Alright, alright, yeah I know, I’ve established that the stress of starting your own law practice sucks.  Here’s how you avoid it.   I want you to make a list, a real simple list, of the things that truly make you happy in life.  You will have to spend some serious time figuring this out.  Go back over the years and pick out the times when you’d walk back in the house and say, “Holy Crap!  That was the best time ever!”

Then write out what your ideal day would look like?  When would you wake up?  Would you exercise?  What would you eat?  Who would you talk to?  Would you do some charity work?  How many hours would you work?  What types of people would you work with?  Etc.  Seriously, lay all this stuff out.  It’s worth investing a few hours to sort this out.

Finally, go back to back to when you started your law practice (or if you’re starting now then do this now) and figure out how much it would cost you to live that ideal life (day to day, week to week, and so on).  Once you’ve got a number you’ve got THE number.  What the hell does that mean?

I remember meeting this dude at a seminar that was all about making money.  The guy was all hyped-up by the speaker and was ready to make his millions.  Over lunch I was chatting with him and we’re discussing goals and he’s telling me that he’s gotta hit a million bucks this year.  Alright, cool so I asked him where he was now and WHY he needed a million bucks.  The guy had been unemployed for over 2 years, moved back in with his parents (he was in his mid 40’s) and been borrowing money from his friends to survive.

All I could think was, “Brother, you need $250 to pay the electric bill right now!”  When I asked him WHY he wanted/needed a million bucks he had no answer for me other than it was a cool number to accomplish.   I felt sorry for the dude.  Well, I felt worse when he dropped another $15K to sign up for the next level of the seminar.  I talked to him a few months later and not much had changed except that he had an extra $15K in debt.

Alright, I get it, you started your law practice to make money.  I’m all for capitalism.  Go for it but have a clear path about what you want to achieve but more importantly WHY you want to achieve it.  I’ve been there and done that.  I’ve made a ton of money without having any purpose behind it other than to hit a number.  Was it cool, yeah.  Was it fulfilling, umm, not really.  Focus on the numbers that come from purpose, not numbers for the sake of numbers.

So here’s what I want to know, what’s number 1 on your “makes me happy” list?

Mine is a good meal with old friends (every single time)!

Don’t get me wrong, when I say the best marketing for your law firm is customer service I don’t mean that you should keep nuisance clients or those who become particularly overbearing and obnoxious (which is probably only about 1-2% of your clients – if it’s more we need to talk about your screening process).  But what about the good clients who simply want a return phone call to know what’s going on with their case.  The ones who are looking for that peace of mind that we provide?  Remember, you’re not in the legal business, you’re in the “peace of mind” business.

I’ve seen lawyers, who truly know how to market their law firms, use this to their advantage.  They actually advertise as the “Lawyers Who Call You Back.”  I’m not sure if that’s brilliant marketing or a sign of how pathetic the level of care in our industry has become.   Seriously, is it really too much to ask you to call your clients back?

This is not limited to calling your clients back.  You must also:

• Keep them CC’ed on documents
• Listen to them (the situation is not always what you assume it is)
• Offer them a cup of coffee on a cold day
• Make sure they know what they have to do and when they need to do it by (clients listen better than you may think)
• Don’t lie to them (I wish this was as obvious as it seems)
• Don’t tell them something went wrong because of your staff.  You ARE your staff.
• Make sure all their questions and concerns are answered (yes, you can charge for this but make sure it’s done)
• And here’s the doozey – APOLOGIZE WHEN YOU MAKE A MISTAKE.  I’m am so bloody sick and tired of attorneys or anyone else for that matter coming up with every excuse in the book about why something went wrong or didn’t happen in a timely manner when any idiot can see that the attorney screwed up.  Hey, we’re human, it does and WILL happen.  So say you’re sorry.  There are several potential benefits to doing so:
  • No malpractice suit
  • They keep you as their attorney
  • They tell their friends that you made a mistake, but you apologized and fixed it – what better referral can you ask for (did I mention that it’s not enough to just say sorry, you must work to remedy the mistake)
  • They step back a bit and allow you to do damage control
  • THEY RESPECT YOU!

Marketing your law practice with basic customer service is not rocket science (and I’m not even talking about the over-the-top customer service I teach).  I know that when we started our own firms we began with the noblest of intentions.  Then many of us slowly deteriorated or became disgruntled with the profession, with our clients, with our staff, etc.  Don’t let that happen.  When it starts getting tough revisit the lawyer you wanted to be and continue to hold yourself to those high standards.  You will attract what you put out and people will want to work with you.

Second, they required that I send in a cancellation letter via certified mail.

They require a 30-day period in which to cancel and finally . . .

My cancellation is “subject to their review.”

WOW (yes, that’s my emotion and the name of the gym), could they have done anything more to make it difficult and to receive the worst possible reviews that anyone could have given them.

I enjoyed working out there but this horrible taste they left in my mouth was enough to kill the entire experience.  And these days, nothing is private.  When a company screwed up people would tell their friends.  Now they can tell the world.

Bottom line.  Make life easy for your clients.  Make them say, “Hey, I know my time has come but I loved working with you and will tell all my friends what an amazing experience I had.”

Hell, they may even put it online and tell the world.  Ahh, that’d be nice

So here are two stories I know you’ll enjoy.  Let’s just say these stuck and you’ll see exactly why.  Enjoy a good laugh  and some practical advice at the same time (and you have kids you’ll especially enjoy this stuff) . . .

Don’t Touch the Paint

As an immigrant with humble beginnings my Dad was pretty particular about maintaining stuff for as long as he could make them last . . . cars, furniture, appliances and of course, the fresh coat of paint he put throughout the house when my sister and I were about 7 and 10 years old.

Here was the problem . . . we never used the door knob when we were opening or closing the doors.  For some reason our grubby little hands always grabbed the door right where the fresh coat of paint had just been put.  So imagine a white door, with a nice knob and right below it a bunch of our dirty paw prints.  Drove Dad nuts!But Dad quickly realized that yelling and screaming wasn’t going to work.  So here’s what he came up with (anyone with kids listen closely).  He offer my sister and I a quarter every time we caught the other one touching the door instead of the knob.  There were no rules or conditions.  If my sister or I said we caught the other one well he would just take our word for it and give us a quarter, no questions asked.

The first week was pretty cool.  We both probably raked in a solid $2-$3 in quarters.  But then something interesting happened.  The tide started turning.  My sister started catching me a lot more than I caught her.  That was not cool.  So I became pretty good at using the knob and suddenly I was making a bit more than my sister.  But by about week 3 or 4 something interesting happened.  The siblings were trained!  How the hell did that happen?  We were so focused on not letting the other make their 25 cents that you couldn’t get our hands on the paint if you tired.

Now, if us siblings were a little brighter we’d have colluded and come up with a master plan to bankrupt Dad one quarter at a time.  But nope, we were malleable little kids and more than that we were human.

So in the end:  $10 for the kids . . . lifetime of smudge-free paint for Dad.  Nicely played pops!

BUSINESS LESSON:  99% of the population operates from a place of fear and scarcity.  As a business-owner part of your job is to have a keen understanding of that about your clients.  Then find a way to eliminate or minimize that fear and you’ve got a fan for life!

Tell One She’s Beautiful and the Other That She’s Gorgeous

I love this story because it’s all about how total bullshit can come out of your mouth and you can still emerge victorious.

This must have taken place when I was either at the tail end of college or in my single years following college.  I get home from a party and I’m telling my dad what happened (well, it was actually the next morning – Dad didn’t really wait up for me and you’ll know why in the next story).  I told him that I saw these two girls talking and I really wanted to approach one of them and chat with her but I had no idea what to say to TWO women (one, sure, no problem, but two?).

Dad’s advice was simple, ridiculous, and utterly brilliant!  He said, “Beta (Indian word for son), you walk up to the girls, tell one of them she’s gorgeous and tell the other she’s beautiful.”

“Dad, are you kidding me?  They’ll both laugh at me and think this dude’s full of shit!”

“You’re right.  They’ll think you’re full of shit.  But they’ll also be wondering all night whether ‘gorgeous’ or ‘beautiful’ is better!”

So ridiculous that it was brilliant.  Now I did inherit my Dad’s impeccable bullshitting skills but here’s the . . .

BUSINESS LESSON:  Business does not need to be, well, all business.  It doesn’t need to be formal and proper and by-the-book.  Approach your prospects with humor.  Make it fun for someone to want to get to know you or work with you.  Open with something that makes people laugh.  It will make you human, authentic and likeable.  Remember, people buy people and they buy your authenticity and your likability.

Oh, and I’d add that you do try to use this line on the next two women you meet.  May I strongly suggest you call yourself out quickly on your own ridiculousness.  Remember, keep it real and have fun and you never know when Dad may utter words of utter brilliance (or something he knows you’ll do just cuz you’re a goofball and it’ll add to his entertainment

Have a great Father’s Day everyone and to my Dad for always keeping it fun and entertaining.

You rock and I love you Dad!

p.s.  I’d love to hear some great stories about your Dad and the lessons you learned.  Feel free to share them below.

That’s nice and all but honestly, who cares about satisfaction?  There’s a lot of ways to be satisfied (again, get your head out of the gutter).  Anyone can satisfy but how many can WOW?  Do you WOW your clients or do you just satisfy them?  Are they loyal?  If someone comes to them with a better price will they, “Hell no!  I love the company I work with and I don’t care what your price, I ain’t going anywhere!”  Do they tell their friends about you and your business?  You know, really rant and rave and sweat and drool over how great you are?  Is doing business with you so incredible that it feels wrong?  If not then you’re not WOW’ing your customers.

Here’s the most-awesome-est part!  It’s super-easy to WOW your customers.  Yup, it really is.  All you need to do is get them 100% satisfied and then do something, ANYTHING that goes 1% over satisfaction.  That’s 1% that no one else is doing and that’s the 1% that gets noticed.  It’s the 1% that keeps them with you for life.  It’s the 1% that makes them tell their friends.

Don’t believe me?  Check out this picture.  My friend Karyn Greenstreet was kind enough to allow me to use this picture of her bathroom (sounds weird when you type it out but anyway . . . ).  The cleaning lady in her home left her “toilet paper roses” before leaving for the day.

Do you think she noticed the extra 1% between satisfaction and being WOW’ed?  You better believe she did!

Be sure to leave toilet paper roses for your clients.  They’ll notice, they’ll stick with you and they’ll tell their friends.

Do you know what your clients REALLY think when they hear you answer your own calls?

They’re thinking, “He doesn’t seem to be doing too well.”  “She probably doesn’t have too many clients.”  “Maybe we should work with a more experienced professional!”

That is what clients are thinking when you answer your own calls!

If I hear one more business owner tell me that he or she answers their own calls because his “My clients like being able to get a hold of me on the phone . . .” Arggghhh!!!!

Of course they like getting you on the phone! It’s like having their own personal butler on call 24-hours a day, 7-days a week.

These clients do NOT respect you nor do they not think you are successful.

And clients do not want to work with unsuccessful business people!

Imagine your doctor picked up the phone whenever you called? You’d wonder if he had any business at all and you’d wonder when in the world he had time to give any attention to his patients. Not to mention how good he is at what he does . . .Our clients are no different.

Whoa!  Before you even think about  it . . . sending them to voice mail is worse.

Half of your prospective clients won’t leave a message (meaning no business for you) and the ones that do won’t be too excited about not getting at least one live person.

Yes, I understand. You “think” you can’t afford a full-time receptionist.

But the only thing more expensive than having someone answer your calls is NOT having someone answer your calls.

I use this service to handle all my incoming calls.  They do an awesome job.  They’ll take 1-2 weeks to get used to how you want your phone answered and then they are awesome!

Talk to Dirk Moeller at 866-601-6115 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 866-601-6115 end_of_the_skype_highlighting or email him at dirk@bcanswer.com.  Be sure to tell him that Sameer Kumar sent you.

Or if you prefer you can just hire a full-time receptionist working 9 hours a day for $8 an hour for a total of $1584 per month (not factoring in taxes, benefits or daily lunch time).

What excuse did you give when someone asked you for your web site?
Look, you cannot afford to go one more day without having a web site or having a crappy one!
Do you realize that by NOT having your own website you

1. Lose Credibility;
2. Lose New Business; and
3. Lose Repeat Business!

Do your clients still email you at Hotmail, Yahoo, Gmail or even worse AOL?
The only thing an AOL account tells your clients that you got your email account in 1996 and you had your head stuck in the sand while the internet revolution occurred. Before you argue with me, yes, Gmail is a great email management system but it also says that I can’t invest enough to have my own website and email address.

I understand that it’s not easy to set up your own website. You don’t know what the site should look like, what functionality it should have and what it should say. But you know you’d like to use it as more than just your online business card.

I also understand how hard it is to find a good web designer that you can actually afford. So I’ve worked out three packages with MY OWN web designer so you can have your own website up and running for an unbelievably low investment!
Seriously, getting a professionally designed website has never been so dirt easy AND so dirt cheap.

This is the most robust and incredible marketing software I have ever used or looked into.  It is worth every penny!

If you are serious about creating a automated business with follow-ups, cross-selling, upselling, segregation of your clients and much more then you need this for your business.

I’ve found this to be a phenomenal (and inexpensive) way to build rapport with clients and they are always happy to receive a surprise in the mail.  My suggestion is to send them a card and brownies as soon as they sign up to work and to also send the same to the person who referred them to you.

Click here to send your gifts now!