Category: Legal Business Development

Business Development for Attorneys w/ Barry Gardiner [PODCAST]

New Jersey tax lawyer Barry Gardiner has built his business from the ground up and provides other lawyers with tips and tools to build relationships and engage in effective business development for attorneys in this podcast with legal marketing guru John McDougall.

John McDougall: Hi, I’m John McDougall and welcome to the Legal Marketing Review Show on National Law Review. Today my guest is Barry Gardiner, founding partner of the Barry Gardiner Law Firm in New Jersey and New York. Welcome, Barry.

Barry Gardiner: Hi, how are you?

Getting Started as an Attorney

John: Yes, very good. How did you get started as an attorney?

Barry: How did I get started as an attorney? That’s a long story John. My senior year in college, my college roommate said to me, on a Monday or Tuesday, “What are you going to do after you graduate?” I said, “I have no idea.” He said, “Well, I’m taking the” — they called them the law boards in those days — “on Saturday morning. Why don’t you go?” So I went, and I took the boards, and I did well and eventually decided to go to law school and went to Rutgers Law School. After I graduated, I took a job with, believe it or not, a negligence firm in New Jersey where I tried a lot of negligence cases for about a year-and-a-half, which I really didn’t like because it was only a question of who went through the stop sign or who didn’t go through the red light and who did and everybody lied, and that was no fun.

I decided since I was a business major in college with the Bucknell University in Pennsylvania to go into tax law, which I decided I had an aptitude for and then something which I enjoyed. I decided to take a New York bar because that’s where all of the good tax work seemed to be with sophisticated companies, Fortune 500 companies, et cetera. What I did was I took a job with an accounting firm in their tax department for a year and enrolled in NYU Law School for a Masters in Taxation, which is one of the better law schools from that program in the country. I did that at night for three years, and then I took a job with a law firm in Manhattan and became a partner there after two or three years. We had about a 20 man tax firm; it was a tax boutique and we represented a lot of wealthy, high-net-worth individuals. A senior partner in our firm had a client who was a chairman of the board of that 10 or 12 interlocking public companies.

I began to do that kind of work and did a lot of public company work for these companies and their subsidiaries, which included everything — international transactions, mergers and acquisitions from a tax standpoint, planning everything, and I was a partner there for about 13 years. Then in the mid ‘90s, we had some downturns because of the economy and a couple of partners left and the firm started to fall apart a little bit. I decided to take my clients, and I had some at that point, not a lot but some, and start an individual practice of my own in Northern New Jersey which is where I lived.

John: About what year was that roughly?

Barry: ’92, around ’92 I’d say.

Branching Out into a Solo Practice

John: How did you learn to get your clients through that though? That sounds it’s a very daunting task, and you’re going out on your own.

Barry: It was a daunting task, and I had a daughter at that time who was starting college, and it was a little bit scary. But because of the nature of the tax work that I did, I had a number of relationships that I had established with CPA firms, life insurance agents who were selling insurance in connection with estate planning, which is something I was also doing and I basically took those connections that I had and built on those. I had several very strong relationships where I began to get most of their work. That’s basically the way I started my firm. It’s very unusual if you look around — whether it’s in New Jersey, in New York or wherever — for somebody who does the kind of work that I do, which is pretty highly sophisticated tax planning [work for corporations] as well as individuals who are out on their own. Most of the work, at the level that I do, is pretty much done by larger firms; anywhere from 50 to 100, or 300 lawyers where they have tax departments. But what happened was I began to work with these networking connections that I had and was able to build on those. Then what happens after several years, maybe three or four years, a lot of that work becomes sub-generating — in other words, through referrals and other clients who are coming in through your existing clients. At the same time, what I was doing was building additional relationships with other CPA firms, financial planners, and life insurance agencies. I had a number and still have a number of very good connections with MassMutual agencies, Security Mutual agencies, et cetera. That’s basically the way it got built.

Important Aspects of Legal Business Development

John: What would you say is the most important aspect of business development?

Barry: I think for somebody who’s in a smaller firm, I found that a lot of larger firms don’t do personal service and attention to their clients, which clients seem to resent substantially. I’ve always sort of made it a number one point to [offer personal service]. For example, if I get a telephone call from a client, and I can’t take it, I’ll always return that call at the end of the day. Or if the call comes in at the end of the day, by noon the next day, unless am tied up in meetings or something, and if I am, I’ll then have my secretary get back to the client and let them know, or let them tell us what’s a good time to get back to them, which clients appreciate.

It’s like if you go to a doctor, and you leave a message for the doctor, you don’t want to wait 24 hours or have to call the doctor back, you want him to call you back, because that basically shows that he cares. I want my clients to know that I care about them, rather than their just being a number, which many of them feel left out with these larger firms. Because all these larger firms have big clients, and in many cases, [they’re] smaller guy. When I say, ‘small,’ I’m not talking about a guy who is worth a small amount of money, but somebody in the relative scale who’s not worth what these big Fortune 500 companies are worth, or even wealthy clients who are worth $25 million and up. Everybody wants to feel important, and I’ve always tried to do that, whether the client is worth $100,000 or $50 million, it doesn’t matter. I don’t know if that answers your question.

How to Begin Building Client Relationships

John: Well, yes. It answers part of it. That’s a great way to build relationships and build on relationships with clients. What about first getting the client? How do you get relationships to begin with? Or how do you build relationships through networking or other ways that then turn into clients that you can then service with more attention to detail than a larger firm? How do you plan to see to get those new relationships?

Barry: Well, again, through other professionals, CPAs, financial planners, [and] other attorneys who don’t do this kind of work. I may call one, for example, in a matrimonial matter, or a commercial real estate matter, or litigation [matter] to basically get out there and meet people. I’m not one to join organizations like the Chamber of Commerce, or other organizations.

You are all here for the same reason, you are all here to get business, and that never really appealed to me. But I think the best client is a client who appreciates your work [and] who is going to give your name and number to a friend or a family member when they have a need, and they’re looking for somebody doing basically what you’re doing. Most of the clients I have are clients that I’ve kept for 15, 20, 25 years. I’ve lost very few clients. I actually, at this point have about 400 original wills, which I have at a safe deposit box at a Local Banking Institution, where I’m holding those wills for clients who may have copies which I’ve given them for their own reference.

John: Yes, that’s a great testament to many years of building those relationships. It sounds like in your line of work, you have to start, if you want to build a firm through business development, as opposed to internet leads and other types of sales marketing tactics. In your case, it’s a lot of building network partners or referral partners, as you mentioned. Then, when you get clients, turning those clients into very happy customers where you’re servicing them with a great level of attention and hand holding. That level of service turns them into referral partners of their own but those are the retail, those are the actual clients as opposed to an insurance company or a financial planner.

Barry: Correct. I think if you look at a lot of lawyers, I’m taking the liberty to say this, are unhappy in what they’re doing. They find it very stressful, very time-consuming, and this is the reason that a lot of lawyers have matrimonial problems, drinking problems, et cetera. Because, when they go to work every day, they are arguing an adversarial all day long. They’re arguing with other lawyers.

John: For a living. Right.

Barry: It takes its toll on you. Doing what I’m doing, I have been blessed because I don’t have that. The work that I do is basically with clients who come in with huge problems, who need to sort through those and come out at the end of the day with a plan, or a solution to what they’re doing. It’s a service to the clients, rather than an adversarial thing with other lawyers where unbearably, everybody is fighting with one another trying to get the better hand. I think it probably shows on the kind of work that you’re doing that you go to work every day, and you’re pretty enthusiastic about it. For example, the 400 wills that I have in the vault, eventually those are going to turn into an estate. Unfortunately, people die and families need help. It’s very rare unless somebody has moved away for example, to Florida; that while you’re holding an original will, they’re not going to ask you to handle the estate.

There are clients who move, and I don’t even know they may have moved out of state. I’ve had some clients that moved to places like Costa Rica, and those clients you lose basically because you’re geographically separated. But for the most part, once you have a will, you’re representing the family, and the family stays with you if they have confidence in you. You’ll wind up helping them through all of the intricacies that go into administering an estate, and getting everybody what they deserve, and paying in the littlest in estate taxes as possible. It’s one good aspect of doing the kind of work that I do I think.

Lead Regeneration for Estate Planning

John: Interesting. If you want to do lead regeneration for estate planning, one of the ways to do it is to get the wills first?

Barry: Right, but I’ll always ask a client, “Do you want me to hold the will, so you don’t have to worry about it?” A lot of clients want to hold it because they just feel like they need to control it somehow and not lose sight of it. In which case, I’ll either put in a safe deposit box, or in a fireproof safe in their home. But I would say, most clients — maybe 70-30, want you to hold it for them. Once they do it, it’s done, and they forget about it until something terrible may happen in the family. What I try and do also is every couple of years when the tax law changes [contact the families]; [for example] Federal Estate Tax exemption has gone up from $600,000 to $5.4 million per person since I think was the end of Bill Clinton’s term or the beginning of George W. Bush’s term.

John: That’s quite a change.

Barry: That’s quite a change, and it does require a lot of different planning because there are ways to take advantage of those exemptions. That’s a whole story for another day. What I’ll do is send out letters to clients periodically every couple of years telling them the importance of coming in at least for a review update to make sure that they’ve taken full advantage of the tax laws.

John: That goes right back into keeping that relationship strong as opposed to just throw that will in a safe deposit box and forget it. You’re going to dust it off and make sure that your clients are aware of the potential changes and keep in touch.

Barry: I’m going to try and dust it off. A lot of clients get the letter, and they read it and then they put it in a desk drawer somewhere they don’t follow up through. There’s nothing I can do about that. I can only make the initial reproach to them.

Business Development System

John: Well, you’ve focused on relationships and then what about a system? Do you have a business development system or process, certain times a day or a week that you set aside to do new business to keep growing your firm?

Barry: No, I don’t do that. At this point it grows itself.  What I will do is I will basically make one stage several times a month with professionals who I want to stay in touch with and just to keep the contact. I want to be friends with all of my professional contacts; I just don’t want to be unprofessional. One of the things I always do, I always tell my clients not to call me Mr. Gardiner, to call me Barry. I have very few clients that call me Mr. Gardiner. I want it to be personal, and I usually call clients by first name, and I think it makes a big difference. There’s nothing that somebody likes more than to be called by their first name.

About 30 years ago, I took that Dale Carnegie course and one of the big things they said is that, “Everybody wants to feel important, and the way they feel most important is if you remember their name.”

John: Right, yes.

Barry: This is seen if you haven’t seen in two years where you met once or twice, and you remember their name, you are telling them that, “You are important to me.” I always try and do that.

John: Yes, now that’s great.

Barry: By the way . . ..

John: Yes, go ahead.

Barry: I forgot your first name, what’s your first name?

John: [laughs] Reginald.

Barry: John McDougall.

John: John McDougall. My father owned an advertising agency, and he always taught me, “It’s all about building relationships to grow your agency,” and it’s amazing. What you’re describing is very similar to his process. He would take people out sailing. My uncle who owned the agency with him would take people out golfing, and he wanted to get to know people. But you’re an attorney that’s just getting into the internet more; you’ve had a website for a long time, but you’re just starting to get a little deeper into it. Well, what a testament to building your business with very little help from the internet. You’ve had a website to give you some leads but hasn’t been the focus. But it’s hats off to you for using essentially regular lunch dates, talking on a first name basis with all of your customers and even just doing a few of those a month, you’re able to have enough business. Well, you’re in great shape. That’s pretty amazing. Those old school new business development tactics are just tried and true. Now you’re adding the internet to that [and that] is certainly a good thing. But what about other tips for maybe especially younger attorneys trying to do new business development?

Business Development for Younger Attorneys

Barry: Well, it’s very tough. When I was with my firm in New York, starting as an associate and then becoming a partner, I didn’t really have to develop new business because we had so much work, especially from the public companies that I mentioned before, that there was really no need. There was one rainmaker in the firm, and he developed most of the business with these public companies. The other guys in the firm, really we didn’t have to do it. When I went out on my own, after the firm, and by the way, that firm eventually did dissolve, it splintered, and the guys went in different directions. But when I went out on my own, I had to start from scratch. I did have some clients that I took with me, but fortunately I did have some of these professional relationships also.

I would say that it depends where the young attorney goes. If he does go to a bigger firm, it’s always good to develop personal relationships that can lead to business, because if and when he ever leaves, you don’t want to leave yourself out in the cold completely, you want to have some business to fall back on. If you do go out on your own to start with, you should have some business, maybe family business to get you going and then just start to develop as many professional relationships as you can with people who may be helpful to you in whatever field you’re in.

John: That’s amazing. It’s relationships [that are] number one. Again, I go back to my father teaching me to grow my own agency after working for him in the ‘90s and leaving McDougall Associate Advertising in 1995 and starting my own firm. I had to just hustle and go build it up. It’s all about relationships, as what he would always say, and basically, your foundational strategy is, “Build those relationships.” I love the first name tip, and I’ve read some Dale Carnegie work, [it’s] amazing stuff and that stuck with me as well. Remember people’s first name and there’s something in it about calling a person by their name that’s just a bonding experience.

Barry: You could go to the best law schools in the country, you could go to Harvard, you could go to Yale, but that doesn’t mean you’re going to be a successful lawyer. If you’re going to work with people, people have to feel comfortable with you. They don’t want some genius who doesn’t know how to relate to them, who they can’t talk to on a one-on-one basis in a very comfortable way. It’s making people feel comfortable in your own presence, and maybe you’ve got to feel comfortable in your own skin and take what you learn in your personal life and bring it into your practice and treat clients like people, not like numbers or dollar signs.

John: Those are great tips, Barry; great new business and business development ideas and tips. How can people get in touch with you?

Barry: I have a website, bgardinerlaw.com. My telephone number is 201-678-1323.

John: That sounds great and great speaking to you today, Barry.

Barry: You too, John, and be well.

John: Yes, likewise. Check out legalmarketingreview.com, as well as National Law Review at natlawreview.comfor more information and interviews on legal marketing. I’m John McDougall and thanks for listening.

ARTICLE BY John McDougall of McDougall Interactive

© Copyright 2016 McDougall Interactive

Learn about Leadership Development and Legal Marketing, November 14-15

Join LMA and Lead Star™ for the inaugural leadership development experience for the legal marketing industry. The program incorporates current research with experiential activities, providing legal marketing professionals with a unique perspective on their personal leadership style and tendencies.

Leadstar LMA Leadership Development

When: November 15-16, 2016
Where: LMA Headquarters, 330 N. Wabash Ave., Chicago, IL 60611

Learn more about the value of your leadership experience with Lead StarLeadstar LMA Leadership Development and prepare for take-away benefits including:
  • A personal assessment of leadership style and its impact on their ability to achieve results
  • Individual leadership coaching sessions to support implementation of lessons
  • Access to online learning resources and social exchange with cohort participants
  • Development of a Personal Action Plan to guide participants in achieving next-level success
  • And much more!

Networking Pitfalls- Falling for the Wrong People

effective networking, law studentsOver the past 10 – 15 years there has been a dramatic increase in the number of people actively focusing on networking. Increasing competition, along with more widespread attention on building a strong network, is encouraging lawyers to flock to networking functions in droves. However, this can be an especially difficult challenge for an attorney to simultaneously balance the billable hour with a devotion to developing a book of business.

To help drive your efficiencies with networking, I’ve categorized business networkers into three groups. In addition to identifying which group you might belong to, it’s important to quickly identify which group others fit into as well. Detecting which group the person you’re speaking with falls into can make or break your results when networking.

Networker Type 1: The Taker

A “Taker” is an individual who attends numerous events and racks up an imposing collection of names and business cards as a way to push appointments and close sales. Unfortunately, these sometimes-aggressive creatures can burn enough people that word “gets around” and ultimately helps to dissolve their reputations. You may even start to observe people physically positioning themselves away from a Taker at consecutive events. Although avoidance seems an appropriate strategy, the Taker should not be dismissed outright. For some people, simply obtaining new sales (however generated) is and always will be their focus.

Perhaps a compassionate view toward seemingly aggressive Takers is the best way to view them. After all, many entrepreneurs require sales quotas of their employees to retain their jobs as a strategy to keep the business viable. Some Takers simply haven’t been taught the art of networking, or are confused on how best to utilize networking in order to achieve long-term results.

That being said, if you can detect a Taker early on at an event, try to avoid the next step: the one-on-one meeting. This is where you schedule a time to meet for coffee or lunch after the initial networking event where you met with a potential business connection. If you find yourself inadvertently ensnared in a meeting with a Taker, this meeting can make for a rough few hours consisting of a sales pitch for the Taker’s product or service, whether you have a need for it or not. It could also turn into a “name grab” by the new acquaintance for the names of your contacts so that he or she can make a sales pitch to them. Run, don’t walk to the nearest exit. We’ve all been there and it’s not fun.

Networker Type 2: The Apparent Giver

The Apparent Giver is the most common networker type. Apparent Givers are those people who, sometime during their careers, have heard and taken very much to heart the concept that “givers gain” or “give to get” as a mantra relating to networking. They believe they understand how to network and think of themselves as major players in the networking game, but often they miss the boat on the important component of follow-through.

Where Apparent Givers stumble is in failing to execute the promises they’ve made to new contacts in an effort to gain their trust. While an Apparent Giver may actually have altruistic intentions in the beginning, promises are worthless if the networker doesn’t follow up and carry out the pledge made to the new contact. Some Apparent Givers become too distracted by other commitments and simply forget to act on their earlier promises. Some with less philanthropic motives may drop the ball when they realize the new contact may not be able to immediately reciprocate. For most people in this age of information overload, if something isn’t scheduled and written down, it probably won’t happen.

The most obvious downside to turning into an Apparent Giver is that failure to follow through will tarnish your reputation if you come to be viewed as someone who doesn’t act on a pledge to a new contact. On the receiving end of the networking exchange, Apparent Givers present a distraction from your ultimate goal of disqualifying this contact type as a potential strategic partner due to empty promises.

Networker Type 3: The True Giver

The ultimate networking aspiration is to become a True Giver and to seek to interact with others of this type. True Givers understand the “big picture” when it comes to networking. This networker’s mantra is “I’ll give selflessly, regardless of what’s in it for me personally.”

As a busy attorney, you’re probably concerned with the amount of time it would take to help everyone you encounter. Even if you had only five short coffee meetings in a month, it might be problematic to then make one quality introduction for each. That’s why being a True Giver has to be balanced with a deliberate process.

First and foremost, remember that you don’t have to meet with everyone you encounter at a networking event. Try to qualify the best people for you to meet and possibly refer to another connection and then focus in on quality connections.

Second, don’t feel obligated to promise referrals for every person you meet. Not everyone is worthy of your “endorsement” by way of an introduction to another one of the contacts you’ve nurtured. It’s fairly easy to disqualify Takers and industry non-experts as people not to make pledges to or introduce to others.

Finally, while of course the Golden Rule tells us we should be nice to everyone, you should focus your networking energy on helping those people you identify as True Givers and those who appear to have the ability to be a strong strategic partner over the long haul. If time is money, then let’s invest time, energy and referrals on the true givers with whom we can have a long-term reciprocal relationship.

ARTICLE BY Steve Fretzin of Sales Results, Inc.
Copyright @ 2016 Sales Results, Inc.

Double Your Law Firm’s Lead Conversion Rates with This Proven System (Part 2 of 3)

Over the years, we have developed a proven intake and lead conversion system that has doubled the lead conversion rates of thousands of attorneys all across the nation. It consists of four major components:

#1: Training for your front office and intake staff;

#2: Specific tactics and strategies to maximize your conversion at each stage;

#3: An intake customer relationship management (CRM) software that automatically tracks and follows up with every lead; and

#4: Tracking and measurement of key metrics.

The subject for today’s post is #2:

#2: Specific Tactics and Strategies to Maximize Conversion at Each Stage

Dr. James Oldroyd, visiting research fellow at MIT and David Elkington, CEO of InsideSales.com, researched three years of data across many companies that respond to online-generated leads. The data included 15,000 unique leads and 100,000 call attempts, which the researchers scoured to determine how companies should respond to their online leads for the best possible results. The results were broken out into four areas and reveal the best days to make contact, best times, response time and persistence. Here’s what they found – and what you can use to guide your intake person in responding to online leads:

Wednesday and Thursdays stand out as the best for making contact with online leads. In fact, there was almost a 50 percent bump for calls made on Thursdays in comparison to calls made on Tuesdays. The best time to call leads is between 4 p.m. and 5 p.m. The second best time is between 7:30 a.m. and 8:30 a.m. Prospects are more willing to talk to you either before they start their day or at the end of the day.

We have discovered over 45 additional techniques your intake staff can use that can rapidly increase your lead conversion rate. Here are a few of the top techniques:

Every lead must be followed up within five minutes! Research is very clear that speed-to-call is the highest predictor of lead conversion.When the initial follow-up call/contact goes from five to 10 minutes, lead conversion drops by up to 400 percent! The intake team must be trained and monitored to ensure every potential new client is being called back within five minutes or less.

Every lead must be called back a minimum of six to 10 times!It’s not enough to call back a prospect once and then hope they call you back. When dealing with consumers you need to be persistent, often calling them back four, five or more times before you reach them. Once you reach them, you either disqualify them and stop calling or qualify them and set the appointment. Just making one or two attempts will net you next to nothing; if you don’t connect, you have to be persistent in continuing to call.

The first day, each lead should be called two to three times.The average consumer calls five to seven law firms when making a buying decision and the law firm that gets them on the phone first will likely be chosen. We never received more than one call back or voicemail the first day.

Scripts need to be written for voicemails so they aren’t always the same.Unless you give them direction, most staff will leave the same, generic message, “Hi this is Stephen from ABC Law Firm calling you back. Our number is (888) 588-5891. Please call us back.” This does nothing to differentiate you from the pack of attorneys they have already called. Come up with different voicemails that encourage the prospect to call your office back. For example, “Hi Mr. ____. This is ____ with ABC Law Firm. I’m calling about a potential motor vehicle accident you inquired about. I need to get some more information from you to determine if this is a case we can assist you with. If you could please give me a call back as soon as possible, I can be reached at (888) 588-5891 and my extension is 613.”

Never make an attorney or paralegal responsible for making follow up calls.They will not do it. They just won’t. Trust me. We have tried every possible incentive to get associates or paralegals to make follow-up calls and they will not. As much as possible, you want to build a wall between anyone who takes calls from prospects and those who do the work.

ARTICLE BY Stephen Fairley of The Rainmaker Institute

© The Rainmaker Institute, All Rights Reserved

Seven Ways a Niche Helps Your Business Development

nicheAny marketing expert will tell you that having a clear niche is good for the bottom line; yet, many attorneys continue to be generalists within their practice areas. Some may think that they have a niche, simply by virtue of being an environmental lawyer, an IP lawyer, an insurance lawyer, etc.  Imagine having a real estate agent who specializes in Southern California. Sure, she has the basic skill set that you need, but there is no reason to think she has any special knowledge or insight related to your particular neighborhood. It works the same way with the law. Just because you can cover a wide range of legal issues doesn’t mean that it is wise or profitable. I understand that putting yourself out there as a specialist in a particular niche can seem scary or difficult.  So, here is a list of reasons why niching is worth the effort.

  1. Clients want experts – If you had a brain tumor, you wouldn’t want a generalist to operate; you would want the best brain surgeon you could find. The same principal applies for business problems. If the issue is important enough, the client will want an expert, someone who has handled many similar situations in the past, who has a grasp of the subtleties and can nip problems in the bud. Even though a generalist may be perfectly capable of doing a great job, clients simply feel more relaxed and confident knowing that they chose an expert.

  2. Clients are Willing to Pay More for Experts – Maybe clients want to work with you.  However, wanting something and being willing to pay for it are different. The critical question is if they are willing to pay your rates.  If they see you as a commodity, they are more likely to quibble over your rates and your bills.  Whereas, if you are seen as one of the preeminent people with the skill and knowledge they need, they are a lot less likely to push for discounts.

  3. Higher Quality Referrals from Other Attorneys – In some circles, referrals get a bad rap because some lawyers only refer out the undesirable, low quality cases that they don’t want. The first reason attorneys may avoid giving referrals is that they don’t trust the other attorney to do a good job. Having a clear niche addresses this concern because it makes your expertise clear to the world, and thereby reassures other attorneys that referrals would indeed benefit their clients, and thus reflect well on them. The second reason other attorneys may not give referrals is if they feel they can profitably do the work themselves. This is where choosing your niche wisely comes into the picture. As long as your area of law is complex enough that it is not worth it for other attorneys so invest the time and energy getting up to speed, you naturally attract high quality referrals.

  4. Higher Quality Referrals from Your Social Network – Our social networks can be a great source of business, and yet most attorney’s friends and family are not terribly clear on what they do for a living. How many of you have been asked about DUIs or divorce issues by people who just don’t understand that you actually do M&A? If someone at a party asks what you do and you list seven areas, people are left with the impression that you do everything and you end up with lousy, low quality referrals.  The more clear and precise you are about your niche, the more easily your social network can send you business or aid you in making relevant connections.

  5. Narrows the Competition – Instead of competing against all white-collar criminal defense attorneys or all civil litigators in your geographical area, you are competing against only a handful. Of course, it also narrows the field of clients but it’s a lot easier to distinguish yourself for your amazing customer service, your personable demeanor or your brilliant team when you are competing with 10 people rather than 300 or 3000.

  6. It helps You to Stay Focused – Deciding where to put your time and energy is a constant struggle for any attorney, and the more recognition and opportunities you have coming your way, the more difficult the choices become.  One of the great things about having a clear niche is that it becomes easier to choose where to network, who to reach out to for meetings, and which invitations to accept.

  7. It Leverages Name Recognition – The reason this is important is the same reason that TV and radio adds play over and over again. It is the repeated exposure that makes people remember you and associate you with certain types of clients or cases.  For example, maybe someone first meets you at a networking event.  A couple months later, they see you speak. A couple weeks later, they notice that you are on the board of directors for the organization in which you met.  Six months later, they read an article that you authored. This repeated exposure in the same niche makes you both more memorable and more credible.  Similar activities but spread over several different subject areas or geographical areas will likely have less impact since you lose the leverage created by repeated exposure.

Lawyers often worry that narrowing their niche will lead to fewer clients. However, it almost invariably has the opposite effect. Imagine what your life would be like if you could double the number of cases or matters that you really enjoyed? What if you could charge 50% more for your services? What would it be like if the right kind of associates and staff were applying to work with you? The benefits of having a clear niche are significant and well worth getting out of your comfort zone and trying something new.

ARTICLE BY Anna H. Rappaport of Excelleration, LLC

© 2008-2016 Anna Rappaport. All Rights Reserved

Attend NAMWOLF’s 2016 Annual Meeting, September 14-16 in Houston, Texas

Join NAMWOLF at the 2016 Annual Meeting & Expo in Houston, Texas. The Annual Meeting is a great opportunity to increase your participation and relationships with NAMWOLF Law Firm Members. All attendees further benefit by attending CLE sessions specific to Law Firm Member practice areas, which provides greater insight into each Law Firm Member’s experience and capability to handle complex legal matters.

NAMWOLF Annual Meeting

The NAMWOLF Annual Meeting & Law Firm Expo is a three-day conference providing unique opportunities to connect corporate counsel from Fortune 1000 companies and minority and women owned law firms. The conference features NAMWOLF’s signature event, the Law Firm Expo, which provides an opportunity for In-House Counsel to meet with the Nation’s top minority and women owned law firms in a relaxed networking environment. We provide top notch continuing legal education and networking.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

Visit www.namwolfmeetings.org  for the conference schedule, room block information, and registration information.

LinkedIn: A Lawyer’s New Best Friend

Linkedin LawyersWhile there are plenty of books written about social media, I’ve found that most attorneys have little time to invest in such trivial pursuits. I’m sure you’ve rolled your eyes a few times when perusing Facebook or Twitter and reading some of the material on those sites. Many of these negative opinions stem from reality, whereas others come from a disappointing lack of knowledge as to the sites’ benefits.

In order to effectively utilize social media, it’s important to recognize what you want social media to do for you. Are you looking to grow originations, develop a cult-like following, or brand yourself to get speaking engagements? By answering this question first, you can focus on investing your time in the most effective social media forums.

There are literally hundreds of social media channels to choose from. Being selective and focused on the right one will help you get results more quickly. For most attorneys, developing your brand in the business community is most important. In addition, you’re most likely to get results from a social media channel that allows you to be proactive in developing new contacts and ultimately new business. In my experience, the best and fastest way to get results using social media is through LinkedIn.

Over the past 10 years, LinkedIn has become the number one resource for helping brand and generate new business for service-based professionals. In many ways it’s better than Google because it’s a business networking platform rather than a general search platform. The ability to search and target people and organizations is unlimited.

LinkedIn is a fantastic brand-building tool that allows you to literally post your resume online. LinkedIn also helps you leverage your best contacts to make inside connections. Done properly, this can create a massive universe of followers, possible connections, and, most importantly, a cast of personal advocates willing to make quality introductions on your behalf.

Imagine being able to look at your client’s list of friends, vendors and associates prior to asking for a referral. You can search through LinkedIn’s 50 million users to find the best inside connections for you.

While there are hundreds of different tools on LinkedIn, I want to give you the top three keys to effectively using LinkedIn. As with anything that’s worthwhile, it’s imperative that you try to have an open mind and invest a few hours exploring the site to see where the value is for you.

The first key to effectively using LinkedIn is to create a complete profile that best represents your expertise and experience in your field of practice. The second key is to develop your LinkedIn universe by adding the right contacts. The third key is to leverage those contacts and turn them into quality introductions. These three keys should initially take only a few hours to implement, and then as little as an hour a week to start producing results.

The First Key: Writing a LinkedIn Profile That Represents You Beautifully

In order to be effective on LinkedIn, you must have a professionally written and completed profile. Think of your LinkedIn page as your online resume and personal website. If the information online is incorrect, incomplete or poorly written, it might stop someone from reaching out to you.

Imagine you’re looking online for a remodeler for your home. The first site that comes up on Google looks fantastic. You click through to see some of the remodeling work the company has done, and the site says, “Sorry, cannot open this page.” So you try another one. The same message comes up. If you’re like me, you’re done at that point. You just move on to the next search result. This is exactly what happens on LinkedIn without a skillfully written and finished profile.

Here are three tips to ensure your LinkedIn profile makes you look your best to potential clients and strategic partners:

Tip #1: Use a recent professional photograph on your LinkedIn page.

Most people are visual and want to see whom they’re going to be speaking with. As important as content is on a website, you’ve never seen an exceptional one without images to back it up. Use the photo from your website if it’s good, or get a headshot taken right away. It’s not hard to do and it can make all the difference when someone is checking out your profile. This may seem obvious, but don’t post a cutesy picture with your kids, pet, or Halloween costume.

Tip #2: Have a professionally written background/summary.

Since your LinkedIn profile will be someone’s first impression of you, failure to capture the reader’s attention can move the reader quickly away. Personally, I like to see a summary written in the third person. It has the appearance of someone else boasting about your successes and best qualities without seeming egotistical.

If possible, keep your profile to three solid paragraphs. I enjoy reading profiles that read a little like a story. The first paragraph pulls you in. The second gets you familiar with the character. The third wraps things up and motivates you to take action. It might make sense to look up some other attorneys in your practice area to see what they’ve written. This will help you identify the best profile style for you.

Tip #3: Develop a strong list of skills that best represents your expertise.

If you take a few minutes and search some of your colleagues and competitors, you can quickly begin to formulate such a list. For example, an estate planning attorney would want to have the words “wills,” “trusts” and “estate planning” listed among his or her skills, thus enabling people searching for an estate planner to more easily find the attorney.

Once your skills are posted, people in your network will then have the ability to endorse you. Essentially, when you have a skill that someone agrees with, they’ll endorse you for that skill. While this might seem like “fluff,” it’s an important factor that people use to determine who are experts and who are not. For example, if you had to choose between two referred doctors, one who has hundreds of positive endorsements on LinkedIn and one who has none, which would you choose? While this might seem insignificant, in the competitive legal environment everything counts.

Read Part 2 here: LinkedIn for Lawyers – Strengthening Your Circle by Establishing the Very Best Connections Part 2

Read Part 3 here: Effectively Using LinkedIn for Lawyers: Going Beyond Connecting and Turning LinkedIn Relationships into Better Introductions Part 3

ARTICLE BY Steve Fretzin of Sales Results, Inc.

Copyright @ 2016 Sales Results, Inc.

Attend NAMWOLF’s 2016 Annual Meeting, September 14-16 in Houston, Texas

Join NAMWOLF at the 2016 Annual Meeting & Expo in Houston, Texas. The Annual Meeting is a great opportunity to increase your participation and relationships with NAMWOLF Law Firm Members. All attendees further benefit by attending CLE sessions specific to Law Firm Member practice areas, which provides greater insight into each Law Firm Member’s experience and capability to handle complex legal matters.

NAMWOLF Annual Meeting

The NAMWOLF Annual Meeting & Law Firm Expo is a three-day conference providing unique opportunities to connect corporate counsel from Fortune 1000 companies and minority and women owned law firms. The conference features NAMWOLF’s signature event, the Law Firm Expo, which provides an opportunity for In-House Counsel to meet with the Nation’s top minority and women owned law firms in a relaxed networking environment. We provide top notch continuing legal education and networking.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

Visit www.namwolfmeetings.org  for the conference schedule, room block information, and registration information.

Time Management for Lawyers: Did You Have a Week or Did the Week Have you?

time managementAs a business development coach for attorneys, no one understands the stress and demands placed on a legal practitioner better than I do. Imagine spending your entire day listening to multiple people complain about the demands being placed on them and additional stress that’s created when we discuss investing time in business development. It makes perfect sense why most attorneys shy away from their marketing activities.

Time challenges aside, you must know by now that nothing will have a greater impact on your personal and financial freedom than having your own book of business. Therefore, it’s never been more important to effectively manage your time to ensure you can fit in the billable hours and business development, while still having the balance with your family or personal time. Here are three key tips to ensure you have the growth and balance to create the career you’ve been dreaming of:

Time Tip #1:  Have a solid plan for business development

Other than doing nothing, the worst thing you can do as a lawyer is to approach business development willy-nilly.  Attending events, writing articles or even speaking can be ineffective if your audience isn’t aligned with your goals. You need to have a plan in place to ensure you are spending your time in the right places with the right people. Think about the types of buyers and strategic partners you need to meet. Ask yourself, where do they spend their time?  How do I get in front of them?  How many do I need to build relationships with to grow my book?

A good plan should lay out your goals, strategies and tactics to accomplish your objectives in the fastest time possible. Think of the plan as a GPS. Before we had this tool, we would drive miles out of our way before turning around. Now the GPS tells us when we made a bad turn, but how to get back on track. This is what a good plan will do for you.

Time Tip #2: Use your calendar to schedule time for business development

We schedule our meetings for a closing, deposition or a trial, then why not schedule time for business development. They are all important and need to get done, so treat them with equal importance. Based on where you are in your career, how much time you need to carve out and your goals to grow your book, there needs to be an emphasis on carving out time daily or weekly for business development. Here are a couple of thoughts and best practices to think about:

  • Look at your calendar to find times when you are less likely to be distracted by email, phone calls or other people in your office. Not to boast, but I get into my office three days a week at 6 am. This gives me a solid six hours a week when I can get emails out, leave voice mails or make contacts through LinkedIn. If you’re a night owl, that might be better for you.
  • Once you do get meetings on your calendar, be sure to use the meeting invite tool to ensure that these meeting stick.  Changing schedules and cancellations are sometime inevitable; however we can curtail them slightly by getting into someone’s calendar right away. If you’re not sure how to use this tool, ask the person in the office next to you. It’s become as popular as emailing.
  • Use the calendar to schedule EVERYTHING! If you have to make a call, write an email or follow up with someone, schedule it. As I mentioned earlier, you need to start treating your marketing activities the same way you treat the law. Think of your schedule like an advanced “to-do” list. The more you use your calendar to schedule things, the more you will actually do. Just seeing a follow up call from a networking event up on your screen will prompt you to follow through.

Time Tip #3: Always pick the low-hanging fruit first

With all of the networking groups, associations and coffee meetings to choose from, you may quickly find your time drained away from you. One of the first things I suggest to attorneys is to look closely at your network and find the easiest way to obtain new business. This might include meeting with existing clients to cross-sell, up-sell or find quality introductions. You also might have some family or friends who are in power positions, but you haven’t tapped into that yet. Whatever the situation, it’s critical to leverage these contacts first.

A few concerns that you might have with this approach is the possibility of “blowing” the opportunity or “disrupting” the relationship. While this is always a remote possibility, here are some soft and gentle approaches that might ease your mind when venturing into uncharted territory:

  • Be curious. You’re a lawyer right? Use that as your excuse to ask a thousand questions about this person’s business. Everyone has goals and challenges that they’d be more than happy to share with you. Just be a great listener and ask deeper open-ended questions to find a way to add value. Value might be discussing the law in your office over coffee and value might be referring them to someone who can help solve a problem today. Either way, you will have a much better idea of the opportunity for you to do business now or in the future.

An example of this would be at a family function where you see Uncle Dan every year. He owns     a $20 million dollar website company. You can ask him, “What do you love about your business?” and “What types of challenges do you have running a company of that size?” Once     you start Uncle Dan talking about his favorite subject, himself, you can keep asking deeper questions to identify a possible need or a question he might have for you on the legal side.

  • Ask for Advice. In this scenario, you are looking to better understand the mindset of a business owner or GC as you are working to grow your own practice. Ask some great questions to obtain their advice and help. It’s then possible that they might try to help you with your goals, make an intro to someone they know or allow you to share your knowledge to help with a problem within their own company.
  • Look to obtain an introduction from an existing client. Look, you’re good at what you do and your client is very happy. In addition, you’ve invested time taking her to lunch, a game, golfing, etc.  Maybe it’s time to ask for a high level introduction to someone in her network that might want to have a similar experience.

It might make sense to schedule a lunch with your client, and before getting off the call say, “I’m looking forward to our lunch on Friday. I do have a favor to ask that would be really meaningful to me. I know you are well connected and have been very happy with my work. Would you be open to introducing me around to one or two of your business associates?” This type of question is permission based and should be received positively. The worst that can happen is that she will say “no.” The best thing can be an intro to a new client that could make your year! Plus, if she does say “no,” it might be a wake-up call that you might need to work on your relationship building skills.

One way or another, you have to get your time under control. You can create a more focused approach to business development, utilize your calendar at a higher level or focus on low-hanging fruit. Whatever the case, don’t wait. Sometimes you just have to draw a line in the sand and say, “no more.”  The best thing you can do is to schedule time to get organized with your time.

ARTICLE BY Steve Fretzin of Sales Results, Inc.

Copyright @ 2016 Sales Results, Inc.

Retaining Millennials at Law Firms Requires Change

Millennials law firmManaging attorney departures at a law firm can be a daunting task, especially if a departing attorney has a book of business and takes clients along when leaving the firm. Although it can be difficult for the firm, a practice area and, often, the attorneys who remain, it has been a fairly rare occurrence in the past, particularly for equity partners.

That rarity is changing at an increasing rate as baby boomers have phased out of the workforce, leaving millennials to become the largest percentage of the U.S. employee pool. In fact, millenials are expected to make up 75 percent of our nation’s workers by 2030. They bring a different attitude regarding their careers and longevity with a particular company than we have become accustomed to, especially in a law firm culture.

As most business professionals are aware, it takes much more money to hire and train a new employee than to simply retain astute professionals. And, with millennials’ perceptions of how office life should be, law firms will need to pay much more attention to those ideals in order to keep excellent talent, which is imperative for a successful firm.

Millennial Expectations

So, what do millennials expect in the way of work life? This is a frequently discussed topic in the media, at companies and within law firms throughout the world. I’ve read several good articles on the subject lately and will share from one in particular written by Jeff Fromm for Forbes magazine.

Fromm, who consults on the “Millennial Generation” or “Gen Y,” often speaks about the attributes these employees want from their companies, and it’s not all about salary and benefits.

Although there is no precisely defined birth date range for this segment of the population, it is often described as people reaching young adulthood around the year 2000. These individuals were raised with technology and gadgets at a time when developing a child’s self esteem and individuality was a predominant theme in educational and behavioral methodologies.

Other attributes discussed include:

    1. Millenials want to be a part of  “the process.” They have strong entrepreneurial tendencies and desire growth. If they do not feel they are growing at a company or firm, they are much more likely to move to another than their older peers.
    2. Millenials prefer to be coached and mentored instead of “bossed” or just told what to do. Interestingly, this does not mean that they want to work independently with little supervision; it’s quite the opposite. They actually prefer more interaction and feedback than the typical baby boomer.

Conforming to the Millennial Way of Life

So, what does this mean for law firms and particularly law firm management, practice area leaders and the like? It means an almost 180-degree change in the way associates have been managed in the past.

Millennial attorneys will want to be part of the process from the beginning. They are not content to receive a directive such as, “Research a particular point of law and prepare an annotated brief on the subject.” Instead, they want to know about the case, why the research is important for the case and how it will be used to benefit the case.

Likewise, instead of just receiving a red-lined document back with few instructions regarding how to improve the work, millennials will prefer to discuss how the work product was perceived, why changes were made and how the changes make the information better in relation to the case. They want to learn and grow from the process; i.e., from performing their work.

These types of processes will, indeed, make for a better learning experience for associates, enhance their skills and grow more capable team members. However, this approach will also take more time and patience on the leader’s behalf. Just a “do as I say” directive, without an explanation of why to do it, doesn’t sit well with a millennial. Over time, such treatment will erode the associate’s desire to stay at the firm.

Millennial Mentoring

Remember, these younger attorneys need to feel included and that they are growing and making a difference to be motivated and engaged. Just receiving a good paycheck and the chance at equity ownership isn’t a long-term motivator for them. That really is a cultural change in how many, if not most, young associates used to be trained to be the future leaders of a law firm.

Also, consider that dramatic change in a firm’s processes can’t happen all at once, or else the culture will implode. Instead of instituting entirely new training and evaluation programs, try adding in or updating your firm’s processes. As a start, adding a strong associate mentoring program with real checks and balances will go a long way toward including associates in the process. And know that opening up the lines of communications top-down and bottom-up at any organization also will result in better operations and more-satisfied employees. If good communication isn’t standard at your firm, offer training across the board.

The impact the changing workforce has had on law firms isn’t just beginning … it is happening and must be addressed now to avoid major business operational issues for law firms. Take note of this growing trend and make the necessary changes to ensure your firm has the best talent today and in the future.

ARTICLE BY Sue Remley of Jaffe
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