Pipeline

It’s Time To Report!

by with No Comment Coaching & ImplementationLegal MarketingSystems & Processes

As a former school teacher I’ve had ample opportunity to be on both sides of reports cards – both getting grades, and giving them.  When we were children, report cards are handed out primarily for our parents’ benefit.  The further we go with our education, the less grading is for parents, but to give us as adults, a means to measure our successes … or failures.

Even though most of us have finished our formal education, and few of us measure our progress through life with grades, we continue to use numbers to measure our successes and achievements.

“How many pounds have I lost on this diet?  How many days have I gone without smoking?  How many miles did I walk?  How much did I earn this year compared to years past?”

We know that an essential key to success is writing down one’s goals.  But those who are successful also document their progress in a consistent way, so that their path to success can be adjusted if need be.

The Pipeline Focuser™, one of the LWP Five Key Focusers, provides a format to document weekly progress by tracking: 1) the number of initial or vision meetings scheduled each week; 2) the outcome of each of those meetings; and, 3) the total dollar amount of engagement agreement value for the week.

The Pipeline Focuser™ is probably the least understood focuser of the Five Key Focusers.  But the information it captures documents an important aspect of your firm’s growth and is directly reflected in your monthly revenue.

PipelineTake a look at the sample, completed through the end of the week.  Note how the focuser reflects the meetings on the firm’s calendar.  This focuser is ready to be reviewed by the team in their weekly staff meeting, together with the focuser for next week, which will show the potential new clients and matters for next week.  It will also indicate which prospects did not engage, and what further action may be needed (see the Follow-up Focuser™).  Here is your firm’s weekly report card.

If your firm is not currently tracking this information, either through the Pipeline Focuser™, or some other system, I hope you will make this a part of your firm culture going forward.  

If you want to learn more about Lawyers With Purpose and are interested in attending our Practice With Purpose Program to learn more about Medicaid, Asset Protection and VA, click here to register today to reserve your spot.  We'll see you in Phoenix in October!

Nedra, Catale – Coaching, Consulting & Implementation, Lawyers With Purpose

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Does Your Car Have A Name?

by with No Comment Coaching & ImplementationSystems & Processes

The “Fact-Finder” in me was interested to learn that Nationwide Insurance surveyed more than 1,000 car owners last September and discovered that nearly 25% of us have named our cars.  In fact, women are significantly more likely to have a nickname for their cars than men (27% vs. 17%).

Bigstock-Cartoon-Car-4797277Next week my “Bessie” has an appointment with our mechanic for a going over.  She’s getting a new timing belt (ouch!), a change of transmission fluid, and I think he mentioned something about a 38 point check.  When I get my Bessie back, she will be thoroughly checked out.  I’ll find out from the experts if there is anything else that I need to be concerned about.

Did you know that LWP offers a similar service for you and your team? Our Implementation Coaches have a point-by-point checklist where we can “check you out” and identify holes in your processes, areas where you may want additional coaching, and even pinpoint potential problems you may not see coming.

Some of our members have asked for an overview of the training and support provided by the Implementation Coaching team. This can be found on the LWP member website, under the last tab – Implementation—in the Introduction folder. In fact, the entire Implementation tab has been reorganized to provide immediate and direct access to the tools needed to progress through the learning path.

Each Module has been set up to support the work that your Implementation Coach does with you and your team.  If you’ve not been on the website in a while, I hope you’ll make a point of checking out the reorganization and addition of new tools.

And please – let us know your thoughts!  We value your feedback.

If you are interested in attending our Practice With Purpose Program, register and reserve your spot today! This event always sells out and will teach you all you need to know to run an efficient and successful estate planning / elder law practice.  We look forward to seeing you in the room. 

Nedra, Catale – Coaching, Consulting & Implementation, Lawyers With Purpose

Moynihan and Lyons

Congratulations To Terry Moynihan, LWP Member Of The Month

by with No Comment Systems & ProcessesTeam Building

What is the greatest success you’ve had since joining LWP? 

Our greatest success to date is implementation of the workshop system.  The public is responding to our "7 Threats" advertising campaign and we appreciate that LWP has provided high quality presentation and promotional materials.  These have allowed us to get up and running with the workshops pretty quickly.

Moynihan and LyonsWe also value the well-developed procedures for workshop set-up, presentation and follow-up.  With each workshop we present, the entire process becomes more efficient and we become more confident that this system will be a key component of our growth and prosperity.

 

What is your favorite LWP tool?

Our favorite LWP tools are the Pipeline and Cash Flow Focusers.

 

How has being part of LWP impacted your team and your practice? 

 The biggest impact from being part of LWP came out of our attendance at the June Retreat, in Chicago.  Using the tools provided, we have been able to unify our team around well-defined processes and specific goals.  We now have a clearer idea of where we are going and what we need to do to achieve practice goals.

DocuBank logo with tag

Integrating Easy

by with No Comment Legal TechnicalMedicaidSystems & ProcessesVA

Tiffany Brown, Vice President of DocuBank, again join the Lawyers With Purpose blog as a guest and shares her perspective of how the administrative part of running a practice can be daunting. 

DocuBank logo with tagWhenever you find something that builds value AND is simple to set up, it’s a win-win.

Thanks to some clever programming on the part of Lawyers with Purpose, getting started with DocuBank is one such winning proposition.

The DocuBank service is a value-added benefit for both your clients and your firm but it’s also one other very important thing – easy.

The DocuBank enrollment form is built right into the Lawyers with Purpose software so that your clients simply sign the form during the signing meeting and your staff  then sends it along with the documents to establish their membership.  Any information not supplied by the software can always be added by the client at a later date.

Getting started with DocuBank is easy.  We have been working with attorneys for more than two decades to establish and comprehensive turnkey process.  Having the software integration as part of the DocuBank and Lawyers with Purpose partnership means that the DocuBank solution is even easier for you to implement. 

The discounted rates available to you through Lawyers with Purpose mean that adding DocuBank memberships to the service you provide for your clients is also affordable.  Click here to find out more about DocuBank.

Click here to find out more about how DocuBank can be a great value-added tool for your firm and your clients.

Tiffany Brown, Vice President, DocuBank

 Roslyn Drotar – Coaching, Consulting & Implementation, Lawyers With Purpose

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Marketing To Nursing Homes: Talking Price

by with No Comment Legal MarketingSystems & Processes

If you've been following our series about marketing to nursing homes, then we're glad to see you back for the third post in the series. If you missed the first two parts you can find Part 1 here, and Part 2 here. 

In this post we'll tackle the question of talking price. If you get your foot in the door with the administrator, is that the time to share your fee schedule, or do you risk your contact making a hasty value judgment on the costs?

Bigstock-Blue-Door--Very-High-Definiti-1429912Bottom line, you have to prove the value of what you're offering first.  Then when they ask – and they WILL – let them know your fee.  The cost is one month of nursing home care to protect the house. Again, let them know the value first.  They aren't just looking out for themselves, they're protecting their residents.

It's a good idea not to undercut. Just tell them, “This is what it is,” because the business office manager knows how much work is involved in dealing with Medicaid, putting the application together or running it through the system. (The administrator, on the other hand, might not be quite as aware of what is involved, so tailor your message to the audience.)

So, a lot of times, the business office will be your biggest ally when it comes to cost.  You let them know your fee, and the business office is probably thinking, “Yes, I do this myself and it’s worth it to have you do it.” So be straightforward about it, because they’re going to ask you.  If you’re not willing to share that info or you kind of beat around the bush, you won't gain their trust and they might not be comfortable sending clients to you.

Tell the business office that it’s usually one to two months of nursing home costs, according to how complicated the process is. When you put it in those terms, the business manager relates the numbers to their fee, as well.  You might not nail down exact figures, but it helps if you ballpark it to what their dollar figure is, what they’re charging their clients. Check back here soon for more on nursing home marketing.

Roslyn Drotar – Coaching, Consulting & Implementation, Lawyers With Purpose

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Start Where You Are

by with No Comment Coaching & ImplementationSystems & ProcessesTeam Building

Sounds pretty obvious, doesn’t it? But how often do we really give ourselves that gift? How often do we stop and tell ourselves, wherever we’re headed, this is where we start? It means being willing to let go of the past. It means resisting the need to race ahead.  It means controlling the stories of why we can’t get started.

Bigstock-Athletes-At-The-Sprint-Start-L-58880123It may be creating a marketing plan when you only have $500 a month to realistically dedicate to the project. It may be finally firing that employee who “knows everything” when you don’t have the rehire in place. It may be making the unyielding commitment to hardwire five hours into your calendar for marketing when you have to answer the phones, draft trusts and greet clients who arrive 20 minutes early so they can tell you all about their grandbabies.

Sometimes the simplest truths are the most slippery. We convince ourselves that it “isn’t that bad” or that we might be “overreacting” or have “unrelenting standards.” These are all especially true if you lead with responsibility and/or harmony on the strength-finder assessment. But if we simply allow ourselves to start from where we are today, that is often more than enough.

Last week I was working with a firm, and the focus of our Coaching, Consulting & Implementation (CC&I) call was “getting the right people in the right roles.” They had just hired two new people within the past four weeks and had let go of a “lifer” employee. They were trying to train the two new hires for the role of “Legal Assistant,” i.e.  “please do it all and take the pain and pressure away.”  The attorney went into explaining about how the firm can't do Y until X and when A is up and running they can implement B. I listened intently to the mental download and then started with “I've got all that.  But we are here and let’s start from exactly where we are. Because in my experience, the have, do, be method never works out to your advantage. (When we have A, then we can do B so we can be the law firm I have always envisioned.) That's because I have never met a firm that woke up one day and all the missing pieces were finally in place (i.e., people, time and money). We’re going to take a different approach.”

The approach of starting where you are:  It allows you to originate from a clean slate so you can get to the root and cultivate a deeper understanding of what you need, right here, right now!  It gets to the heart of the matter – which eliminates all opportunities to create a bigger-than-necessary project. The approach of start where you are allows for one small step at a time. This may sound hokey, but this approach allows us to get down and dirty and take a look at our distractions – the things that tend to get between you and your optimal success.

We'll see you next week at the Members Tri Annual Retreat in Chicago and begin working on your next quarter Money Plan (and yes, we'll be starting right where you are).  In which areas of your practice do you need to start where you are?

Molly L. Hall, Co-Founder, Lawyers with Purpose, LLC, and author of Don’t Be a Yes Chick: How to Stop Babysitting Your Boss, Transform Your Job and Work with a Dream Team Without Losing Your Sanity or Your Spirit in the Process.

 

Mike Cohen-Picture

Congratulations To Michael Cohen, LWP Member Of The Month

by with No Comment Legal MarketingSystems & ProcessesTeam Building

What is the greatest success you’ve had since joining LWP? 

I have been able shift my practice from being primarily “crisis” planning to planning that is more encompassing with more options than I what I previously was aware. We now tell potential clients that we are “Baskin-Robbins” – you just tell us what flavor you like, and we will design your plan to meet your flavor.  I also see LWP as a way to approach the practice more like a business (i.e. with focusers, steadier cash flow, etc.).

Mike Cohen-PictureWhat is your favorite LWP tool?

Although I mentioned the focusers in my answer above, my favorite tool (if you can call it a” tool” ) is having monthly workshops.  As LWP members know, the  “stories” in the workshop simplify the complex area of planning and allow us to help so many more people (and I can leverage my time even if an attendee doesn’t become a client) in addition to an increase in bottom line. In addition, the workshop design allows us to have fun (with my personal stamp or story) with prospective clients while showing them our knowledge and their need to take care of the ones they love.

How has being part of LWP impacted your team and your practice? 

First, LWP has increased communications in our office. Second, although we are small, our “team” has grown as a result of LWP. Third, the focus of our practice has changed as indicated in my answer to no. 1 above. Fourth, I have expanded my horizon in legal-technical knowledge. Finally, I see a roadmap for a journey that  (although I am not sure where it will end or what weather lies before me) I expect to have a rainbow at the end.  A special thanks to Molly for keeping us on the right path.

CK13-149

Becoming 360 With Christine Kane of UpLevel You

by with No Comment Coaching & ImplementationLegal MarketingSystems & ProcessesTeam Building

We've had some phenominal ~ and passionate ~ conversations about the content we want to bring to the members at the retreat.  Meet Christine Kane of UpLevel You who will be sharing her "Becoming 360" on Day 3 of the members only Tri-Annual Retreat in Chicago – June 11-13th, just two weeks from now! What is "Becoming 360" you ask??? 

CK13-149

 and a more compassionate (and passionate!) perspective on you, your life, your future, and how you want to design your success.

In Becoming 360.  You’ll dive deeper into your goals, your purpose and your WHY. 

You’ll understand and celebrate the real reason we set goals at all.

HINT:  It’s NOT about the achievement.  It’s about WHO WE BECOME as we get there.

The day will be devoted to that process of setting the goal, and then examining – through conversation, clarity work and training – the 10 areas of your life that drive (or drain) your energy, and who you must BECOME in order to reach and manifest the goals you set.

This is the path of the leader and the entrepreneur.  And it gives greater meaning and clarity to our work, our surroundings, our desires, and our relationships.

The LWP team can’t wait to do this work with you!  Safe travels and we'll be seeing you all in the Windy City! There are still just a few seats left so if you're interested in attending the Tri-Annual Retreat, pick up the phone and reach out to Angela (acrowther@lawywerswithpurpose.com) TODAY don't wait!

Roslyn Drotar, Coaching, Consulting & Implementation, Lawyers With Purpose

 

Bigstock-Hands-Holding-Pieces-Of-A-Puzz-64546993

The Rules of Engagement

by with No Comment Coaching & ImplementationSystems & ProcessesTeam Building

At Lawyers with Purpose we feel very passionately about our unrelenting standards around consistently operating by our Rules of Engagement.  On our weekly CCI call this week, we discussed how easily the expectations set within the Rules of Engagement can be pushed aside in the day-to-day of our “busy” world. How we give each other permission to let each other off the hook with no operation by set standard. 

Bigstock-Hands-Holding-Pieces-Of-A-Puzz-64546993It's those times that we allow The Rules of Engagement to be part of our consistent daily practice that there is very rarely ever a need for sporadic reactive “sit downs” about to what's going on with X (team, projects, cash flow etc.). And in our experience the work that has to go into repairing, redirecting and/or retooling doesn’t have to occur this way. If you make it part of your standards, the consistency in all facets of your business begin to happen.

Your Rules of Engagement should, in essence, say that as a team we agree to operate under the following rules – day in and day out – to allow us to grow and eliminate any unnecessary dividedness.

SAMPLE RULES OF ENGAGEMENT

1. To refrain from holding on to “stories and stuff” – always clarify and verify what is being ask of you and always operate with honest while respectful mentality; (A) If you ask me, I will tell you; (B) If I ask you – it’s because I “need” to know to be sure my needs are being met

2. Lead and operate every meeting with:

    1. Declaration of the purpose and intended outcome
    2. Printed Agenda with the team leader running
    3. Next specific actions and deadlinesEvery person is absolutely required to hold each other accountable and be accountable for their our own actions

3. Every person is absolutely required to hold each other accountable and to be accountable for their own actions.

4. EVERYTHING is ALWAYS “on the table” with a “CAN DO” approach

5. We agree to always engage in Healthy Conflict to solve real problems quickly and to put critical topics on the table for discussion.  If there is something that someone is doing and behavior that is a constant roadblock YOU need to conduct a STOP and identify the behavior that is occurring in that moment so we can identify and breakthrough.

6. We agree to refrain from gossip. Do not say something out loud that you would not say if you knew it was to be repeated. If a statement starts with “Don’t tell….” It’s gossip

7. We agree as a team to always be willing to FAIL FORWARD. United we stand, divided we fall.

If you're interested in learning more about how Lawyers With Purpose could support your estate planning / elder law practice, please join us in Chicago June 9th – 11th for our Asset Protection, Medicaid & VA Practice With Purpose Program.  Register today as we are filling fast.  The hotel is almost sold out so grab your seat today!

Molly Hall, Co-Founder, Lawyers With Purpose, LLC, and author of Don't Be a Yes Chick: How to Stop Babysitting Your Boss, Transform Your Job and Work With A Dream Team Without Losing Your Sanity or Your Spirit in the Process

 

 

 

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Making Medicaid Qualification Easy – A Quick 10 Minute Demonstration

by with No Comment Asset ProtectionEstate Planning Drafting SoftwareLegal TechnicalMedicaidSystems & Processes

With the proliferation of those online will factories, some believe traditional estate planning is dead.  But that is not the experience of Lawyers With Purpose members.  With nursing home costs rising more and more out of reach of most people, clients are looking for ways to protect what they have scraped and saved and worked so hard to build. 

Bigstock-Play-button-53748670And those clients are turning to Lawyers With Purpose attorneys to help them do it.  Lawyers With Purpose can help you quickly get up to speed to effectively and competently work with your clients in the Medicaid area.  We provide our members many tools to help them do that.  One of those tools is the Medicaid Qualification Worksheet.  The Medicaid Qualification Worksheet can help you immediately determine whether or not a client is currently qualified for Medicaid if they go into a nursing home, what you might need to do to help them get qualified if they are not already, and show them that they may not have to wait five years after they do planning with you before they could qualify for the benefit. 

You will never forget the feeling you get as you watch the wave of relief that washes over the face of the first client you are able to tell that to!  Watch this video to see how the worksheet works.

If your interested in learning more about this and other ways Lawyers With Purpose can help enhanse your estate planning practice, join us at our Practice With Purpose Program in June.  If your at all interested click the link and register today!  The hotel is close to selling out and seats are filling quickly!

 

Aaron Miller, Legal/Technical Trainer – Lawyers With Purpose.