If you want to be loved by your clients, command higher fees, and become absolutely indispensable, it all comes down to this…

You have to stop seeing yourself as a litigator or transactional lawyer.  Litigation leaves clients miserable and legal documents on their own are virtually worthless.

When my father-in-law died, after spending a few thousand dollars on a set of estate planning documents with his personal lawyer, I thought that lawyer must have committed malpractice because the documents didn’t work.

Why didn’t they work?

Because the lawyer completed the transaction (legal docs) for my father-in-law and never followed up with my father-in-law to make sure his assets were owned properly or that he’s legal documents stayed up to date with the changes in his life.

Divorce lawyers finalize their client’s divorces and never make sure their estate planning documents are updated.

Business lawyers put in place LLCs and S-Corporations and never make sure share certificates are issued, agreements are put in place with vendors or team members, or that the client has the right insurance in place.

Are we really helping our clients when we see them as a transaction, a case, or a matter?

No, we aren’t offering anything more than our clients would get if they went online.

So my question for you is what will you do when they realize they don’t need you?  Or has it already begun?

Please don’t tell me that you’ll deal with this by decreasing your costs and becoming a virtual law office providing unbundled legal services as seems to be the trend these days – that’s a recipe for failure unless you do it so that you are creating a killer experience for your clients that they cannot simply replicate by going online and doing it themselves.

So many lawyers are trying to compete with online companies providing “buy them as you need them” document preparation services.  But unbundled legal services, deep discounts and doing nothing but turning out reams of paper do nothing to build relationships with your clients.

It’s a one shot deal at best and doesn’t provide an ongoing revenue stream for your business.  That’s a recipe for misery and a Going Out Of Business sign (as many law businesses, even large ones, are learning).

As I learned in building my own practice to more than $1 million in revenue, the best way to keep your clients coming to you (and referring their friends and family) are to follow these 5 tips:

1.    Give away the legal documents for free. Yes, free. You’re not selling the paper – you’re selling the client YOU, your energy, your counsel, your advice.  Clients call lawyers because they need help. They want you to take care of them, to love them, to make it easy for them.  The documents are merely the by-product of the relationship.

2.    Give away free legal documents on your website to generate leads you can then build a relationship with and convert into lifetime counseling clients. As an example, we do this at http://www.KidsProtectionPlan.com where we let people name guardians for their kids for free because we know that many of those people will need a fully counseled estate plan once we develop a relationship with them.

3.    Narrow your niche.  Stop trying to serve everyone who calls or walks in your door.  It devalues your service and who you are.  Decide who you love to serve and who you do your best work for and build your business around deeply serving these most perfect clients.

4.    Create a billing structure that encourages your clients to communicate with you without fear of the cost. Most of the time, clients don’t want to talk to you because they know they’ll get a big fat bill at the end of the month.  This can keep them from telling you about significant changes in their lives or businesses.

5.    Learn to love your clients again.  Stop seeing them as cases, transactions, and matters and return to the reason you went to law school.  Connect at a heart level, whether you do it virtually or in-person.  In this new economy, it’s the only path to your success.

I’ve been having some very interesting conversations with well-known lawyers throughout our industry about the future – where we’re going and what lawyers need to do to be prepared.

I’ll be interviewing several of them who I believe have the answers for you as part of a telesummit I’m hosting in September.

In the meantime, I want to make sure you don’t have to wait to see how you may be putting yourself and your clients at risk so you can do something about it now.

If you are still seeing yourself as a transactional lawyer or a litigator, you are likely screwing yourself and your clients.

You are neither of these things and it’s time to stop thinking of yourself in this way.

If you see yourself as a litigator, every case that comes in is ripe for litigation.  That is NOT what is best for your clients.

In some cases, litigation may be appropriate, but in my experience litigation almost always means that even if someone wins, they lose.

If you see yourself as a transactional lawyer, you probably don’t have any sort of a real relationship with your clients. They are a transaction, a matter, a one and done.

That’s the old, outdated model that will put you out of business.

It incentives conflict escalation and a constant focus on the next new retainer.

It’s time for lawyers to begin seeing their clients not as cases or transactions or matters, but as people with a lifetime of issues they need resolved.

It’s time for you to become the trusted advisor for your clients – the person they turn to for objective guidance about hard decisions in their lives and businesses.

To do this, you need to start seeing yourself differently and help your clients do the same.

When you successfully make this transition from transactional lawyer/litigator to counselor, you will stop leaving money on the table and start knowing  you are really making a difference for your clients.

Isn’t that what you really want?

It’s certainly what your clients want and it’s only a  matter of time before they no longer need you.

Are you ready to really do it?  More to come soon.

The financial success of your business depends on your profit – the amount you keep at the end of the day after paying all your expenses.

In the beginning of your business, you are pretty much entirely focused on revenue because you are already spending as little as you possibly can.

Once you’ve got revenue going, you’ll start to notice that your expenses slowly start to creep up.

And it might feel like for every dollar of revenue you bring in, you add another two dollars of expenses.

That is not a winning proposition.

So, today I’m going to share with you three sure-fire ways to increase your revenue without adding any more overhead.

Way #1: Engage More Prospects

One of your biggest expenses is very likely to be marketing.  You are either spending a lot of money on it or a lot of time on it or both.  If you are marketing and not engaging at least 75% of the prospects calling your office, you are losing a whole lot of profit because getting your phone to ring is where all the cost is.

You’ll increase your revenue without increasing overhead if you just start hearing yes from more prospects.

Way #2:  Offer More (Expensive) Services to Your Clients

You can add more revenue to your office without adding any additional overhead by offering those clients who do say yes additional complementary services.

I did this with the Kids Protection Plan  – adding a more comprehensive form of planning for parents with minor children at home added $1,000 to my fees.

And then I found other services I could provide that my clients wanted and were happy to pay me for.

Once I figured this out, I was collecting an additional $1,000-$3,000 on each engagement with no additional overhead.

Way #3:  Get More Referrals

Every time one of my clients sent me a client, I was increasing my revenue without adding any overhead.

So, I built systems into my office that resulted in more referrals.

I always made sure my clients knew how valuable referrals were to me because I worked that into my client engagement process.  I developed a system in which I could comfortably ask for the referral without feeling strange.  And I was always publicly thankful for all referrals – whether they turned into clients or not – by acknowledging the referrer with thanks in my monthly newsletter.

Try one or all three of these and let me know how much additional revenue you make without increasing your overhead.

Last week I wrote about how to avoid going out of business. If you missed it, you can read the full thing here.

A few lawyers wrote me back and said that they didn’t know what kind of massive action to take. So, I want to give you a little action plan to see results happen immediately.

If you are a decent speaker, it’s time for you to get on the phone and start telling everyone you know that you are available to come out and speak to their group.

If you are not seeing enough clients and do not have the money to do paid marketing, you must take control of the situation and get yourself out there and speaking. And don’t sit back and wait for the speaking engagements to show up or rely only on someone else to book them for you.

Do not just try one thing, see if it works, and then try another. Do everything. All at once.

When I was building my practice, I was on the phone constantly lining up speaking engagements. Eventually, I had someone else do that for me, but not in the beginning. In the beginning (when I didn’t have any money) I did it myself. After hours, before hours, during hours. I busted my butt to make sure I did what was necessary to get me in front of the people I needed to speak to about my services.

So, if you are struggling, ask yourself … am I doing everything I can to get myself out there speaking to as many people as possible for free? Am I on the phone in every free minute of my day with local groups in my community such as:

* Church groups
* Daycares
* Preschools
* Senior Centers
* Private Schools
* Public Schools
* Moms Groups
* CPA Groups
* Real Estate Agents Offices
* Title Officers
* Mortgage Brokers
* Chambers of Commerce
* Community Centers
* Rotary Clubs
* Business groups

I could go on and on.

There was even one time I went out to speak to a group of women (I think it was some sort of an alumni group), which consisted of 4 little old ladies who would get together for coffee on a monthly basis.

I would show up anywhere they would let me come and speak. Sometimes it paid off, sometimes it didn’t.

But, here’s what I can tell you, the more I did, the more my phone rang and the more clients I got.

One of the Personal Family Lawyers who has been with me since 2007 just came back from taking a few months off to have her baby and she is booked all the way through April with 13 new client appointments in March and 21 speaking engagements between now and June. Why? Massive right action before she went out on leave to have her baby. You can do it too.

So if you are struggling, don’t just sit there and wait until you get pulled under the water hoping someone comes and rescues you; do something and do it now!

Next week I’m going to talk to you about the logistics of getting maximum results from your speaking engagements, but in the meantime, pick up the phone and get yourself booked in front of a group. We’ll pick up here next week.

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.

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!

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