Posts in category: Legal Marketing

When you are meeting a new potential referral source, how do you show up? Frustrations occur during and after the meeting because we often feel like we are wasting our time. No referrals and no business have come your way since the meeting. Breakfast meetings and lunches can cut at your bottom line, especially if all you are doing is making “friends” instead of creating strategic partners.

How do you create a strategic partner? Lawyers With Purpose has a process, the Relationship Management System, that provides a step-by-step guide on how to conduct a meeting, how to get mutual commitments during the meeting and how to follow up after the meeting. But what is also important is what to do before the meeting so you really show up.

Even if you just showed up with your list of relationship questions to ask and your own presentation materials, you would be far ahead of the other professionals who just show up with their wallet holding barely enough money to pay for coffee. But what could you do differently to make the experience worthwhile for both you and your new prospective referral source?

Before each meeting, I research the person with whom I will be meeting. I go to the person’s website and print a page from the site. Why print a page? During the meeting when I am going through papers, the prospect will see the page and feel good that I did my homework and took an interest before the meeting. I also search Google, Facebook, and Linkedin to see what information they are sharing on social media. Doing this gives me insight into their personality and their technology and marketing acumen. Also, it may yield some insight as to family members and hobbies.

Just the other day I was meeting with a magistrate judge who administers a criminal diversion program for veterans. On the biography page of her website, she shared that she had recently run her first marathon. To bring value to her, I brought and gave her the book I co-authored, “Running Through Life’s Lesson.” I was able to tie in an interest held by both of us as well as suggest that the book would be a great resource for people in her diversion program. A few months back, I met with a financial advisor. On his website, I noticed that his primary client base is single women (recently divorced or widowed). Thus, I brought to the meeting information about an upcoming summit that also focuses on women, Live Your Legacy Summit with Emmy Award winner Aurea McGarry, and suggested he sponsor the event.

When I have done the research and really show up for the meeting, I am prepared to have a relaxed conversation instead of an inquisition. I can also bring immediate value to the relationship. Taking the extra 15 minutes to research your new referral source will be an extra 15 minutes another person will not spend, which will make you stand out. This should lead to a more enriched relationship that will lead to more clients.

If you have an interest in bringing VA or Medicaid and Asset Protection to your estate planning practice, join us September 12-13, in Phoenix, Arizona, for our Asset Protection, Medicaid & VA Summit. If you are thinking about attending this event, you'll want to register today. Tomorrow is the last day to register. Click here and register now.

For more information about the Lawyers With Purpose Relationship Management System, please contact us at www.LawyersWithPurpose.com. Victoria L. Collier, Certified Elder Law Attorney, Fellow of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys, Co-Founder of Lawyers With Purpose, LLC, author of “47 Secret Veterans’ Benefits for Seniors – Benefits You Have Earned … but Don’t Know About” and co-author of “Running Through Life’s Lesson.”

Storytelling is an art that can be learned, and if you’re a person of influence, storytelling is a way to instantly connect with your audience. There are 2 key components that create influence: credibility and vulnerability. Creating your personal story is an integral part, but knowing how to incorporate your purpose story into your practice will make a difference in your conversions.

National Marketing Expert, George Ira Carroll, will be leading Day 1 of The LWP Practice Enhancement Retreat and will ensure you walk away with your purpose incorporated into every conversation you have. Whether you're teaching clients, referral sources or walking into brand new facilities in your region. Learn how your personal story is ultimately your brand in the marketplace and that which people in your community seek you out.

On Day 1 we guarantee you'll end the day knowing exactly how to take the LWP stories to a whole new level… giving you an arsenal of workshops for presentations anywhere from 15 minutes to 2 hours … all while maintaining the purpose of the stories and having the ability to give them your content with ease.

“Your purpose story is your unique story of why you decided to go into your profession. It's the catalyst that inspires people to work with you.” George Ira Carroll.

Click here to see just one piece of what you will take away from Day 1. Register today for $2,747 and save on tuition. Plus, back by popular request is the option for payment installments! Pricing will increase to $2,997 after tomorrow!

Don't forget! We have our Marketing Roundtable call the first Monday of each month. Join our call today at 3:00 EDT. The topic is "Quantify Your Marketing Efforts." Just call into 646-716-5037 at 3:00 EDT.

We also have our Live ListServ every Monday at 4:00 EDT. Click here to register https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/306045670

I had the pleasure of being in New York this past weekend. While there I saw the six Tony Award Winning Broadway production, Kinky Boots. The play itself was very entertaining, which I expected. But, I also came away with many business tips, listing here the top five.

Before embarking on the five lessons, a backdrop of the story is helpful. The premise is that Mr. Price expects his son, Charlie, to take over the family shoe business. Charlie has different ideals in mind, but when his father dies unexpectedly, Charlie inherits and takes over the failing business. To keep from closing down the factory and laying off friends and workers of over 30 years, Charlie has to do something dramatically different.

Without spoiling the show for you, yet still be able to share the lessons…

1. Find a niche market. Price & Sons had always sold quality men’s shoes that were pricey. The market was demanding less expensive shoes with newer styles. The business suffered because it continued to do the same as it had always done until Mr. Price died and his son took over. To survive, Charlie discovered an underserved market – -men wearing women’s shoes that were not only harmful to their feet, but uncomfortable.

Thus, Charlie made women style shoes to bear the weight of men and catered to an entirely new market – drag queens. When I started my elder law firm in 2002, the definition of elder law was “Medicaid Planning.” Of course I did that, but I also discovered a market not being served – Wartime Veterans who could benefit from receiving the pension with aid and attendance benefits. There were other law firms quietly helping veterans in their communities, but no one was truly serving the market until lawyers realized the need, which was in 2008 when I began national conferences to train the lawyers. Other niche markets within elder law now include special needs planning and fiduciary litigation, among others. What niche can you create in your community?

2. It takes the entire team. Whether you are a sole practitioner who performs every role in your office, or if you have many other lawyers, paralegals, legal administrators, etc., everyone must buy in to what you are doing and selling. Everyone must respect and accept the vulnerabilities and strengths we each have. When Charlie was at the end of his rope and desperate, he began to yell at his employees and make very poor decisions which led to him alienating himself from everyone. Had the employees not looked beyond the temporary stress, they all would have lost everything, to include their jobs. The team pulled through together, for the good of all, and they were then successful.

3. The New Kid on the Block Can Stand Out. Cyndi Lauper is extremely talented and has won awards for her musical abilities before; however, she had never even composed or written music for a theatre production. Kinky Boots was her debut and she knocked it out of the park winning Best Score and becoming the first woman to win the composing category solo. I began my practice in 2002. By 2006 I was being recognized as someone who knew something about Veterans Benefits. By 2008 I was the national expert on VA pension with aid and attendance. Since then, I am the recipient of the highest award the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys provides, called Fellow of the Academy, and I have been appointed by my state Governor to sit on an advisory board that reports to his office.

You do not have to have decades of experience to be the best at your trade or to be recognized. You do; however, have to put yourself out there and have confidence in yourself.

4. Be yourself. Charlie, and the other lead role, Lola the drag queen, were always trying to please everyone else, especially their individual fathers. Working hard to please others only drains your energy. You can serve and assist others, but work to please yourself by being authentic. Clients and professional referral sources only want to work with people they feel they can trust. Being true to yourself is the best way to show authenticity.

5. Find and have a mentor to help you achieve greater success. Harvey Fierstein wrote the book for the play Kinky Boots. Mr. Fierstein has a long list of accolades for his work, to include other Tony Awards. Cyndi Lauper was brilliant to team up with Mr. Fierstein for her debut musical.

This is a picture of me and my mentor, William Hammond, who I invited to see Kinky Boots with. A great mentor supports your efforts to succeed and often becomes a dear friend as well.

Lawyers With Purpose, LLC as a community has served as mentor to new and experienced members of estate planning and elder law firms. If you are looking for a community or mentor, Lawyers With Purpose may be the organization for you. Come see what we are all about. Join us September 12-13 in Phoenix AZ, for our Asset Protection, Medicaid and VA Summit. Register early and take advantage of our early bird pricing.

Victoria L. Collier, Certified Elder Law Attorney, Fellow of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys, Co-Founder, Lawyers with Purpose, LLC, Veteran of the U.S.A.F. and author of 47 Secret Veterans’ Benefits for Seniors…Benefits You Have Earned but Don’t Know About.

Just how important is it, really, for you to post regularly to your law firm blog? It’s a hassle, right? Coming up with something pithy to write, logging into your account, posting, sharing, etc.? And after all, how many people really read your blog? You seldom get insightful commentary from visitors. Isn’t this just one more marketing gimmick you can skip?

Hang on! Before you pull the plug on your blog, better get your facts straight! Daily blogging and social media support are important aspects of The Essential Solution® marketing program, and most Integrity Marketing Essential Attorneys are faithful about posting to their blogs and sharing on social media. So, we reviewed marketing performance statistics to see whether blogging is really a high-return activity.

Here is what we found:

Bloggers Get More Website Traffic

• Referrals from your blog account for, on average, about 25 percent of all website traffic. Simply put, about one-fourth of all the people who visit your website are coming from your blog!
• Perhaps even more importantly, when you share your blog posts on Facebook, we find that, on average, another one-third of your website visitors come from Facebook.
• For those of you who are keeping track, this means that your blog posts are generating nearly 60 percent (25 + 33 = 58) of your website traffic!

Bloggers Get Higher Google Rank

• Your blog also adds to your website’s index on Google. In fact, Kyle Krull now has 1,770 website pages indexed on Google — and 1,710 of those are from his blog! Google loves well-indexed websites with lots of content, and rewards Kyle with page one rank for 17 of his Essential key search terms in organic search!
• Your blog posts also are indexed by Google and will show up for key local searches. In fact, a recent search for “Family Business Succession” in Overland Park, KS delivered more than 251,000 results — and Kyle Krull held the top three spots on page one. Two of those three were blog posts.

But don’t just trust our research. HubSpot recently released their own blogging impact research statistics from 7,000 of their customers.

Highlights:

• Companies that blog 15 or more times per month get five times more traffic to their websites than companies that don’t.
• Smaller businesses (1 to 10 employees) actually tend to see the biggest traffic gains from blogging.
• Companies that increase blogging from 3 to 5 times per month to 6 to 8 times per month almost double their leads.
• An average company will see a 45% growth in TRAFFIC when increasing total blog articles from 11-20 to 21-50.
• Companies with more than 200 blog articles have MORE THAN FIVE TIMES AS MANY LEADS than those with 10 or fewer.

To learn more about how blogging impacts your marketing, listen to Integrity Marketing’s webinar, “Blogging To Boost Law Firm Marketing Performance” – view online or download here: http://www.imslegalmarketing.com/blog/

Do relationships really help improve your business? The answer is a loud YES! Each day we come to work with the goal of increasing business and keeping the doors open for another day. After putting in 40+ hours a week, it’s hard to find the energy to build business relationships. So why not work the task of nurturing and cultivating relationships into your weekly schedule? There are so many different ways to accomplish this.

(1) Look into leadership organizations that will put you in contact with other business professionals in your area who are looking to accomplish the same goal as you: making your contacts count.

(2) Join LinkedIn, a professional networking site with over 200 million members. According to its CEO, Jeff Weiner, members of the site are “the most affluent, most influential and best educated consumers on the web.” In other words, LinkedIn members are smart, have money to spend and have lots of connections just like them.

(3) Create a list of 10 business professionals with whom you want to create a relationship that will benefit them along with you and your business.

(4) Consistently participate in weekly synergy meetings to make sure you are interacting with one of your "My 10" each week.

(5) If you support non-profits, don’t just write the check but create a partnership. It is not taboo to ask what you are getting out of your donation. Form a partnership that allows the supporting organization to endorse you and/or your company.

(6) While networking, you will meet a variety of individuals. Network and partner with the individuals who have values, goals and work ethic similar to your own.

(7) Remember, it’s not always “business” with these individuals. Create personal relationships with them. A round of golf, an invitation to an event you sponsored with your team or just a casual lunch meeting to brainstorm is always healthy for business relationships.

Estate planning law firms, along with their teams, across the country are doing this very well, week in and week out without being dependent on the attorney’s excuse of "when I can get to it."

At this year’s Lawyers with Purpose Annual Member Practice Enhancement Retreat, our members will learn firsthand how improving your legal technical, and your teams’ ability to consistently deliver it, supports every single one of your relationships. Learn the success stories and the strategies for improving your relationships via automation.

If you are currently a member of LWP click here to register now and reserve your seat. If you are not an LWP Member and interested in learning more about what Lawyers With Purpose has to offer your estate planning practice, join us in Phoenix, AZ, for our Asset Protection, Medicaid and VA Summit, September 12-13th. Click here to register for our two day event.

Roslyn Drotar, Implementation Coach, Lawyers With Purpose.