Archive for year: 2013

As you’re no doubt aware, infographics are hot.  In my view, that’s because infographics are easily consumable written “edu-tainment”.  Although they’re especially valuable for the business-to-consumer market, they can be useful to convey information to anyone.  Check, for example, this Pinterest board of law infographics collected by Gyi Tsakalakis.

I’ve been collecting infographics that concern marketing, and today I’d like to share the top four with you.  If one addresses areas you know you need to work on to build your book of business, print it out and put it somewhere you’ll see frequently.  And then, most importantly, apply the information.

1. LinkedIn Marketing Strategy.  I like this infographic because it addresses a must-do activity that few lawyers use effectively and gives tips for beginner, intermediate, and advanced users.  The title is a little misleading in that the strategy is designed to help you gain connections and exposure but doesn’t offer a clear path to turn those into new business, but it’s a great start and one every lawyer should be working on.
2. How to Create Content Ideas for a New Client.  Although this infographic is designed for markets who support businesses, it offers some great tips on what makes for good content.  My favorite tip (and one that I share every time I mention legal newsletters or updates) is “Don’t reiterate the news.  Find a way to connect the news to the client’s industry.”  In other words, share your insights on why the news matters to your readers.
3. Grow Your Business:  Your simple guide to building online.  I have always maintained that the average lawyer is much better advised to outsource technical online marketing, including website building, pay-per-click advertising, and SEO.  The technology and the rules change quickly enough that trying to stay up-to-date is impractical for non-professionals.  However, you can’t outsource what you don’t understand.  This infographic gives a nice overview and flowchart for using each of these methods, as well as social media (which can be partially outsourced if closely managed) to grow a business or a practice.
4. Your Video Marketing Handbook.  I believe that video marketing is a tremendous opportunity for lawyers.  Not the cheesy “Have YOU been in an accident” advertising style videos, but short, high-content and high-quality videos that address various legal issues and start the viewer’s relationship with a lawyer or law firm.  This infographic offers some useful information about why video matters and how to use video effectively.  More a teaser than a true handbook, it’s still a useful resource.

I once talked with a client who was upset at the prospect of paying nearly $1,000 for equipment required for making a presentation to a group of her ideal clients.  She confirmed my expectations that she’d be able to use the equipment again for similar presentations, and I suggested that she view the financial outlay as an investment rather than a cost.

“What’s the difference,” she sighed, “call it cost or investment, that money is just plain gone.”  You spend cash for both costs and investments, true, but the distinction is critical in making smart decisions about rainmaking expenses.

A cost is defined as “the amount or equivalent paid or charged for something;” an investment is “the outlay of money, usually for income or profit.”  The difference?  No matter how beneficial, a cost is money paid or time spent that doesn’t produce further profit or income.  An investment, however, is intended to be recouped and, if the investment is well chosen, to bring in more money than you originally paid  Big difference!

You must understand this distinction so that you can evaluate opportunities that come your way.  When you are presented with a chance to do something, whether it’s sponsoring some sort of event, speaking to a group, or enhancing your own professional development through training or coaching, you need to be able to discern whether you’ll be paying a cost or making an investment.  Both have their place, but you have to budget differently for each kind of expense.

For example, in the past few years, I’ve made an annual 5-figure investment in working with business mentors, and those investments have paid off handsomely.  The feedback I’ve received and the ideas generated have brought in substantially more than the sums I paid.  I decided to make those investments after following the mentors and carefully evaluating what was offered.  I would not pay the same amount as a cost that I didn’t expect to recover — but I’ll happily invest any amount of money when I know that it will produce a multiplied return in new income.

When you’re making a decision about spending (including whether the opportunity is an investment and whether it’s the right one for you), consider these questions:

1. What benefit can I reasonably expect from taking part in this opportunity?  Consider not just financial or business benefit but also the ancillary relationship benefits that may accrue.  For example, if attending a meeting holds little direct benefit to you, but one of your best clients has asked that you attend, you might find that the benefit of meeting your client’s request will merit the investment of time.  If the only benefit is emotional and unlikely to lead to a business benefit — your own enjoyment or development of a social relationship — then you should consider the opportunity to be a cost rather than an investment and make your decision accordingly.
2. What’s the likelihood of reaping the anticipated benefit?  You may not be able to predict with mathematical certainty the probability of attaining the benefit that you’re seeking, so a qualitative estimate is all you need here.
3. What’s the magnitude of the anticipated benefit?  I look for at least a 2-to-1 payoff for financial investments.  For instance, when I had the opportunity to travel to Los Angeles a few years ago to speak at a conference, I weighed the $2000 travel and hotel bill against the lifetime value of getting at least one additional client.
4. What will I need to put into this opportunity to increase the likelihood of getting the benefit?  Especially when an investment is primarily beneficial, it’s important to recognize that you may need to put in additional time and energy — and perhaps additional money — to get the results that you want.  That isn’t necessarily an indication that you shouldn’t make the investment, but you need to know what you’ll need to do before you commit.  To continue the previous example, in addition to the financial expenditure, I knew it would take several days to craft and practice my presentation.
5. Am I able to make the necessary investment of money, time, and energy?  When you’ve defined the scope of expenditure you’ll need to make to get the benefit you’re seeking, determine whether you can make the investment.
6. Am I willing to make that investment?  As I often tell my coaching clients, if you want things to change, you will need to change.  Even if an opportunity carries no financial cost, be sure you’re willing to invest your time and energy, since no benefit flows without some sort of investment.

Use these questions in making your own decisions, and use them to help your clients see the benefits of investing in working with you on financial and other levels.  In many substantive areas of practice, a clear need often precedes an engagement, and convincing is unnecessary.  When your work is characterized as planning or arranging something (estate planning, for example), you may get more business when you’re able to demonstrate how investing will pay off, in reduced taxes for your client’s estate (financial benefit) and in reduced stress for your client’s survivors (emotional benefit).

How do you use the language of cost vs. investment in your own business and in making your own decisions?  Your assignment, if you choose to accept it, is to notice the ways you think about the outlay of money, time, and energy.  Are you making the right investments?

I recently started listening to podcasts again after getting out of the habit for some reason.  (Isn’t it interesting how even successful and enjoyable habits can erode if we don’t stay on top of them?)  My new favorite podcast that’s also available via video:  Good Life Project™, by Jonathan Fields.  The Good Life Project™ presents a weekly deep-dive interview with an entrepreneur, artist, author, or thought leader.  The interviews are educational, informative, and often moving.

As I was pulling into my garage after a 90-minute drive last week, I was listening to Fields’ interview of Simon Sinek.  Sinek’s story and insights (covering storytelling, leadership, impact, service, and purpose) were so fascinating that I sat in my garage for another 15 minutes, too spellbound to move.  Here’s why…

When you connect what you do with why you do it, you fuel your efforts.

Why do you do what you do?  I’ve written before about the importance of connecting with your “big why” to help propel you even when times get challenging in your practice or in your business development efforts.  And that’s important, especially when you need some extra motivation to power through the tough spots.

Perhaps even more importantly, feeling a sense of purpose and service will embolden you to go further than you otherwise might, because it’s the right thing to do.

My clients are sometimes reticent to get in touch with a new contact (potential client or referral source) for fear of seeming too pushy or annoying.  And I get it.  On occasion, I’ll have a consultation with a potential client who will promise a return call and then disappear.  In the past, I wouldn’t follow up with that person because I didn’t want to pressure someone into a decision.  I still don’t, but I now follow up because I can’t let something as important as moving ahead (or not) in building a book of business slide just because I’m uncomfortable.  Being of service demands that I follow up.

A sense of service outweighs discomfort every time.

If you’re working to grow your practice, if you’re a leader in your firm, or if you’re feeling a hollowness in your career and life, listen to Sinek’s interview.  You won’t be sorry.

Also, ask yourself the question Fields asks to close each interview:  What does it mean to you to live a good life?  Are you doing that?  If not, how is your practice (and your life) affected?

Client service is one of the foundations of business development.  Why?  First, client service is the heart of your practice and should be well-executed for that reason alone.  And second, excellent client service makes it more likely that you’ll get repeated and expanded client engagements as well as referrals from happy clients.

As lawyers, though, we tend to focus on the substantive aspects of client service and diminish (in our own minds, and possibly in execution) the experiential aspects.  Some clients can and will judge a representation primarily on the basis of the substantive work you do.  Many, however, will not…  And all clients will take note of how you treat them in the course of the representation.

In the words of Maya Angelou, “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

When I had to call an ambulance to our cabin in the Grand Teton National Park, client service was the last thing that was on my mind.  However, the lessons started immediately and will linger for some time.  Here’s what I learned.

1. Be aware of your client’s emotional state, even though you may not reference it directly.  The emergency dispatch officer sending an ambulance to help used short, direct sentences as we spoke.  Her tone was initially more clipped than ordinary conversation, and if I’d felt panicked, her tone and cadence would have grounded me by prompting me to focus on responding to her, not on the larger situation.  As we talked, and as she concluded that I was fairly calm, her tone and language pattern relaxed.Legal clients are much like medical clients in that the issue motivating the contact may be routine, with relatively low emotion, or an urgency or emergency that may carry more pronounced emotion.  When you’re aware of your client’s emotional state, you can adapt your own communication to speak most effectively with your client.

   For example, an angry would-be litigant may not have the emotional capacity to hear you urge restraint until you acknowledge the emotion in some way.  A fearful client may need you to provide written information that his fear may prevent him from hearing when you share it orally.  You need to know your client’s emotional state so that you can adapt how you communicate.
   

2. Make it easy for your client.  We were in Jackson, Wyoming, nine and a half hours from the Denver airport.  The doctor suggested that we fly out of Jackson to avoid driving through sparsely populated areas.  Flights from Jackson would require a 14-hour travel day with three flight legs, which provoked much consternation, until a nurse suggested the 5-hour drive to Salt Lake City.  Easy.What do you know (that your client may not know) that will simplify things for your client?  Be sure to share that information.  It’s easy to dismiss what you know as common knowledge that doesn’t bear repeating, but it may be just the piece of information your clients needs to understand a process or to make good decisions.

   Be sure to consider how to make the process of working with you easy as well.  At the beginning of an engagement, ask how your client would prefer you to communicate with her.  You probably have your own preferred style of communication, but your client’s preference should govern the way you operate.  (For additional suggestions about making it easy for your clients to work with you, see Chapter 2 of The Reluctant Rainmaker.)

3. Make your client comfortable.  After spending much of the day in the Emergency Room, I slept in my family member’s hospital room on the first night.  The Jackson hospital provided a comfortable cot that the nursing assistant set up for me while I was talking with the doctor, and she directed me to a small kitchen provisioned with sodas, coffee (complete with real mugs, not cardboard cups), and light snacks for patients’ families.  The hospital even offered room service meals for patients and the family, and the food was both good and inexpensive.  These touches offered much-needed comfort and allowed me to focus on what was most important.How can you make your clients comfortable?  Drinks, snacks, and comfortable chairs are easy and fairly inexpensive.  Consider what else your clients might appreciate.  A quiet spot to make telephone calls?  Toys and books to keep children occupied?  A list of resources?  Few clients will enjoy spending time in your office, but a little effort can minimize discomfort.

Take a few minutes today to audit your client care habits.  Consider asking a few of your clients what they like about working with you and what would make the experience better.  Don’t promise changes you’re unable or unwilling to make:  if you get a suggestion that doesn’t work for you, let your client know that you’ll look for other ways to offer a similar result.