Do You Continually Test Your Prices For Your Legal Services?

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Mend Your Law Firm Marketing Bridges

Whenever I talk to a solicitor, listen in on calls or visit a law firm I find small inconsistencies or glaring problems which, if corrected, would lead to a lot more business.

In most cases, the owners or Partners simply leave the selling up to individuals.

They give them far too little coaching.

Your business has opportunities to do better.

When was the last time you tried to identify them and make changes to capitalise on them?

Let’s take phone calls. A lot of initial prospects phone a law firm.

They want to get a feel for the person they might consult with.

They might be asking for prices.

They might be comparing firms.

But I know 90% of owners don’t review how this phone call pans out.

How the solicitor puts the prospect into a liking-trusting-buying frame of mind.

Or not.

If you don’t have a systematic way of improving the way in which your prospects are converted on the phone then you have broken bridges to be built.

Try recording your calls and listening in. (I can arrange this for you)

Identify things that are said that work. And things that don’t.

The script you develop over time will be hugely valuable and powerful in getting you more business.

Go from converting 30% of leads to 80% at a higher rate?

Maybe.

And what would that mean for your business?

I've got a simple script that I have used in the past.

I use this to make sure I get what I want from a call...

If you want it let me know...

PS I write for The Negotiator Magazine and here's a page

you might want to look at - it has a list of questions you should know

the answer to http://www.greatlegalmarketing.co.uk/sitedata/Misc/neg-3.jpg

To make it bigger you should be able to click it.

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See how Family-Law Dominate Google

Here's that marketing video I promised you.

Andrew Woolley probably wants to keep it secret.

http://screenr.com/ADC (shh...don't tell him).

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What's Your Answer To "Why Should I Use You?"

I've prepared a little video about

how you can find your....

_______________

Uniqueness
_______________

And answer the propect's question

"Why Should I Buy From You?"

You probably have Tim Bishop
of bishopslaw.com to thank for this.

You see he tried to watch the original
video I did and told me it sucked! He was right!

So I redid it without the awful music.

Click this link for the new video

I learnt three things from his email...

It's ok to try something and for it not to work.

and...I'm building a community where people
can tell me I'm wrong.

And...I noticed Tim's emails contain
a PS with a cross-selling line...something
I am passionate about.

Because I get lots of "out of office" bounces from
members of GLM. And not one has had
a cross-selling PS.

And here endeth today's lesson ;-)

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Satisfied or Loyal Legal Clients - Whaddya Got?

One of my clients has 100% satisfaction as his

objective.

I've told him it's not good enough.

Why?

Because satisfaction is a given. But it's loyalty that counts.

What's the difference?

Well...my wife may be satisfied...but I prefer her to be loyal...
(Geddit?)

So what's the sign that your clients are loyal?

A referral is the signal that your client is loyal.

If the client is paying you, great.

But it is not full loyalty until they begin referring clients to you.

The test for loyalty is;

Will the client do business with you again, and will the client refer others to you?

If loyalty = getting referrals

doesn’t it make sense to encourage them?

PS you can also swipe and deploy this - click on it

http://www.greatlegalmarketing.co.uk/di/247916

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Elder Law or Legal Services for Young Seniors?

I call them Young Seniors – baby boomers now in their 60’s.

They aren’t ready for classic “retirement”.

They aren’t expecting to live on reduced income.

They aren’t waiting to die.

In fact many of them are looking at remaining active through their hobbies, starting a new business (not tied to a desk or commute), and looking to live between two or three locations.

You won’t get far by calling your services “Services for the Elderly”.

Because they don’t consider themselves elderly.

Young Seniors is a better term.

So perhaps look at your services and give them a make-over.

You provide the legal advice on Equity Release schemes.

And a financial adviser provides the products. But you retain the client as your client. After all, they are more likely to trust a solicitor than a financial adviser.

And why not go to all the financial advisers you trust and ask them to let you market Wills and Trusts to their clients and you market their Financial Services to your clients?

Maybe you could do a short talk with them at the golf club, tennis club, sailing club and all the other places that wealthy “Young Seniors” hang out.

PS When I joined Reading Football Club (I’m the portkabin to Premier League kid) the first thing I did was start up the Young Royals. Note that I didn’t call it Junior Royals. Kids want to be older. Seniors want to be younger.

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Killer Articles Are Just a Checklist Away.

I'm going to take a look at what

Great Legal Marketing members

do well over a few newsletters.



Because as far as I know you are

well ahead of the curve on legal marketing.



First up is a new member, Data Protection And IP Lawyer Pritchetts Law.



I like the way she writes this article with a good biography,

good sub-headings (for people like

me that scan the page) and

a good top ten list.



Here's the article link.



http://www.legalrss.co.uk/pritchettslaw/threat-of-500k-data-protection-fines-from-6-april-2010-stephanie-pritchett-releases-top-10-data-protection-compliance-tips



Pritchetts Law is run by Stephanie

Pritchett.



Too often I see boring articles, written

in leaglease that you can't send out

to a client base or as a press release.



Remember it's about leveraging all your

marketing to get the maximum return.



Here's my expert guide to article writing - click here



Which means anything you write or record

should be able to go out to at least 5 different

channels...e.g. local paper/radio/client base/

chamber of commerce/partners.



Next up...



Andrew Woolley's http://www.family-lawfirm.co.uk

and how they get business nationwide...



And if you see any great examples out there

please let me know.



PS

If you don't have a Data Protection

and Privacy lawyer but your clients

want this service...get in touch with Stephanie.

(hint...a way for you to make more money without

doing the work).

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Can You Disrupt Legal Marketing Like Direct Line Insurance?

Time with your family and for yourself is important.

And it got me thinking this Bank Holiday week end.

One of your goals has to be to “make money whilst you sleep.”

Because everyone must look at ways of leveraging their expertise.

And not get paid just for "time".

And that's when you start dreaming of the ideal future.

Imagine if you could spend 4 days out of the office every week doing what you want to do.

Imagine knowing that your website is attracting thousands of visitors who then buy 100's online legal services from you every week.

Imagine the documents are filled in by the customers and get reviewed by your team of freelance solicitors who all work from home.

Oh, and all that compliance business is taken care of.

And you just come in to the office once a week to do manage it all.

Isn’t this how you’d like to set up your business if you could start from scratch?

I’ve been looking at the service from Direct Law and think this type of direct selling to customers could have the same disruptive effect that Direct Line had in the insurance industry.

Before Direct Line, you went to a local broker, who performed a service in finding you a good deal. Or so you thought. But along came Direct Line and did it...well...direct. And others followed.

There’s probably a lot to gain by local solicitors being the first to offer direct services in their geographic market. Because getting a Will from a local solicitor still means something.

And having a downsell i.e. lower cost Will service is a great offering to those who like a lower price and convenience and to those that just can’t afford a higher price.

Having a Will sold on line and then reviewed by a solicitor will also mean that you can increase the price of the pure “face to face” Will service. You can probably increase it enough to pay for the software to run the online Will services.

It’s early days.

But direct sales of online legal services has the potential to disrupt the legal market as much as Direct Line did.

And when you figure in back-end services (because you have a trust relationship with the customer, you may find these your most profitable clients.

You owe it to yourself to check these things out.

Check out this Illinois Divorce Lawyer in the US

It may take a couple of years to work all this to a level where you are working only one day a week. But it’s a great goal to have.

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Solicitors Stop Competing on Price

“You can’t compare apples and oranges.”

I’m sure you’ve heard that expression, maybe from your grandma or your mother.

I’m going to tell you that in business it doesn’t pay to take her advice.

I hear from many salespeople that the product they are selling can’t compete on price with their competition.

That they can’t sell the product any cheaper because they’ll go out of business.

The reason that selling purely on price isn’t a long-term strategy is because you will always be beaten.



There’s always someone that will do a better deal to get in the door, will discount more heavily or offer a product of lower quality that your customers and prospects will accept.



Sure, people love superior quality, they just don’t always like to pay for it.



So your challenge is not to compete on the same terms as everyone else.



If you’re not winning the game, change the strategy.

Make it impossible for buyers to compare your product on price alone.



What action can you take?



Look at your product or service with fresh eyes.



Can you add value, bundle products together, extend warranties, offer guarantees, delivery and completion speed?



What can you offer as a free premium?

• Hotels offer free breakfasts


• online companies offer Fedex next day delivery


• website designers offer unlimited re-design


• storage firms offer free pick up of items from your home


• newspapers offer guaranteed response adverts

Can you offer a checklist of things your product does that your competition doesn’t?



Invent an unfair advantage for your product.

Make it impossible for your competitors to keep up with you.

Use apples to oranges comparisons and eliminate price resistance.

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Who Wants To Know How Prospects Find Your Legal Website?

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Volcanos and Employee Rights

Yes there's still a chance you can write that

article about "Should Employees be docked pay

if they didn't turn up to work during the Volcano

week".



Because employers still don't know what to do.



Take a look at these comments on the

Teacher's website

http://community.tes.co.uk/forums/t/402451.aspx?s_cid=16



So if you haven't sent out an email alert to your clients

with the basics (and cross selling) then why not do it

today? You can even do a search on Twitter to get ideas

for real time problems you can answer on your email.



Check this out

http://twitter.com/#search?q=employers%20volcano

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How Wright Hassall Won Thousands Of Pounds Of Business

Watch the video below

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Schedule Your Tweets While You Watch QI

If you are like me, Stephen Fry on QI may be your cup of tea.

I admit I don't watch every second. Because I'm Tweeting.

What I do is I set up scheduled Tweets on Twitter so I can

set and forget. And this is the video of the tool I use to

do this - click here for the solicitors Twitter scheduling tool video



It's free for law firms.

Remember what you can do with Twitter - solicitors Twitter idea

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The Death Of The Billable Hour For Solicitors

I've been searching the globe for law firms that don't do billable hours.



Why?



Because you can only work 40 hours a week.



Which means you are limited in terms of productivity.



Plus, you are limited because you are not leveraging true value.



I.e what value you are delivering to the client which may be much

more than the billable hour.



Subscriptions will flourish. Because knowing what you are paying out

each month makes it easy to budget. And knowing what you

are getting in each month makes it easy to manage.



Virtual law firms, where previously unhappy, experienced lawyers work

on a retainer/commission structure will bloom. Lower overheads

for the controlling company and more flexibility both sides.



Technology is what prospects/clients want to get in touch.



Why traipse into expensive real estate offices of a law firm

when you can just as well skype from home/office.



Law firms will continue to discover niche areas and work faster and flexibly

on smaller scales. These individuals or firms will not be restricted by

geography, but more their expert status and how well known they are.



Solicitors that survive and thrive will be those who learn how to become

Great Legal Marketing firms because technical quality is expected yet Legal

Service Quality is what is most in demand.



Here's the list of legal marketing greats;



http://www.family-lawfirm.co.uk/About-Us/default.aspx Woolley and Co - Based in Warwickshire.



Axiom Legal. In a nutshell they’ve used the professional consultant business model (and corresponding cost structure) and employee former big firm lawyers and experienced in-house counsel that charge half the rate.



www.strozfriedberg.com competent technology focused attorneys who would traditionally work for a large law firm but choose to utilize their skills by consulting



(www.rimonlaw.com). They are a virtual law firm based in San Francisco that use top-tier American expat lawyers.



Outside Counsel Solutions at http://outsidecounsel.net/about.aspx. Their US attorneys provide top-quality legal counsel to clients all over the USA, from offices in New York and Jerusalem, at highly discounted rates.

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Volcanos and Employment Law for Solicitor Marketing

Volcanos are in the news.



Thousands of employers want to know if they

can dock the pay of their staff that don't turn

up because of ash.



And thousands more probably want to know

if they can dock pay if staff don't turn up

because of accidents, trains and automobiles.



If you are an expert on employment law or

employee rights...


Have you written your USEFUL and VALUABLE
article for your website
and sent it out to your list of business clients via email?

And your local media? So you can do interviews?
Just like Berwins do on radio http://twitter.com/#search?q=volcano%20ash%20employment

Here's a story you can use for inspiration.

http://www.personneltoday.com/articles/2010/04/19/55280/volcano-update-employers-not-obliged-to-pay-stranded-staff-say.html

Write that article tonight instead of watching
TV.

Always use what's going on in the mind

of prospects to get yourself noticed and do your solicitor

"expert marketing".



It's called "Theatre of the Mind" and you can use a Twitter search
to find out in real time just as I did.



Just type in to Twitter search function the

subject you want to eavesdrop on.

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