So you’ve made the decision to start a local marketing mastermind collaborative with the goal of increasing leads and slashing marketing costs for your law firm. Great!

Now what?

Well for starters, you’ll need to invite a handful of key professionals in town that serve the same target market as you. As we discussed on my no-charge call last week , you’ll need to go outside the box (and probably way outside the list of people you already have in mind!) if you really want to maximize the referral potential that starting a collaborative can bring.

Then once you’ve gathered 4-12 key professionals with the goal of forming a local marketing mastermind collaborative, there are still 5 more key things you must do to ensure the group is set up properly, stays on track and moves forward month to month…rather than becoming a huge drain on your time.

Those steps are as follows:

1. Select a location – You’ll want to immediately choose a location where your group can meet for each “mastermind” session.  While your office is an obvious (and doable) choice, you may also want to consider meeting at a restaurant for breakfast or lunch.  Your group needs to eat anyway and this allows everyone to maximize their day and kill two birds with one stone.

2. Set up a system for reminding everyone in advance of meetings -  Let’s face it…we’re all super busy and sending reminders are key to making sure everyone shows up to your meetings.  Ideally, you’ll want to put a system in place so members of your collaborative receive at least one email and one phone call 24-48 hours in advance of each meeting.

3.  Create a list-serv to keep in touch – You may want to set up a list serv where your group can talk openly about marketing ideas and other concerns, rather than playing email tag or having to wait until the next meeting to present ideas. Two great (and free) resources for this are Google groups or Yahoo groups .

4. Have an agenda for each meeting – Again, the people in your group are busy and so are you. There’s no time to flounder around trying to decide what you should, and should not cover each time you meet.  Instead prepare an agenda in advance so the group can stay on task and move ahead with your marketing goals.

5. Leave time for open communication – While it’s critical to have an agenda and stick to it, you’ll also want to leave time in each meeting for the members to voice their questions, concerns and areas they’re struggling with.  You’ll then work through these issues as a group and tweak your marketing strategy accordingly.

Finally, and most importantly, don’t get too attached to your first group of local marketing mastermind collaborative members!  I’ve received quite a few emails from attorneys who are afraid to start a collaborative simply because someone else may not be a good fit or not hold up their end of the bargain.

Honestly, things like that will happen, but it’s no big deal!  As I explained on my mastermind call and I’ll further teach at our virtual event , if you start with small campaigns, you’ll naturally learn who is… and who isn’t a good fit for the group. You can then make adjustments accordingly until you form a cohesive marketing collaborative that has the ability to tackle more advanced campaigns in the future.

The important thing is that you just get started!  Pick your professionals, implement the five steps above and start moving ahead with your local marketing mastermind collaborative plans.

You’ll be thrilled with the results.

If you do not have a collaborative relationship with complimentary professionals in your town or community, you are missing out on the best way I know of to reduce your marketing investment (of time and money) and increase your return substantially.

It’s time for you to put together your own local marketing mastermind collaborative.

The key to making this work is choosing the right people for your collaborative.

As attorneys, we tend to get stuck in the traditional “referral networks” that consist of financial planners, CPA’s and insurance salesmen. Consider looking for more unconventional professionals who may be more excited about outside the box opportunities to market.

Begin by thinking long and hard about WHO your ideal client is. For what group of people are you what I call “Best in Class?”

You may not be able to be THE best lawyer in the whole world, but you can certainly be the best for a specific class. Who are they?

Once you know that, you can brainstorm other professionals who market their services to that exact same demographic.

For example, my ideal client as an estate planning attorney was parents with small children in California’s South Bay Area. So I talked to local fitness instructors that help moms get back in shape, daycares, pediatricians, the owner of a children’s clothing boutique, etc. when setting up my mastermind collaborative.

Or maybe you’re like my friend who is a criminal defense lawyer in New Jersey that specializes in DWI. For her, complimentary professionals would include bail bondsman, counselors and therapists that specialize in substance abuse and even insurance agents who work with high-risk drivers.

Now, the single most important thing about who is in your group is that at least one person must be grounded in the fundamentals of marketing, developing a campaign and carrying it out.

Join us on our call on Friday when we discuss all the specifics of how to set up your own local marketing mastermind collaborative and make it pay off for you and all the other participants quickly. Here’s the link: http://www.lawbusinessrevolution.com/coop

The results of our 2009 legal marketing/ law practice survey are in and the responses are sadly indicative of our industry as a whole.

According to the results, you are frustrated and tired of begging for business and struggling to turn a profit in your small and solo firms.  The statistics show 23% of lawyers surveyed made under $50,000 last year, while 40% of lawyers surveyed felt “very dissatisfied” with the amount they made in 2009.

A large majority also expressed dissatisfaction with the amount of time they wasted on tire kickers, price shoppers and clients who refused to pay their full fee…and quite frankly, what you know you are worth.

That’s a hard pill to swallow, especially after spending up to six figures on your law degree.

The most unfortunate part, however, is how many of these lawyers did do the right things in marketing their practices last year.   99% of lawyers surveyed tried at least one form of advanced marketing (if not many forms) and still failed to see consistent results or good ROI from their efforts.  As you can imagine, these attorneys were off the chart when it came to feeling “very dissatisfied” with their marketing efforts and practice as a whole.

But, here’s the important thing for you to know … the lawyers who felt “very satisfied” with their marketing, practices and income last year all had one thing in common:

They were not just relying on one source of business; instead, they had an automated marketing system to consistently market using a diverse set of strategies without fail-even (especially!) when times got tough.

A good client attraction strategy is like having a diversified investment portfolio.  When one sector bombs, your stock in an unrelated sector shields you from huge loss.  The same holds true with your marketing.  You want to have an integrated and coordinated marketing system set up so that if one source temporarily dries up, it doesn’t affect you.

I’m sure some of you are thinking, “Wow, that’s got to be expensive …I can barely afford to run a nice big ad in the yellow pages, let alone do all this marketing you’re talking about”.  The good news though is that some of the best strategies are low-cost or even no-cost provided you put in the time to set up the system to begin with.

The great news about a system though is that once it’s set up, it’s good to go and will produce consistent, reliable and predictable results for you on an ongoing basis.

So, what does an integrated, coordinated, automated system look like?

I laid it out in detail on this call I hosted.  Listen to it here .

And if you are ready to get your integrated, coordinated, automated system in place for 2010 and beyond, join us for our 2-day virtual event . It will change everything for you. I guarantee it.

In last week’s Law Business Briefing Memorandum, we discussed strategies you can implement before each live event to boost your effectiveness and generate higher turnouts than ever before.

If you missed that article, I encourage you to read it here, but essentially, you’ll want to start communicating with your prospects before the event via the information collected on the registration form and gather leads during the event by utilizing an opt-in form tied to a free gift or offer.

Yet gathering leads is only half the battle in relationship-based marketing. The second and arguably most important step in making the most of your speaking engagements is to automate the follow-up process to ensure no prospect is left behind and everyone receives consistent communication from you and your firm.

You may have heard the saying, “the money is in the follow-up” and I can vouch from personal experience this is true. So with that said, here are four easy steps you can take after each live speaking event to ensure money is in the follow-up for you as well:

1. After the event, compare the initial registration list to the names of those who were in attendance.

2. From there, break those names down into three categories: those who took your offer at the event, those who attended but didn’t take your offer and those who registered but didn’t attend—then create appropriate follow up sequences. The follow up sequence should include multiple touches in various ways (email, phone, snail mail) for the best effectiveness!

3. If the free gift you offered requires fulfillment, strive to distribute your materials promptly while you are still fresh in the prospect’s mind.

4. Always add all leads to your house list and maintain consistent, friendly ongoing communication with them via both email and direct mail.

As you can see, the hardest part of this maximization effort is automating the follow-up process so you can contact your prospects long after the event has taken place.

Infusion is my personal automation software of choice because it allows for segmented lists and hence very specific follow-up campaigns designed to motivate prospects and get them to say YES to your services if they didn’t already do so at the live event.

But don’t let not having a good email marketing/ contact management system stop you from getting started with this! Either make a quick investment into a good CRM like Infusion (which is money VERY well spent on your part), or use an excel spreadsheet or some good ole’ fashion tickler systems. Either way—just get started.

So next time you have a speaking engagement, I encourage you to give these steps a try and chart your results. And don’t forget to email me at alexis@lawbusinessrevolution.com with your success stories!

PS- If you’re considering a CRM like Infusion, be sure to email support@lawbusinessrevolution.com for further information on special bonuses we’ve negotiated for members of the Law Business Revolution. We’re always happy to help.

If you enjoy speaking and are decent up in front of a crowd, your marketing plan should include regular speaking engagements from which you’ll be able to convert attendees into clients.

Too many lawyers aren’t using speaking at all to build their firms.  And the few of you who are, are often spinning your wheels spending a lot of time without a lot of return on your investment.

That’s because there’s a lot more to putting on a successful speaking engagement than just booking a venue (or finding someone to host you) and writing out talking points.

On the flip side, when you know how to speak strategically, it’s a lot easier than anything you are doing right now to market.

So what steps can you take to ensure you’re truly making the most of your speaking opportunities?  Try the following:

Before the event:

• Have a special phone number or web page where people can register in advance.  This is your first chance to capture contact information and get a rough idea as to how many people will be in attendance.
• If you’re collecting information by phone, be sure your team logs everything into your database or on a spreadsheet so you can readily access the data a few days before, and after the event.
• Be sure to let people registering for the event know you’ll send a reminder before the event and that they’ll begin to receive your weekly email newsletter as well.
• Send a friendly reminder of the event 24-48 hours in advance by email and strongly consider having someone in your office make a phone call as well.
• Strategize the offer you’ll make during the speaking event (this does not have to mean you are selling something. Your offer can be for a very high value something, like an article, a report, or even an appointment with you that you give away.)
• Collect the contact information of anyone who wants your free giveaway (this can be done as simply as having people hand you their cards if it is a business event, or you can use a form you’ve created or even simple index cards).  These people are all leads who have raised their hand to tell you they may need your services down the road.

Of course, your fortune with these fresh leads (or prospects if they’ve made an appointment to meet with you) is in the follow up.  Next week, we’ll cover exactly how to follow up to convert these leads and prospects into money in the bank.

In the meantime, you may want to check out my most recent article on lawyerist.com. You can read it here:http://budurl.com/pc28

Corporations spend billions each year developing creative advertising and marketing campaigns to attract more clients.   They realize creativity is the key to standing out in a saturated marketplace.  So, how do they stand out?  The key is in creativity.  Making their product, marketing materials and physical space “unique” and different on multiple sensory levels.

The good news is you don’t have to spend billions to do this in your own law business.

And yet most lawyers are stuck looking the same as everyone else. Why?

Because most of us:

1. Are analytical/left-brain thinkers who have a hard time jumping into our right-brain/creative side (creativity really is hard for some people); and

2.  Assume everything must be “professional” to earn the respect of a prospect, leaving very little room for creativity and innovation.

Lawyer type of professional is a thing of the past. Today, people associate that old kind of “professional” image with a non-responsive, scary lawyer who takes their money and won’t return phone calls or the attorney who will bill for every email, phone call or correspondence that crosses her desk.

Being creatively professional, on the other hand, helps remove the defenses and stereotypes people have when hiring a lawyer and overcomes the presumption that you’re just like all the other lawyers in town.

With that said, here are the top three ways where a bit of creativity and right-brain thinking can go a long way in attracting clients to your law firm:

1.  Web copy:  If your web copy reads like a CV or a text book, time to hit the delete button and juice up your creative writing skills.  Use your website to tell the story of who you are, why you are different and why your area of law matters so much.  You can even get creative with your writing style! Throw in some bullet points, contractions and folksy language if that’s how you speak.  Use those creative juices to prove you aren’t the stuffy lawyer prospects expect you to be.

2.  Firm Story:  Your firm story (the story you relay to clients about why you practice law, how your business came to be and what makes you different from other lawyers) should be about true life events and epiphanies that are relevant to the person you are speaking with, not a biography of your most notable accomplishments and awards.  Here you’ll creatively use your experiences outside the law to connect to prospects on a much deeper and more meaningful level.  Did you grow up in foster care and now practice family law or estate planning as a result? Integrate that into your firm story!  Did you live through a bankruptcy and now practice business law to help other entrepreneurs avoid the same plight?  Include that too!  The more outside-the-box your story is, the more likely it will stick with your prospects and make an impact.

3.  Your office space:  If you haven’t watched my video on setting up your office space in a way that’s creative, outside the box and prime to attract more clients, do so now by clicking here. Your office says so much about you and plays a huge role in attracting the right type of clients to your firm.  Therefore, you’ll want to get the décor and ambiance just right so your first impression with a prospect won’t be the last.  You can do this even if you use a virtual office space.  Create a basket that you bring in before each client meeting that personalizes the space.

And as always, be sure to email alexis@lawbusinessrevolution.com with your success stories or questions on getting creative in the marketing of your law firm.  Creativity is the key to your client attraction strategy in 2010 so jump out of that left-brain thinking and get started!

Over the past few weeks, I’ve given you practical how-to’s on attracting more clients to your law firm.  What I haven’t talked about is that the heart of client attraction is about becoming clear about the authentic you.

Let’s face it.  You can be the smartest lawyer, the savviest marketer and even an outward success, but if you aren’t happy with what you are doing and who you are being, your leads and prospects will ultimately feel that energy and be repelled.

Referrals will slow down as your clients simply don’t feel comfortable sending people they love to you for help. You won’t have the kind of impact you should be having on people that keeps them coming back for more.  And worst of all, you won’t be giving each client your “all” out of frustration, annoyance or boredom with your work.

All of these traits drive clients away from your business.  The only way to fix the issue is to take a cold, hard look in the mirror and figure out who you are, who you want to be and how you can contribute more value to the world.

No matter how “out there” this sounds, if you can’t attribute meaning and value behind the work you do on a daily basis, you’ll never reach your full potential as a lawyer.  You’ll never reach the income levels that are truly possible for you or the impact your business can have on the world.

A lawyer who is confident and secure in herself, on the other hand, who knows he is changing lives and making an impact on the world will attract more of what is needed to keep moving forward-namely clients and income.

None of that can happen until you identify what you are really passionate about and the area of law which ultimately provides you with the most personal fulfillment.

If you are finding that your client attraction strategies simply aren’t working the way you wish they would, consider that it might be because you are not putting yourself out there as much as you could because you are not happy with the lawyer you’ve become.

If that’s the case, consider a new practice area.  It’s never too late to make a change.

If you are in a practice area you are passionate about and are ready to serve a whole lot more of your ideal clients, be sure you’ve registered for my client attraction coaching call today at
http://lawbusinessrevolution.com/holiday/

One of my personal passions is helping lawyers really love their businesses and clients really love their lawyers.  I’ll be sharing the big picture of my single best strategy for generating a lot more business for your firm in 2010.  So be sure to register here and prepare to bring more satisfaction, fulfillment and happiness back to your law business!

PS. After your register for the call, be sure to review the rest of the e – course by clicking here for video 2 here for video 3 here for video 4.

See you then!

One of the easiest ways to continue the momentum after successfully engaging a client is to thoroughly automate the client service process.

This not only ensures you are continuing the WOW experience after your initial meeting but it also helps  the client to justify…and feel really good about the investment they just made into your firm.

This process will also make a HUGE difference in how your clients talk about you to their friends, family, clients and colleagues, which will result in far more referrals for you in the long run.

So by now you should already have (or at least be researching) a practice management system to help you keep track of your new clients and the action steps that must be completed on their behalf.

However, you don’t necessarily need a practice management system to get started with this. You can revamp your entire client service system in less than 24 hours by merely setting up an excel spreadsheet that lays out what needs to happen (and more importantly WHEN it needs to happen) after a prospect becomes a paying client of your firm.

And ideally, you’ll want to sit down with your team when you do this (starting from the minute the client leaves your office after successful engagement to the completion of the work they’ve paid you for) so everyone is on the same page and knows what’s expected of them.

To give you an example of what I mean, here are some of the action steps that happened in my own law firm after a client said yes to working with us:

1. Immediately set time and date for their next appointment at the meeting.

2. Personal phone call within 2 days from attorney checking in and thanking  client for choosing the firm.

3.  Series of 4 follow up emails sent over two week period welcoming client to our firm and introducing them to the team and process they’d be experiencing so they knew what to expect.

And the list goes on….in fact, I had a 14-step follow up process documented out and automated once someone became a client.

This follow up process turned my clients into raving fans because it was so different than anything other lawyers were doing.  And, it eliminated that feeling that most clients have after they engage a lawyer of falling into a big, black hole.

Plus, it saved us time because we eliminated 99% of those time-sucking “just checking in to see what progress you’ve made on my file” phone calls because the client now knows what you are working on and where they are in your process.

The key to making this work in your firm is automation.  If it’s left to a human to make this happen, it won’t.  At least, not consistently.  Automate your client service process and watch the magic happen.

I’ve talked a lot about systematizing your processes so you can set your client expectations and turn them into raving fans.  But it’s possible that I haven’t explained precisely why raving fans are the key to your business freedom.  Having raving fans isn’t simply an ego boost (though it does feel good), it makes a huge difference to your bottom line and ultimately the time you have to put into your business.

Here’s a few of the reasons you want raving fans:

1. They insist that all their friends and family use your services.  This saves you huge marketing time, energy and money.

2. They will butt into the conversations of a strangers asking for legal advice to say they must contact you, and only you, because of their incredible experience.  This kind of a referral makes engaging the client a piece of cake for you.

3. They become walking advertisements for months or even YEARS down the road-giving you a greater marketing ROI than any magazine ad or direct response marketing campaign could ever touch.  Plus, they are more likely to use more of your future services, which means more bottom line revenue for your business.

Today, it’s about high-concept, high-touch, relationship-based service.  It’s what’s bringing in the clients and keeps them so they stay, pay and refer.  And that means more happiness for you.

You already know times are tight and that means the same old, same old is simply not going to do it. People have lots of choices among lawyers and will not spend their hard earned money on just anyone.  Revamping your client service process to create a high-concept, high-touch experience without much additional expense will put you light years ahead of the competition struggling to figure out what this shift means-and how to operate under it in their business.

Think about this for a moment.

What do people think of when they think about lawyers?  Non-responsive, dodging phone calls and foot-dragging. They come into the relationship expecting to have to stay on your tail and call your office every couple days to check on their progress. They expect you to treat them poorly.  It’s sad, isn’t it?

Imagine their surprise then when your firm treats them completely differently. Now, you are proactively communicating with your clients. You’re still giving red-carpet treatment-even after you’ve won their business and cashed the check.

That is what creates a raving fan for life of your firm-not to mention, a raving fan who will call you whenever she needs a “trusted advisor” down the road.

So now that you know WHY client service systems (aka the automated process of how things are handled after a client says yes and gives you a check) is so important, I invite you to learn HOW to set up a client service system that works by joining me for a preview call on Thursday, November 19^th at 3 EST / 12 pm PST during which I’ll lay out my Client Service System and what you can learn from it.

I’ll be sending you the registration link on Monday, so be sure to block this date on your calendar and we’ll discuss this in more detail next week!

PS. Here’s an example of what happens when you create raving fans. They send you unsolicited testimonials like this one:

“This past Monday, the day after I listened to the CDs over the weekend, I had a couple of client meetings that resulted in $3k of additional revenue b/c I asked 4 “$1,000 questions” and got yes answers on 3 of them.  So the system paid for itself the day I started using some of the ideas – Pretty cool!”

-Pete Sisson – Boise, Idaho

As we all know, the legal industry was hit particularly hard by the economy. Over 12,000 lawyers and legal staff members lost their jobs, entire firms have shut down and small and solo attorneys are working harder than ever to get new business in the door.

You may be wondering, ‘Is my practice next?” “How long will this last?” “Can I afford to ride out the storm?”

Here’s the good news about the economic shakedown:

I don’t want you to believe a word I’m saying here. I want you to test it out in your own business. I know it works because it’s what turned my law firm into a million dollar business within three years and has my Personal Family Lawyers and private coaching clients doubling and even tripling their income right now by making a few fundamental shifts in the way they do business.

And the really good news is that it doesn’t have to take a whole of time, effort or money to make this shift in your business. But, the return on your investment will be phenomenal.

So what does high concept/high touch look like in your law firm?

Essentially it means creating a WOW experience that appeals to all of your prospect’s or client’s senses, not just their minds.

There’s a new business model emerging as a result and if you are prepared to embrace what client’s really want . . . high concept / high touch and interaction, you will completely differentiate yourself in the marketplace and your business will thrive.

Try some of these out in your practice:

Continue reading Alexis’ guest article on Lawyerist.com……