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 .

Over the past several weeks, there’s been quite a bit of buzz about me on the ABA-Solosez listserve.

A few lawyers forwarded me the threads and there was one I have to respond to because it’s a common misperception that you may have and it could be affecting how you charge for your services.

One of the things I’m known for is helping lawyers collect higher fees for their services.

In response to this, one lawyer said “many of us live in communities where we would be doing less than half the work we do now if we doubled our fees. Many clients understand (and have point blank told me) they could get a divorce for $450.00 at the firm two blocks away when I quote my fees.”

This all too common thinking by lawyers has led our profession into commodity pricing in which prospects have been trained to shop for the lowest price service available.

Then, when they receive subpar service, they extrapolate that out to all lawyers and the myth that lawyers are non-responsive, provide bad service and only care about the max fees they can collect is perpetuated.

Ironically, charging higher fees actually dispels these beliefs.

Here’s how.

When we create an extraordinary experience for our prospects and clients and charge what we are worth, in a straight-forward manner, without apologies and without surprises, we give people a whole new experience of what it means to work with a lawyer.

And one by one, we change the way people think of lawyers across the world.

We can only do this though if we truly create a service that is extraordinary.

Fortunately, it’s not that hard to do.

In fact, I’ve found it’s much more difficult to provide cut rate service at cut rate prices.

The only difficult part about doubling your fees (or even quadrupling them) and providing a superior service is having the confidence to create something amazing and tell the world about it.

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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 .