Archive for year: 2013

Newsletters offer a way to stay in contact with a large number of contacts easily, consistently, and productively.  Newsletters focus on substantive information, and assuming you’ve defined your areas of practice carefully enough, your content will be valuable to recipients and therefore welcome.  Better yet, if your topics are timely and if you include an appropriate call to action, you may even receive requests for assistance on matters related to your writing.

Most firms have multiple newsletters tailored to their various areas of practice, often with multiple contributors.  Whether you’re responsible for coordinating the content for your firm’s (or team’s) newsletter or you’re a sole practitioner with soup-to-nuts responsibility for the newsletter, you’ve probably had more than a few hair-raising moments wondering how you can possibly get it all done.  (And if your firm doesn’t have a newsletter, I can virtually guarantee that fear is the top reason why not.)

So, let’s make newsletters simple.  These five tips and resources will reduce the time and angst required to produce a newsletter that delivers results.

Repurpose presentations and articles you have written for publication elsewhere into newsletter content.  Shorter articles tend to be more useful, especially in electronic newsletters, so you can often get several issues of content from a single article.

1. Keep a list of generic questions your clients ask and turn the responses into newsletter articles.  You must make certain that no one interprets your article as legal advice for them (check your local ethics rules to be sure you’re in compliance) but with appropriate language, you can easily create useful information based on frequently asked questions.
2. Use social media to “listen” for topics you should cover.  You may find news or op-ed pieces you’d like to address, and by catching hot topics, you’re increasing the chance that your readers will be interested.
3. Include the “so what” for news.  It’s hard to offer unique breaking news that isn’t being covered by journalists, bloggers, and other newsletters, but you can one-up many other reports by including some analysis and commentary of the news.  In other words, let others handle the details of who, what, when, where, and how.  You focus on the why and so what.
4. Source your content from a good outside vendor.  In the past, I would not have recommended using pre-written articles because they’re generally easy to identify a mile away.  Generic and often not written for the audience to whom they’re sent, bad pre-written articles that are simply dropped into a template will not help your marketing efforts and may indeed inflict terminal damage.

But I recently learned about a content provider that offers well-written articles that can (and really should) be edited so that they offer good information with your unique voice and perspective.

Insight in Motion, an offering from Amicus Media, offers articles written by lawyers on topics currently including estate planning, family law, bankruptcy, immigration, and personal injury.  (I’ve urged them to include intellectual property soon–we’ll see!)  I’ve reviewed the articles and I’m impressed with the information presented and the way the content is presented.

Offering two levels of subscriptions based on the number of legal articles you need each month and number of practice areas, Insight in Motion provides a “keep it simple” approach at a reasonable price.  Even better, the company will create a customized newsletter template and send your newsletters if you’d like.  The content can even be published on your firm’s website or blog.

I took a thorough tour of the system and asked the same questions you likely would, and I’m impressed.  If your practice falls within the areas that Insight in Motion covers and you’ve been holding off on creating a newsletter, this may be your golden opportunity.

For more information on Insight in Motion, visit this page.

And in case you’re wondering:  no, I will not receive any affiliate fees or other incentive if you enroll in Insight in Motion.

Which of these tips can you use to make your newsletter strategy simpler?

One of the primary objections lawyers have to business development is that business development equals sales, and “sales” is a four-letter word.  (Sometimes the stereotype of math-challenged lawyers does stick!)  The word may conjure the stereotypical used car salesman, ready to unload a lemon just to make a quick buck.  And, of course, no one wants to be a part of that kind of sale–to sell or to buy.

A sale, however, only refers to the exchange of money for a good or service.  There’s nothing unprofessional or sleazy about that.  The distaste we feel for sales comes from how the sale is made, not from the fact of the sale itself.

If ethically questionable business development tactics are repellent to you, you will likely take great care to avoid engaging in them.  Be certain by reading your jurisdiction’s ethics rules, and make a note to reread them at least annually since rules and commentary may change.  In most cases, you will find the rules broad enough to encompass any type of activity you might choose to do.  If you have any question, you’ll need to find answers before you proceed, since this is not the place to hope or assume something is acceptable.  Most of the time, within a few well-understood rules, you won’t even wonder.

The bigger concern, then, is not about ethics but rather about appearance.  Does your business development activity look (or feel) pushy?  Desperate?  Obnoxious?  Would someone view the fact or the substance of your business development activity or materials as an indication that your practice is not doing well?  Is there anything unprofessional about business development or marketing?  These are the real questions.

Business development done well is never pushy, desperate, obnoxious, unprofessional, or anything remotely similar.

Consider this:  when you approach your business development activity from the perspective of service, you will almost certainly come across in a positive way.  Service calls on you to explore the potential client’s situation and objectives, to share your skill and experience in the area, perhaps to make some initial suggestions on approach, and to determine whether a good match exists between the potential client’s needs and what you have to offer.

Business development, at its most successful, is an exploratory conversation.  Both sides bring information to the table, and both seek information and a sense of comfort from the other.  If there’s a match, business results.  If not, you have formed a connection that may lead to a referral, or work in the future.

If you approach business development from need (as in, I’ve gotta have this business to make payroll or to make partner), the lines become blurred.  An unspoken self-interest may cloud your ability to explore the potential client’s needs or to give a fair evaluation of the matter’s merits or your ability to meet the need.  The same self-interest may blind you to warning signs about the client:  hints of an inappropriately demanding or unrealistic outlook, signs of inability or unwillingness to pay your fee, or a fundamental philosophical mismatch.

The risk of appearing pushy, obnoxious, or desperate comes into play when self-interest controls the conversation.  It’s up to you whether your business development and marketing activity will seem unprofessional.

When you come first from an attitude of service (even when you also really want the fee or the client relationship), you’ll put the relationship before the retention.  In doing so, you will avoid the risk of feeling like you are being aggressive (as opposed to assertive), too eager (as opposed to deliberate), or rash.

What’s your primary motivation today:  service or self-interest?

A few years ago, I had to drive to an important business meeting in an unfamiliar city.  Because this was before I had GPS, I printed out directions before leaving my office, so I had a good idea of where I was going.  The sun was beaming down and my “pump me up” playlist was blaring, and I was feeling really good.

But then I hit an unanticipated obstacle:  a road closed due to construction.  I didn’t know the area and the detour wasn’t well-marked.  Before long, I had no idea how to get from here to there.  I knew which roads I needed to find, but looking at the map was useless because I didn’t know where I was.  So frustrating!

When I talk with lawyers about business development, this story feels all too familiar.  So often, lawyers have a sense of what they’d like to accomplish (the destination) and even how to get there (the directions), but after hitting an obstacle–sometimes even despite a lack of obstacles–what had seemed clear seems confusing.

If you want to succeed in business development, you must:

• Know where you’re starting. One of my favorite cautions is, “Don’t mistake luck for skill.”  If you’ve had success in landing clients, make sure you know why and how to replicate that.  If it’s sheer luck, you have to find a way to shift that luck into something you can repeat and transform into skill.  What’s going well?  What’s broken?  What questions do you have, and what resources do you need?I created the Law Practice Profitability Audit to simplify this step.  Take the Audit here.

• Know how you’re going to get from where you are now to where you want to be.  In other words, you need a plan.  You need to be able to describe your ideal clients and referral sources, and you must know how you can reach those people and businesses.  What specific actions will you take to get to your goal?
• Know the most effective ways to accomplish the tasks on your list.  This is why it’s important to read books and get training on business development topics.  You have to master the skills such as effective networking, speaking and writing that builds your reputation and gets you clients, and asking for business.
• Take action consistently on your plans.  What you know is important, but what you do is what will make you succeed.  It is not sufficient to take action occasionally or at random times; you must act consistently and persistently.
• Track your results.  There’s a concept (attributed to Lord Kelvin, among others) that what is measured can be improved.  Without knowing whether an activity is producing results for you, it’s impossible to know whether you should expand it, keep to the status quo, or discontinue it.  While data may be difficult lto gather (especially in high value, low volume practices tend to have a longer “sales cycle”), it’s important that you have at least a qualitative sense of how successful your activity is at moving you closer to your business development goals.

When you have all of these aspects of successful business development in place, you will be able to adjust your plans when you encounter an obstacle.  Equally importantly, you will know how to take advantage of opportunities that present themselves, and you will consistently move toward your rainmaker goals.

What more do you need to succeed, based on this checklist? 

The statement “I’ve got your back” is one of the most powerful business development messages there is.  When you have someone capable and attentive on your side to offer assistance and cheer you on, you’re likely to be more willing to undertake new, difficult, or risky-feeling activity.

Consider this:  a child learning to walk or to ride a bicycle will often look to a parent to be sure that someone is there to encourage them if they waiver.  We applaud speakers and those receiving awards as a way of saying, “Good job!”  And we’ve probably all called a friend for support after being rejected by a potential client or date, or a job opportunity.  Just about everybody appreciates encouragement and support.

There’s another side to “I’ve got your back”, too:  someone capable who’s in the trenches with you, ready to help.  And that’s where “I’ve got your back” goes from a source of feel good emotional support to a do-good, hands-on promise.  That’s also where it becomes a powerful business development message.

Think about your client’s perspective.  Whether your clients are legally sophisticated large companies or individuals who have never worked with a lawyer or legal problem before, every client wants to know they’re in capable hands.

More importantly, clients want to experience being in capable hands.  That means, for example:

• Having a lawyer explain the heart and the context of the legal matter, to an extent that feels comfortable to each particular client, and knowing that the lawyer fully understands and appreciates the relevant law and its impact on the client.
• Having a lawyer who’s proactive in flagging new issues and opportunities
• Getting calls and emails promptly returned by the lawyer or a knowledgeable staff member
• Knowing the status of the matter, including the reason for delays or quiet periods in a representation
• Being billed clearly and appropriately, in accord with expectations
• Receiving emotionally intelligent communications, whether that’s congratulations or an explanation of what went wrong and why (this is the feel-good side in a business context)

When you convey that you’ve “got a client’s back” through your actions, you’re laying the groundwork for great client service.  You’re building a relationship that’s characterized by respect and support, in the context of legal skill.  That service not only keeps your current clients happy but also creates the potential for repeat business or referrals.

You might choose to say, “I’ve got your back” (or more businesslike words that convey the same message), but your actions must back up your words.  If not, your statement will backfire:  your actions will demonstrate that you don’t have the client’s back and, almost worse, that you either don’t realize that fact or you’re willing to lie about it.  (This, I believe, is one root of many lawyer jokes and the usual low standing of lawyers on lists of trustworthy professions.)

How can you demonstrate and perhaps say that you’ve got your clients’ back?

From your own perspective, working with someone who’s “got your back” as you undertake business development activity (which may be unfamiliar and feel risky, at least at first) can be a key factor in your success.  It’s the flip side of the points above, substituting marketing for legal knowledge and skill.  When you have great support, you get a cheering squad, a listening ear, a brainstorming partner, a source for new ideas and insight, needed resources, and more.

Here are a few ideas on how you can get the support you need:

• Join forces with one or two colleagues who are also working to grow their practices
• Join a rainmaker group (or create your own)
• Use social media for accountability and support
• Hire a consultant or coach

If you’d like to join a group of colleagues, check out Chapter 1 of The Reluctant Rainmaker (pages 26-30 in the print edition) for specific suggestions of how to find or create the right group.  And if you’re looking to hire a consultant or coach, let’s talk and see if we’re the right fit.