31 Proven Law Firm Marketing Strategies 1 Copyright March 2007 Henry Harlow All Rights Reserved

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1 31 Proven Law Firm Marketing Strategies 1

2 Introduction... 3 # 1 Time Management Workout: Learning the Right Moves... 5 # 2 Grading Clients for a Smarter Practice... 7 # 3 Creating Time on a Template # 4 Silencing Unneeded Interruptions # 5 How to Schedule Interruptions # 6 It s Time for Energy-Efficient Meetings # 7 Productivity Exercise: Delegate, Leverage # 8 How to Over Deliver Every Time # 9 Folders By Day Keeps Late Nights Away # 10 The Big Picture: Your Mission # 11 How Much Do You Tolerate? # 12 Rake in the Dollars: Capturing Billable Time # 13 Set Boundaries: Keep it Within the Lines # 14 More Tools from the Toolbox of Time # 15 To Market, To Market To Sell # 16 What Exactly is Marketing? # 17 Take Aim: Know Your Marketing Targets # 18 Price to Sell and Make A Profit # 19 Just Ask: Get Referrals # 20 How to Make Referrals Work for You # 21 Building Relationships with Referral Sources # 22 Benefits Always Sell: The Importance of an Elevator Speech # 23 The Art of Storytelling # 24 Thank You Marketing # 25 Scripts that Land Clients and Referrals # 26 Your Marketing is in the Mail # 27 Internet Marketing: The Results Are Virtually Impressive! # 28 Will Testimonials Help Your Practice? # 29 How to Get Publicity for Your Practice # 30 Law Firm Advertising Primer # 31 Marketing to Ethnic and Affiliation Groups Conclusion Appendix Changing For Good Changing for Good Stages versus Processes Appendix Recruitment Skills For Attorneys Cliff Notes Version Hire The Most Qualified Candidate Suggested Interview Questions For Legal Assistant/Secretary Paralegal Positions: Suggested Interview Questions For Office Administrator/Manager Positions: Questions for all candidates any competencies Appendix Three Client Satisfaction Questionnaire (example) Proven Law Firm Marketing Strategies 2

3 Introduction Time management/productivity has everything to do with marketing your practice and is key in marketing from a contextual or strategic perspective. We will need these proven strategies in place first or you are unlikely to ever implement the later strategies and tactics that will increase your revenue. Why? Because you won t have the time or the proper perspective. Don t make the mistake of thinking time management/productivity have little to do with marketing and skip forward in this report. For example in medicine there is the mind/body issue. For decades we thought the body was like machine and if you treated the body then the mind would come along. We now know better. The mind and body are not separate with each influencing the other. Time management/productivity and marketing are like that. If we are going to work on your practice we need to work in a mind/body integrated fashion and not ignore one or the other in moving forward. Clearly we live in a time of too much to do and not enough time to do it. But don t feel you are powerless in the face of these circumstances. Time ticking away won t change; however, people can change their relationship to that ticking time. In this report, you will learn how to not only master your time, but also how to use your time wisely to accomplish what needs to be done, increase productivity, and expand your practice. We ll discuss time management/productivity solutions that (as a bonus) will give you more time off as well. Once we organize your time together, we ll discuss specific marketing strategies and tactics to bring new business to your practice and keep your productivity and business growing. To achieve goals you ve never achieved before, you need to start doing things you ve never done before. Stephen Covey Time management is really managing yourself, and by so doing you will increase your income, reduce your work hours and serve your clients better than ever before. Stephen Covey addresses this issue very clearly: To achieve goals you ve never achieved before, you need to start doing things you ve never done before. 31 Proven Law Firm Marketing Strategies 3

4 Stephen Covey is the author of the worldwide bestseller and classic book The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. Lastly, before we begin, I want to assure you that even if you hate marketing don t want to become a huckster don t know how to market don t believe you can become a successful marketer no matter you have come to the right place. You don t have to do anything you hate, or be something you aren t. You certainly don t have to become a huckster, or even like marketing to be successful at it. You probably are good at the technical aspects of what you do in your practice. Most human beings are not natural marketers or what attorneys call rainmakers. Nonetheless, with training, you can indeed become good at a marketing process that works for you. You will achieve the vision you had when you began your practice. You will be able to design and then implement a marketing system that will produce the results you are seeking. It all is doable. Just remember for now that being a good marketer has little to do with your current thoughts, beliefs or personality style. Being a good marketer has everything to do with having the right knowledge, motivation, commitment and persistent action over time. You need to be an excellent listener, not a good talker, to be good at marketing. Our business in life is not to get ahead of others, but to get ahead of ourselves - to break our own records, to outstrip our yesterday by our today. Stewart B. Johnson I look forward to working with you. Let s go! Henry Harlow 31 Proven Law Firm Marketing Strategies 4

5 #1 Time Management Workout: Learning the Right Moves Learning Objectives: By the end of this section: 1. You will be able to define reactive. 2. You will be able to define proactive. 3. You will list your reactive behaviors. 4. You will list your proactive behaviors. Let me ask you something. What have you done today? Have you spent the day putting out fires? Maybe you tried to wrap up something, but kept getting interrupted with dozens of other matters. Or perhaps you re just burnt out from it all and dragged your feet a little too long and paid with your productivity. Now, I have to tell you that if on any given day you could answer yes to any of these questions, then you have to keep reading. Listen. Time management is crucial in any field, but especially in law. You already know that. But time management is more than managing what you do and how much time you spend doing it. More than anything, how you handle each aspect and issue of your dayto-day practice had a direct impact on your time. Now, keep in mind, I m not talking about how much time you spend or even the end results. I m talking about the way you react to daily matters because the way you react can create more time for you, or take it away minute by minute. And hey, those minutes that are taken away are not billable. They re lost forever along with the money. How you react can make time for you or take it away. That said, let me ask you one more thing. Are you proactive or reactive? Before you answer that, the first distinction you need to understand is Reactive versus Proactive. REACTIVE is: 1. Putting out fires 2. Doing damage control 31 Proven Law Firm Marketing Strategies 5

6 3. Not leveraging yourself 4. Tons of interruptions 5. Cruising for burnout, etc. PROACTIVE (the opposite of reactive) is: 1. Doing marketing 2. Writing a set of 1-year, 5-year, and 10-year personal goals and business goals to guide you and keep you focused 3. Using a time template, and much more. Now, stop, think: To what extent are you reactive? To what extent do you think being reactive? In the practice of law being reactive is thinking things are fine just the way they are. I have worked with virtually every practice area. Many attorneys I worked with, mostly in transactional practice areas, used 100% of my solutions. Many used only about 50%. Some took what I said and created a version that fit their situation. Ready to make changes? Do you think it is possible to be more proactive versus reactive? Let s take the first step. 31 Proven Law Firm Marketing Strategies 6

7 # 4 Silencing Unneeded Interruptions Learning Objectives: by the end of this section: 1. You will be able to state the case for managing phone calls. 2. You will be able to discuss at least two strategies to manage phone calls. 3. You will write your script for how to tell new clients about how you will be handling their phone calls. 4. You will define the elements of your client-screening tool. 5. You will create and implement your client screening tools. 6. You will be able to discuss the value of uninterrupted production time. 7. You will design and implement an emergency interruption system. 8. You will place daily meetings on your time template and implement regular team access times. Let me tell you, if you ve EVER felt like you were spending your time digging yourself out of a hole because you re so overloaded with work, then you re not alone. All my clients have been where you are now. And just so you know, I climbed in that hole with every single one of them. We went through everything they shoveled through on a daily basis and analyzed every second of their time. What they learned and what I taught them is that the best way to dig yourself out of that hole is to jump right on in it and tunnel straight for the bottom. So, jump in with me now and let s dig our way to the bottom of your workload and your time. However, I have to warn you. Once we get to the roots and uncover everything, you re going to discover there s not a hole left anymore and, instead, you re standing on level ground with time for that much needed breath of fresh air. Let s keep moving. To start with, let s discuss how you handle phone calls. You re an attorney. I know how often that phone rings and how that ringing phone can easily be a barrier to getting anything done. 31 Proven Law Firm Marketing Strategies 13

8 That said, in order to have a time template in place in REALITY, you are probably going to need to get a handle on your phone calls before you do anything else. You may think this is not possible. Try the following approach: Be sure your secretary has a script of what to say that goes like this: I am sorry, Mr. X is in a meeting right now; however, I know you are very important to him. Could he call you back today between Z and Z? Oh, that does not work for you. How about between Z and Z today? OK, good Mr. Y. Is there something in particular you want to know on the call today, so I can be sure Mr. X knows about it? Best case result: Oh, why I can get that for you in X minutes. Can I call you back in Z minutes with that answer? Worst case result: OK Mr. X, I will be sure he knows what you need and he will call you back today between Z and Z. Bye. What has happened here? First you have told your client how important he or she is to you. Second, you have given the client a certain time that you will be getting back to them, and they like that. Third, you have found out exactly what they need on the call so you can be ready for it. Now you will only make one call instead of finding out you had to look something up or whatever and call them back a second time. Finally, you have protected your production time from interruptions by clients. To help make this system work, you will need to have a short put through list of people that your secretary implements. If someone is that important for the long term, let him or her be put through to you. Make this no more than five people, I would say. If you just need someone on the list for the short term, it is OK to put him or her through. For example, a Judge or client when a case is hot. That said; be sure they get taken off the list when the hot period is over. Of course, you may place calls on the cases you are working on during your production time. You might want to let the secretary know that it is OK to put those calls through during this particular production time block so you can get them handled as well. Tell your clients how the system works. You would say something like the following: 31 Proven Law Firm Marketing Strategies 14

9 I am committed to being sure you are well taken care of. I do want to tell you how we take care of phone calls from our clients. First, my assistant XXXX is a highly trained paralegal that I have trained and supervised for XXX years. I will introduce you to XXXX in a few minutes. When you call be sure to ask for her first since in maybe as many as 8 or 9 times out of 10 she can answer you questions or concerns right away. If she can t help you on the spot (or if you have an associate you need to insert your associate s name here) she is going to get you on my schedule to return your phone call that same day. I have blocked off two times during the day to return my phone calls. Then continue with: You see, I would personally love to be able to take your calls at the very time you call; however, the truth is after practicing law for XXX years I know that is not possible. I will be in client meetings, in depositions, in courts or other meetings and I know I can t be 100% available to you. So to be sure I can take care of you, the staff will set an appointment time so we can talk that day. Of course if it is a LEGAL emergency then the staff will do all they can to get to me faster. Does this system work for you? If the client says, No, to this you need to ask them what it is about the system that does not work for them. If what they say makes sense, you might want to accommodate them. If they don t make sense you might want to consider if this client is one you really want to take on. They could be problems. One other thing you may be thinking, my clients will never go for that or something similar. However, that is not what my attorney clients have told me. If you have trained your clients to expect you to speak to them about everything the moment they call. You can un-train them. Also, be sure you train new clients from the beginning. All people really want to know is what is the process for me to be taken care of if I have questions or am in trouble. Almost everyone will say yes to this system. Tell your secretary to put some difficult or good clients who have been spoiled through to you every other time they call for a month or two, so they get the 31 Proven Law Firm Marketing Strategies 15

10 script half the time. Then have her put them through one time out of three calls for a month or two. Then move them to 100% script and they are re-trained. OK, I just know some of you are saying, If I don t talk to prospective clients on the phone the moment they call, they will be off and calling someone else and I will lose the business. Well, perhaps so. What you need to know here is you need to create a clientscreening tool. Have your secretary or paralegal ask a few questions first to QUALIFY the person to talk to you. After all, you don t want to waste their time, and they need to know you are a successful attorney who does not need to talk to everyone who calls that is a prospect. You probably know that something that is scarce or exclusive is more desirable to people. You need to make yourself a bit more exclusive or scarce and you will actually be more valuable in the minds of your prospects. Let them jump through a hoop or two. I talk in more detail about this aspect later in this report so we will return to talking to prospective clients in more depth at that point. With almost every attorney I have worked with on this issue, we have found a way that worked to postpone talking to every prospect right away through screening him or her first. You can work out a tasteful script for your team to use. If the person passes the screen, then and only then they may be worth you talking to them right away, so your team can put them through. The other option is to schedule them right on your next return call schedule for you to call them back. Most good clients will wait to make a decision on a lawyer if they have a scheduled telephone appointment, because good clients are concerned with value, not speed and price. This issue leads me to another point. You must delegate and leverage yourself off your staff. You are selling a team of legal professionals, not just you. To the extent you build a championship team and leverage yourself off that team, you will be more successful and build a practice that is not dependent on you alone, as well as build a saleable asset. Reminds me of what Jack Welch (legendary past CEO of Genera Electric) once said: If you pick the right people and give them the opportunity to spread their wings and put compensation as a carrier behind it, you almost don t have to manage them. Now, meet with your team and explain the process to them. I think they will like it. 31 Proven Law Firm Marketing Strategies 16

11 # 5 How to Schedule Interruptions Learning Objectives: by the end of this section: 1. You will define and list at least three Time Bandits. 2. You will be able to discuss at least three strategies for managing interruptions. 3. You will implement all appropriate strategies for managing interruptions. But wait! Now that the phone is not interrupting you every time you inhale, you have to make the new time you have available count. Let s talk about managing your production time for a minute so that you are indeed maximizing your time and putting your time template into action. Interruptions come in two types. EXTERNAL like the phone calls and INTERNAL like surfing the Internet or going to Starbucks. Now, most lawyers have an open door policy with their team and are proud of that. Sorry, does not work! Here s why. Putting Your Open Door on a Timer You need to meet with your team and tell them that they will be four to six times as efficient/effective and make four to six times less errors if they have uninterrupted production time - or so says the research in productivity. The same rule goes for you: you need to not be interrupted during your production time hours unless they think it is an emergency. You need to ask them what THEY think are emergencies that call for you to be interrupted. See what they think those would be, and see if you agree. You might then tell them what YOU think are emergencies (keep a list of all these items by the way) so they have a sense of how you see it. Make it very clear that anytime, if they even think it is an emergency, you want them to interrupt you. Even promise them you won t be angry if they do 31 Proven Law Firm Marketing Strategies 17

12 interrupt you with something that later turns out to not be an emergency. Tell them should you forget and get angry, they have your permission to remind you that you promised to not be angry. We want them to interrupt you if they think it is an emergency. They will interrupt you and you thank them when they do. You handle their issue when they do, even if it was not really an emergency. You thank them again for the interruption and tell them they did the right thing. Then tell them from now on this type of item is not an emergency and not to interrupt you for this type in the future. The result is fewer interruptions and everybody knows now what is and is not an emergency. There is a KEY variable here to make this process successful. You must meet with your key team each morning and each afternoon for maybe 15 minutes, and handle their issues they have been saving since the last short meeting. So put that on your time template. This way your team members know when they can get to you instead of interrupting you or catching you in the hallway. Stop Interrupting Yourself! Are you a social animal? Even if you are not a social animal, do you have partners or peers who are also interrupting you? Do you have people on your team who you let badger you with their personal problems? All of these items are occasions for missing the mark on managing interruptions. Office socialization is a drain on your production time. This social time at the office, along with other people interruptions, tends to drive attorneys to do their production time in the evening at the office, at home in the evening, and on weekends at the office or at home or both. This sure does not give you much of a life. If you see office socializing and other interruptions as time bandits that are stealing your life, you might develop a new attitude about these interruptions. You might want to keep a picture of your family on your desk to remind you that whatever the interruption is now, do you really want it to take your family life away? Do you want to socialize with someone at the office, or do you want to get home to be with your spouse and children? 31 Proven Law Firm Marketing Strategies 18

13 You may have to educate some of your team, peers, partners, or even managing partner about the advantages of uninterrupted production time and the boundaries you need in place to be most productive. If someone does not understand these reasons or takes it personally, you have done your best to help them understand. Of course, you can do some socializing with people at the office by going to lunch with them. Even suggest that to them when they are an interruption. Schedule the lunch right then, since you have already been interrupted and at lunch do have the productivity conversation with them. You might even tell them you can have ten minutes off at the top of the hour when you have completed 80 minutes of production, since that is your reward to yourself for keeping focused. Tell them you get to do 10 minutes of whatever you want (or some variation of this focus/reward system). Tips to Eliminate Interruptions: 1. You need to close your door. Maybe even put a sign on the door saying Production Time Please Only Interrupt For Emergencies or something similar. Most people will respect the door and the sign. 2. Do not have you and your desk within sight of people in the office. 3. If you have glass windows close the blinds as well as the door. 4. Should someone walk into the office in spite of the sign and closed door, stand up as they come in and walk toward the door as if you were leaving the office. Even walk out into the hallway if you have to, so the person is clear there is not going to be a long conversation from your non-verbal cues. You can even start walking to the coffee or the restroom saying, Walk with me and talk as you go with the person. 5. Another tip is to not have comfortable sitting chairs in your office. Maybe even no chairs - then folks will stand which means if they come in they will stay less time. Bottom line: You are the one who can control your time by merely being assertive - not unfriendly - to politely and assertively inform someone you expect him or her to respect your time. But what about when you have to be interrupted? Meetings and the like can take away chunks of your day, can t they? Well, have no fear! In the next section, we re going to discuss your meetings and how to make them run as efficiently as possible. 31 Proven Law Firm Marketing Strategies 19