Testimonials and Referrals for Solicitors

Great Legal Marketers,

Do you collect testimonials and referrals for your law firm?

You know that your clients want great service.

Do you know if you give it to them?

I am going to assume you ask your legal clients about
your service. And that you do some kind of follow-up survey.
And maybe you actually do something with the results.

Let me ask you...

Is your client survey also a way of getting testimonials?

Because if you word it the right way you will
get them every time. And you will get testimonials that
say you are great, (for specific reasons).
When you get these testimonials people are
declaring they like you.

And they are on the way to becoming loyal.

Which means they are prime clients for getting law firm referrals for you.

And those that really enthuse...
you must dig deeper to get a case study from them.

Or maybe a video testimonial. This works with
business and private clients.

How you do your client follow-up does matter.
If you haven’t got a client survey in place that does this you
might want to get one.

And if you don’t know how... cue music....

“Who you gonna call?”

B-O-Y-D B-U-T-L-E-R!

Read more...

Do you collect testimonials and referrals for your law firm?

You know that your clients want great service right?

Do you know if you give it to them?

I am going to assume you ask your legal clients about your service.

And that you do some kind of follow-up survey.

And maybe you actually do something with the results.

Let me ask you...

Is your client survey also a way of getting testimonials?

Because if you word it the right way you will get them every time.

And you will get testimonials that say you are great, (for specific reasons).

When you get these testimonials people are declaring they like you.

And they are on the way to becoming loyal.

Which means they are prime clients for getting referrals for you.

And those that really enthuse...dig deeper to get a case study from them.

Or maybe a video testimonial.

This works with business and private clients.

How you do your client follow-up does matter.

If you haven’t got a survey in place that does this you might want to get one.

And if you don’t know how... cue music....

“Who you gonna call?”

B-O-Y-D B-U-T-L-E-R!

Read more...

People Pay Top Dollar for Legal Solutions

It is incredibly difficult to be a successful lawyer/owner/entrepreneur

and that's what most law firms are run by.

Sole practitioners - responsible for everything.

In reality these owners find it hard to know what to do. Because they
are in the thick of things on a daily basis.

This is no different from any industry where the owner is also a worker,
(except the onerous and unfair restraints put on solicitors by regulation).

Where law firms should focus is on providing solutions
and not just advice.

Advice is seen as expensive and ubiquitous.

People will pay any price for solutions.

Many law firms are members of my newsletter.

Some of them take the advice.

Som even act on it.

But if I were to provide the solution to your legal marketing problems and
do it for you...i.e. give you lots of willing buyers that would
pay the price you want...what would you pay me?

If you create a system that provides solutions profitably
and it is not reliant on time billed or geography
then you have something very valuable.

It is almost immune to any threats because it is so valuable to clients
and prospects will find you with good marketing.

The system is based on;

Find what people want = solutions to their problems.
Make sure there are enough of them = market.
Devise a way of delivering it = profitably.
Communicate it to them you have the solution = marketing.

Rinse and repeat with new solutions when you find out
more niches.

The beauty of this is that you also have something you can sell
when you retire or when you want to. Because it's similar to a franchise.

(See Gerber's E-Myth Revisited book).

The answer is always the same in business.

Great marketing gives you more money.
You can invest more in the solution.
You get more clients because of it.
Which you re-invest in marketing.

Apple Mac anyone?

Read more...

HIP, HIP Hooray?

In case you didn't know. Home Information Packs are no more.

CLG Secretary of State Eric Pickles said: “HIPs are history. This action will encourage sellers back into the market and help the market as a whole, and the economy recover."

That's Government PR.

Time for some PR in your local media?

I'm sure your local paper/radio station wants a solicitor's comment...

Can you provide it? Of course you can...

And what about the legal consequences for your Estate Agent
partners? Let them know the score...

After all, with a HIPs revolution, they may be looking to change
other aspects of their business...

Like where they send their conveyancing...;-)

Read more...

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.

Read more...

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).

Read more...

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 ;-)

Read more...

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.

Read more...

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).

Read more...

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.

Read more...

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.

Read more...

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

Read more...