Law Business Revolution Blog » Personal Family Lawyer Program

How to Be the Indispensable Advisor Your Clients Love

Alexis — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 20:38:39 +0000

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.

How Lawyers Screw Themselves and Their Clients

Alexis — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 20:28:39 +0000

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.

3 Sure-Fire Ways to Increase Revenue Without Increasing Overhead

Alexis — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 20:08:55 +0000

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.

Stop Answering Your Phone and Feel the Love

Alexis — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 19:50:10 +0000

Not long ago on the Lawyerist Lab discussion board there was a whole string of discussion regarding how lawyers answer their phones.

As usual when lawyers talk about things like this, I was surprised to hear how many lawyers are answering their own phone when they are in the office or having calls directly transferred to them.

I guess I shouldn’t be surprised though because I used to do it too when I was first in practice and didn’t know any better.

I felt overwhelmed by all there was to do in the early years of my business (even when i didn’t have a whole lot of clients) and yet when the phone rang, I lunged for it like a teenage girl waiting for her suitor to call. (It could be a client or even better, a prospect!)

Little did I realize how answering my own phone was the worst thing I could possibly do.

It’s counter-intuitive in a way. I thought I HAD to answer my phone to be a responsive lawyer. In fact, it’s exactly the opposite. Make these small changes and watch your life (and bank account) improve, dramatically.

1. Have Your Phone Answered With a Smile By Someone Other Than You

Whatever you do, do not let your phone be answered by someone barking “law offices” into the phone upon pick up. Make sure whoever answers is smiling when they do.

If you have to use voicemail, make your voicemail smile. Add something quirky or different. So that you come across as a different kind of lawyer right off the bat. Unless you enjoy being stereotyped in the same bucket as all the other lawyers.

Call Ruby and Total Attorneys both have great services. (And if you mention I sent you, each of them will likely give you a free test out period.) I believe Total Attorneys can even schedule appointment for you, which is really important because as you will see below, you want all your phone calls to be scheduled.

2. Never Take an Unscheduled Call (Except In Case of Emergency)

When you allow the phone to interrupt you and your day even for a few minutes of the time, you will often find yourself at the end of the day wondering why it feels as if you did not get anything done. (a Microsoft study indicated that it can take as much as 15 minutes to get back on task after an interruption and then it often takes longer to get the task completed. Add up those 15 minutes and you can lose a whole lot of day.)

So, set yourself up so that everything is scheduled. Use time blocking and hire a scheduling assistant to schedule your calls. Or, if you are more of the virtual type use TimeDriver, Genbook, or BookFresh.

3. Do Better Work & Get More Love

When you stop allowing your phone to interrupt you throughout the day, you are going to get so much more work done and be far more productive. That means your family is going to be giving you a lot more love because you are going to be home in time for dinner.

Plus, your prospects are going to love you a whole lot more because you are going to be more in demand than if they can get you on the phone right when they call. When’s the last time you got your surgeon on the phone when you called with a question before surgery?

And, your clients are going to love you because you are going to establish right from the first meeting that the reason you don’t take unscheduled calls is because when you are focused on their matter, you are focused and doing great work for them and refuse to be interrupted. When you DO get on the phone, you’ll always be on time (no more annoying phone tag!) and prepared for the call. You’ll become the responsive lawyer everyone loves.

Finally, you’ll be doing better work. And ultimately, that’s what it’s all about.

So stop answering your phone and feel the love.

How to Bounce Back From Failure

Alexis — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 17:10:21 +0000

One of the single most important things you can learn how to do as a business owner is how to bounce back from failures.

How you handle failure is the key to whether you will succeed. Here’s how some of the most successful people of all time have handled what would have stopped most of us dead in our tracks.

* Thomas Edison failed 10,000(!) times before finally inventing the light bulb

* Henry Ford started many businesses and ended up completely broke FIVE times before he founded Ford Motor Company

* Harland Sanders and his famous Kentucky Fried Chicken recipe was rejected 1,009 times before he finally heard a yes.

* Oprah Winfrey was fired and rejected as a TV reporter. Her bosses called her “unfit for TV.”

* R.H. Macy started SEVEN failed businesses before his department store Macy’s became a huge global success.

Maybe you too are experiencing failure at this very moment. Maybe you’re drowning in a sea of debt and can’t fathom how you and your firm can possibly come out alive.

Maybe you feel like a failure as a parent…or a husband or a wife because your law firm steals all of your time and forces you to neglect the things or people you love the most.

Perhaps you’ve lost a string of cases that’s shattered your self-confidence and you’re now questioning your ability in the legal field all together.

To you I say: Don’t give up!

Each of these failures is a stepping stone to your ultimate success. Instead, see them as tests to see how serious you really are about succeeding in business and life.

Here are the things that help me bounce back and get back on the horse each time I fall off:

1. Find the lesson. Every failure is merely an opportunity to learn how to do better next time. When you see failure that way, you discover that not only is failure not something to be afraid of, but something to embrace because it brings you one step closer to what you need to learn to get where you want to go.

2. Don’t blame. Blame blocks your lesson. Instead, if you take 100% personal responsibility for your part of every failure, you can learn the lessons you need to turn the failure into a huge success.

3. Move out of why and into what. Many of us spend our time WHYning constantly. Oh why me, why did this happen. Why, why, why, why, why???? Why doesn’t matter. All that matters is what. Accept the reality of whatever did happen and now ask yourself WHAT you are going to do to turn it around into the greatest opportunity of your life.

4. Ask for help. Sometimes it’s hard to see the lessons in our own failures. Emotion can get in the way. So ask for help from someone who cares about you and is not emotionally invested in your outcome. Even if you are a solo lawyer, that doesn’t mean you have to do it all alone.

If you want the support of an amazing group of lawyers who will help you turn every failure into the greatest opportunity for success, consider becoming a PFL. I held a no-charge call on February 16th where I gave all the details of the program and opened the doors for our open enrollment happening this week. If you missed the call, you can download the replay here and still get your application in before tomorrow’s deadline.

The PFL program isn’t for everyone. If what we offer doesn’t fit with your practice area or simply isn’t a business model you’d like to implement, keep searching until you find the one that is. You really can have a life and business that you love being a lawyer and serving your clients in a way that really matters.

Image courtesy of Flickr

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More Streams of Revenue For You

Alexis — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 21:29:12 +0000

Over the past several weeks, I’ve been sharing with you some ways to add multiple streams of revenue to your core business.

The first two ways focused around providing enhanced services to your existing law firm clients.

This third way is totally unique and has nothing to do with your existing clients.

The third way to add multiple streams of revenue to your business is to package the knowledge, expertise, systems, tools and other resources you’ve created as you’ve built your law firm into programs for other lawyers who would love to pay you to learn your shortcuts.

This is a model you’ve seen at least from the outside from anyone you are currently learning from about how to run your practice more effectively.

You might wonder why I’d mention this to you because it could put you in direct competition with me.

I just don’t view the world that way.

In fact, I help many of the lawyers I’m coaching cultivate there own unique talents and gifts by leveraging their expertise.

Kevin Roy, the probate genius. Evan Farr with his TrustPlus system. Kirsten Izatt with Special Needs Planning. Nancy Cavey with Social Securty Disability Planning. Rjon Robins in law firm management. And more …

Each of these lawyers is coaching with me to learn how to leverage their specialized knowledge into at least one additional stream of revenue for their law firm.

It’s my pleasure to guide them to their highest potential.

If you love to teach and you have specialized knowledge you’ve gained over the years of running your business, don’t be afraid to share it.

Package it, put a pricetag on it and offer it to the world. It could change your life!

Oh and speaking of guiding lawyers to pursue their passion, one of my Personal Family Lawyers Kimberley Fonner has decided to leave the law to pursue her passion. She wrote the email below to her colleagues at Wealth Counsel and I thought I’d share it here with you because it was just so kind:

Dear WealthCounsel Friends,

This was one of the hardest decisions I’ve ever had to make but my heart told me I had to do it and so I am: I’m closing my practice and getting out of the legal field, effective this month.

As much as I’ve enjoyed being a lawyer for the past 12 years, my passion really lies elsewhere and so, I am leaving the law to pursue the career of my dreams: working everyday with and in support of animals.

I’d like to thank Wealth Counsel and all of you wonderful WC members for your generous mentoring, support and advice over the last 2 years. You all have been quite wonderful and have contributed greatly to my ability to serve estate planning clients in very high-quality ways.

I would also like to publicly thank former Wealth Counsel Member, Alexis Martin Neely because I think she has been misunderstood by many other lawyers within our community.

She’s given me so much this past year and I want to pay that forward by expressing my review of her practice offerings.

I myself joined her Personal Family Lawyer Program at one of the worst times of my life – right after the sudden, unexpected death of my father.

Knowing of my personal loss and struggles with it, Alexis truly cared about me. She was always sensitive and supportive in our interactions, and also offered me a living example of how to make the practice of law more human, way more fun and therefore a lot more meaningful.

Alexis taught me to think outside the box and energized and inspired me. She has been a wonderful role model for me, and I can attest to the fact that she really does practice what she preaches.

What I have also appreciated a TON about the PFL program is it’s plug-and-play nature. That was perfect for me who was starting out as a true solo after more than a decade in the big -firm world. IMHO, it’s optimal for people who either want to re energize their existing practice, or for lawyers who are new to the estate planning field and want a blueprint to structure their practice the right way from the beginning.

All of the systems I received as a Personal Family Lawyer, from done-for-you marketing, to client engagement, to client retention to office management, were simply outstanding, I mean REALLY fantastic and value-adding stuff for my office.

Here is the bottom line from my experience as a PFL: Alexis Martin Neely and her PFL program deliver on all of her promises and then some. She is the real deal. And she really does care.

In fact, Alexis has actually encouraged me to follow my heart and live my passion…even though that meant leaving the law and her program in the process.

If your passion is being an estate planning attorney, Alexis’ PFL program will transform your practice (and therefore your life), and I can recommend it enthusiastically. Thank you all again so much, WC community, for all the support you’ve given me over the past years! It’s meant more than I can really say.

My very best wishes to all of you,
Kimberley.

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 .

I never said it was easy!

Alexis — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 02:24:19 +0000

Welcome to all of our new subscribers who attended my Kids Protection Planning training session last week.

It was incredibly gratifying to train hundreds of you who want to serve parents!

In today’s Law Business Secrets newsletter, I want to address an issue today that I hear frequently and never more frequently than now when so many people are experiencing financial fear.

Q: How did you grow your law firm into a million dollar business in such a short time? I don’t have the budget to do more marketing or invest in coaching. How did you do it?

Let me address this first by saying this:

I didn’t have any financial resources other than the income I generated from my law firm. At least not at first. (More on that in a minute).

My husband was a stay at home dad, meaning no income from him. My family was not wealthy, meaning no investment from them.

No savings to speak of and all the expenses that come with two little children.

It was all me.

The first 12-18 months, I scraped together all the money I needed with no outside help.

But, I was stalled.

All of the revenue coming in was being used to support the current overhead needs and there was none left over to invest in coaching, consulting or most importantly marketing.

I had just become aware of the idea that if I wanted to grow a business that wouldn’t depend on me constantly and that I could sell one day or retire from I had to start thinking of my business differently.

If I continued to think of myself as a sole practitioner, the business would always depend on me.

I had to start thinking of my business as a company. Only then would it have the possibility of being able to exist without my daily input (or my minute by minute input).

So, I began to ask myself what Mark Cuban would do, what Ray Kroc would do, what Michael Gerber would do. What would the business owner version of myself do?

And, I started making decisions from that place. From the place I wanted to be, not where I was.

I decided to grow my business so I could take vacations, spend more time with my children, and sell my firm and retire one day.

I began to understand that my business would only grow if I invested in it for growth. To do that, would mean investing more money than I had coming in every month.

That was scary! Terrifying in fact. Financial fear was always my biggest fear.

And yet, as soon as I stepped into this bigger vision and started making decisions from where I wanted to be instead of where I was, the resources showed up.

I wrote a financial business plan that showed if I invested money in my marketing, I’d get more clients.

I took that financial business plan to my banker and he gave me a line of credit.

I was actually embarrassed to apply for the financing. It felt as if I had failed in some weird way. And, I only asked for $50,000.

Looking back, I now know that I should have asked for at least $100,000.

But, I was embarrassed.

But, you know what? That was keeping me small. I now see that as a huge turning point in my business.

Which of your successful clients built a business without investing?

None of them!

It takes investment. Investment of time, money, and your emotional resources.

But, what is a better investment than you?

Nothing.

Your business is your best investment. Especially now.

So, how did I grow my business so quickly?

I invested in it. I invested a lot of money. I invested a lot of time.

I busted my butt.

And it all paid off. In 2006, my business hit a million dollars of revenue.

In 2007, I did it again. But, that year, the business only needed me in the office 2 days/week.

Was it scary? Yes. Was it worth it? Yes, it was.

Can you do it? You sure can.

What does it take? You making a decision that you want something bigger.

That’s it.

Everything else will show up.

PS – Join me on January 15 for a teleconference that will give you all the details about my elite Personal Family Lawyer program and how you can be 1 of only 15 lawyers to get my help on growing your business.

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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.

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 .