RJon Robins

Recently I was interviewed by Nathan Burke of LawFirmBlogging.com.  He asked me some great questions that elicited answers I think every lawyer in a small firm should know the answers to.

Below are Nathan’s questions.  Out of respect to him, I’ve included a link to his site at the bottom of this post where you can read the answers. . .

LawFirmBlogging: I’ve listened to your audio programs and know that you opened your own firm right after law school. Are you still actively practicing law?

LawFirmBlogging: You say that law schools do not adequately teach law firm management and marketing skills. Why do you think that is the case?

LawFirmBlogging: So, how did you learn the right techniques?

LawFirmBlogging: One of the biggest gripes I have with marketing books and speakers is that they will often try to make their material very generic; kind of a one-size-fits all approach. In doing so, they never give specific, useful techniques that can be employed right away.

With that said, are there certain practice areas that are better suited for the skills you teach?

LawFirmBlogging: On your website and printed materials, your tagline says “Helping small law firms make a lot more money.” What’s your definition of “small” and “a lot”?

LawFirmBlogging: I’ve read the articles from your free ezine, and there seem to be some common problems that many new solos face. What do you see as the most common, yet solvable issue facing the new attorney?

LawFirmBlogging: This site being lawfirmblogging.com, it’s pretty obvious that I’m a believer when it comes to using the internet and blogs for legal marketing purposes. What’s your position on legal blogs and web sites?

LawFirmBlogging: Marketing a solo practice differs from marketing a firm. In many cases a solo attorney does not have the budget, time, and resources to dedicate to traditional marketing activities. Or at least that’s the perception. So how can a solo make the most of their marketing time?

LawFirmBlogging: I’ve listened to several of your audio programs while driving, and must admit that it made me feel a little sense of accomplishment to learn while stuck in traffic rather than just swearing under my breath at the driver in front of me. Having an audio CD is a nice alternative, but I was wondering why you decided to make CDs rather than just books.

LawFirmBlogging: Rather than just harping on legal marketing questions, I’ve got to finish this interview with something a little bit off topic:

Apparently you really dislike traveling. In fact, on your bio it says:

After living out of a suitcase for several years, Robins now lives and works on Miami Beach where he enjoys boating and scrap metal sculpting instead of travel. Why do you dislike travel so much, and how did you get into scrap metal sculpting?

Click HERE to link to the full interview with answers.

Tom Kane at Legal Marketing Blog, inspired by Bruce Allen, addresses this question in “Do You Get Referrals From Those To Whom You Refer Business?”  As Bruce Allen had noted in his own post, “no need to keep watering dirt if grass just refuses to grow.”

I have a somewhat different perspective (big surprise, huh?) 

In my own legal practice and now with my Rainmaking clients, I teach them “Problem Solving Selling”. 

In brief, that means we focus on identifying and solving the problems of our clients, prospects and potential referral sources.  We find this to be a highly rewarding way to market a small law firm, both personally and professionally.

As such, how many referrals someone has sent my way does not figure into the equation.  If they are the best fit for the problem I am helping someone to deal with, they get to be part of my team. 

Of course, all things being equal, the person who has referred business to me has the advantage.  However, in all of the solutions I have come-up with for my clients.  And in the thousands more solutions all of my Rainmaking clients have come up with for their own clients, I’ve never found the proverbial “all things are equal” to objectively exist. 

There is always a difference that makes one professional a better choice for the referral (unique experience, price, proximity, personality, etc.)  As such, I come back full-circle to my original point about not allowing the “referral ledger” (nice term)to cloud my judgment or affect my actions when it comes to who will be the best fit for a particular client’s needs.

Anyway, that’s my $0.02.

NOTE: I need to acknowledge that the first two sentences above come straight from Dan Hull’s What About Clients? blog.  Try as I might, I just couldn’t figure-out a way to set-up the sequence better than Dan did ~ Thanks Dan!

Think about the immortal words of Gordon Gekko (Wall Street, 1987)  the next time you see an “equity owner” of a big law firm looking down his/her nose at your efforts to make it rain for your own law firm. . .

Gekko:  Well, I appreciate the opportunity you’re giving me, Mr. Cromwell, as the single largest shareholder in Teldar Paper, to speak.

Well, ladies and gentlemen, we’re not here to indulge in fantasy, but in political and economic reality.

America

America has become a second-rate power. Its trade deficit and its fiscal deficit are at nightmare proportions. Now, in the days of the free market, when our country was a top industrial power, there was accountability to the stockholder. The Carnegies, the Mellons, the men that built this great industrial empire, made sure of it because it was their money at stake. Today, management has no stake in the company!

All together these men sitting up here [Teldar management] own less than 3 percent of the company.  And where does Mr. Cromwell put his million-dollar salary?  Not in Teldar stock; he owns less than 1 percent.

You own the company.  That’s right – you, the stockholder.

And you are all being royally screwed over by these, these bureaucrats, with their luncheons, their hunting and fishing trips, their corporate jets and golden parachutes.

Cromwell: This is an outrage! You’re out of line, Gekko!

Gekko: Teldar Paper, Mr. Cromwell, Teldar Paper has 33 different vice presidents, each earning over 200 thousand dollars a year. Now, I have spent the last two months analyzing what all these guys do, and I still can’t figure it out. One thing I do know is that our paper company lost 110 million dollars last year, and I’ll bet that half of that was spent in all the paperwork going back and forth between all these vice presidents.

The new law of evolution in corporate  America seems to be survival of the unfittest. Well, in my book you either do it right or you get eliminated.

In the last seven deals that I’ve been involved with, there were 2.5 million stockholders who have made a pretax profit of 12 billion dollars. Thank you.

I am not a destroyer of companies. I am a liberator of them!

The point is, ladies and gentleman, that greed — for lack of a better word — is good.

Greed is right.

Greed works.

Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit.

Greed, in all of its forms — greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge — has marked the upward surge of mankind. And greed — you mark my words — will not only save Teldar Paper, but that other malfunctioning corporation called the USA.

Thank you very much.

This is the working title of a new e-book I am working on.  It’s about all the lame, stale and/or stupid ideas that pass for free law firm marketing advice online and that keep popping-up all over the blogosphere.

Last week one of the suggestions that was actually posted in response to an attorney who issued a cry for help after his law firm, housed inside the offices of his single largest client, burned to the ground. . . was to make sure he has nice business cards and to pass them out to everyone he knows.  I’m not making this stuff up!  I half expected that the next helpful comment I’d have to scroll through would be a reminder to blow his nose & tie his shoes.

Any comments, questions or suggestions especially about the title for the book would be welcome.