After the Law Business Revolution Weekly Briefing Memo around recurring revenue, many of you wrote in and said that your biggest challenge is that you need more clients first and then you can think about recurring revenue.

Good to know because I can help with that.

If you want more clients, you need to have a system in place for following up with and staying in communication with your prospects.

This is where most new clients are lost.

You speak at an event, do some networking or some sort of marketing activity and people are simply not ready to say yes to working with you right away – they need time, information, education.

But, you do not follow up because you are simply too busy and do not have an automated system in place.

It’s understandable. And, it’s costing you money.

So, we need to get you set up with a system that lets you stay in connection with your prospects until they decide to either hire you or that they are not interested.

I had people come in to my office and hire me after 3 years of hearing from me regularly every week by email and monthly by mail.

Are you interested in such a system or do you already have one and you are just not using it?

Let us know how we can support you with getting this MOST IMPORTANT of systems set up in your office so you can never lose another client because you didn’t follow up again.

Best,
Alexis

PS – mark your calendar for 4/27 because we are hosting a brand new, never before heard call on reinvention and why you must reinvent yourself and your practice now. It’s at 11amPT/2pET – mark your calendar now and we’ll send details about a week before the call.

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

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.

I guess it’s NO “Secret” anymore that the economy is dazed, battered, bruised, limping toward the New Year.

It’ll probably already be in bed nursing its sick stomach long before the clock strikes midnight, and it’ll still wake up hung-over on New Year’s Day. And quite a few business owners’ll be imbibing on New Year’s Eve for reasons other than celebration. But that’s them.

FORTUNATELY, in our world, things are quite different – and we are going to extreme lengths to make certain they are quite different for you as well.

As you probably know, At Glazer-Kennedy we have 54 Members in our personal coaching groups, we have about 100 Peak Performer Members, as well as a handful of private clients,
and, of course, I hear from our Members constantly, directly, or through our Independent Business Advisors.

In this climate of uncertainty and fear, I suppose it would shock and confuse the news media to hear what I’m hearing: O-P-T-I-M-I-S-M (optimism).

Yes, optimism. And not silly optimism either. Grounded optimism. From Members in every imaginable business reporting both sales and profit growth or at least staying steady – while all around them, bigger competitors, national chains and peers are seeing sales and profits plummet.

From Members utilizing sound strategies and strong marketing skills to connect with good customers spending right now (while others’ customers aren’t). Even from Members busily planning add-on business start-ups or business expansion, new sales initiatives, new products and services and readying improved online and offline marketing for the new year so they can continue doing well, even under tough circumstances.

THESE are the people you want to be with! Why is their optimism grounded? Because they know how to do things others do not. And that is the only way to insure that you can
stand strong and prosper while this troubled and confused economy sorts itself out over the entire coming year and beyond.

Those who give in to fear and anxiety… .those who are cowed and paralyzed by uncertainty and confusion… .those who pull back and withdraw and wait… .are GUARANTEED to see their WORST FEARS REALIZED.

Bluntly, you can’t “not-invest” your way to success at any time, but certainly not at this time. Waiting for things to change is a losing proposition. Making things change for you is the only way to win. That’s not “Pollyanna,” that’s fact.

What I Can Tell You From PERSONAL Experience

I know what it takes – mentally and practically – to do well when the going gets tough. I also know a lot about finding big, new, exciting opportunities in such times as these. The opportunity to grow and grab market share and “steal” good customers from competitors in every field and every place is HUGE – precisely because so many other business owners pull in their claws, hide under the covers, or even wave the white flag of surrender.

I can promise you from personal experience that these are the conditions when fortune most favors the bold!

That’s why I am convinced this is our Most Important MARKETING & MONEY-MAKING SuperConference(SM) Ever.

This is where the puppies’ll be separated from the big dogs, for everyone to see exactly who is who. Staying home will say something profound about you and to yourself. Signing up and attending will say something profound, too.

And what you say to yourself about yourself – right now – is itself of critical importance.

It is vital you click onto the link below and watch the ENTIRE video or read the letter in full, now, that I have prepared for you.

www.dankennedy.com/super09

WARNING: You could easily be locked out. This MARKETING & MONEY-MAKING SuperConference(SM) was 50% sold out before I ever wrote this email!!!! — from returning alumni, word-of-mouth, people jumping the gun and insisting on registering long before we even set its date.

www.dankennedy.com/super09

Dedicated To Multiplying Your Income,

Dan Kennedy

PS: What would a SuperConference(SM) be without a SUPER-GUARANTEE?

Guarantee: If, at the dinner break of Day#1, you do NOT agree that you are participating in a Life-Altering Event and Experience of SUPER Importance and Value to you, you may advise us of your disappointment, exit the Conference (and the Hotel), with a FULL, 100% REFUND OF YOUR FEE plus up to $500.00 REIMBURSEMENT of documented Air Travel and Hotel Costs.

www.dankennedy.com/super09

PPS: Make sure to also register for the ALL NEW OPTIONAL’ BONUS Day that I will personally be delivering “Unlocking the Secrets To Maximum Profits NOW from DIRECT-MAIL” with
sophisticated List Segmentation, Message Specificity and other Insider Strategies – with amazing examples and case histories.

www.dankennedy.com/super09

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About the Law Business Revolution

The Law Business Revolution is a law firm marketing and training organization focused on helping attorneys attract quality clients, start and grow 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 .

If you’ve been racking your brain about marketing your law firm and how to bring in more business from referral sources other than your clients in 2010, here’s my very best recommendation:

Create a local marketing mastermind collaborative or mastermind group with 1-3 other professionals in your community.

This kind of a local marketing mastermind may very well be the most exciting addition to your marketing plans in years because it will expand your reach by many times and decrease your marketing costs (both time and money) at the same time.

Here are a few things for you to know to make this strategy work right for you:

1.  Choose other professionals who serve the same target market you do.

This strategy is going to make the most sense if your marketing mastermind collaborative is made up of professionals serving the exact same target market as you are – so, before you choose who to invite, think of who you want to focus your 2010 marketing efforts on as tightly as possible.  And then go even more narrow.

2.  Think outside the box about who you choose.

Once you narrow your market, get creative about who you invite to join your collaborative. Consider other attorneys who serve the same market, but do something different than you do. Move beyond the traditional financial advisors and CPAs (although those would be great choices for estate planning, business planning, and divorce lawyers to choose) and think about doctors, dentists, chiropractors, coaches, consultants, and even spa owners, massage therapists, and yoga teachers, if you‘ve got a market that would make sense for.

The key is to know the people you want to reach and then think as broad and wide as you can about the other service providers they would use.  A great way to do this is to pick up local magazines that would be read by your target market and see who is advertising in those publications.

3.  Create a series of campaigns you can work on and implement jointly.

Once you decide who to invite, hold a meeting to discuss your plans for 2010 and how you see the collaborative working together.  Set regular monthly (or even twice monthly or weekly) marketing mastermind meetings in which you will come together and first create your marketing calendar for the year and then implement it together.

4.  Don’t do it alone.

You don’t have to do this alone. We are here to help.

Kick off your local marketing mastermind collaborative by inviting a few of your ideal mastermind collaborators to your office for two days – January 29 and 30, 2010 – during which time we will be hosting our VIRTUAL Client Attraction Retreat and you can kick off your 2010 Marketing Mastermind Collaborative by getting the foundation you‘ll need in place to make this work.

We’ve set up the virtual retreat so that when you purchase your ticket, you can have up to 3 additional guests (your marketing mastermind collaborative partners) attend with you at NO ADDITIONAL CHARGE!

During this intense, two-day virtual marketing boot camp, you and your referral sources will not only learn the fundamentals of authentic direct response marketing (both online and offline), but you will begin to create all of the marketing pieces you‘ll need throughout 2010 and put them togeher into a unified campaign and system that your whole marketing collaborative will benefit from.

If you already have a tight-knit marketing collaborative, ask your collaborators to split the price of the virtual retreat with you.  If you don’t, pay for it yourself and invite your potential collaborators to the event and show them that you mean business about building your business (and theirs) in this coming year.

I know without a doubt that 2010 is about community and collaboration. This economic shift has shown us that we cannot do it all alone.

When you create your own local marketing mastermind collaborative you get all of the power of the mastermind in which 1 + 1 doesn’t equal 2, but many, many, many times more than that plus the benefit of a group of people in your local community that who can share the costs and burden of marketing with you.

Unlike other marketing conferences in which you leave with a lot of great ideas and things to think about, you will complete our 2-day virtual conference with a concrete plan for IMPLEMENTATION and ACTION and with a whole lot of the work already done….all without having to leave the comfort of your office or waste money on hotels  and airfare!

Check out the full curriculum for our two-day event.  We have made it affordable for you to attend, less expensive than a single break out session at a marketing conference (you know, the ones you pay extra for and leave more confused than when you first came in) or a tiny, ineffective ad in the yellow pages.

Regardless of how you are doing your marketing (speaking, yellow pages, online directory services, networking or direct mail), our authentic direct response marketing approach will supercharge your efforts and get them working for you so you can get off the cash flow roller coaster once and for all and have the peace of mind of knowing you‘ve got a pipeline full of prospects waiting to say yes to your services.

So be sure to join us with your 3 best referral sources on the 29th and 30th!  It‘s the perfect way to jumpstart 2010 with more than just ideas but a full blown two day intensive implementation bootcamp & get started with the formation of a business building mastermind group with your top referral sources that can continue throughout the year.

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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 .

Image courtesy of Berhard Lehn