Author Archive

Whether you are a solo practitioner or a larger law firm, the internet can be a great source of new leads. If your website isn’t bringing in the business you want, here is a 3-step approach to attracting more clients.

Step 1: Create a lead generating website.

Having a nicely designed website isn’t enough to generate leads. A clean design with easy-to-use navigation is a good start, but the vast majority of people who visit your website won’t yet be ready to hire you, so putting a system in place to capture the prospect’s information and get permission to follow up is key. continue

Client at the Core: Marketing and Managing Today’s Professional Services Firm
by August Aquila and Bruce W. Marcus
Publisher: Wiley (August 4, 2004)
ISBN: 0471453137

Most books on professional services marketing focus on how to advertise or put up a website to market your business. Consultants August Aquila and Bruce Marcus have written a book that goes a step further.

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The best way to market your services is not advertising. It is getting in front of your target audience and building connections and relationships with the people who are most likely to become your clients or those who are most likely to refer clients to you.

However, marketing only works when you do it regularly. Plan - and make time - to do a set number of marketing tasks each week. Your tasks don’t have to be time consuming or elaborate, but you must do them. Here are some ideas to get you started today: continue

Most lawyers are primarily concerned with the bottom line - where’s the return on investment? To measure ROI, you need to have metrics in place that will accurately tell you where your prospects are coming from. Some ways of measuring results include: continue

Your marketing plan is more than just advertising your services. It should include the actions you will take to inform others about what you do and prove to them that you can do what you say you can. When you create your marketing plan, think of how you can reach these three types of people: continue

When people buy your services, they are hiring you as their trusted advisor - someone who is knowledgeable, trustworthy, and experienced. Yet hiring an attorney can be a very risky endeavor for someone who doesn’t have much legal experience.

How can they be sure they are making an informed decision about which attorney is right for them, can do what they say, and will provide the best value for their money? In other words, why they should they pick you to help them over all the other options available to them? continue

I talked a bit about sales in my last post on what it takes to create a successful law firm. Making sales is a necessary component to running a law firm. Without closing the deal and taking on new clients, you quickly deplete your law firm of cash. And without cash, you won’t be in business very long.

Why do lawyers (and most small business owners, in general) hate sales so much? From talking with numerous clients - and in my own experience - a lot of it comes down to perceptions of what “sales” is and a fear of rejection. continue

I’m often asked by lawyers looking to start their own practice, or those who have just gone out on their own, what it takes to establish a successful law firm. In law - just like any small business - there are three areas you must master if you want a successful law firm. These are:

Develop a Niche
Today’s general practice attorneys are barely scraping by. That is because today’s clients demand specialists. They don’t want a lawyer that has done a couple of cases in every practice area out there. They want someone who handles their specific problem. They want someone who has handled cases for clients just like them and have proven over and over that they can get the job done.
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Virtually lawyer I’ve talked to wishes they had more referrals. Referrals generally are easier to close because they are pre-sold on your services by people that already know and like you. So, how can you get more?

The first step is to understand why might people refer others to you? It’s not because you have a slick brochure or a funny advertisement. It’s not because you send them Christmas cards every year. continue

According to the Oct 30, 2006 issue of BusinessWeek, CEOs make an average annual salary of $10.5 million, or 369 times the annual salary of the average worker at $28,310.

That’s about what Former Enron CEO Jeff Skilling is paying his lawyer, David Petrocelli, for legal fees over the last 5 years. According to BusinessWeek, Skilling put $23 million in a trust for legal fees. Petrocelli then got an additional $17 million from insurers for liability coverage. And Petrocelli’s law firm, O’Melveny & Myers, is billing an additional $30 million for the rest of the team of 12 lawyers, 5 paralegals, and at least a dozen temporary staffers. continue