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