Attorneys: Is a law firm marketing plan part of your New Year's Resolution?
New Year’s Resolutions are a time-honored way of setting goals for the new year. They often center on personal issues – weight loss, exercise, relationships etc – but let me suggest that you add creating a solid, well-crafted law firm marketing plan to your New Year’s Resolution list this year.
Your law firm marketing plan should include all of the following components:
Referral sources – who are the people who refer business to you? Who are the people you would like to refer business to you?
Internet marketing – what does your internet presence look like? Your website, online-mentions, your page ranks in key search engines?
Blogs – do you have a blog? Is it current with relevant content? Is it written with keywords in mind to bring traffic to your site?
Social media – are you actively managing your Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook sites to create the best possible face for your firm?
Public relations – are you creating news releases and stories that point the media to you as an expert? Cultivating a relationship with the media takes time and expertise. But it is a worthwhile investment.
Take advantage of the resources you will find here and at The Rainmaker Institute website. Come to one of our Rainmaker Retreats or invest in some materials from the online store to gather the resources you need for your law firm marketing plan to help make 2010 a year to remember.
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Looking for more Rainmaker Institute wisdom?
Take advantage of the complimentary download of 5 Easy Steps That 7-Figure Attorneys Use To Create Powerful Marketing Plans. It is our gift to you. Just click on the link and download your complimentary copy. It is information that will get you started on the path to changing your legal marketing strategy for the better.
Why Should You Attend the Solo and Small Firm Summit? Let me count the ways you can improve your law firm marketing skills.
First, the Solo and Small Firm Summit offers a ridiculous amount of information for an extremely affordable price. For less than the cost of an economy weekend in Napa Valley, you will receive two days of information that is geared to your making you and your practice stronger and better equipped to make 2010 a year to remember. Not only will you receive excellent information on law firm marketing and law firm internet marketing among a number of other topics, it will be one of the truly great bargains you will find this year
Second, it is coordinated with the Section Education Institute, which many of you will already be attending. Rather than taking off to another conference, the State Bar of California has scheduled the two events so that you are only gone one weekend instead of two, allowing you more time with your loved ones.
Third, it has a tremendous lineup of speakers at a very affordable price. You have experts in legal ethics, legal marketing, internet marketing, accounts receivable management, client management, and a host of other topics. I will be the keynote speaker at the opening and closing luncheons, and will also be presenting on Thursday and Friday in breakout sessions
Fourth, it makes a great gift to you and your staff. You can give you and your staff a gift that will keep on giving throughout the year. Knowledge is power, and you will come away from the Summit power-packed with information that will allow you to enhance your law firm marketing plan to take advantage of the current economic environment, instead of complaining about it.
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Looking for more Rainmaker Institute wisdom?
Take advantage of the complimentary download of 5 Easy Steps That 7-Figure Attorneys Use To Create Powerful Marketing Plans. It is our gift to you. Just click on the link and download your complimentary copy. It is information that will get you started on the path to changing your legal marketing strategy for the better.
5 Easy Steps to Create Your Law Firm Marketing Plan, Step #2 - Target the Right Market
This is one of the biggest mistakes I see among attorneys—targeting the wrong market. Identifying and targeting the right market for your services is the most important thing you can do to ensure the success of your practice because if you don’t target the right market, nothing else you do will matter.
Typically, attorneys will make the mistake of targeting a market that’s too big for them to adequately reach. Let me give you an example.
I was recently talking with a lawyer here in Chicago and asking her about her target market. She said that her target market was small business owners who were too small to need in-house council or couldn’t afford the high priced downtown lawyers. Instead they needed someone who understood what kinds of legal issues small businesses face when selling to and partnering with Fortune 500 companies and a lawyer who offered a flexible payment plan.
I asked her, “Do you know how many small business owners there are here in Chicago?”
“No,” she replied.
I stated, “Recently, Crain’s Chicago business magazine reported there were over 300,000 small business owners here in Chicago.
“Now, I've never been very good at math, but for the sake of illustration, let's say that only 50% of those business owners needed or wanted your services, that’s a pretty large task trying to reach 150,000 prospects even once.”
Now, enter in the Law of 7 Touches.
The Law of 7 Touches is based on research that found it takes an average of 7 to 10 meaningful touches EVERY YEAR to move someone through the cycle from not knowing anything about you to being ready to buy from you.
It takes an average of 7 to 10 meaningful touches to move someone through the cycle
This is just the average, not a guarantee, because in hypercompetitive markets, like legal services, it often takes many more touches than that and to drive customer buying habits it takes consistency.
There are also ways you can speed up this process and create multiple touches all at once by being highly targeted in your marketing materials, using both hi-tech and hi-touch methods and building your online credibility.
In general, only 3% to 5% of your target market is ready to buy at any given time, it’s how you reach the other 95% to 97% that will make or break your business. You must
consistently be in front of your prospects to be at the top of their mind when they are ready to buy.
What’s a meaningful touch?
Well, it could be meeting you at a networking event, or hearing you give a presentation, or receiving a thought-provoking postcard from you—anything that’s meaningful
and provocative to your prospect.
Now according to the Law of 7 Touches, multiplying this lawyer’s 150,000 prospects by 7 to 10 means that she would have to produce 1 to 1.5 million meaningful touches every
year. There is no possible way a typical solo practitioner could do that and the point is smart business owners won't even try.
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Practice Made Perfect For Lawyers: 10 Principles for Marketing Your Legal Services
This comprehensive training manual is specifically designed for attorneys and other legal professionals who desire to achieve a higher return on investment from all their marketing efforts. Much more than a simple adaptation, each chapter has been carefully rewritten to apply Stephen’s unique High Impact Marketing System to the challenges faced by solo and small law firms.
Written especially for solo practitioners and partners at small law firms (less than 25 attorneys), this practical manual includes dozens of specific marketing and sales recommendations that can be easily and quickly applied to your firm.
It includes a 2 CD set—one audio CD that provides you with an overview of the 10 Principles along with ideas on how to maximize your results from the manual and a data CD that gives you customizable templates and forms to help you create a marketing budget and strategic development plan.
To purchase this valuable resource, visit The Rainmaker Institute website.
5 Easy Steps to Create Your Law Firm Marketing Plan, Step 1 Part C
Previously, I described how to develop a targeted marketing plan and how to create and service a niche market. This post continues those thoughts.
Here are 4 examples of Ideal Target Markets:
Business Attorney for Small, Privately Held Business Owners
- CEOs, Presidents, VPs, General Managers
- $2M—$100M in annual revenues
- Privately held companies with 20—1,000 employees
- In the hi-tech, telecommunications or software development industry
- Are headquartered within 20 miles of my office
- Are challenged with protecting their IP, want to grow nationally or internationally, looking to joint venture with or license their IP to larger companies
Commercial Real Estate Purchase & Development
- Owner, General Manager, President or CEO
- Involved in a minimum of 3 projects per year
- Average deal is worth at least $5M up to $500M
- Projects are either Retail, Office space, Malls, Land use, require special Zoning, Industrial, or Multi-family
- Have many legal needs including: initial and extended contracts, negotiation with larger companies, tenant leasing, employment contracts, zoning laws, lending laws, dispute negotiation, etc
Business/Corporate Litigation
- CEOs, Presidents, Owners, General Managers
- At least $2M—$100M in annual revenues
- Privately held companies with usually 20-1,000 employees
- Often my client’s businesses are growing 10-20% faster than average
- Open to any business, but most clients are in manufacturing, technology, or transportation field
- Most clients run a business that has an international component to it, is based largely on their IP, is very employee intensive, or contracts with much larger companies
- Can be located anywhere within the state, but usually within 20 miles of a major city (manufacturing & technology employees) or along a major interstate (transportation)
- Have a litigation matter where the “problem” is worth at least $100,000
Family Law/Divorce Attorney
- Have an estate worth at least $500,000-$1MM in assets
- White collar professional or service professional (doctor, chiropractor, accountant, etc)
- Not interested in a “scorch and burn” attorney, willing to work with the other party
- Located within 20-30 miles of my office or a direct referral
- Able and willing to pay a $7,500 to $10,000 retainer
- Service Niche: labor/employment, complex litigation, immigration, healthcare, IP, etc
- Industry Niche: transportation, construction, energy, real estate development
- Geographic Niche: LA-based, southern California, region around Chicago, Mexico
- Specialty-Market Niche: privately held companies, Fortune 500, physicians, white collar executives, blue collar construction workers, Spanish-only speaking, developers, commercial lenders
ACTION STEP – Describe your primary Target Market and then consider the 4 areas and create a profile of your primary Target Market.
- Description of your primary Target Market:
- Can they afford your services? What are their alternatives?
- How can you position your practice to be more valuable to them?
- What are their major issues, challenges, pains?
- Current & Potential Referral Sources for this market:
- Who is NOT in your ideal target market?
If you need more detailed information, you may find the Target Market Inventory very useful.
It is a comprehensive questionnaire covering all the major areas attorneys need to consider when creating a profile of an ideal target market. ***********************************************************************************************************
I want to wish each of you a Happy Holiday season. May you find joy, peace and love as you spend time with your family and loved ones.
Time is running out to reserve your place at the State Bar of California's Solo and Small Firm Summit
The hotel registration deadline is quickly approaching for the State Bar of California’s Solo and Small Firm Summit, to be held in Long Beach on January 21-22, 2010.
This conference, held in conjunction with the Section Education Institute, is designed for legal professionals who work in a solo or small firm practice. The Summit will feature power networking events, legal education classes, business management courses, and showcase products and services unique to the solo or small firm practitioner.
I will be opening and closing the Summit, as well as presenting during two breakout sessions. Some of the material I will be presenting during the Summit includes:
- "7 Strategies to Recession Proof Your Law Firm.”
- “5 Core Components of a Highly Successful Website and Blog.” -this will be presented with John Bisnar, one of Southern California’s most successful personal injury attorneys
- “8 Proven Steps to Double Your Referrals in 6 Months...or Less”
- “Unlocking the Secrets of Social Media: How to Leverage LinkedIn, Fix Facebook and Tweak Twitter for Your Law Firm”
The Hotel registration deadline is December 23, 2009. The registration deadline for the Summit is January 13, 2010. This is an event that you won’t want to miss. The first Solo and Small Firm Summit was held last year and attendees were very positive in their appraisal of the Summit:
"Well done! Tightly put together"
"This summit was a great idea!"
"Let's do this often"
"Very helpful seminar - glad I attended."
"Thank you please make this a regular event with sections conference."
To register for the Solo and Small Firm Summit, visit the website. I know it is the holiday season, but this is an event that can make 2010 a year to remember, instead of one to forget.
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Looking for more Rainmaker Institute wisdom?
Then try our monthly ezine. One click of your mouse will take you to our site where you can see the current issue and subscribe to our complimentary monthly ezine that will be delivered to your inbox. Each issue is chock-full of legal marketing information that you can put to use right away. I think you will find the information on the ezine something that you will want to share with your staff to begin 2010 on the right note in your legal marketing plan.
5 Easy Steps to Create Your Law Firm Marketing Plan Step 1, Part B
In our previous post, I discussed what your ideal target market and client might look like. This post continues that thought and moves into a discussion of creating a niche marketing plan.
To Niche or Not to Niche?
Should you focus on a particular niche or let the niche find you-see what types of client you attract. There are different schools of thought on this topic. You may fall into the pro-niche or the no-niche camp or find that you, like me, prefer a combination approach.
Why Niche Your Practice?
It's certainly helpful to be able to concentrate your marketing efforts in a particular area. Instead of limiting you, it can help position and focus you. You will have targeted marketing materials and a clear Unique Competitive Advantage, UCA, or elevator speech. Selecting a niche doesn't mean that you can't work with other clients outside your target area.
A niche can also help with name recognition and branding. You'll develop a reputation as being the attorney to contact for certain challenges. You'll be more memorable to people you meet and will increase your chances of getting referrals. If someone can't describe what you do/who you do it for/ and how they benefit, they won't be able to make a compelling case for why someone should call you.
It can be more comfortable in the beginning when you are building your practice to specialize in an area you know well and with a segment of the population that may mirror yourself. For instance, if you have extensive management experience, you may want to target other managers.
How to Determine a Niche
Go back to the Friday, December 7 post and look for the overlaps between what you have to offer and what your clients need. Brainstorm possible target markets or niche names.
Why be Flexible about a Niche?
Your ideal client profile may change over time. In addition to building confidence and experience, this will help you determine who you enjoy working with and who you don't. You'll discover which practice areas energize you and which ones drain you.
During this experimental phase, you may want to remain open to possible target markets. It's important to pay attention to the types of clients who come your way.
What Types of Clients are Most Commonly Referred to You?
When you get inquiries from prospective clients, what's drawing them to your and your services? Keep track of your clients and see if they don't begin to naturally fall into one or more groups. You may find that you attract clients you can learn from or who can learn from you. Their situations may mirror your current or recent challenges. Becoming aware of these commonalities is a way to let your niche find you.
It's fine to have more that one specialty or niche. Often attorneys have a bread and butter niche-a segment that can afford to pay them well and another one, perhaps for starving artists, whom they love working with but who pay scholarship rates. Sometimes it's helpful to test the waters to see if there's a demand for your specialty. You can continue working with an established clientele as you determine whether or not to branch out into a new practice area. Remember, nothing is set in stone. You can always rename your business, print new business cards and update a website.
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Want to take the Rainmaker System home with you?
Then order the Rainmaker in a Box 5-DVD set!
Some of the information and strategies you will learn include:
• The 5 Immutable Secrets to Building a 7 Figure Law Practice
• Secrets of Building a Referral-based Law Practice for Busy Practitioners
• The Top 6 Most Powerful Online Marketing Strategies for Attorneys
• Action, Accountability and Next Steps
This program also includes a data DVD which includes all 4 PowerPoint slides for all 4 presentations. We recommend you print all these off and take notes on them as you watch the 4 intense DVDs.
To order this information-packed set click here.
5 Easy Steps to Create Your Law Firm Marketing Plan Step 1, Part A
1. Identify Your Ideal Target Market
If the truth is told, this may be THE MOST IMPORTANT SECTION of your law firm’s marketing plan. You can have the highest quality service, the biggest offices, or the most associates, but if cannot clearly identify who your “ideal target market”—the perfect person/company for your service—you will never build a successful law practice!
It is virtually impossible to spend too much time or energy learning about who your ideal target market is. You want to discover everything you can about them because this can give you the extra edge you need to rapidly attract paying customers and win out over your competitors.
You may have more than one ideal target market for your services. If so, you should complete this for each of them, but try to limit yourself to no more than 1 or 2 target markets because more than that can quickly become overwhelming.
When Developing a Profile of Your Ideal Client Consider:
- Who You are? (Think in terms of roles, values, personal qualities, and who you are to others.)
- What are your natural gifts and strengths?
- What have you experienced in your life and career?
- What specialized training have you received?
- In what areas are you already well-connected?
- What areas do you feel uniquely qualified to serve your clients?
- Where are you perceived as an expert?
- How do you bring out the best in others?
As you begin determining whom you most want to work with and what you love to help them with, keep in mind the unique value that you offer.
Identifying your Ideal Client. Just as someone using a dating service might make a wish list of what he/she would be looking for in a potential partner. Make a wish list of what you are looking for in your clients. Don't be afraid to be specific here. Most new attorneys hesitate about choosing a target market or niche because they don't want to rule anyone out. You can't possibly serve anyone and everyone on anything and everything. So don't even try. If you had your druthers, what would you most like to focus on with your clients and what types of clients feel like a perfect match for you?
Who's your ideal client? Think in terms of age, profession, gender, education, interests, marital status, family size, hobbies, and lifestyle.
- Who can afford your fees? How much can their afford? What's the value to them?
- Who could be a good long-term, repeat client?
- What qualities, characteristics and values do they have?
- What are you helping them accomplish?
- What are their issues, challenges, or pain?
- What is it like working with them?
- Who could be a good source of referrals?
- Who is NOT your ideal client?
The point is to create a comprehensive profile of everything you know about your markets because the more you know about your markets the easier it is to identify them and market to them.
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Rainmaker Retreat Live
Over 6,000 attorneys from hundreds of law firms across the country have discovered how to generate more referrals and find new clients by simply applying our Rainmaker Marketing System.
Here's just a sample of what you will discover in this 6 CD set audio program:
- Over 22 proven strategies for attracting more and better clients
- How to create powerful relationships with over 30 new Referral Sources in the next 90 days
- 7 ways to find more clients fast and how to select the best ones for you
- 2 ways to promote your firm to 100,000 people for only $100
- 5 ways to automate your marketing using technology and the internet
- 6 secrets top Rainmakers use to dominate their competition
- 8 steps to creating a 6 month comprehensive marketing plan for your firm
- Much, much more!
This live recording of our highly successful 2 day law firm marketing boot camp will inspire you with practical examples, motivate you with sample case studies, walk you through best marketing strategies used by top Rainmakers, and provide a guide for you to quickly implement proven tactics in the next 30 days.
Click here to order you copy of this information-packed presentation.
Solo and Small Firm Attorneys, Mark Your Calendars for the Solo and Small Firm Summit, January 21-22, 2010
I’m excited to announce that I will be the keynote speaker at the opening and closing luncheon of the State Bar of California’s Solo and Small Firm Summit, to be held in Long Beach on January 21-22, 2010.
Designed for legal professionals who work in a solo or small firm practice, the Summit will feature power networking events, legal education classes, business management courses, and showcase products and services unique to the solo or small firm practitioner.
I will be kicking off the Summit on Thursday with “7 Strategies to Recession Proof Your Law Firm.” In these difficult times every law firm needs to be proactive in recession-proofing their law firm. In this informative session you will learn:
- Ways to reduce your overhead and increase your profit margins even with fewer new clients
- Low cost and no cost marketing tips
- The best practice areas right now (and the ones to avoid)
- How top law firms are growing in this economy
On Thursday, I will also be presenting, along with my friend John Bisnar, a renowned Southern California personal injury attorney, the “5 Core Components of a Highly Successful Website and Blog.” Some of the topics to be covered in this session include:
- How to transform your website from just an online brochure to a client generating machine
- Core components of a great website and blog
- Overview of search engine optimization
- Hear from an attorney who generates several million dollars every year from their websites and blogs
- Key metrics: how to measure and quantify results
- Using video on your website to attract more clients
On Friday morning, I will present “8 Proven Steps to Double Your Referrals in 6 Months...or Less” In this information-packed presentation, I will demonstrate:
- How to identify potential referral sources for your law firm
- 3 specific ways to generate massive referrals from your current and former clients
- The #1 reason why you are not getting more referrals
- Creative solutions, how to ethically and easily send referrals to other professionals
- Case studies from fast growing law firms
I close out the Summit on Friday with “Unlocking the Secrets of Social Media: How to Leverage LinkedIn, Fix Facebook and Tweak Twitter for Your Law Firm” which will cover:
- Steps for attracing highly qualified prospects on Facebook
- Specific tips for attorneys who want to build a referral network on LinkedIn
- Ways to leverage Twitter to build your online following
- The power of educational videos on YouTube
- Secret strategies law firms are using right now to rapidly increase their platform
To register for the Solo and Small Firm Summit, visit the website. The speaker lineup is one that you will not find anywhere at the low registration cost of the Summit. It will be a practice-changing experience for you and everyone in your firm.
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Practice Made Perfect For Lawyers: 10 Principles for Marketing Your Legal Services
This comprehensive training manual is specifically designed for attorneys and other legal professionals who desire to achieve a higher return on investment from all their marketing efforts. Much more than a simple adaptation, each chapter has been carefully rewritten to apply Stephen’s unique High Impact Marketing System to the challenges faced by solo and small law firms.
Written especially for solo practitioners and partners at small law firms (less than 25 attorneys), this practical manual includes dozens of specific marketing and sales recommendations that can be easily and quickly applied to your firm.
It includes a 2 CD set—one audio CD that provides you with an overview of the 10 Principles along with ideas on how to maximize your results from the manual and a data CD that gives you customizable templates and forms to help you create a marketing budget and strategic development plan.
To purchase this valuable resource, visit The Rainmaker Institute website.
21 Ways to Bootstrap Your Way to Marketing Success (Part 7 of 7)
Stop Ignoring Your Referral Sources
Why do attorneys believe they can neglect and ignore referral sources without it having a detrimental impact? Top attorneys invest their time and money courting and building relationships with referral sources and go out of their way to make a big deal when someone makes a referral to them.
On a regular basis, carve out time to meet with all of your referral sources face-to-face. Out of sight and out of mind is certainly a truism you cannot afford to personally experience.
Aggressively Pursue Ways to Resell, Cross Sell and Up Sell Clients
Now is not the time to be reserved or squeamish about selling. You need to be looking at every avenue available to resell former clients. Cross sell them on other services your firm can offer and up sell them from an entry level service to a high-end, fully customized one.
I was speaking with an attorney last week who thought the very idea of up-selling someone into a higher end service borders on ethical misconduct. Hmmm… that sounds like a great way to go out of business fast. The most expensive thing you can have in your law firm is a one-time client.
If every client you serve must be a new client, you will have to spend at least 10 times more time, money and energy to generate any new business versus the law firm who focuses on serving their current and former clients at a higher level by proving a more customized experience, a more personal touch, and meeting their other needs and challenges.
What are two or three services you can offer your current and former clients to generate additional business from them? Perhaps it’s a service one of your partners offers or a service you can easily add to your current lineup or you could offer it in conjunction with another attorney (like an estate planning attorney offering his clients business services through another attorney).
I trust these principles for bootstrapping your way to success have been informative. Take a few moments right now and reread these principles and write down those steps you are going to implement this month.
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Rainmaker Retreat Live
Over 6,000 attorneys from hundreds of law firms across the country have discovered how to generate more referrals and find new clients by simply applying our Rainmaker Marketing System.
Here's just a sample of what you will discover in this 6 CD set audio program:
- Over 22 proven strategies for attracting more and better clients
- How to create powerful relationships with over 30 new Referral Sources in the next 90 days
- 7 ways to find more clients fast and how to select the best ones for you
- 2 ways to promote your firm to 100,000 people for only $100
- 5 ways to automate your marketing using technology and the internet
- 6 secrets top Rainmakers use to dominate their competition
- 8 steps to creating a 6 month comprehensive marketing plan for your firm
Much, much more!
This live recording of our highly successful 2 day law firm marketing boot camp will inspire you with practical examples, motivate you with sample case studies, walk you through best marketing strategies used by top Rainmakers, and provide a guide for you to quickly implement proven tactics in the next 30 days.
Click here to order you copy of this information-packed presentation.
21 Ways to Bootstrap Your Way to Marketing Success (Part 6 of 7)
Create Category of One
On a recent call with our Mastermind Members (This is select group of attorneys who meet with John Bisnar and me for coaching and consulting. Look here for more information.), we were discussing how to create a unique competitive advantage and position your law firm against larger competitors. One of the best ways to do this is by creating a category of one.
For example, yours is the only law firm in Orlando who handles over 1,000 personal injury cases every year and still requires every client to meet face-to-face with an attorney. At every other large personal injury law firm you only get to meet with a legal secretary or a paralegal.
Here’s another: you are the only criminal defense specialist in San Francisco who is a former Golden Gloves champion. Find a way to create a Category of One, then tell prospects what that means to them and why they should care.
Hire Only Superstars
Right now there is more top talent on the market than ever before and you can get them for a lot less than you could even two years ago. I was just speaking with Darrin Mish, a top tax attorney in Florida (www.GetIRSHelp.com). He mentioned placing an ad on Craigslist recently for an associate and receiving over 100 applicants in a matter of hours.
It is a buyer’s market right now and will be for some time. You cannot afford to have anything less than a superstar on your team, especially during a recession. Here’s my mantra: every single person on my team must either save me money or make me money. The best ones find a way to do both!
Sales is a Contact Sport
Yes, I know you don’t like the word sales. I understand, but in the end everyone is a sales person and you are the best salesperson on your team – or at least you’d better be! The job of your team is to get you in front of as many prospects as possible so you can close the deal. Do not allow anyone to prevent you from meeting with a prospect. No one can close them better than you can. No one is as passionate about your business as you are.
You cannot afford to rely on your “B” team right now. For some of you, it’s the final inning and you are down by three. Bases are loaded so who do you send up to the plate? Obviously your best hitter! Send in the “A” team!
It has been reported by every mainstream media outlet that the number one cause of small business failure is undercapitalization. Hogwash! The number one cause of failure among small businesses is lack of sales because without sales there is no money.
Know your Numbers: Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
Key Performance Indicators are the numbers that make your law firm run. Here are some common numbers you should know:
- How much money do you need each and every month to make payroll and keep your doors open?
- How many new clients do you need to bring in every month to break even?
- What is your average profit margin per client?
- Which types of cases produce the highest profit margin?
- What percentage of people who visit your website end up calling your office?
- What percentage of prospects who call your office come in for a free consultation?
- What percentage of prospects who come in for a free consultation become clients?
What is your average new client worth?
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Mark your calendars for the State Bar of California Solo and Small Firm Summit on January 21-22.
I will be the keynote speaker in all of the General Sessions and two seminars. The schedule is:
Thursday, January 21
Lunch and General Session
7 Strategies to Recession Proof Your Law Firm
Afternoon General Session
I will be joined by John Bisnar, a reknowned personal injury attorney in Orange County
5 Core Components of a Highly Successful Website and Blog
Friday, January 22
General Session
8 Proven Steps to Double Your Referrals in 6 Months.... or Less
General Session and Wrap-up-Friday
Unlocking the Secrets of Social Media: How to Leverage LinkedIn, Fix Facebook and Tweak Twitter for Your Law Firm
To register for the Small and Solo Firm Summit, click here.
21 Ways to Bootstrap Your Way to Marketing Success (Part 5 of 7)
Forget Fame
There are a number of people out there who are selling fame – “buy my product or service and I’ll make you famous.”
Here are some sage words of advice: Forget fame. Become wealthy and fame will follow. Fame is fleeting. Who cares if you are “famous?” The only thing that does is play to your ego. I prefer to play to my pocketbook! Use proven marketing strategies that work. Transform your law firm from a practice into a real business
Automate, delegate or outsource every part of your business that you can. Build a core team of people who support you and run your business for you. Develop a wealth creation system. The fame will follow.
Eliminate the Obstacles
What is blocking you from achieving the financial success you know you should have?
- A partnership gone bad?
- A partner who is distracted and depressed?
- No passion for your clientele?Lack of automated systems to run your marketing?
- A poorly performing staff member?
- Not returning phone calls promptly?
- An incompetent associate?
- No system for following up with leads and prospects?
Now is the time to get rid of the dead weight! It’s easy to overlook people’s faults when times are good, but they are accentuated when times are tough. I believe in taking personal responsibility and not blaming others for your lack of success, but take a few minutes and ask yourself “Who is the weakest link?”
When you identify that person, remove them. While you are at it, make every attorney and staff member commit to returning every single phone call and email within 24 hours. I’m convinced benign neglect of prospects, clients and referral sources is a major obstacle to many a lawyer’s success
Know Your Operating Cash Flow Ratio
Here’s a simple exercise: take the Total Revenues you have generated in the last three months. Divide it by your Total Expenses during the same period. The result is your Operating Cash Flow Ratio. For example, if your Total Revenues were $300,000 and your Total Expenses were $250,000, your Operating Cash Flow Ratio is 1.2. If that number is less than 1, you have a major cash flow problem and you need to reduce your expenses fast or face going out of business!
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Want to take the Rainmaker System home with you?
Then order the Rainmaker in a Box 5-DVD set!
Some of the information and strategies you will learn include:
- The 5 Immutable Secrets to Building a 7 Figure Law Practice
- Secrets of Building a Referral-based Law Practice for Busy Practitioners
- The Top 6 Most Powerful Online Marketing Strategies for Attorneys
- Action, Accountability and Next Steps
This program also includes a data DVD which includes all 4 PowerPoint slides for all 4 presentations. We recommend you print all these off and take notes on them as you watch the 4 intense DVDs.
To order this information-packed set click here.
