If you’ve been reading my Law Business Revolution Briefing Memorandum for any amount of time, you’ll know that I’m NOT a fan of hourly billing or you selling yourself short in the name of a “sluggish economy” or for any other reason.

I just had a laser coaching session with a lawyer last week who told me she didn’t want to build the kind of practice I had because she wanted to keep her fees low.  After talking with me though, she was able to see that not valuing the services she provides isn’t going to help her help more people, it’s going to run her into bankruptcy.

It’s heartbreaking to watch so many lawyers go out of business or not bring home enough bacon simply because they get trapped into thinking about their pricing the wrong way.

When you differentiate yourself based on price, you simply cannot provide value.  You end up competing on the wrong basis.

While price competitors have been in operation since beginning of time, it’s important to understand that if YOU want to build a sustainable, scalable and one day SALEable law business, a core foundational piece of that puzzle is that you are charging enough.

Is that possible in this economy?  Absolutely.

Let me shift your thinking outside the legal world and into the business world for a moment.  Stores that offer super low prices like Wal-Mart and Target are thriving in this economy.  So with that logic, you’d expect high-end stores like Nordstrom or Sacks 5th Avenue to be out of business right now…but they’re not.  In fact, Nordstrom’s profits more than doubled in the quarter ending Jan. 30 according to the WSJ.  Luxury cars like Mercedes and BMW also reported profits last year despite the fact that “no one has money to spend.”

And lawyers doing things the PFL Way are thriving, while charging much higher fees than their “competitors”. How can that be?
It’s simple, really.  People DO have money to spend… you’re simply not doing a good enough job showing them that your law firm is the best place to spend it.

You see, it’s all about the value.  And I’d suspect that you are not clear enough on the value you provide to convey it to your prospects.

This isn’t “blind theory” or Alexis Martin Neely’s random thoughts on life either.  I’ve done it, our Personal Family Lawyers® and Creative Business Lawyers™ are DOING it and so are millions of other small business owners/ entrepreneurs in this country right now.

So how are they doing it?  Here are some things you can do right now:

1. Stop Acting Like a Commodity.

Your prospects have no way to know if you are the best lawyer for them.  To regular folks, all lawyers are the same.  So when you compete on price, you’ll get price shoppers galore who see you as just like everyone else.   But, you are not like all the other lawyers, are you?

So, what makes you different?  And how do you show that to the marketplace?  That’s what you need to focus on and show the world.

2. Identify the Value of the Outcome You Provide.

Why can Nordstrom’s charge higher prices for products found elsewhere (i.e. cars, purses, ties, shoes)?  It’s because of the VALUE they’ve attached to their brand (i.e. social prestige, enhanced customer service, increased self-esteem).   They’ve moved themselves out of the commodity market and into the heart, emotion and primal urges of their clients.   You need to do the same thing in your law firm.  Yes, Mr. Customer can get an estate plan for $399 or set up their LLC for $750 or a bankruptcy for $1125 down the street, but what are they NOT getting when they work with that other firm or even worse go online to do it themselves?

3. Move Beyond the Billable Hour

There are only so many hours in a day and you’ll reach an income plateau very quickly when you are billing by the hour. Not to mention that you have to start every month over at zero and there’s absolutely no stability in that.  No matter what practice area you are in (with the exception of contested matters), you can begin billing on a flat-fee/value basis.   If you’re scared to shift, just think of the VALUE your customers will experience having an attorney using flat fee billing.  They won’t be nickel and dimed for every phone call, email and fax that comes through the office.  They can communicate with you as they wish without fear and they can pick their price point of choice if you have membership options.  And believe me, people are willing to pay more for certainty every time.  It’s a win-win for them– and it’s very much a win-win for the health/sustainability of your law firm.

Remember this:  People still have money to spend… even in this economy.  And they NEED your services.  It’s up to you to convey the intrinsic value of working with you (even at a higher price point) to command the income level you want…and rightfully deserve…this year.

PS- If you serve small business owners and want more information after reading this article on how you can participate in our Creative Business Lawyer Program and serve the entrepreneurial/business owner market using flat-fee, membership-based billing and differentiate yourself from all the other business lawyers out there, mark your calendar for March 18th at 12pm PT/3pm ET.  More details coming soon!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Here’s the good news about the economic shakedown:

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

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

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

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

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

Try some of these out in your practice:

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

The number one complaint I receive about attorneys is clients often feel like “just a number” or “not a priority” after they’ve written their check to engage their lawyer. Often, they’ll call their lawyer, have to leave a voice mail and not receive a return phone call back for days, if at all.

I’ve heard quite frequently that clients feel as if they’ve fallen into a black hole.

What that means for you is that you can make a huge impact on your clients and turn them into raving fans by counteracting this experience.

What happens in your practice right now after your client writes you a check?  When do they hear from you again?  When do they get reminded that the investment they just made was a good one? If this follow up is happening, is it happening the same way, at the same time, for each client? Is it being tracked so you’re sure no one is falling off the radar?   

If you couldn’t answer these questions affirmatively, you are sabotaging the hard work you put into the client engagement process.

Fortunately, automating your follow-up and creating a WOW experience after the client engagement process is easier than you think.

To get started, you’ll need to set up a practice management system (there are many to choose from), or even an excel spreadsheet that lays out what needs to happen (and more importantly WHEN it needs to happen) after a prospect becomes a paying client of your firm.

Next week, I’ll outline a simple process for you to follow that will make a HUGE difference in how your clients talk about you to their friends, family, clients and colleagues, which will result in far more referrals for you. 

Stay tuned and until then think about what you’d want to receive from your lawyer if you’d just made a big investment in his or her services.

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.

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 .

In today’s Law Business Secrets newsletter, I’m answering a question that was posted on our Dream Law Business commmunity site. If you are not already a member, join here:
www.DreamLawBusiness.ning.com

Q: I have read your story and I am curious about how you are able to only go into the office two days a week. Does that mean that you only interview potential clients two days a week? or do you have staff members that interview potential clients on your behalf? And if so, are the staff members non-lawyers? — Sharita Blacknell

A: Sharita, this is a great question, one I get often.

I did several things to be able to cut down my schedule so I was only in my office 2 days/week.

The first major thing was changing my mindset.

I used to think I had to be in my office all the time! If I wasn’t there, the work wouldn’t get done, balls would be dropped, clients wouldn’t be served.

That thought kept me tethered to my desk.

So, step 1 was to let go of that idea and realize that, in fact, I had a very competent team around me and if I let go a little bit and let them do their job and make mistakes they’d figure out how to get it all done.

And, they did. When I was there all the time, it was just easier to ask me questions.

So, step 2 was to stop going into my office unless clients were coming in to meet with me.

Then, step 3 was to block my time so that our Client Services Director ONLY scheduled client meetings on one of two days. In my case, Thursdays and Saturdays or Thursdays
and Fridays, depending on my family needs.

(BTW, meeting clients on Saturdays is a great differentiator, especially if you serve families).

The only time I would meet with a client on a non-office day was in a true emergency situation.

So now, I was only going into my office two days a week.

If I wasn’t there, my team had to figure things out.

Sure, they made some mistakes. But, they learned from each one and became a well-oiled machine.

They never would have if I hadn’t gotten out of the way!

Love the questions, keep em coming!

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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 .

It’s official.  Our economy is in a recession and so is the law industry.  And, there’s no question that it’s hitting law firms where it hurts.  The question will be how the impact is felt in your law firm and on your career.

If you are a solo or small firm lawyer, you have a lot of control over that, but only if you don’t allow the fear to put you into paralysis and instead get out there and take action now.

Here are four things you can do immediately to help ensure that your fortune is increased during this recession and not decimated as many of your competitors will be:

1.  Market Yourself Effectively & Efficiently

Now is the time to pick up your marketing in a big, bad kind of way.  While most of your competitors will be pulling back, you can double your marketing ROI by doing more.

The key though is to make your marketing consistent and diverse.

Consistent means you are doing the same set of things each and every month, without fail.

Diverse means that you are doing more than one thing.  Hopefully a lot more.

It means you’re using direct mail, advertising, and seminars to generate leads.  Plus, you’ve got a referral strategy in place that doesn’t involve you wasting time with pointless networking luncheons.  You aren’t relying on any one thing to bring in a more than 2-3 new clients per month, but instead a handful of things to bring in 2-3 clients each per month.

2.  Engage More Prospects at Higher Fees

If you can increase your engagement rate so that nearly 100% of the people who come into meet with you end up engaging your firm at higher fees, you will see a huge impact on your growth in the direction you want things to go.

I know it seems counter-intuitive to talk about raising your fees during a time when everyone’s worried about money.  But, that’s always been one of the secrets to my success.  Do the opposite of what everyone else is doing.

By raising your fees, you will actually become more in demand and you’ll need to see fewer clients and be able to provide more service to your clients.

Now, the key is that you’ve got to be engaging the prospects who call your office.  The key to that is to make sure that your intake staff is using a proven script designed to get the prospects into the office and that you are using a script that ensures you are engaging nearly 100% of the people who come in.

If you aren’t engaging nearly 100% of the people who make it into your office or if you are dealing with a boatload of cancellations each month, there is a solution.  We’ve got a whole system that teaches client engagement, check it out risk-free at www.clientengagementsystem.com.

3.  Focus Your Business On an Underserved Niche

No matter what your practice area is, you should consider focusing on a niche for all of your marketing efforts.  All of the best and brightest marketing gurus out there say that the more you can laser focus your marketing to a small subset of people, the more successful you will be.

In most cases, lawyers make the mistake of doing what all of their colleagues are doing and what happens is you begin to see a lot of activity in certain niche demographics and very little in others.

Here’s an example from the estate planning area, which you can extrapolate out into whichever practice area you are working in.

The vast majority of estate planning lawyers are either marketing to elderly people, the ultra-wealthy, or not niching their marketing at all.  This leads to a very crowded marketplace with most lawyers appearing exactly like the guy next door and not very much for prospects to differentiate one from the other except on price.

That’s how commodities are created.

I took a different track when I built my practice from scratch 5 years ago.

I niched my marketing and focused almost entirely on reaching families with young children, an extremely underserved market who is in need of estate planning services.

Here’s what was so interesting.  Once I committed to focus my marketing efforts on the niche of reaching young families, I began to attract all sorts of other prospects outside of my niche, including elderly folks and the uber-rich.

4.  Add On a Lucrative Practice Area

Some practice areas are suffering right now, while others are thriving.  Bankruptcies are on the rise, I’m sure divorces will be increasing as families crumble under financial pressures.  If you are in a practice area that is not currently thriving, consider branching out into something complementary that may be able to serve your already existing client base.

Estate planning is one of the best practice areas to add on to your practice because it’s easy to learn and everyone you know needs it, no matter what the economy is like.  The one thing you can’t avoid is death and taxes, but through a lifetime relationship with your estate planning lawyer, you can make both of them a lot less scary.

Here’s the key though, if you are going to add on a complementary practice area, make sure that you don’t delude yourself into thinking that this is going to save your business if you are blaming the slow down of your current business on the economy, but you aren’t marketing and haven’t already done all you can to expand your existing business.  Make sure you have a marketing plan in place to get the word out about your new offerings and how they can benefit your clients.

And, be sure that the practice area you are adding on to your business is easy to learn, systematizable, and has a proven system you can follow for maximum success as quickly as possible.

If you want to consider adding estate planning on as a complement to your already successful law practice, contact us by email at support@familywealthmatters.com as we have a proven, turn-key system that will allow you to quickly and easily get up and running to meet the estate planning needs of your existing clients and bring in a whole new base of fresh clients.

The best part about the estate planning practice area is that we teach you how to become your client’s primary, trusted advisor helping them to make a lifetime of smart financial and legal decisions.  It’ll help you get back to the reason you became a lawyer in the first place.

The long and the short of it is that if you are innovative, focused and creative, this recession can be just the opportunity you need to take your business to a whole new level of efficiency, effectiveness and profitability.  Things are changing anyway, why not make this an opportunity to become the lawyer you’ve always wanted to be?

Image courtesy of Flickr

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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 .