Tag: Legal Marketing

Legal Marketing Association (LMA) Conference Recap: Pricing, Profitability and the Role of Legal Marketing

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How do you measure success? Ask a lawyer and she may say, “By the number of hours I bill.” Ask a marketer and he may answer, “By the number of clients my firm has.” Ask an economist and he will tell you, “By how profitable we are.”

As we’ve seen in recent years, a firm can have a long list of clients and/or bill a staggering number of hours, but it won’t necessarily stop them from going under. However, this much is true: a profitable firm is a successful firm. In the LMA Annual Conference session titled, “Pricing, Profitability, and the Role of Marketing,” panelists Toby Brown, director of strategic pricing and analytics at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP, and Colleen Nihil, firm-wide director of project management at Dechert LLP, explained how a long list of clients and/or billing a large number of hours can actually lower profits.

Toby and Colleen went on to explain why legal marketers need to understand profitability and law firm economics, in general. As one of the four “P’s” of marketing (along with product, promotion and place), pricing is well-within our realm, yet is often overlooked. They further illustrated how we can use this internal law firm knowledge to our advantage in winning and keeping clients.

A major part of the discussion was geared towards how to create value-based billing for a client. Why do clients want it? What makes a client a good candidate for this arrangement? What type of research should be done? How should it be handled internally within the firm? Each question was addressed plainly:

Why do clients want a value-based billing arrangement?

Many prefer this to the classic hours-based arrangement simply because it provides an element of predictability. Clearly, all clients want cost-savings and efficiency. However, the panelists advised that the firm should first have a conversation with the client about setting up a new pricing arrangement. Understanding what the client wants and why they want it should guide the firm when setting up a new agreement.

What makes a client a good candidate for this arrangement?

Obviously, a client with very predictable legal needs is the best client for a value-based billing arrangement. However, many clients could be eligible if enough good, solid research is conducted, which leads to the next question:

What type of research should be done?

Research on the client’s past history with the firm is imperative in order to decide if it is eligible for value-based billing and what a reasonable and fair pricing structure will look like. Two approaches were discussed:

Bottom-Up

  1. Compare and contrast the client against other similar clients at the firm – size, revenue, industry, etc.
  2. Pull benchmarking data: What services does the firm provide to client? How much does each matter cost? Is there any outlying data?
  3. Don’t look at just historic data, but also look at how the firm can drive down costs. Think about using zero-based budgeting for this process.
  4. Build out the matter. Look at what strategy will be taken on the matter and figure out the firm’s value.
  5. Model the matter based on different types of rate structures (fixed-fee and other alternative fee arrangements)
  6. This approach will require the firm to categorize matters better in order to ensure reliable benchmarking.

Top-Down

  1. Start from an estimated figure for the matter.
  2. Create a scoping conversation, asking the questions: What will double the figure? What will make it shrink? What is the likelihood of…? Determine the cost of the matter, not the price.

How should value-based billing be handled internally within the firm?

Toby and Colleen stressed the importance of educating attorneys on profitability and its four drivers:

  1. Rates
  2. Realization (percentage of money collected versus standard billing rate)
  3. Productivity (number of billed hours per time-keeper, per year)
  4. Leverage (amount of non-partner work versus partner work performed)

Once attorneys learn how profitability works, they can begin to structure their matters in a way to increase profitability (rather than hours or simple revenue). However, some attorneys learn how to “game the system” which can lead to unhealthy profitability; this is something that should be monitored. Toby directed the audience to his paper, “The Four Horsemen of Law Firm Profitability,” which dives deeper into law firm economics.

Toby and Colleen summed up their presentation in three bullet points:

  • Focus on the work that you can have the biggest impact on
  • Understand your clients’ pain points
  • Make sure you have this information before responding to an RFP.

These points fed into their overarching message, “It’s not what you do, it’s what you choose not to do.” In the end, increasing profitability and implementing value-based billing arrangements come down to trust and communication between the firm and client. Once those two pillars are established, a new pricing agreement can easily be built with the two parties coming from places of understanding and a mutual interest in success.

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Are You Falling Down on Following Up?

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Of all the marketing initiatives that are critical for lawyers to commit to, the most basic and seemingly obvious is the “sin” of omission – – the failure to follow up.

We have worked with lawyers who have spent innumerable hours and thousands of dollars chasing after new clients and prospects but have largely been unsuccessful in retentions because of a gap in their business development process: following up.

Do any of these example ring familiar:

  • A very sociable corporate partner attended numerous networking events a month, engaged easily with others attending, handed out business cards, but rarely received calls or new clients as a result. Because of her frustration, she curtailed her networking activities and short-circuited this important business development action step.
  • A New York labor and employment boutique law firm hosted an annual educational program which featured leaders in the field and attracted high level CFOs and HR professionals to the event. They received high marks on all aspects of the events but few, if any, calls from prospects.  Members of the disappointed team deemed the effort a “failure” and asserted that seminars don’t “work” to get new clients.
  •  The managing partner of a Connecticut firm received a referral from a trusted client who was searching for new counsel in this attorney’s “sweet spot” of legal practice.  The partner attended a prospective client interview in which he thoroughly espoused all the ways his firm could save this prospect’s firm significant amounts of money, given the specific legal issues at stake.  Day after day, the managing partner didn’t receive a call or email to discuss retention and getting started.  Why did this prospect waste his time was the only thought the frustrated managing partner ruminated upon.

While each of these examples highlight effective marketing initiatives (targeted networking; educational seminars; in-person client interviews), they all share the same flawed result: lack of follow up and planning.

A Follow-Up Re-Do

As part of the business development process, lawyers must recognize and integrate into their “SOP” (standard operating procedures), action steps that extend beyond “showing up.”  By leaving out the planning and following up components, lawyers are short circuiting the process, leaving money on the table, and becoming more cynical that marketing actually “works”, however one defines that.

To examine the first example above, the more effective steps of action would have been:

  • Request an event registration list so that the lawyer could have identified several targeted folks “of interest” to seek out and engage.  It would be very effective to gather some background information (a quick Google search) about the target companies to make conversations more meaningful.
  • With a little research in hand, the lawyer arrives to the networking event with a plan of who she plans to engage, who she intends to connect, and how she will spend the next several hours.  This is work, not an opportunity to have a few free drinks and yuk it up with firm colleagues whom she sees every day.
  • Practicing effective networking techniques, this sociable lawyer knows that it is essential to be more “interested” than “interesting”, so she exercises active listening techniques by asking open-ended questions of her networking partners to learn more about their businesses and challenges.  From this, she receives a number of “high impact” business cards which she will use to follow up after the event.

The steps described above take very little investment of time, but will yield a very different experience which can lead directly to a new client retention or, at minimum, a new business connection for referrals.

Contrasting the legal profession with corporate America in developing new business, one only has to examine the models of each.  Corporate America devotes billions of dollars every year to “sales and marketing”, to the process of cultivating and nurturing new prospect relationships leading to a “sale”.  The typical sales process may involve innumerable “follow ups” before a sale is actually consummated.

The legal profession historically has played a reactive role wherein new clients (new sales) seek out the law firm to engage them.  It is unwise in these ultra competitive times and a poor business model to continue this practice.  If lawyers are the ones seeking new business or even additional work from existing clients, the obligation falls upon them to pursue it and continue to make contacts until they are  directed otherwise.  (Remember, studies show that it takes at least 7-10 “touches” to become top-of-mind with clients and prospects).

Difference Faces of Follow Up

Though follow up can take many different approaches, the overall non-negotiable component involves any action step which provokes the other party (existing client, prospect, etc.) to want to continue contact with you. You are focused on cultivating and nurturing a relationships which will ultimately be mutually beneficial and add value.

A few examples of effective follow up include:

  • Brief thank you emails following an event (networking, educational programs, or entertainment).
  • Handwritten notes of congratulations for personal or business accomplishments.
  • Links to a relevant news article in which your contact would benefit.
  • Personal visits to a client’s work site to deliver a work product.
  • Invitations to social events, professional organization programs, or business workshops.

The more lawyers engage in marketing initiatives, the most important task to remember is to plan appropriately before taking any action what the follow-up steps will be, who will take them, and in what time frame. Treat this component of the business development process as you would a client obligation and coordinate your calendar with all parties involved.  It is in this step that the revenue will be found, the meaningful business relationships will be established and robust practices will be built.

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A Review of Legal Technology and Innovation: Leopard Solutions

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In review is Leopard Solutions, provider of an online legal technology service that compiles, tracks and delivers a wealth of information about law firms and attorneys across the country.

History Behind the Technology and Origins in Legal Recruiting

Leopard Solutions is the brainchild of Laura Leopard, an actress turned legal recruiter turned Founder and CEO of the Leopard Solutions system. The origin of the system initially occurred in the midst of her acting career, when Ms. Leopard worked as a cold caller for legal recruiters and discovered a severe lack of accessible information. At that point, Ms. Leopard first conceived of the Leopard List, the premier informational database offered by Leopard Solutions, now one among other such systems featured. From a simple Excel spreadsheet that contained the Leopard List, Ms. Leopard eventually developed an innovative online resource for the legal community.

Intelligence Programs and Strategic Data Directed Towards the Legal Community

Leopard Solutions offers comprehensive and strategic data captured in various intelligence programs directed towards different sectors of the legal community, including law firms, legal recruiters and law students. These are ‘live databases” which are updated on a weekly basis. Firmscape, their law firm intelligence program, is updated any time new data becomes available. For instance, if new salary information becomes available or a new office is opened, it can be immediately added to the program.)  On the day I spoke with Ms. Leopard, the system monitored a total of 183 new associates joining law firms, 71 practitioners being promoted to partner status and 86 partners leaving their firm positions.

The Leopard List: Attorney Database & Lateral Recruitment Tool

Among these databases is the Leopard List, which houses information across the spectrum of attorneys, including partners, counsels and associates, from over 1600 law firms in 23 U.S. markets. Attorneys can be searched by their practice area, JD year, law school, states admitted to practice and more. Moreover, a click of the practitioner’s name conveniently yields his or her law firm attorney profile and users can search these biographies by keyword. The Leopard staff is assigned to read and manually peruse each individual law firm attorney profile to verify all of the information stored in the system. This “personal touch” extends to any gaps of information– Leopard has been known to reach out to the firm for details if need be.

In addition, the system reveals an attorney’s  “professional history” that tracks any change in the practitioner’s status, including lateral employment moves and promotions within the firm, moves from previous law firms and name changes. In other words, no need for a Google search– Leopard hand-delivers the nuts and bolts.

Firmscape: Law Firm Intelligence

Firmscape serves as another example of Leopard successfully consolidating and analyzing information, in this instance by capturing a big-picture view of the legal industry. To say Firmscape collects a snapshot of the legal industry is an understatement- rather, this system showcases the evolution of the industry. Perhaps most helpful to legal recruiters, Firmscape sizes up the top law firms in the country and their starting salaries, practitioner lateral moves, and growth in practicing areas, among other aspects. Like the Leopard List, Firmscape is easily navigated and can be mined for reports on specific variables, such as practice area, specialty, firm history and promotion record.

Other Intelligence Programs for the Legal Community

Other systems include Leopard Reporting, which gives an overview of all the law firms in the system (currently 1666); Leopard Job Search, which monitors 655 law firms twice a day for job postings; Leopard Solutions for Law School, which offers law firm resource tools to law students; the Leopard Job Board, geared towards both legal recruiters and applicants; and Leopard Solutions Hot Spot, which aggregates all national news available for the firms amassed in the database.

A Technological Model for Timely, Interactive and Dynamic Data

Perhaps most notable about Leopard Solutions is the absence of any parallel technology in the market. The company’s model of keeping law firms under its radar and going to long lengths to obtain searchable data distinguishes it from other models which rely exclusively on web crawlers or press for information. In addition, Leopard’s model reaches far beyond displaying data but permits the viewer to target and interact with the information though reports and keyword searches. Finally, the company aims to stay reactionary, current and attuned with the needs of the market. Ms. Leopard often relies on clients’ counsel to further develop their system. A cutting-edge product, Leopard Solutions keeps up with the fluctuating legal landscape with its efficiency and accuracy.

Growing Client Accounts With Tablet Apps (TBC)

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“We Need An App!” This has been a consistent cry from partners in law firms around the world over the past few years. Unfortunately those who were tasked with this jumped a little too quickly without understanding their audience and the purpose of an app. In most cases, apps were built that essentially reflected content that could be found on the corporate website and were launched in haste – without being updated regularly or adding any value. These apps were not ‘sticky’ and gave the target audience little reason to return. The results of these experiments were costly apps that failed to truly connect with the targeted audience. As business development tools these were a fail, but at least these initiatives were a start in exploring how firms can adopt mobile as tool and channel. But how can law firms harness the power of the tablet?

The growth in tablet technology for the enterprise is truly explosive. Research by digital ad agency Vertic, predicts enterprise tablet adoption will grow by almost 50% per year and by 2015 mobile app development projects will outnumber native PC projects by a ratio of 4-to-1! These are facts that can’t be ignored by professional services firms and mobile is now well and truly on the agenda. However, most firms’ initial mobile strategies have been focused on client adoption, when the focus should be business adoption. Your most captive and receptive audience is your own workforce, let’s equip them with mobile tools that empower them to engage effectively with clients and generate new revenue opportunities.

Law firms produce substantial amounts of marketing and business development collateral but much of it is inaccessible, out of date or not in easily consumed formats. Tablet technology is rapidly changing how proprietary marketing and business development content is shared and leveraged to internal and external audiences.

Forward thinking firms have recognized this and are placing mobile high on the agenda and revising their strategies, or formulating one if they haven’t before. One part of the puzzle is the device strategy – how to secure, deploy and manage smartphones and tablets (both personal and firm-owned devices). The other piece is the application strategy – deciding on the enterprise apps that are most relevant for achieving the firm’s objectives and what mobile platforms these need to cater for (iOS, Blackberry, Android etc.). IT teams will push for firms to adopt enterprise apps that mobilize internal processes and improving efficiencies. However, there should be a higher priority whilst the competitive window is open, which is using enterprise tablet apps as tools for growing client accounts and acquiring new clients. We are calling this ‘business development enablement’.

In the age of the internet, most firm-wide marketing collateral is stored as electronic files in difficult to access and immobilized intranets or file storage systems. These are hardly encouraging for an attorney who is trying to prepare and rally their team for a big business development meeting with a key client. If they are out of the office it is even more difficult to access and share the right information. Many still use their own personal decks or carry with them the printed materials that the firm has produced –  which is often out of date the day. Even though many partners prefer print, they are high cost and low usage, or ‘low viewage’ to be more accurate. Your target audiences are now much more likely to consume content on a mobile device than print. Your firm’s business development and marketing content – brochures, case studies, client briefings, press releases and deal memorandums– must be mobilized. Fee earners need to be able to access collateral quickly and easily on the devices where they are both consuming and sharing marketing content.

So why should your firm deploy an enterprise tablet apps for marketing and business development enablement?

Fee earners can access knowledge outside their area of expertise

Most fee earners are experts in a particular area of the law and may not be able to confidently convey the firm’s experience or track record in other areas, where potential opportunities may arise within an existing client. A tablet app empowers a fee earner to quickly access relevant collateral with a couple of swipes, so opportunities are captured at the time they arise.

Have everyone singing from the same hymn sheet

Using a centrally managed and distributed app ensures the whole client facing organization is using consistent and up-to-date collateral that has been made available by marketing, business development and knowledge teams.

A Branded Experience

Your firm-branded app will produce a positive and focused brand experience for both user and client. An app is a concentrated place with no distractions and also brings stagnant collateral to life by giving it an extra dimension that cannot be achieved using printed or static web pages.

Access marketing or business development collateral, anywhere, any time

An enterprise app for business development can store and present any digital asset that the firm has produced. Documents, presentations, video and audio can all be consumed, shared and even presented over a coffee or on a screen, in a client-facing meeting. A tablet enterprise app with a well design user experiences also requires little or no training for fee earners and business development teams, meaning user adoption is rapid.

Collaboration around clients, matters and opportunities

Apps can be rolled out to multiple devices across the firm, allowing fee earners and business development teams to all share and collaborate around client meetings and opportunities.

Gain a competitive advantage through innovation

Impression is everything. Using the latest mobile technology and software can enhance the face-to-face engagement with a client or prospect and subsequently improves the perception of, not just the individual expert, but the firm itself. Even though a firm’s reputation may rely on history, using a tablet and enterprise app to market, demonstrates that a firm is progressive, innovative and employing technology to deliver results.

Are you behind or ahead?

There is a vast contrast between where law firm are with their mobile strategy. One major  AMLAW 100 firm purchased iPads for its entire 1,000 strong workforce back in 2011. This was bold move back then but this was real foresight, as the firm now understands the usage of these devices for the enterprise, and not to just be more efficient, but to consume and share information and knowledge both internally and externally. For those of you who are reading this and are a little concerned that your firm is behind in its pursuit of mobile, consider this – I met with a senior marketing executive of a Global AMLaw20 firm in the latter half of 2012. When I asked if they were considering their mobile strategy, I was told in no uncertain terms “that we are at least three years away from looking into mobile”.

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Avvo Releases Online Marketing Playbook for Attorneys

consumer_colorlogoWhitepaper provides practical legal marketing guidance for solo to mid-sized firm lawyers

Seattle, Wash – May 16, 2013 – Avvo, Inc., the web’s largest expert-only legal Q&A forum, directory and legal marketplace (http://www.avvo.com/), today released The Online Marketing Playbook for Attorneys: A practical guide to the digital tools and strategies that can grow your practice. The more than 30 page whitepaper offers solo to mid-sized  firm lawyers a thorough and step-by-step resource to navigate the complexities of online marketing, including how to define a target audience, website design best practices, search engine optimization and how to choose the right marketing channels.

“This whitepaper covers the legal marketing topics that attorneys have asked us about the most, including the ins and outs of Google Authorship, keyword targeting and mobile website optimization,” said Leigh McMillan, vice president of marketing, Avvo, Inc. “The playbook, which includes content relevant for beginners to seasoned legal marketers, is a follow-up to our recent 4th annual Lawyernomics conference, where a record number of attendees learned how to grow their practice online from experts at companies such as Twitter, Yelp and Avvo, as well as from marketing-savvy attorneys.”

Availability

The free whitepaper is available for download here: http://ignite.avvo.com/whitepapers/attorney-online-marketing-strategy-ebook.html

About Avvo, Inc.

Avvo is the web’s largest legal Q&A forum, directory and legal marketplace (http://www.avvo.com), connecting hundreds of thousands of consumers and lawyers every month.  In Avvo’s Q&A forum consumers can get free legal advice 24/7 from more than 125,000 participating lawyers, and Avvo’s directory provides comprehensive profiles, client reviews, peer endorsements and the industry-recognized Avvo Rating for more than 95 percent of all lawyers in the U.S.  The Avvo Legal Marketplace, currently available for traffic tickets and divorce cases, revolutionizes how consumers find and hire an attorney. In addition, Avvo helps lawyers grow their business with Avvo Ignite, a cloud-based marketing platform and website solution designed specifically for attorneys. Founded in 2007, Avvo is privately held with funding from Benchmark Capital, DAG Ventures and Ignition Partners.

Avvo and Avvo Ignite are trademarks or registered trademarks of Avvo, Inc.

 

Insurance Companies: Friend or Foe?

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Policyholders and their attorneys frequently experience insurance companies improperly investigating and documenting claims, in turn leading them to wrongfully deny claims that may be inconsistent with their obligations under the policy. Insurance companies often do not have processes in place to satisfactorily review the policy and decision, resulting in angry policyholders, bad publicity and litigation.

Yet Professor Jay Feinman, Professor of Law at Rutgers School of Law and noted scholar on insurance law, believes that claim executives and policyholders’ attorneys can work together to avoid any collisions in the claims process. At the America’s Claims Event 2013, he joins Edward Eshoo and Andrew Plunkett of the Childress Duffy law firm, who are expert policyholder attorneys, in a presentation entitled “How Claims Go Wrong: A Policyholders’ Perspective.” Their program will identify common mistakes that insurance companies make and suggests possible remedies.

Professor Feinman recently sat down with me for an interview to express his recommendations regarding the insurance industry. He explained that the ideal structuring in insurance companies would permit claims to be paid promptly and fairly.  In order to meet these goals, insurance companies must invest time and resources to sufficiently train personnel. Also, insurance companies must approach claims with continuity so that claims are not shuffled around. Finally, insurance companies must consult with objective and independent experts to investigate claims.

Claims handlers also repeatedly make errors that adversely affect insurance companies as a whole. Professor Feinman opined that insurance personnel must adopt a standard of remaining adequately informed and knowledgeable. They should always have access to the policy in question as well as insights into how courts interpret the policy’s language to avoid denying a claim based on just the individual insurance company’s authority.

In situations when insurance companies and their personnel act in bad faith, the policyholder often pursues litigation. This may occur when an insurance company blatantly acts in bad faith in denying a claim. However, even if they do not deliberately act in bad faith, insurance companies can create systems that lead to the same results. Professor Feinman points out that litigation can arise even when individuals within insurance companies are not intentionally acting in bad faith but rather when they do not conform generally to the law of claim practices.

Switching to the policyholders’ attorneys, Professor Feinman believes they hold a role in the claims process as well so that their clients’ potential losses can be covered. These attorneys should advise their client to remain open and forthcoming and provide as much information to insurance companies as reasonably demanded. Also, the policyholder’s counsel should work to comply with the terms of the policy. Further, in cases where the independent experts fail to perform their job, counsel may provide for replacement experts.  According to Professor Feinman, insurers and policyholders’ attorneys should not act as adversaries but rather as partners to ensure that the claim process runs smoothly,

When this does not happen, policyholders suffer given the unique nature of insurance in that if an insurance company refuses to fulfill its obligation, a policyholder cannot purchase another insurance plan to cover its past loss. Professor Feinman raises the emotional toll on Hurricane Sandy survivors who lost their homes and businesses without insurance companies’ fulfilling their obligation to cover these losses. In turn, insurance companies suffer because they lose their client base and earn a bad reputation while facing liability. This liability may lead them to disgorge any economic benefits received from retaining a claim, pay the claim as requested, and in many cases, pay consequential and punitive damages. Therefore, insurance companies prosper when they pay the claims that the policy covers in the first place. Ultimately, insurance companies that do not fall into adversarial patterns with policyholders’ attorneys and live up to their obligations reap economic benefits.

As a valued reader of the National Law Review, we would like to extend a special registration offer.  Use the following link to register to attend the 17th Annual America’s Claims Event and receive an additional $50 discount off the prevailing registration rate.  This discount is only for readers of the National Law Review and is only available for new registration.  Please Click Here to Register and Save!

Professor Feinman to speak during the 17th Annual America’s Claims Event “How Claims Go Wrong: A Policyholders’ Perspective” on June 20, 2013 at 2pm.  To register please visit www.americasclaimsevent.com/registration and use promo code ACENLR for a $50 discount off prevailing rates.  Discount available only to new registrations for the 2013 conference, no additional discounts can be applied.

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Improving the Return on Investment of Your Legal Marketing Dollars

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At the end of April, Avvo hosted its “Lawyernomics” conference.  Some 300 lawyers from across the country assembled at the Bellagio in Las Vegas to hear from speakers from a variety of disciplines and communications platforms (including representatives from Avvo, Twitter and Yelp).  Although a wealth of information was shared, there was a broad, tactical theme that permeated the entire program:  Improving return on a firm’s business development investment.

Choosing Your Investments Wisely

For an industry that pays so much to get in front of consumers, lawyers are often poor at converting interested consumers into paying clients.  Similarly, even those firms investing heavily in numerous forms of advertising – online and traditional – usually don’t have a clear picture of which of those advertising channels are effective.  They’re left to “go by gut” when choosing whether to continue investing in an advertising campaign.

The lowest-hanging fruit in this area is establishing systems for following up with client inquiries.  It should be simple, but far too many firms don’t have adequate processes in place to ensure that consumer inquiries are immediately followed up on.  With the likelihood of making contact with someone who leaves a message plummeting within minutes of their reaching out, establishing a follow-up system is critical.  Doing so involves a mix of “rules and tools.”  The “rules” are business processes established and monitored to ensure that phones are covered, calls are answered, and inquiries get an immediate response.  The “tools” can be as simple as an excel spreadsheet tracking inbound inquiries to as sophisticated as powerful Customer Relationship Management (“CRM”) systems such as Salesforce or Avvo Ignite.

Measuring Marketing Channel’s Effectiveness

Having a good system for contact and customer management is key to calculating marketing channel effectiveness. Used diligently, the CRM tools of such a system will tell the firm where each inquiry originates from (its website, a search marketing campaign, the Yellow Pages, etc.). Over a period of months, the firm will then be able to tell the rate at which those inquiries turn into actual clients. This may show, for example, that while a conference sponsorship is driving a lot of calls, such contacts become clients at a far lower rate than the smaller number of calls and appointments generated from a webinar. When all marketing platforms are matched up, the most successful ones should stand out for future business development projections and budget reviews.

By layering the cost of these marketing initiatives on the number of clients generated, a firm can get a very clear picture of the return on investment of each channel (i.e., what it costs to generate a client).  That information allows the firm to identify those channels where it can profitably increase its marketing investment – and those that it needs to cut loose.

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Is Your Smartphone Costing You Thousands Each Month in Billable Time?

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Back in the early 2000s, I had a friend who’d recently purchased a new-fangled flip-style mobile phone. Oohing and aahing, I asked if he loved all the things he could do with it. “I can play games on it and check the news, stock prices, sports scores, and weather” he lamented, “but I can’t figure out how to just make a phone call.”

Flash forward a decade to the ubiquity of smartphones, with their sleek design, shiny screens, and bright, colorful icons. Nearly every lawyer, young and old, has one. Newsletters and blog posts extol the smartphone’s positive impact on a lawyer’s productivity. New apps appear in the store almost daily to assist with note taking, dictation, file creation and storage, calendaring, practice management, and time tracking, to name a few. Bar associations and professional organizations host conferences, meetings, and CLEs to offer practical training on making the most of tablets, smartphones and cloud services.

Despite this, when lawyers use their smartphones for the most basic of tasks – talking on the phone – they struggle with capturing and billing that time. Are you one of them? Ask yourself the following questions:

  • Do I spend a lot of billable time on the phone?
    Surveys show that lawyers spend nearly one-quarter of their billable time on the phone, with over 70% percent of that time spent on the desktop phone in their office.
  • Do I use my mobile smartphone for work calls when I’m out of the office?
    If you do, you’re not alone. Lawyers report spending an average of 23 percent of their time working outside the office, during which time over 85 percent make work calls on smartphones.
  • Have I struggled finding good smartphone apps to use for work?
    Although a majority of lawyers responding to the 2012 ABA Legal Technology Survey use their own personal devices for work (making them part of the growing Bring Your Own Device, or BYOD, movement), two-thirds have never downloaded a general business app, while even fewer have tried a legal-specific smartphone app.
  • Have I ever forgotten or been unable to bill my time spent on the phone?
    You’re human and you’re busy, so you’re probably like most lawyers, who estimate that they lose a conservative five billable hours related to phone calls each month. Some of these hours are for forgotten, undocumented, or untimed calls. Others come from time spent reconstructing the call history for billing purposes, an arduous and inaccurate task.

If you answered yes to these questions, then that ubiquitous productivity tool – your smartphone – may make you more productive but still not help your bottom line. At an average hourly billable rate of $250, an office of four lawyers stands to lose nearly $5,000 every month, just on billable phone time.

With numbers like these, it’s never been more important that attorneys have access to timekeeping solutions that make it simple to track billable hours while on the phone. There are many time-trackers on the market, but common complaints about them include:

  • They’re too complex and full of bells and whistles that I will never use” (just like my friend with the fancy new flip phone).
  • “They require the use of a timer, which I often forget to start and stop.”
  • “They don’t capture time on the desktop phone, where I make the majority of my calls.”
  • “There’s too much manual entry required to create detailed records. Postponing the entry does nothing to alleviate the chore of billing reconciliation at the end of the month.”

When evaluating the options, consider these requirements:

  • Choose a solution that’s so simple, compliance is a snap.
    Look for a solution that is compatible with both mobile and desktop phones. From here, you can easily capture the call details and duration as it happens, no matter which device you’re using. In seconds, you can ensure that every minute spent on the phone is billed.
  • Simplify the billing reconciliation process with 24×7 access to the captured call data.
    A worthwhile solution will reclaim the hours previously spent digging through voicemail, paper phone messages, calendar appointments, and mobile call logs to reconstruct billable phone time. The internet is the perfect platform for the billing staff to gain access to captured call data from any browser whenever and wherever needed.
  • Impress your clients with descriptive, auditable billing records.
    Capturing comprehensive call details as they happen will improve your billing accuracy and show your clients exactly what they’re paying for. The more detail you can provide, the more they will trust your records, and the more likely you will be to collect on each invoice. Greater detail will help speed up your billing reconciliation time as well.
  • Minimize training time and increase usage by ensuring that the app is virtually identical on any device.
    If the process of capturing call information is the same on both office and mobile phones, it will quickly become a habit, no matter which device is in use. Consolidating the records generated from every device in a single, intuitive place online will help billing staff easily export and create line items for invoices.

While many time-trackers offer bells and whistles that sound great on paper, their complexity leaves many lawyers feeling like my friend who couldn’t figure out how to make a call on his new flip phone. Focus on simplicity to find a telephone timekeeping solution that you’ll actually use. An app that works automatically on any device will eliminate lost revenue for billable phone time, provide an audit trail for your clients, and allow your lawyers to be both productive and profitable.

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5 Easy Steps that “7-Figure Attorneys” use to Create Powerful Marketing Plans

The National Law Review is pleased to bring you information about The Rainmaker Institute’s Marketing Plan Guide for Attorneys:

Here’s What You’ll Discover When You Read This Report:

♦ How to identify your target market

♦ Whether you should create a niche for your practice

♦ How to determine your unique competitive advantage

♦ How to select effective marketing strategies for your practice

♦ How to create your financial plan

♦ How to devise a Marketing Action Plan

♦ …And much, much more!

5 Easy Steps that “7-Figure Attorneys” use to Create Powerful Marketing Plans

The National Law Review is pleased to bring you information about The Rainmaker Institute’s Marketing Plan Guide for Attorneys:

Here’s What You’ll Discover When You Read This Report:

♦ How to identify your target market

♦ Whether you should create a niche for your practice

♦ How to determine your unique competitive advantage

♦ How to select effective marketing strategies for your practice

♦ How to create your financial plan

♦ How to devise a Marketing Action Plan

♦ …And much, much more!