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RJon Robins

Why Some Lawyers Still Hesitate with Email and Websites

Believe it or not I used to hear this alot as recently as just 6 years ago when I was a Practice Management Advisor with The Florida Bar’s Law Office Management Assistance Service.  Part of my job when I was not out in the field doing onsite marketing & management consultations or doing seminars, was to field  some of the 9,000 calls we received each year to the small firm management & marketing help desk. So I spoke to ALOT of lawyers.  And as recently as late 1999 and early 2000 it was still fairly common to still get some questions we’d all probably laugh at today concerning whether or not (as opposed to “how to” or “which is best”) to get an e-mail account, or a website.  And these types of questions weren’t all from old foggies either.  In fact, I found the older attorneys who had been around long enough to have seen the dramatic changes in the legal industry/business were very often more receptive than the middle-aged attorneys who had been around long enough to feel comfortable, but not long enough to recognize that feeling was just in their imagination and the world in fact was passing them by.

Anyway the following new technology demonstration brought this all back to mind when a friend of mine sent it with the subject line: “Imagine 10 Years From Now”

RJON

When do two lawyers become a law firm?

—–Original Message—–
From: ********@********.com
Sent: Monday, May 21, 2007 10:07 AM
To:rjon@howtomakeitrain.com

We are in
the process of putting together a small firm, so do I state I’m a solo until
that office is totally up and running? Right now, the marketing I’m doing is for that firm…meaning that I’m
the main rainmaker, and my partner is the one who will focus on back end. How
to proceed here?

————————————————————————————————————–

Response:

Technically, you can be a firm just by deciding you are a
firm. From a liability standpoint it
would be a straight partnership with no formal operating agreement which could
be a mess if you & your partner were to split up before taking care of that
bit of housekeeping. But I don’t think
you’d be misleading anyone if you made reference to your “law firm”
or even your “partner”.

And
you could parlay that into a pretty compelling marketing story when you’re
helping clients form their own business entities, and draft operating/shareholder
agreements and all the things they never want to bother with until it’s too
late. You could tell them you empathize
with the feelings of just wanting to get on with the business already, and that
you & your partner even made that mistake yourselves when you first opened
your firm together. But that you can
tell them from personal experience how much better you both felt and were able
to focus more energy on building the business once you got that housekeeping
out of the way. Sort of gives you a way
to push your clients into doing the right thing without making it seem like you
are judging them or making them wrong, if you know what I mean.

 My partners & I operated How To Make It Rain on a
handshake for months in the beginning. And
it was really a relief to finally get everything down on paper, find out where
we had been operating with some different assumptions, understandings, etc. and
get them cleared-up. In my experience
with my own clients back when I had an active business practice, many of them
delayed taking the step of formalizing everything out of fear that they may
discover their partner is really on a completely different page. But once everything is clarified, the
business can really make progress because everyone can start rowing in the same
direction with confidence.

 Anyway, I know this reply went beyond the scope of your
question but I hope it helps.

 
RJON

 

www.HowToMakeItRain.com

Helping Lawyers In Small Firms Make Alot More Money

 

 

What to say when asked “what do you do?”

—-Original Message—–
From: produ******@gmail.com
Sent: Monday, May 21, 2007 9:28 AM
To: How To Make It Rain
Subject: benefit statement

I had sent this email from another account, and I thought
I’d send from the account that was registered for your coaching program. 🙂

 RJon-

My partner and I have crafted a benefit statement
attached below. Could you please have a
quick look and give me your feedback?

Note, the additional answers are to questions we are
anticipating as follow-ups. Also, we’re
trying to avoid the “stigma” of being a new firm and of being solos,
so even though we’re not fully joined as an LLC yet, we’re trying to anticipate
how to answer those. Again, any advice
is greatly appreciated. Thanks again.

-A****

 _________________________________________________

What area of law does practice focus on?

 I solve legal and business problems for small to mid-size
business owners and real estate professionals.

How do you do that? What do you mean?

 

* Business
entity creation

* Lease /
purchase review for business assets and locations

* Employment law
issues and processes

* Collections
accounts receivables

* Business
dissolution

* Partnership
dispute resolution

* Vendor
disputes

* Creditor
negotiations

* Debtor and
Creditor bankruptcy representation

* Protection of
family business assets through and outside probate

* Strategic
Planning Consultation

* Negotiate with
IRS to resolve tax disputes

 Who are you working with?

 I’m with a boutique firm specializing in small to
mid-size businesses.

 What’s the name of the firm?

 We’re in the process of establishing M******* & H******, LLC

————————————————————————————————————————-

REPLY:

Mr. H******,

In my experience, no-one ever lays-up the question quite
that easily/formally. Most of the time they
just ask “What do you do?” or if you’re speaking with another lawyer,
they might ask “What type/area of law do you do?” In other words, the question is usually a lot
more sloppy, which requires a more general answer that captures the
questioner’s attention by painting a vivid imagine in their mind while at the
same time trying demonstrate your confidence/focus and screen-out people you
really don’t want to be working with in the first place.

So, based on what you share with me below, if someone
were to ask “what do you do?” like at your kid’s soccer game or in a
networking setting, perhaps you could offer something like this:

 “My law firm protects mid-sized business owners so
they can focus on making money”

 This response covers all of the services you listed below
and is provocative enough, I think, so that if the person you are speaking with
has even the slightest idea that they might ever need your services, they’re
likely to ask some follow-up questions. If you’ll then try to avoid the temptation to bask in the spotlight and
instead try to focus it back on them, I think you’ll find yourself in a good
position to begin ferreting-out information
about their business that helps you figure out which of your services might be
most appropriate for them and then you can ask questions that head in that
direction.

Notice that I left-out small businesses and also real
estate professionals. It’s important to
understand that you can have alternative answers for different audiences. If you know the person you’re speaking with
is a real estate professional simply use real estate professionals in place of
mid-size business owners. Just adapt the
answer to the audience. It’s not like
anyone is going to say “hey, you just told that other guy your law firm
protects real estate professionals!” Afterall, aren’t real estate professionals owners of
“businesses” too? And small
vs. mid-sized is largely a matter of
opinion but most small business owners, I think will feel comfortable hiring a
law firm that focuses on mid-sized, but not necessarily the other way around.

Many people make the mistake of thinking they have to
give a laundry list of all the services they offer. That’s a mistake because unless someone needs
all of those services, the list will be boring to them. And it’s a mistake because – and this is a
little counter-intuitive – because it doesn’t really give the other person an
easy way to keep the conversation going. So you end up with a kind of awkward silence, they ask for your business
card because they don’t know what else to say and immediately forget the list
of services that didn’t seem relevant to them anyway.

On the other hand, even if there’s no time for follow-up,
they’re going to remember that you have a law firm and that it protects
business owners so they can focus on making money.

I suggest you practice it aloud a few times and
understand how powerful an answer like that will be for the intended audience. Don’t be discouraged if it falls flat with
the wrong audience because what they think doesn’t really matter all that much anyway, does it?

And a word about being a solo or in a small firm. . .
don’t waste time or energy trying to hide from it. You’ll end up wasting a bunch of your time
getting people excited who aren’t going to be happy when they find out you’re
“only” a solo. And you’ll
scare people off who are looking for a small firm where they will be able to
enjoy easy access to their lawyer instead of having to get passed-off to a
bunch of assistants and associates.

Hope this helps & thanks for your participation in the Bronze Attorney Coaching Program!

RJON

www.HowToMakeItRain.com

Helping Lawyers In Small Firms Make Alot More Money

 

Why I Do What I Do. . . Don’t Let This Happen To You!

This e-mail inquiry I received recently should pretty much speaks for itself.  But I’m going to add a few words anyway. . .  I know I may come across somewhat militant about lawyer marketing (do it or die!) but I do what I do so this type of thing won’t happen to you!  No joke, this lawyer is in a seriously bad place because of a simple lack of attention to learning how to make it rain.  And there is simply no excuse.  Especially not when you can pick up some proven skills for as little as $39/month with a great little Lawyer Coaching Program we put together.  Of course ignoring the handwriting on the wall is even cheaper (free) but may prove to be a lot less productive in  the long run. . .

From: X XXXX [mailto:xxxlawyer@hotmail.com]
Sent: Sunday, April 29, 2007 2:53 PM
To: rjon@howtomakeitrain.com
Subject: [SPAM] Coaching Program

I have worked in a large firm and a 18 attorney firm for the last 25 years. Due to financial problems with firm, the higher paid non senior partners are being forced out. I have never really been a rain maker because the the two senior partners have done the rain making and the next level partners have managed the litigation and tried cases. Further, I would like to limit litigation and concentrate on an area of the law that would be generate clients for a solo practice, but generally avoid litigation. I know I need some substantive training on whatever area of practice I identify, but I also need to generate income asap once I start my practice, probably July 1, 2007. Give me the scoop on how your program will help me generate the cash fast on a start up.

Another lawyer bites the dust

Well it happened again. . . Right in front of my eyes this time & the lawyer didn’t even know he had been fired.

I was at a meeting with some real estate investors I know.  One of them, we’ll call him “Chuck” has 20 properties he’s liquidating to get out of the residential market & into commercial.  His attorney, we’ll call him “Manny” didn’t bother to learn about Chuck’s problem in all three dimensions in which every client problem exists.  And so while Manny was back at his office working away for his client on one of those deals, Chuck fired him & hired another lawyer who was standing right next to me. 

It happened in large part because she & I had just spoken about the fact that every client’s problem exists in three dimensions.  And so she asked all the right questions & walked away with Chuck’s next five deals that are closing in a few weeks.  Manny will probably be sitting around his office wondering if maybe Chuck had changed his mind about selling, blissfully ignorant of the fact that he has been fired.  Maybe the lack of referrals from Chuck who knows a ton of other landlords & has even referred business to me will be Manny’s first clue that something has gone terribly wrong in his practice.
Oh well, poor Manny.

A Shocking Reveation

I was asked to be a guest speaker for a Law Office Management class at my alma mater last week & came away with a shocking revelation. . .

I began my talk with the 20 or so law students, most of them 3L’s by asking how much they hoped to be making one, two or three years out of law school.  Since graduation is right around the corner I thought this would be a good place to begin the discussion about the fact that 56% of Bar Grievances filed have their root-cause in poor law office management skills, including poor client intake procedures and lack of proper systems to maintain top of mind awareness with current clients (which all have a direct effect on revenues).  What I got instead was a bunch of blank stares.  I’ll spare you the painful details, but what came out was that the silence was not so much a matter of these 20 soon-to-be-lawyers not knowing about the going rate for salaries – which would have been bad enough to have not investigated this simple piece of information which is so readily available online with a Google search.  It was actually WORSE!

They actually had not thought-through what it would cost to support themselves in the lifestyles they imagined they would be living as hard-working lawyers.  Instead they simply presumed that being a lawyer was enough, and that the rest would take care of itself like the magic elves who I imagine they still think pick up their dirty socks for them around the house. A consequence of bad advice in law school. Like I said. . . SHOCKING!

In a related anecdote, I recently had a conversation with a friend and fellow law office marketing coach, Henry Harlow  after he had a chance to review my How To Market A Small Law Firm program & we both marveled at how much value lawyers I’ve worked with have expressed over the years once I take them through the simple Budgeting Exercise, that is at the root of my approach to teaching a lawyer how to be a Rainmaker, a strategic compound effect if you ask me.

I’m about to head out for a late breakfast so I’ll cut this short with a simple piece of (unsolicited) advice:  Jot down a simple budget over lunch today for what it will cost to live the life you would like to be leading, not necessarily the life you currently are leading. In other words, if you drive a piece of crap car & live in a dump, do not simply budget those expenses.  Swing by the Jaguar dealership, open up the real estate section and give your insurance agent a call for a quote on a decent life/disability package to see what it would take to live the life you want all of your hard work to reward you with.

As for me, I’ve already done my three miles of roadwork along the beach this morning so now I’m going to reward myself with a big breakfast with lots of jelly on my toast!

Enjoy your day,

RJON