Law Firm Coach Blog

From time to time Law Firm Coach invites people who have a high level knowledge of management and marketing for law firms to write a guest blog. There is no exchange of monies or gifts between us and the author but rather our way of letting you hear from really good people who do their job with the same value and mindset that our parent company, Catalyst Group, Inc., sets as its standard. Enjoy!

The thought of putting a baseball field in the middle of nowhere and having fans come, like in the movie Field of Dreams, is like it used to be with websites. Everyone was rushing to put their "brochure" online in the form of an informational website on the Internet. Fear of not having a site was palpable. New businesses popped up overnight and got rich creating sites for business owners who did not have the time or skills to do the work themselves.

It seems that with every new technology there is a groundswell of excitement--a feeling that we must do something because every other business is doing it. A few years ago, your competitors created a website so you had to have one; now they have a blog or are using social media, so you feel you must do it, too. Having an online presence or starting a blog is not enough. Just because you create a pretty website or blog does not mean that clients will come to it. Prospects must be able to find your site and it must provide value.

Technology has changed, making it easier to have an effective Internet presence. Many tools (some of them free) exist to measure and analyze results. And new advertising channels exist that have in most cases dramatically reduced the overall cost of marketing your firm. Today's websites offer online chat features, intake forms and capture prospect information to be used for future marketing--these platforms are tools. Beware 'cheap' solutions, as back end add-ons and upgrades may end up costing you far more than a well planned, expandable platform.

But it's not just the technology that has changed; the entire customer interaction has changed, too. What used to be a "push" format--a one sided message to the prospect--has, based on consumer demand, turned into a two-way conversation. This more interactive process has taken the most successful websites from static, seldom updated pages, to robust platforms that are constantly changing to provide value to customers and prospects and allow that conversation to take place. This new reality is frequently referred to as Web 2.0.

The Web is a tool and should be looked upon as an ongoing investment to promote and showcase your firm and capture leads. A 2009 Pew research study states that 81% of people research products on the web. Indeed, through common usage, "Google" (the most commonly used search engine) has become a verb--talk about great branding! Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Pay-per-Click (PPC) advertising and social media (blogs, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.) are all tools that when used effectively can drive prospects to your site. These tools require frequent attention and updates. Back-end marketing and customer relationship management (CRM) help round out the web tool arsenal to ignite results.

If you build it, will they come? Yes--as long as you remember that while the technology has changed, the basics of marketing have stayed the same: build your brand to uniquely represent you and be consistent, stay on-message, and use the available web tools to deliver relevant, valuable and vibrant content to customers and prospects.

Jeanne Frazer is president of vitalink®, a creative + strategic marketing think tank, and VLegal, a new division of vitalink developed to meet the needs of today's lawyer. Jeanne may be reached at jeanne@vitalinkweb.com or 919.850.0605.

Resounding yes! It doesn't matter if it is just the partners or the partners and key people or the entire firm, taking time once a year to refocus on the vision of the firm and the goals to be reviewed and determined takes a firm flat in its growth to forward motion. Without a focused time at a focused location without interference of routine daily matters your brain simply can't shut down long enough to think about vision and planning.

Retreats do not need to be expensive. Do I think it is worth hiring a facilitator. I do for only one reason: If you are fighting time to have the retreat you probably don't have the time to make it a good retreat. But it can be done with in-house staff. The other thing a facilitator brings to the retreat is an objective third party view that keeps everyone focused down the road not on their own objectives.

Suggestions:

1. Do not hold it at your firm. Find some place way from the firm. I prefer an out-of-town retreat but a local hotel is fine.
2. Who comes to retreats. It can be many things based on who is attending. Partners would look at where they want to go and the historial data that shows why they not getting there. Budget matters and staffing for the forthcoming year might occur. If you include key people then be prepared to decide what information comes out. If it is entire firm then consider having two retreats running side-by-side with a come to-gether at the end. Each group focusing on that which they have the power to change. Know this. If your people buy into your vision they will help you go forward.
3. What is the purpose of your retreat. There should be a clear defined objective. Good firms hold them every year with a theme based upon their past year plus the vision down the road. We love our 'Dream, Believe, Dare, Do' retreats because they focus on looking at a vision for the firm and creating a plan to move the firm towards its vision.
4. Don't have money? Trust me if you have a good retreat you will make up the cost of the retreat in an increase in the firm's revenue. Forward motion..any change for that matter, always impacts increased revenue.

Don't let another year go by! And if you are just one person with one staff, then go off by yourself for 2 days and dream, believe, dare and remember the most important part..make sure you 'do' that which you plan!

When I spoke recently at the NCBA on marketing yourself one of my questions was "how much time each week do you devote to thinking about marketing or being pro-active about marketing". As I threw out this thought I asked the lawyers to raise their hands who did one hour a week. My best guess was less than 10%.

All the marketing in the world won't work if you don't work at it. Here's my marketing tip (in fact it is down right suggestion). Starting this week, set aside one hour on your calendar to work on marketing. You can just sit and think. You can pick up phone and make a call and ask advice. You can work on your plan. Set it and don't violate the time.

If you are worried about taking time from clients or work know this. If you don't do this some day you won't have the clients who need the time.

The attached is from our business blog but it is applicable to law firms. There is a lesson within this blog copy. Credit to Dave. You can see more business advice on www.wisebusinessleaderblog.com. Every event in a law firm from a mangement project to getting work out of the door is 'project management'

Have you ever been in a project management position when it comes time for the popular status report and you are 180 degrees apart from everyone else? As a project manager when this happens I am absolutely astounded that I am the only person in the group who sees the project in trouble. I got a clue when I tried to put a law firm under project management using Microsoft Project (don't try this at home unless you are a professional). Within the first month I had every schedule in the red. I was ready to deliver the doom and gloom speech. The lawyers, on the other hand, were smiling and ready to claim victory. Every schedule on the sheet was missed but in their mind they were still on track. I determined that the interim dates that they put in the plan were not really critical to them. They did not recognize the true impact on missed dates to the end date. I had no knowledge of the actual complexities of the project. All I had were a set of dates that represented the project. I also determined that they were not in any way focused on the internal dates, just the end date. I had developed this non-existent sense of importance when it came to these interim dates. The lawyers thought, even if the dates were missed, they could still meet the end date.
There are valuable lessons to be learned in this situation. First, don't assume that the first set of dates represents the full project or are representative of critical dates. Second, don't expect that everyone understands project management and the importance of meeting internal dates. If you are in charge of a project or just want to track one, make sure that the plan is complete, the relative importance of the task are understood and that the impact on the end date of each line item is real. More importantly make sure that the team or group understands what project management means and agree that the interim dates are a need that forces the group to meet the critical end

When I work with law firms, the first thing I do is insist that the law firm owner refer every phone call from vendors and marketers to me. The reason I do this is because I deal with this on a day to day basis and see a bigger picture for the law firm. The law firm owner is looking day to day and what a vendor or a marketer says makes sense, gets the enthusiasm going, and suddenly a small check here or there or a purchase without thought is made. When I get a hold of the calls first I make the caller prove to me the validity of their approach based upon the vision of the firm and the direction of the marketing budget.

You can't do this until you make yourself set down and write out a budget that starts first with what you can afford, then add to it what you are willing to invest out of your net profits over the next year, and finally what will give you the highest return on your investment.

One of my very favorite lawyers constantly tells me "well it is only $150" or "it is free for the first 2 months". If he had the $150 or he had the time to get it up and running then I want to put it where we planned for it in moments of clarity.

You are coming to the end of the year and by November 1st you should have your firm budget for 2010 in place and approved. More importantly you should have out of this budget your marketing budget. This includes very dollar planned from yellow pages to direct mail to any item that you believe will deliver you more clients at the most reasonable cost.

Do you know what the cost of each case you get in the door? If your marketing budget is $50,000.00, and you generate 50 cases then the case cost you $1000.00 just to march it in the door. Let's say that your average fee is $5000.00. Take out the marketing cost ($1000), deduct your over-head (say 50%), and your net profit is $2000.00. That may or may not be a good deal for you. I have one firm I know that has their marketing cost per case down to $525.00. Now that is someone who understands "what it means to be 'for profit'".

Last week I spoke at an NCBA CLE Program on marketing yourself and how to do it. One of the things that I tried to stress was to be yourself and not try to be what you think others expect you to be. Before you can market yourself or even run your own law firm (or even a legal team) you truly have to not only know yourself but be yourself.

I see far too many lawyers trying to live up to the lawyer image in their minds. I am absolutely convinced no one knows what a lawyer image is today. Lawyers and law firms are changing the rules daily on what is the image and look needed to succed. Those that are succeeding are doing it only because they are comfortable in their own skins.

One of the advantages of age (Wisdom of the Ages) is the ability not to worry about what others think but to worry about what you think. Once you get yourself aligned with you values, living the life of character you want, then the rest comes easy. It truly is the laws of attraction.

And every year you give yourself a personal tune-up. Think about where you are in life. Ask yourself if you are doing what you want to do. Have you made progress in your goals. Do you have a passion for what you do. And does your family have a passion for what you do.

As we come to the end of this year I am encouraging everyone I know to take a couple of days. Make it your wake-up call for this year. You can hire a facilitator or do it yourself but walk away from your business and your life and go through a thought process of where you want to be short term and long term. THEN MAKE A PLAN! Best money you have every spent.

IF YOU STAY THE WAY YOU ARE YOU WILL ALWAYS BE THE WAY YOU ARE!

If you preach client service, you appreciate client service. This cup of cheer spreads more good will and drives more name recognition and new cases than any trick I know. Buy in bulk coffee cups with firm name, colors and logo. Make a contract with the florist that handles your firm business. Ask them to put into the cup the current flowers of the month (this saves florist money to use low cost flowers). Print a card with your firm name, logo, tagline.

The hand write the following:
"We believe in extraordinary client service. Thus we appreciate when we see good service from others. You helped one of our firm members in your job and you gave extraordinary service. Good job!" and have partner sign. Someone deliver from the firm if possible.

Who do you give to? Choose one person a month from nominations within the firm of someone who truly gave client service at the grocery store, drug store, medical office. Get their name off their badge or however.

I can promise you that when that cup is delivered to the person you will see (1) the employee be over-whelmed and tell the entire office or store; (2) her boss also be impressed and applaud the employee; and (3) everyone who hears about it will know your firm practices what it preaches!

Cost: $10.00