer business to you. Stable & profitable practices need stable & dependable networks of referral sources who will give & receive referrals amongst themselves. Otherwise, life is tough.
Sales Calls – At the end of the day, all the advertising & networking in the world isn’t going to do you any good unless you know what to do once you’re face to face with a prospective new client or a potential referral source. My program teaches you four simple steps that you can screw-up pretty badly & still close every sales call with a better result than without these four steps. I promise, once you learn & practice a few times you’ll wonder how you ever got through a sales call without this simple framework.
If you’re serious about building your practice, I’d suggest you save yourself $300 and consider joining my Bronze Coaching Program for just $39 per month. You’ll get the How To Market A Small Law Firm program as a FREE gift and then each week we’ll walk you through implementation of the skills & techniques you’ll learn in the audio program.
Anyway, hope that helps,
RJON
www.HowToMakeItRain.com
Helping Lawyers In Small Firms Make Alot More Money —–Original Message—–
I received a funny response to a recent email I sent out to readers of my e-zine. The subject line was "Would You Give Me $1 If I Gave You Back $10?" The response was clever and pretty funny, but it also gave me cause for some concern that I may be taking the careers and well-being of some of my readers more seriously than they do.
As is my policy, I’ve deleted any identifying information but otherwise the exchange is unchanged.
—–Original Message—–
From: Jamie Sxxxxxx [mailto:jxxxxxx@austin.rr.com]
Sent: Friday, March 09, 2007 1:57 PM
To: How To Make It Rain
Subject: Re: Would You Give Me $1 If I Gave You Back $10?
Would You Give Me $1 If I Gave You Back $10?
No, but I’ll make you a deal… just send me $8 to start
off with…that way you save a buck. Then take that one dollar, and instead of giving me back ten, send me
another $8.
Again, you make a dollar. Because you didn’t give me back the whole ten. Rinse and repeat.
My Reply
Very cute, but are you making as much money from your law
firm business as you’d hoped back when you decided to open your own
office? Are you spending as many hours as
you’d like with your friends & family instead of in the office? Have you found a way to develop a practice that
has you looking forward to going to work because the work feeds your soul?
As anyone who has listened to any of my programs, or read
my free & for-sale e-books, or participated in any of my seminars, or
hoisted a beer with me out on the boat can tell you, I REALLY like to have fun. And I love to joke around. But treating your career like a joke is no
laughing
matter in my book. I take the financial and professional success
of my clients very seriously.
I don’t mean to come off like a stick in mud, I really do
think your response was very clever. I
just worry sometimes that there are tens of thousands of lawyers out there who
find it easier to make a dismissive joke, rather than to take action to improve
their practices and their lives.
The
POINT of that e-mail was that there is a great business opportunity available
to readers of my e-zine. Specifically,
the opportunity to make a very small investment that hundreds of lawyers credit
for helping them generate tens of thousands of dollars of new business. And as any small business owner can tell you,
investing a few dollars to get back a lot is a smart move.
Anyway, thanks at least for the laugh!
RJON
www.HowToMakeItRain.com
Helping Lawyers In Small Firms Make Alot More Money
—–Original Message—–
From: Rxxxxxxxxlaw@aol.com [mailto:Rxxxxxxlaw@aol.com]
Sent: Wednesday, March 07, 2007 8:51 PM
To:
rjon@howtomakeitrain.com
Subject: Question
Dear RJon
I’ve been subscribing to your e-list for a while now.
It’s great — and congratulations on a great website.
I’m now working full-time at an insurance company in Xxxxxxxxxxxx, but would
like to start a solo practice concentrating on legal research and writing and
especially appellate practice. I
currently do this work for two practitioners, an immigration practitioner who
specializes in political asylum cases and a personal injury lawyer, for whom I
perform pretty extensive brief-writing and research services.
I’m trying to market to develop more clients (who of
course are other solo and small-firm lawyers) but I’m finding it a tough
process. I know it’s possible to develop
a practice like this, because I know people who are doing it, but I don’t know
how to market myself to achieve this goal. I just did a direct mail campaign with a reply card addressed to 200
lawyers, and I have not received a single response. I’m thinking maybe my letter needed work, but
I don’t know how to craft a more effective letter.
I’ve also sent ads around on Solosez and on
emplawyernet’s network mail and run ads in the Law Journal, but without any
success.
Can you think of any things I should be doing? I would appreciate any ideas you might have.
Thanks.
Mxxx Rxxxxxxx
—————————————My Response Below——————————————————
Hello Mxxx,
Thanks for the compliment. I have a question for you though. . . have
you listened to any of my programs? Read
the e-book?
I agree that it’s very possible and very profitable to develop
a B-2-B law firm like the one you’re describing, because I’ve helped several
lawyers build them from just an idea into extremely profitable businesses that
lend themselves amazingly well to leveraging the efforts of others to generate
income for the owners of those businesses.
It seems to me though, from your marketing efforts so
far, that your focus has been on trying to make a homerun when instead the way
to build your practice is by concentrating on base hits. Sending out an e-mail blast or a direct mail
piece doesn’t generally make good economic sense for a business unless you are
already in a position to leverage yourself. That’s because, as you have already had a taste of for yourself, there
is a tremendous amount of preparation, testing, revising, more preparation,
testing, revising etc. required to develop an effective advertising piece. And if all you’re trying to do is keep
yourself busy, there are other faster, easier, less expensive ways to do that.
When you’re ready to handle a flood of business, THEN you
do the direct mail/e-mail routine. If
you’re just trying to get enough work to keep yourself busy, I think you’d be
much better off with old-fashioned networking & sales calls. Sorry to disappoint you, but these tried
& true methods for building a professional services business are called
"tried & true" for a reason. Concentrate on these reliable basics, get enough business to keep
yourself busy & THEN experiment with other approaches when your mortgage
payment isn’t dependent upon results. That way, you can actually have FUN with your experiments.
At the risk of stating the obvious, I should point out
that all of this infor
mat
ion and a
lot more, including instructions for how to actually execute the tried &
true approaches I’ve described here, are all in the programs I sell &
you’ll get as much or more by joining the Bronze Attorney Coaching Program, which only
cost $39/month. The Silver & Gold
groups will be open again in a few months.
Hope this helps,
RJON
www.HowToMakeItRain.com
Helping Lawyers In Small Firms Make Alot More Money
