For some odd reason, there’s a huge disconnect between the “wow” factor we expect from other service-based businesses as opposed to that which we provide in our law firms.

Consider your expectations at an expensive, five-star restaurant, like the one I wrote about last week. In addition to terrific food, you expectvalet parking, impeccably clean bathrooms, and friendly staff just waiting to say “yes” to your every request. It’s the little extras that justify the big check you happily pay.  If you had that same great food in a dive bar, you’d expect to pay a whole lot less.

You see, it’s the experience that justifies the added expense.

So why would things be any different in your service-based business?

If you want to attract prospects in droves and command fees you deserve, you need to provide a unique experience that your prospects and clients can’t get just anywhere.

But, if you are like most of us lawyers, your left-brain desire to appear “professional” leaves you looking just like everyone else.   Unfortunately, that’s the kind of thinking that will find you losing ground quickly in the new economy.

To help you with this, I’ve outlined three steps you can take immediately to “wow” your prospects and set yourself apart from the crowd in a way that will create immediate results.

1. Know your target audience and create an experience right from their first contact with you-

To begin with, it’s critically important to narrowly define exactly who you serve. Know your market inside and out. What brands do they like? What books do they read? What keeps them up at night?

Then, design every interaction (from advertising to networking to how your phones are answered) with your target market in such a way that they know you really understand them and that they can trust you.

You signal this by doing little things like setting your office up so that it appeals to their tastes. My market was upscale, affluent parents of young children. So, I moved my office into a renovated historic home in my community, kept a scented candle burning at all times, met with my prospects at a Pottery Barn table instead of a fancy desk or conference room table, and had children’s toys available at all times.

These small gestures went a long way in earning my prospects trust and helping them to see me as a nurturing extension of their family who was going to hold their hand through the most important decisions of their life (no matter how expensive my fees seemed at the time).

2. Capture their emotions with your “firm story” – A big focus of the new economy is the power of story. Your story should give your prospect a brief history of yourself, how you work and how you are different. Your story should last between 3-7 minutes and resonate through your whole firm – from your marketing pieces, to your pre-meeting package, to your team members. And when done right, this will be the crux of creating a ‘wow’ experience because the client will immediately understand why you are the perfect lawyer for them and they couldn’t shop you if they tried.

I suggest using short vignettes to paint a picture of how you used to be and what happened to make you into the lawyer you are today.   Your story should be human– letting your client know you’ve made mistakes along the way but are devoted to helping clients in their shoes. And most importantly, you want to finish up by illustrating what this means for your prospect and how your transformation into a new kind of lawyer will impact their life or business for the better.

3. Take control of each meeting – Part of the ‘wow’ experience is the ability to stay in control of your interactions with your prospects without being overbearing or pushy.   A server at a fine restaurant already has the chair pulled out, napkin ready and water poured before you can even say hello. You need to be on your game the same way in order to convey absolute confidence in your firm and the services you offer.

To do this, you’ll want to have your prospects come to the meeting prepared – what kind of homework can you give them to do in advance? Plus, create an agenda that will allow you to take control right from the beginning and get right down to business in a non-intimidating, friendly way. Have a folder with all paperwork you need prepared in advance (including homework you assigned to your prospect or client prior to the meeting and working tools, such as your engagement letter and method of payment form). Remember—you are going into this with an expectation … be prepared for the expectation to be fulfilled.

This is just the beginning of how you create a “wow” experience for your prospects and clients, but it’s a great start. I’ll continue on this theme next week and we’ll talk about how you can continue the wow experience once your prospects turn into clients and how doing so will get you off the marketing merry go round.

PS – many lawyers get confused between their target market and their practice niche. Don’t make this mistake. Focus on who you serve first and foremost and design an experience the people you serve will want for themselves and their friends and family.

Michael Jackson had a slew of lawyers around him at all times.

Some lawyers handled his business matters, one allegedly drafted a will in 2002, some lawyers worked on his criminal “dream team” during the molestation case, while others took care of his civil matters that surfaced almost daily as he feel deeper into debt.

Yet, as of this writing, it appears no one bothered to step out their traditional “lawyer” box to put all the pieces together and make sure his kids and money were truly protected should something happen to him.

And even if a Will does turn up, what’s important for you to know about all of this is that this happens every single day. Parents die unexpectedly or find themselves unable to care for their kids and there is no documentation to ensure the children end up in the care of people the parents’ would have wanted and that their money gets handled in the way the parents would want.

Every time it happens, it’s an absolutely unnecessary tragedy and this is a great wake up call for all of us as lawyers to understand that we are there to guide our clients holistically, regardless of what they’ve contacted us for.

No matter what type of law you practice  – criminal defense, bankruptcy, divorce, employment, business – if you have clients who have children and assets (which of course you do), you need to take a minute and say, “Hey, this is going to seem kind of off topic, but I ask this of all my clients because it’s so often overlooked, have you named legal guardians for your kids, in writing?  If not, I can help you with that.”

THAT is how a five minute conversation will make you someone’s lawyer for life.  That is how you make sure your client is truly taken care of–and THAT is how you change the world.

I don’t care if you refer them to a local estate planning attorney you have a relationship with, a Personal Family Lawyer or send them to our free site, http://www.kidsprotectionplan.com, but you need to do something instead of letting your clients try to figure out things on their own.

It’s time for us to stop letting families fall through the cracks because our industry has become so specialized.  Take a minute and explain to your clients that whether they have $1 or $10 million dollars, as long as they have a child, they need legal planning to protect their family.

If nothing else, you’ll sleep better at night knowing you tried.

PS. Make sure you check out GASSPO as your surfing the web this holiday weekend. It’s a member-only site that has incredible business growth and personal development strategies, resources, opportunities and support from peers, mentors and experts (which happens to include yours truly!) I have arranged a special $100 discount off the GASPPO membership fee just for my personal contacts. If you choose to become a GASPPO member, you must use this coupon code link with the code affgasspo to get the special discount. The discount is valid for 7 DAYS ONLY and will no longer be available after July 7th. Enjoy!

In most of us, there exists a Type-A overachiever who would work 24 hours a day fighting on behalf of our clients, if we let that part of us take over. We like to win, we like to be the best and we are willing to sacrifice to make that happen. It’s what got us through law school, after all. At least that’s the case for me.

But somewhere along the way, I woke up and realized this is the one life I’ve got (at least that I’ll remember) and I’d better make it a great one or I’m going to look back years from now and be full of regret.

Apparently, that wake-up call hasn’t come for Scott Greenfield, a criminal defense lawyer in NY, who calls those of us who want more out of life the “Slackoisie” because apparently we are slackers if we want to have a life and a law firm.

Before I rebut the substance of Scott’s argument, I’ve got to take a minute to comment about Scott’s statement that I am full of disgustingly sweet goo and utterly devoid of substance. I LOVE it. Thank you, Scott.

I love being sweet and, as for the utterly devoid of substance … well, I don’t pull this out there very often, but I DID graduate first in my class from Georgetown Law and worked at Munger, Tolles & Olson for three years before starting my own firm. I DID build my law firm into a 7-figure law firm in only three years by creating a brand new business model and I DID sell that law firm and I DO now help hundreds of lawyers around the United States become the lawyers they’ve always wanted to be and love their business again while enjoying work/life balance.

So, you can say what you want about me, but maybe come up with something better than utterly devoid of substance.

The fact of the matter is that guys like Scott Greenfield are stuck in an old paradigm. A paradigm based on a broken business model. Yes, under the old paradigm, work/life balance is NOT possible. I discovered this myself working first for a big law firm and then after starting my own firm and building it the way the “successful” lawyers told me I should and realizing it was going to stick me with insane hours and not really make a difference in my clients’ lives.

Unfortunately, outdated lawyers who want to justify their misery must resort to name calling of anyone who longs for something more and knows that it’s possible to have it all without compromising client well-being. They whine that instead of embodying “professionalism, responsibility and duty,” the desire for work- life balance is nothing more than a quest for “the magic bullet that will enable[you] to achieve success in the absence of inconvenient effort.”

Lawyers are under more stress than ever, many turning to drugs and alcohol to deal with it. While it’s true there is no magic bullet to success, it can happen much more quickly and easily than Greenfield and his brethren would like you to believe. It’s going to take you a huge amount of effort, but you are going to put in the effort one way or another, so why not put it in bucking the norm and creating something new and unique that will allow you to have it all and take great care of your clients while you do it.

At the end of the day it comes down to this: Clients are far better served by a lawyer who uses technology to the max, has learned how to systematize their practice, and utilizes a team to support her clients than by a lawyer who stuck in the old, broken model. And, yes, it’s quite likely this lawyer will be found on Twitter and be enjoying a very nice work/life balance.

When I graduated from law school back in 1999, we were in the middle of a salary war among the biggest firms. Biglaw was increasing first year salaries each year in the hopes of luring the best and the brightest. By the time I started after my clerkship, first year pay was up to $135,000 a year and the Summer associate programs were out of control.

Dinners at Sushi Sasabune, weekends at La Quinta, Dodger games, trips to San Diego … they wined us, dined us and begged us to choose their firms.

Those days are over for a while. Summer Associate programs are being cut and lawyers are being laid off in droves. Graduating from law school in today’s market must be quite scary.

But, I’ll tell ya what, though it doesn’t appear to be the case, all of this could be one of the biggest blessings you’ll ever experience in your legal career.

Let me remind you that while big firms are struggling financially, the demand for lawyers and legal services is higher than ever.

And, there’s millions of lawyers who have gotten stuck in jobs they hate simply because they went to law school and figured if they could get a job at a big law firm, that’s what they should do because that’s where the money is.

Well, guess what? Now, that’s not where the money is and that’s certainly not where the enjoyment is, so why would you want a job at a big law firm anyway?

Thousands of people right now are in bankruptcy and need a lawyer, savvy real estate investors are out on the prowl with the help of their trusted attorneys, high profile deaths such as Michael Jackson’s or Steve McNair’s have parents scrambling to get their estate planning ducks in a row, and more people than ever are starting businesses and need ongoing support to protect their brands, their personal assets, and grow their visions without worry.

These folks, who are actively looking for lawyers right now wish they had a great alternative to the traditional, outdated lawyer, like those found stuck in many of the big , stuffy law firms.

In the new economy, families and small business owners want a trusted advisor who is creative, thinks the way they do, but a bit more objectively, and who works under a new model. They are looking for a lawyer not only willing to create an ongoing relationship with their family, but who have a system in place for doing it and who will set a fair and reasonable fee without nickel and diming them to death.

That could be you. If you’re at a law firm and facing a layoff or you’ve already been laid off, recognize that you’ve been given the greatest opportunity of your life to make it happen on your own.

The key is to follow a proven model that works so you don’t make years of unnecessary and expensive mistakes. I’ve got a few resources to make it super easy for you to get started without making a big investment:

- First, be sure to download and use the practice tools I spent over $22,500 to create for my own law firm. You can get them here: http://www.lawbusinessrevolution.com. If you’ve already joined the revolution, be sure you are USING the tools. They only work if you use them.

- Once you learn what it takes to start your own firm, you might feel a little scared about the fact that you are starting out in a “bad” economy (though if you take my advice this economy will turn out to be a boon for you). Don’t get stressed. I have help. Download my audio program that walks you through the practical steps you need to shift from fear into faith (and grow a great business!) in this economy.

Just remember, a layoff may come—or it may have already come—but you don’t need to feel discouraged or sorry for yourself! This is a huge opportunity to do something better than you ever imagined with your life and walk through that open door that’s staring you in the face. You’ll be glad you did.

PS – if you need capital to start or grow your law firm, we are going to be having a call on law business credit. Save the date of  August 6th at 3pm ET/ 12pm PT. More details to come.

The new world of Web 2.0 has made things a bit like the Wild Wild West in terms of law firm marketing.  Everything’s new, there’s no guidelines and quite frankly, it can be a bit scary at times.  I understand.  I was once boggled by the myriad of opportunities too.

But, you must take the time to understand your options.

In today’s world, with more choices than ever, your law firm will never have a steady stream of prospects calling if you are not marketing.  And let’s be honest, marketing can be extremely time consuming, has a steep learning curve and typically requires a lot of expensive trial and error.

Fortunately, once you figure it out, business (and life) becomes much easier.  And when you have the one-two punch of attracting the right prospects and engaging over 80% of the ones that call your office, now you’ve got a real business. [ed note: if you aren't engaging over 80% of the prospects who call your office, you are wasting a whole lot of your time & most of the money you spend on your marketing.]

I can definitely understand the desire to outsource a substantial part of your lead flow.  Who wouldn’t want someone else to handle what is for many of you the most difficult part of your business – getting the phone to ring?

In response, companies have sprung up that claim they will get your phone to ring by leveraging the power of the internet. Not all companies are the same though.  Here’s what you should look for when you are engaging any outside legal marketing company to help with your marketing:
1.  Pay for results only.

Pay-for-results or (pay-per-performance) means you only pay if you get results.  But, not all results are the same.

Beware of the companies promising to get your website to the top of the google or other search engines. That’s not necessarily the results you want or care about.  Sure, they can get you to the top of google for certain keywords, but are those the keywords your prospects are searching for?  What about all the other searches?  And, what happens when people get to your website?  Is your website primed to convert looky-loos into your clients?  If your site is like most lawyer sites I’ve seen, no.

If you are not prepared to make the time and money investment in building a website that converts (we can cover that another day), you may want to look for a company that is going to deliver you qualified contacts.

2.  No long-term contracts.

Look for a provider that doesn’t require you to sign a long-term contract.  If it’s pay-for-results or pay-per-performance, why require a long-term contract?  Either you are getting the contacts or you aren’t.

3.  Screening that benefits you and not the provider.

I’ve heard a rumor that some pay-for-performance companies screen the inquiries and cherry pick the best cases for themselves or their buddies. I understand this is most common in the personal injury arena and can’t confirm it, but watch out for it if you are 1 of 5 or 6 attorneys getting contacts in a specific area.  Look for a company that delivers you ALL of the contacts that come in for your specified area without room for discretion about which of the contacts you get and which you don’t get.

If you use these guidelines before you choose a company to outsource your marketing to, you’ll have very little, if any, risk.

And, while you know I’m a big fan of outsourcing so you can be the lawyer you’ve always wanted to be, don’t rely on outsourced marketing as your only source of leads.  Make pay-per-performance online marketing part of your mix, but be sure you’ve got your own internal systems for becoming THE go to lawyer in your local community as well.

Have you ever read one of my past articles on generating income and thought, “That all sounds nice and good Alexis…but there’s just no way I can [insert opportunity] because I’m not an estate planning attorney?”

If so, you’re not alone!

In fact, I received an email this week from one of our subscribers just like that.  Here is a reprint of the email in part:

Hi Alexis,

Thank you for your consideration.

First, let me get one thing out of the way before I address this subscriber’s specific question-ALL businesses are at their core the same.

Every business owners is in the business of marketing the service that business provides.

So, yes, even though you are a litigator, you can rustle up a speaking engagement and get clients into your office that translate into revenue …fast.

Let’s take a look at how.

As more people lose their jobs, entrepreneurs are taking it as a sign to branch out and start their own businesses.  In fact, small business startup rates are higher than ever-especially when it comes to online ventures.

This subscriber could be putting together a presentation (and even charge for it!) that teaches businesses owners and corporations what they MUST know to avoid being sued and/or what to do if they are sued to keep their legal fees as low as possible.

This presentation could be advertised online nationally or locally in your community.

I guarantee if you market it right, you’d get a great turnout.  How do I know?  Because I’ve created a tele-conference series for business owners who want to put a great foundation beneath their business and over 20 business owners have paid $397 to participate.

Business owners want and need this information.  When you provide it to them, guess who they are going to call when they find themselves in hot water? YOU!  And, how many of the business owners you will be hot water right when you talk to them?  A few.

These potential clients are now be educated on why they need your services and why you are the best person to serve them.

Can you see how this is applicable to every practice area?

The personal injury lawyer can be speaking to accident victims – what to know before settling your accident case with the insurance company. The divorce lawyer – what to know before you file for divorce so you keep as much money as possible and don’t screw up your kids.  The employment lawyer – what every business owner must know to keep from losing tens of thousands of dollars to employees. The business litigation lawyer – what every business owner must know about disputes to keep legal costs down.

These are very basic, simple examples, but here’s what you can see …

Experts hold seminars. Experts get referrals, and the experts get immediate income.You are qualified to be holding seminars, giving presentations and sharing your knowledge because you are an expert in your practice area!

Now it’s just a matter of getting creative, finding the right audience and getting in front of them-which is really a crash course in direct response  marketing 101 (taught through our Law Business Secrets Success Coaching Club) – and has nothing to do with estate planning.

And while I can’t reveal every single detail about securing and converting these speaking engagements into immediate income (that’s a perk for Personal Family Lawyers and Law Business Secrets Success Coaching Club members only!), with a little bit of research and “outside the box” thinking-you too can generate additional income through speaking engagements no matter what type of law you practice!

If you’re anything like the majority of people today, one of the areas you are most bogged down in is your email.

With hundreds of emails a day from clients, office staff, associates, family and friends, it’s hard to get a handle on what really needs your attention and what can wait until later.

And right now, you are the filter of it all-which means reading each and every email and responding (or forwarding them) accordingly.

Email is a huge drain that is not only keeping you from your creative genius, but also from enjoying free time and staying on top of everything you need to do to meet your client’s needs.

Hard Lessons Learned from Productivity “Gurus”

Until recently, I was very guilty of spending too much time filtering emails and responding to things that really didn’t need my attention.

A couple of years ago, I read Tim Ferris’ book, the Four Hour Workweek, and even interviewed him for the Law Business Revolution members.  Honestly, I tried to implement his suggestion of only checking email twice a day and using autoresponders to handle the rest. Sadly though, I learned the hard way that Tim’s strategy DOES NOT work for client service focused businesses!

My clients, friends and family felt the autoresponders were cold and detached from my usual attentive nature. They wanted to speak with me, their lawyer or their coach, and I was essentially telling them “you’re just not important enough for my time right now”.

Not to mention, some of the things that came through really did require my immediate attention and just couldn’t wait until my “designated email checking time” later that evening.

So needless to say, I fell of the Tim Ferris wagon very quickly.

Letting go of Your Email IS Possible

But I had to do something because my inbox was out of control. At any one time, I’d have as many as 500 emails waiting for a response from me (and that was after I had deleted the ones that I could toss or respond to quickly!)

I began to notice that my stress level corresponded nearly exactly to the number of emails waiting for my reply. I had to do something! Fortunately, after a brainstorming session with my Executive Vice President, Laura Lee Sparks, I discovered a very doable way to relinquish control of my email without letting down my clients or allowing work to fall through the cracks.

Essentially, you need to hire an email manager to act as your filter. Your email manager must be someone you trust to determine what’s important and what can be handled by other members on the team.

Your email manager will send the things that need your attention within 24 hours to a special, private email that only you and a few trusted team members know about. He or she will personally respond to everything that needs acknowledgment with a pre-scripted message that can be edited in appropriate circumstances. Something along the lines of:

Subject line: Alexis Has Received Your Message

Sincerely,
Michelle Foster

Emails should then be labeled in folders or marked with icons in your original email account so you know what needs your attention, what’s been responded to and what is just FYI when you log in to check your account once or twice a day.

Take the Leap and Let Go of Email Management!

I’m the first person to admit that delegating email to an email manager can be scary-especially for us control freaks.

But, I can promise you that once you get a system in place, you’ll never look back. You’ll realize just how much time you were wasting each day and you’ll now have more time to do that which brings more revenue and enjoyment into your business and your life.

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About the Law Business Revolution

The Law Business Revolution is a legal marketing and training organization focused on helping attorneys attract quality clients, start and manage productive law firms, systematize their businesses and ultimately help lawyers attain more time and greater resources than ever before.

Training through the Law Business Revolution includes (but is not limited to), private and group coaching led by professionals that surpassed the 7-figure mark in their own firms and businesses, client engagement strategies, client attraction strategies, educational, relationship-based marketing techniques designed to get results, lead generation training, campaigns for consumers, referrals and prospects and systematizing a firm to run on autopilot.

Licensed attorneys are welcome to download over $22,500 of free practice building resources courtesy of the Law Business Revolution at http://www.lawbusinessrevolution.com .

This week’s Law Business Revolution Weekly Briefing Memorandum is going to re-set your expectations about what should happen when you speak at a seminar or meet with a prospective client in your office. If your objectives are too low, you are wasting time, money and energy. Let’s maximize your resources – you can be making a whole lot more impact and money in a whole lot less time when you up your conversion rates.

This past weekend at my Personal Family Lawyer® training conference, as I was discussing how Personal Family Lawyers in our program should be making appointments with 60-70% of seminar attendees and engaging nearly 100% of prospects who make it in for appointments,along-time lawyer, but short-term Personal Family Lawyer®, expressed concern that I was setting “unrealistic expectations” for our lawyers based on typical marketing stats.

He felt that a 30% appointment rate and 60-70% engagement rate was “more accurate” for attorneys.

But I’m here to tell you that those numbers stink and if that’s what you are shooting for, you are setting your bar way too low.

Here are three things to consider if you are satisfied with those numbers:

1. You aren’t confident enough in the value of the services you provide:

When my appointment and engagement numbers were low, it was because I didn’t really believe in and understand the value of my services and it came through.

You must be 150% confident that you are the absolute best at what you do. If you don’t feel that way, determine what must change within your practice so that you do feel that way.

You must be so confident in your skills and services that it permeates every aspect of the conversation so that whoever is talking with you and needs your service walks away feeling as if they must have you as their lawyer.

2. You don’t follow a script that is designed to get to yes:

Whether you are speaking to a group or one on one to a potential client, you cannot wing it. You’ve got to be following a script. Period.

Now that you own your own firm, every conversation you have is an opportunity to sell yourself and your services, especially if you are speaking to a group of people or in a prospective client meeting.

Your script should include your firm story, which in an engaging story-based manner explains who you are, how you work and why people should listen to or hire you. And, it should always include a strong close designed to result in the outcome you desire – an appointment, an engagement or even simply an exchange of information.

Your close does not have to be salesy or pushy at all – if done right, you’ll be simply helping the people in front of you make the right decision for themselves and for the vast majority that right decision will be you.

3. You’re satisfied with less than you deserve:

Maybe you think 30% appointment rates and 60% engagement rates are just fine. If you are satisfied with that—great—that’s what you’re going to get. But if you want more and believe you can have more in your business, you’ll see that you deserve better.

Look at it this way, if you are spending marketing $$ to get people to attend a seminar or come in to meet with you and more than half the people leave without making appointment and more than a 1/3 leave your office without saying yes, you are wasting a huge amount of your marketing dollars. Even small increases in these numbers can have a big impact.

The good news is that this is not rocket science, but it does take practice. That’s why large corporations pay MILLIONS of dollars to hire sales trainers to come in and train their staff and create script books (which are kept under lock and key).

Fortunately, you don’t have to spend millions on this. But, you do need to be confident in your services, follow a script and not settle for less than you deserve.

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About the Law Business Revolution

The Law Business Revolution is a legal marketing and training organization focused on helping attorneys attract quality clients, start and manage productive law firms, systematize their businesses and ultimately help lawyers attain more time and greater resources than ever before.

Training through the Law Business Revolution includes (but is not limited to), private and group coaching led by professionals that surpassed the 7-figure mark in their own firms and businesses, client engagement strategies, client attraction strategies, educational, relationship-based marketing techniques designed to get results, lead generation training, campaigns for consumers, referrals and prospects and systematizing a firm to run on autopilot.

Licensed attorneys are welcome to download over $22,500 of free practice building resources courtesy of the Law Business Revolution at http://www.lawbusinessrevolution.com .

I left my job at one of the best law firms in the country because I was disillusioned by what I now know to be the broken business model of law practice.  (Back then, I thought there was just something wrong with me.)

The clients came in, form documents were shelled out with a wham bam, thank you ma’am and I never heard from these people again (probably because they were afraid of my hourly fees and avoided calling me at all costs!)

Vowing to change that broken business model and really do something that would make a difference with my law degree and my life, I opened my own firm.

As I spent thousands of dollars on marketing for my new practice, I quickly realized I was wasting my money because I didn’t know how to engage the clients that were making it in to meet with me.

Ultimately, after a huge amount of trial and error, I created a system that resulted in a near 100% engagement rate for me (which has now been tried and tested by HUNDREDS of lawyers, many of whom maintain a 100% engagement rate since using it!)

This system is the Client Engagement System as you all know-and I really don’t need anything special to convince people that it works! The results speak for themselves.

I held a recent call to share my system with lawyers and after giving out boatloads of content on that call, I offered the Client Engagement System at a special sale price with a whole bunch of bonuses, including an implementation program, one-on-one time with me, and a de-briefing session.  Many, many smart lawyers decided to make the investment.

Yet, one lawyer sent me a quite interesting email afterwards.

This lawyer compared my marketing to that of an infomercial. She suggested I would sell much more of my system if I, and I quote:

“REALLY look at both how you are marketing this and to whom your marketing is directed, give us credit for being a bit more sophisticated than the average consumer of Sham-wows or Magic Bullets, and make a straight-out pitch at a set price, without all of the manufactured chatty crap? Frankly, I was mightily tempted to hang up less than fifteen minutes into the call, since there was so much unneeded repetition, exposition, and bald pitchman quality. I wanted to scream, “GET TO THE POINT!! STOP WASTING MY TIME!!!!’”

She didn’t hang up fifteen minutes in the call.  Here’s what I love most about this email … she not only stayed on the entire call, but she invested in the system.  Would she have invested anyway if I had sent a simple email that said here’s how much the system is and why you should get it?  Maybe she would have, but I can guarantee most of the others who invested wouldn’t have.

I market the way I do because it works. And while I’m personally a big fan of the infomercial, whether I like my marketing or not doesn’t matter.  All that matters is whether it works.

I believe in my product so much that I feel I have a moral obligation to do everything I ethically can to get it into your hands because I know when I do, it will change your life.

I know many, many, many people (especially in our industry) who have great products and services that can really help people.  But, because they are not willing to do everything ethical necessary to market their product, drawing the line at what they consider to be “professional”, they are doing a disservice to the people who will never be aware of what they have to offer.

If you truly believe in what you offer, as I do, you will step outside of your comfort zone and utilize marketing that you may not like, but that works.  And I can assure you that as you use it and as it works, you’ll start to really love it.

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About the Law Business Revolution

The Law Business Revolution is a legal marketing and training organization focused on helping attorneys attract quality clients, start and manage productive law firms, systematize their businesses and ultimately help lawyers attain more time and greater resources than ever before.

Training through the Law Business Revolution includes (but is not limited to), private and group coaching led by professionals that surpassed the 7-figure mark in their own firms and businesses, client engagement strategies, client attraction strategies, educational, relationship-based marketing techniques designed to get results, lead generation training, campaigns for consumers, referrals and prospects and systematizing a firm to run on autopilot.

Licensed attorneys are welcome to download over $22,500 of free practice building resources courtesy of the Law Business Revolution at http://www.lawbusinessrevolution.com .

When I first started my law practice back in 2003, I expected to pay the bills for my new business by bringing in clients.

I didn’t have any money in savings and my husband was a stay at home dad without an income, so it was seriously do or die time for me and my family.

I had been making $165,000 per year as an associate at the big law firm and we were spending all of it, so I needed to at least replace that in profits from my firm.

Everyone told me I needed to plan to not be profitable for at least a couple years. I believed I’d be the exception to this rule.

I did hedge my bets a bit by finding office space I could use without paying rent by trading my time with an attorney who had an empty office space in his suite. This worked out well for me because that office space also came with all of the big equipment I’d need to get started, like phones, a copier and a furnished conference room.

All I needed was a laptop, my own phone line, a website, a desk and some chairs. I was able to pay for all of that out of the little bit I had in savings and on my credit card.

Now, it was time to start bringing in some revenue.

Fortunately, I quickly discovered that as a business owner, I’d be keeping a whole lot more of what I brought in as a business owner than I was as an employee due to the favorable tax treatment for business owners who know how to use the tax code in the right way. (If you need a little brushing up on this, check out the book Lower Your Taxes – Big Time! by Sandy Botkin, CPA, Esq., the best resource I’ve come across on the subject.)

Pretty quickly, I realized I’d need to bring in at least one person to help me because it just wasn’t possible for me to do everything I needed to do to attract clients, engage them, service their matter and build a relationship with them without help.

At the time though, I didn’t feel as if I had enough revenue to bring on an employee I’d have to be responsible for paying each month.

But when I really looked at the numbers and how much more money I could bring in if I could focus my energy on revenue generating activities only, I decided I couldn’t afford NOT to bring someone in. I’d just have to make the commitment to myself to bring in one additional new client per month to pay for my part time employee and determined that with the extra time I’d have, I could do that.

At the time, I didn’t know that as a small business owner I’d actually have access to financing that would help me grow my business.

And a part of me actually felt like I should be able to do it all on my own without any help. You know how a two-year old blindly yells, “I DO IT, I DO IT!” and doesn’t want any help even though any adult looking on can clearly see that the two year old would benefit from a little assistance? Well, that was me. business-wise, I was a two year old, blindly insisting I didn’t need any help.

But then I got to a point where I was stagnating. I wanted to grow bigger. I wanted to move out of that office space I was sharing with those other lawyers and into my own space. I had a very clear idea of how I wanted my office to look and the kind of image I wanted to create, none of which was possible in the high-rise office space I was sharing.

I wanted a team of staff members standing by at the ready to support me and my clients, instead of just the surly receptionist who growled “law offices” when she answered the phones. I didn’t want my clients to have to navigate a confusing parking garage. I wanted beautiful letterhead and envelopes and a better website.

All of that would take money. Money I didn’t have and wasn’t going to save up seeing 1 or 2 clients per month, which was all I was able to bring in on my own without investing in some really good marketing. Which of course I didn’t have the money for.

Right around this time, I happened to meet a local banker in my community who was opening up a new community business bank.

This was a fortuitous meeting because up until then, I thought a bank was merely a place to deposit checks and had no idea that a relationship with a banker could be helpful to me in my business. The banks had always been a necessary evil up until then and certainly not anywhere I would think to turn for help.

But this banker wanted to know about my business. He wanted to know what my vision was for its growth and how he could help me. I excitedly shared with him the amazing vision I had for the law firm I wanted to grow.

He could see the vision and wanted to help me make it a reality, so he let me in on how I could find all the money I’d need to build my business.

Here’s what he told me to do:

1. Figure out exactly how much money you would need to do everything you want to do and write it all down. Think big. You can always scale back later or do it in stages, he said.

2. If you have family, he said, have a frank conversation with them about what they are willing to invest in your business. Let them know your vision, how you’ll use their investment and when they should expect to receive their investment back. Put it in writing.

3. Next, look into a loan or line of credit through the United States Small Business Administration (SBA). He said he would help me complete all the paperwork for this. (This is the benefit of working with a small community bank who takes an interest in you and your business.)

4. He also told me that I could use equipment financing for things like my computer network, my phones and even furniture. He connected me with an equipment financing company that was able to roll everything together into one neat package.

5. Last, he told me to begin applying for credit in the name of my law firm, separately from myself. This is a process that can take some time, but is well worth it and if done right can get you a whole lot of money to grow your business without any of it personally guaranteed. 

a. If you have not already incorporated your business, this would be a great time to start because you are going to want to apply for business credit using your business Tax ID number, not your own social security number. 

b. After you’ve incorporated, make sure you’ve got all the right city licenses in place and begin registering your business with the business credit reporting agencies, such as Dun & Bradstreet.

I’ll be honest with you, all of this was difficult to do. It was difficult from a paperwork perspective, but it was also difficult emotionally.

The entire time I was going through the process of applying for the line of credit through the SBA, I was full of feelings of embarrassment and shame. I can’t tell you why, I can only tell you I felt it and as I’ve talked with other business owners, they’ve expressed that they’ve felt the same during the process. So, don’t be surprised if you do. And, more importantly, don’t let those feelings hold you back from getting the money you need to finance the growth of your business and grow big. It’s totally worth it!

During this process, it can be helpful to have guidelines to consider when making projections about income and expenses. I created a comprehensive business plan for my law firm that
you can have to review. To get access to it, go to http://budurl.com/47mg and join the revolution.

I’ll send you the business plan as well as a whole lot of other free practice-building gifts that I created for my law firm that will give you a much bigger vision of what’s possible for your business.

PS: Lawyers frequently ask about obtaining funding for their practice. After a whole lot of looking, we’ve found one of the leading business finance consultants in the country, Midas Financial to serve our lawyers.

Midas has secured in excess of $250,000,000 on behalf of their clients in the past 3.5 years. They are experts at what they do with an exceptional success rate.

Our representative at Midas is Darrell Hornbacher.You can contact Darrell at 303.513.8664 or via e-mail at: Darrell@midas-financial.com.

He is extremely knowledgeable and has developed several programs that give attorneys preferential treatment in a streamlined loan process. We encourage you to contact Darrell for you lending needs. Please inform him you are part of our Law Business Revolution Program. He is a pleasure to work with!

About the Law Business Revolution

The Law Business Revolution is a legal marketing and training organization focused on helping attorneys attract quality clients, start and manage productive law firms, systematize their businesses and ultimately help lawyers attain more time and greater resources than ever before.

Training through the Law Business Revolution includes (but is not limited to), private and group coaching led by professionals that surpassed the 7-figure mark in their own firms and businesses, client engagement strategies, client attraction strategies, educational, relationship-based marketing techniques designed to get results, lead generation training, campaigns for consumers, referrals and prospects and systematizing a firm to run on autopilot.

Licensed attorneys are welcome to download over $22,500 of free practice building resources courtesy of the Law Business Revolution at http://www.lawbusinessrevolution.com .