I was at dinner with my sister and a couple of friends this past weekend and my friend started talking about her CPA.

The next thing I knew she and her husband were literally raving about the experience they had with him.

They loved him so much that they immediately pulled out a piece of paper, scribbled all his information out and said call him.

Do your clients do that when they and their friends talk about legal stuff?

They will if you create an experience they can’t help but talk about.

What could you start (or stop) doing in your office to make it so your clients can’t help but tell all their friends and family about you?

Don’t worry if you can’t think of something. I’ll share some of my creativity with you in the next couple of weeks.

But if you do have anything, I’d love to hear about it. Leave me a comment.

PS – this was one of the major secrets to what allowed me to build my firm into a million dollar biz and work just 2 days a week in the office. It can totally happen for you too with some small shifts… stay tuned.

Yesterday was a full day of coaching lawyers for me and it’s one of my favorite things to do because the transformations are so immense when you get the right support.

One of our Creative Business Lawyers shared that his revenue is up 65% over last year!

So, what is he doing differently this year than last?

He has a system in place for making offers and getting to yes with the people who respond.

He has a recurring revenue membership model in place that his prospects can say yes to and he is more confident than he has ever been about what he offers.

And he didn’t reinvent the wheel himself trying to do it all alone out of stubborn willfulness.

He released his skepticism and decided to give it a try figuring he did not have much to lose when it came right down to it, but he sure had a lot to lose if he did not turn things around.

Fortunately, he did and now he is on the way to having the practice he has always wanted as a trusted advisor to his clients.

What about you? Is trying to figure it all out yourself keeping you stuck in the same old same old that really isn’t doing it?

Not to worry we have answers coming soon.

After last week’s note about clients sending you flowers, I received several responses from those of you who do receive flowers from your clients and others of you who do not, but would really like to.

Today’s note is for those of you who aren’t even close to receiving flowers from your clients because you’ve become the type of lawyer you always swore you would never be.

This was the case for one of the lawyers who joined our Personal Family Lawyer program a couple of years ago.

To protect his confidentiality, I’ll call him Alex.

Alex told us that he became a Personal Family Lawyer after he realized that being a litigator was ruining his life.

It hit home when he filed some interrogatories in a case, calculated when they would be due, realized he was ruining his opposing counsels Christmas, pumped his fist in the air and ….

In that moment, he woke up.

He had become someone who was happy to ruin another person’s Christmas.

He had become someone he couldn’t stand.

He went to law school to help people, not hurt them. And yet he found himself being exactly who he had never wanted to be.

And it was seeping into his home life. Stress, anxiety, aggression, frustration … were the order of his days.

He never felt appreciated by his clients. And he really was starting to not like himself.

So, he decided to give it up for something much better.

He made the decision to start serving families. He made the choice to stop being the kind of lawyer he couldn’t stand and start being the kind of lawyer who helped his clients be better people, better parents and better citizens of their communities.

Do you help your clients be better people? If so, how? I’d love to hear.

Or have you become the kind of lawyer and person you swore you would never be? You don’t have to do that anymore. There is a better way.

PS – Stephen O’Neill was in practice for more than 30 years when he tried out our Client Engagement System and after his first meeting using our model for his initial consultation, his clients spontaneously said “this is the best thing we’ve ever done.”

They said that to their lawyer! It’s time for you to be truly valued for what you do and how you serve in the world.

We can help.

When I first began in practice, I was not a happy lawyer. People told me it would get better, but I just couldn’t see how that was so.

Others told me to just suck it up – I was making a 6-figure paycheck from one of the most “prestigious” firms in town after all.

Everyday, I thank the Universe that I didn’t listen to those people (or my own mind) that said to give up my dream of making a difference in people’s lives, making a great living and trade it all in for security and prestige.

Instead, I hired a coach who helped me see how I could let go of what other people thought and step through my own fear to become the lawyer I had always wanted to be.

Within three short years, my life was completely different.

I had a steady stream of prospects calling and coming into the office, plenty of money coming in and clients who loved what our firm was doing for them.

I was serving people who cared about their families and their businesses. Deeply.

And I was doing it in a way I never could have imagined at the big law firm.

I was reminded of all this the other day when Martha Hartney, one of our Personal Family Lawyers posted on Facebook the following note:

“I’m so in the right business–a client put flower petals in a note to me!”

Yes, that’s what it’s about when you are practicing law in a way that feels great to you and your clients – you are regularly appreciated for what you do and you appreciate what you are doing in the world.

Why would you want to live life any other way? It’s why you went to law school, right?

Stephen O’Neill was in practice for more than 30 years when he tried out our Client Engagement System and after his first meeting using our model for his initial consultation, his clients spontaneously said “this is the best thing we’ve ever done.”

When I first started out in practice, I used to think
that marketing my law firm meant figuring out the one
thing I could do that would bring me in all the clients
I needed.

I spent at least a year trying to figure out what
that one thing was.

I searched google for law firm marketing, marketing for
lawyers, marketing for attorneys, build my law firm,
how can I get more clients …

I’m sure you know what I mean.  If you are here it’s
because you’ve been searching for all of that too.

You want more clients.

You want the answer on how to get more clients. And
perhaps, like me, you think there is some secret to
getting more clients for your law firm that has eluded
you.

I read all the white papers, websites, forums and blog
posts on marketing for lawyers, law firm marketing,
marketing for attorneys, etc.,etc.

I found that most of what was out there wasn’t from
other small and solo practice law firm owners who had
found success, but from law firm marketing consultants
who were trying to sell me on their services.

Most of them weren’t lawyers at all. They were consultants.
They hadn’t actually done it in their own law practices.

So, long story short, I decided to try some of the law
firm marketing strategies they suggested.

Some of it worked, some of it didn’t.

Ultimately, I was able to get my phone ringing.  Not by
implementing one lawyer marketing strategy, but by
putting in place several strategies to market my law
practice and to get those strategies on an automated
system that would run continuously even when I got
busy or distracted with running my law practice and
serving my clients.

But here’s the most important thing I found out – I
was doing it all backwards.

You see, no one told me that it isn’t law firm
marketing strategies or even marketing at all that
will make the biggest difference …
it’s about what happens once the phone does ring.

You see, I got my phone ringing, but then I found
I was only converting a very small percentage of those
phone calls into appointments and I was only converting
a very small percentage of those appointments into
clients.

I was wasting my time and money on marketing my law firm
when I wasn’t really ready for the phone to ring at all.

What no one told me (and I really do believe it’s because
they didn’t know) is that the first place to focus is
not on marketing your law firm.

The place to start is on getting a system in place for
what happens once your phone rings.

What exactly do you say when someone calls to inquire about
your services?

What exactly do you say when they show up in your office
so they go from interested prospect to paying client?

What exactly should they see when they get to your website?

How do you bring someone from hearing you speak and being
interested in what you offer to coming into your office
and hiring you?

Those are the most important questions. If you invest time,
money and energy in marketing your law firm before you have
a solid process in place for engaging clients, you are
wasting your time and money.

If you want the very best marketing for your law practice,
begin by creating a solid client engagement system and process.

Once you know you can convert every qualified website hit
and phone call into an appointment and then at least 75% of
those appointments into client, then invest your money
in marketing your law practice.

Until then … build the system for engaging clients.

This is how I ended up building a million dollar law firm
and it would have happened much faster if I would have started
with figuring out  how to engage clients first and only marketing
my law firm after that.

If you’d like a huge shortcut to building your law firm, I’ve
got a gift for you – I never want to see another lawyer reinventing
the wheel like I had to.

Download over $22,500 of practice building resources on everything
from law firm marketing, to pricing and packaging your services,
setting your fees, collecting your fees, and having happy clients
who are thrilled to pay your fees at http://www.LawBusinessRevolution.com

I created these resources for my own law firm and I’m sharing them
with you absolutely free because I want to help you reinvent your
law business on a new model that is sustainable for you and your
clients.

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.

Why did you go to law school?  When I ask this question, I almost always receive one of three answers:

1. Because I didn’t know what else to do
2. Because I wanted to make a lot of money and law seemed like a good way to do it
3. Because I really wanted to help people

I fell into the latter category.  I always wanted to be a lawyer because I thought it was my best chance of helping people who couldn’t help themselves.

And, like many of the others I know who share that calling, it didn’t take me long to figure out that the outdated model of practicing law was simply not going to work for me.

It was too painful because deep down inside, I wasn’t helping people.  I was preparing form documents for them and sending them on their way knowing those documents were unlikely to work when their family needed them.

I had considered being a litigator, but I quickly saw that I wouldn’t feel as if I was helping people then either because even when they win a case, it’s the rare client who comes through litigation and out the other side happy.

The reality was the practice of law can really suck.  The constant grind of billable hours, cranky clients and antagonistic opposing counsel, and trying to keep up with all of it ourselves is a reality none of us expected when we fell in love with the idea of a career in law so we could make a difference for our clients.

I’ve heard it called a soul crushing existence.  But, it doesn’t have to be that way.

And, it’s time for you to do everything you can to discover how to do things a whole lot different than you have up until now.

Unless you make some radical changes to the way you practice, your livelihood is seriously at risk.

If you keep the same old practice model in place, the day is coming when your clients will discover they don’t need you – businesses like Rocket Lawyer® and LegalZoom® will put you out of business.  Your job is on the line.  Not because they are better than you, but because they are better business people than you and they have nearly unlimited marketing budgets.

Can you compete with that?  Maybe.  It depends if you are willing to step outside your comfort zone and start seeing yourself as the lawyer you went to law school to be instead of the lawyer your business model has forced you to be.

To be continued …. Next week, in the continuation of this article I’ll share the specifics of:

How you can become indispensable to your clients and command higher fees that your clients are happy to pay;

How you can utilize the concept of collaborating with your biggest competitors to leverage the marketing power of the online legal document providers to your advantage;

What love has to do with it.

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.

One of the least expensive ways to increase your new client flow is to generate more business from your existing clients.

If you are practicing with the new law business model, your clients love you and want to send you business. You just need to make it easy for them.

Here are three ways to do it:

1.  Ask for the referral:

At the end of your first meeting, when your clients are thrilled with the process you’ve taken them through because they feel so relieved you are going to be taking care of them and their matter, ask your clients to send them anyone you know who is just like them.

The best way to do this is to get three of your business cards.

On one of your cards, write your cell phone number and tell your clients to call you on that number in case of an emergency.

Hand them the other two cards and tell them they are for friends or family just like them who need your services.  It’s that simple.

2.  Ask them to host you for an event:

We teach our Personal Family Lawyers to do guardian naming workshops as one way to generate new clients.

Some of them are hosting these events in the homes of their clients for their clients’ friends.

“Show your friends how much you care by helping them name legal guardians for their kids just like you did for yours.”

It’s an irresistible offer, especially if you give anyone who hosts you a discount of their legal work.

How could you apply this to your practice area?

3.  Establish a membership/maintenance program and give clients who enroll a discount on legal work for other family members:

Once a client works with you, figure out how you can put them on an ongoing membership/maintenance program and as one of the enrollment bonuses, give family members a discount on legal work.

We would give our clients a 50% discount on parent’s legal planning and as a result I ended up often doing legal work for the whole family.

It was totally worth it because I knew that the initial up front free I collected from a client was only a small part of the lifetime value of each client to me.

Do you have other ways to increase the number of referrals you receive from clients?

If so, let me know and I’ll share them with the group.

You’ve invested years of your life and tens (hundreds) of thousands of dollars in your education.  You are smarter than most people.  And it simply doesn’t make sense that you should be working so hard and keeping such little money at the end of the day.

And yet for the vast majority of lawyers in private practice, that’s the case.

Lots of work and not a lot to show for it at the end of the day, whether that day is the end of the month, the end of the year, or the end of a career.

This email series will lay out how you can experience something different.

Before I get into it, there’s something I want you to know.  I will always be straight up honest with you.  That’s how I live my life and that’s how I run my businesses – straightforward, direct, no B.S.

I always tell you like it really is.

Everything you are doing to run  your business right now probably feels hard, really hard.

But, it’s comfortable.

The things I am going to suggest you do as part of this email series are pretty easy things to do once you know what they are.

But, they are likely to create short-term discomfort for you.

Change is hard.  For everyone.  And especially for lawyers.  It triggers our control issues.

But, you have to change or you’re going to stay stuck.

Here are some of the things that are keeping you in the rut:

1.  Continued focus on how bad the economy is and using that as an excuse to keep you from moving forward.

Pay attention to how often you talk about the economy or how hard things are right now.

2.  Taking every case that walks through the door.

It’s nearly impossible to build a streamlined business that allows you to work a reasonable schedule unless you strategically focus on serving a narrower group of people than you likely are right now.

Now, I’m not saying to stop taking the work that is keeping food on your table, at least not yet.  Over time though you will need to narrow your focus, master serving one group of people with excellence and then, if you want, you can expand to additional groups.

3.  Invest resources in building your business before the revenue is there.

This can be the most difficult one for lawyers.  We want to build our practices out of revenue without investing in the business.  I wish it could work this way, but for the most part it can’t.  Building a business almost always requires an out of pocket financial investment.

Here’s the great news … you don’t have to buy a franchise or invest in someone else’s business, you are your very best investment when you’ve got the right tools and resources and the commitment to making it work.

One of my clients invested in one of those quickie massage places you see springing up everywhere – at $50-$75 a pop, she’s got to work hard to get enough business to make it work.  And, she’s doing it!

Your transaction fees are far higher than that, so the next time you feel frustrated, think about that poor massage parlor owner and know that if she can do it, so can you.

Over the next few weeks, I’ll be sharing specifics on how you can get out of this rut and into the kind of action that will really make a difference for you.  In the meantime, watch your mind for the self-sabotaging thoughts that are keeping you stuck right where you are.