As an attorney is important to have a team; be it in house, virtual or a combination of both,  and in order to manage your team effectively, it’s critical to implement weekly meetings so the team stays productive and your business keeps moving forward each month.

These team meetings can be done in person, via phone, or on a video platform like skype.  Yet no matter which platform you choose, the key is to ensure they happen each week without fail….schedule it at the same time every week as if it is your most important client.

That’s because your team needs at least an hour of your undivided attention to ask questions, go over open items, provide feedback and discuss future projects in a way that’s organized. And by setting aside a specific time each week for this to occur doesn’t interrupt your daily work flow on a regular basis.

You, in turn, need these meetings to check up on the progress of your team, give them the time to hear their feedback and answer questions, hold everyone accountable, brainstorm future projects and keep everyone informed of the happenings in the firm.

Having a weekly team meeting, is a great way to do this in a controlled and focused environment where everyone gets their needs met and your team is empowered to tackle their work load without struggle, confusion or lack of clarity each week.

If you’re not already holding weekly team calls for the employees or subcontractors of your firm, now is a great time to start.  Here are a few things you should ALWAYS do during a team meeting to ensure it is always a productive and efficient use of your time:

1. ALWAYS have an agenda- This keeps the meeting focused and on track.  Essentially, one person should be in charge of compiling the agenda and gathering talking points (from every person that attends the meeting) that they would like to cover in advance of the call.  You’ll then use this to guide the conversation and ensure all issues are discussed and resolved appropriately.
2. ALWAYS Share the Stage- It’s important that meetings are a collaborative and safe space and not just what you want, need or expect from your staff.  While that will ultimately be addressed on the call, it’s equally vital to make sure everyone has a chance to voice their needs, questions and/or concerns for feedback from the group.  In fact, I recommend starting each call by celebrating the successes of the week so it naturally pulls everyone into the conversation.  You can then proceed into the agenda from there.
3. ALWAYS look ahead two weeks in each meeting- This gives everyone the big picture as to what’s coming up so no one is scrambling at the last minute…or worse…misses an important deadline for your firm.   This two week run down should include everything significant on the company calendar—and if you don’t have a company calendar, now’s a great time to start one!
4. ALWAYS take notes- meeting notes are a great point of reference…and even a refresher as your team moves through their work load for the week.  It’s also a great point of reference for you or your manager to stay on top of what was assigned and to whom.

So there you have it….4 things you should ALWAYS do during a team to ensure they become an effective…and extremely beneficial use of your time.  Once you get started with these simple tips, you’ll be on your way to having more productive, efficient and happy team and hence a more productive business in no time.

Be sure to leave a comment below with any team meeting tips you find beneficial for you and your team.  Next week we’ll discuss the top things you should NEVER do on a team call, so stay tuned!

*****

Online Business Manager and law firm marketing expert, Laura Lee Sparks, is one of the most authoritative and well respected voices on attorney outsourcing, legal marketing and virtual assisting for lawyers on the web.  Her advice and legal marketing campaigns have helped lawyers reach and surpass the million-dollar mark in their businesses numerous times thanks to her straight-forward advice and ability to make legal marketing principles easy to understand and implement.  For further information on lawyer outsourcing programs or to contact Laura Lee directly, please email help@legalmarketingmaven.com

I wanted to update you, my loyal readers, about a free teleseminar I’m holding on Friday Feb. 12th, 2010 at 3 PM EST/ 12 PM PST entitled, “Who’s Got Your Back: How to Find, Hire, Inspire and Manage a Superstar Team to Fully Support You And Your Law Business”

As probably know, I privately coach over 50+ attorneys each month, and i’ve had this “tele-class” in my mind for quite some time. However, a few events over the past month finally kicked me into high gear in producing this content for lawyers who desperately need it right now.

First, I talked to a solo practitioner who was spending more money than ever on virtual assistants yet she was still having to micromanage and do a ton of non-legal work herself. She was frustrated to say the least, and asked for help finding “good” people she could trust to run the non-legal operations of her firm.

Then I spoke with 3 different attorneys who were spending up to six-figures with legal marketing coaches but still couldn’t seem to get their practice off the ground. After much digging, the problem wasn’t with the coaching program or even the lawyers….the problem was the TEAM in change of carrying out the plan While the attorney was spending a ton of money for training, the team was not getting the same education or “hand holding” and that directly impacted the success they were seeing as a result.

Finally, Entrepreneur Magazine called. They wanted to interview me as an industry expert on outsourcing in the legal field (which ended up on the front page of the website !). Because of the economy, small business owners (including lawyers) are struggling to afford the full-time staff they desperately need, so we discussed how going virtual is a great way to bring on quality people without the overhead, taxes and insurance required with traditional employees.

So after that series of events, I realized the issue of team building was on the minds of a lot people right now, and I decided to share my 20+ years experience on this subject to finally help attorneys build their ideal team (or properly train the team they have) so they can keep their practice growing and thriving, even in a down economy.

If you’re interested in joining me on the 12th, here are some of the key points i’ll be covering:

• The easiest way to find and hire skilled marketing and administrative professionals for your law firm without the added expense of payroll taxes, insurance benefits or physical overhead .
• How to equip your in-house staff with the tools they need to produce better work, effective marketing plans and increased productivity without additional oversight/ micromanagement.
• The BIGGEST mistake in hiring virtual staff which can cost your business thousands of dollars in unfinished work and wasted contractor fees.
• Simple ways to quickly identify and weed out service providers who are absolutely, positively a bad fit for your business.
• An exhaustive guide to what projects can be outsourced and what skill level they require so you have the upper hand when negotiating with telecommuters or service professionals.

Again, this call is free, jam-packed with content (unlike some of the pitch-fest teleseminars i’m sure you’re invited to daily) and you’ll leave knowing exactly what type of team you need, how not to overpay/sign with the wrong people or how to transform your current team into the rockstar staff you want…and need them to be.

Register now at http://www.buildyouridealteam.com

Oh and PS. I’m offering a BONUS 30 minute coaching/strategizing call with me to anyone who attends live this Friday. On this coaching call ($200 value), we’ll identify cracks in your support staff foundation and carve out a plan specific to YOUR law firm, resulting in less aggravation, increased productivity, more clients and more time for yourself in 2010 .

Just register at http://www.buildyouridealteam.com to claim your spot!

As you may know from previous posts, I’m a big fan of getting your law firm listed in as many local search directories as possible on the web.

That’s simply because consumers now search for EVERYTHING online, and lawyers who aren’t savvy to this trend (or sadly believe people under 50 still use the yellow pages) are missing out on business because of it.

Not to mention, getting listed in local directories gives you extra links back to your site and takes up more real estate  in Google, both which are great for SEO and standing out in an oversaturated legal market.

So with that said, one of the most popular local directories right now is yelp.com.  Yelp.com provides hyperlocal results for people actively looking  for services in their immediate area.  The site also allows consumers to leave reviews of your services—which can quickly help you stand out (for the better I hope) in the crowd.

Fortunately, getting your business listed on yelp is free and can be done in 3 easy steps.  They are as follows:

1.       Get Started

Simply click here to get started on yelp.com’s business page.   The screen should look like the one below:

2. Find your business

Enter the name of your law firm and city to “claim” your business.  If your business can not be found by yelp, you’ll come to the screen below and have the ability to create your own business profile:

3.       Complete your company profile

Simply fill out as much information that you can regarding your law firm.  Once you’ve done that, check your email address, confirm your listing and you’re firm will be live on yelp!

As a bonus (and for even better results), ask a few happy clients to leave a detailed review about their experience working with you.  You’ll also want to make the review process as easy as possible for your clients, which means giving them the direct link to your profile page and offering a “gift of thanks” (i.e. a gift card, discount on future services, etc) as an incentive for following through with your request.

That’s it!  Now go claim your business and get listed on yelp.com!

Online Business Manager and law firm marketing expert, Laura Lee Sparks, is one of the most authoritative and well respected voices on attorney outsourcing, legal marketing and virtual assisting for lawyers on the web.  Her advice and legal marketing campaigns have helped lawyers reach and surpass the million-dollar mark in their businesses numerous times thanks to her straight-forward advice and ability to make legal marketing principles easy to understand and implement.  For further information on lawyer outsourcing programs or to contact Laura Lee directly, please email help@legalmarketingmaven.com

It’s so easy to get caught up in the day-to-day operations of running a law firm that you’ve probably overlooked a HUGE component to your success—and that’s team morale.

Remember happy teams make more money—and boosting team morale is one of the easiest ways to help them do this…hands down.

 That’s because an employee treated well by her boss will radiate a “you must spend your money with our firm because this place is the best!” energy to prospective clients on the fence about signing with your law practice.    

Not to mention, happy team members are more productive, they won’t drag their feet on the clock, nor will they cut corners or blatantly disregard tasks out of sheer loyalty and gratitude for all you do for them and the great work environment you’ve attempted to provide.

So what can you do to boost team morale and create loyalty among your staff?

Try some of the following:

• Order lunch (or even breakfast) for your team often. Or just give your office manager permission to take the team out to a nice restaurant on you.  Even if you can’t be there, the gesture goes a long way.
• Surprise your team with ice-cream or water ice at 4 pm as they are finishing up their day.
• If your team is pulling 15 hour shifts helping with trial prep or upcoming litigation, hand out a few $50 bills to say thanks for burning the midnight oil with you.
•  Institute a policy on Fridays that if everyone’s work is done, the team is can get a two hour start on the weekend by leaving early.
• Say thank you and give praises often.  Your team needs to hear a balanced message from you—not just criticism when things are messed up and stress is rising high.

Taking steps to boost team morale is a time-tested principle that can’t go wrong and will easily turn into more dollars for you as your team works harder, projects a better image of your firm to prospective clients and morphs into your own little “word-of-mouth army” that constantly sings your praises to their family and friends. 

So what are you waiting for—make it your goal to boost morale this holiday season and get ready to grow!

My good friend and personal coach, Alicia Forest  just wrote an excellent post on her blog about showing gratitude to your prospects, clients and referral sournces during the holiday season.

I can’t stress enough how important this is in the legal industry and if you’ve never used a holiday to say THANK YOU to your clients–and even prospects considering your firm, now would be a great time to start!

Why?

It’s an effective keep-in-touch legal marketing tool, it’s super inexpensive with great ROI and more importantly, it shows your clients you’re just  a nice gal or guy who’s greatly appreciative of their business.

I’ve excerpted some of Alicia’s post below and I encourage you to read the rest on her site (and take notes!).

Happy Thanksgiving!

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As we head into the season of giving, now is a great time to show appreciation to your clients and customers. Taking the time to give thanks to your clients will set you apart, increase loyalty, improve retention, inspire more sales, and deepen relationships that last long after the initial sale.

Here are 10 easy ways you can say thank you to your clients:

1. Greeting Cards

My husband often teases me that I should own stock in Hallmark for the amount of money I spend a year on cards. I love to send cards, for a specific reason or for no reason at all.

For business, you’ve probably heard of SendOutCards (and no, I’m not an affiliate or a distributor). I get a lot of cards this way, from colleagues, and it definitely deepens the relationship for me. And it is a super-easy way for you to do that with your customers too.

2. Personal Notes

I love to send personal notes too. I have specially designed notecards that I send when I just want to connect with someone after a particularly powerful coaching call, when someone makes an investment in Platinum, when I’ve made a special connection with someone in person, or when a client just needs a little cheer.

3. Invitations

One of the things you can do for your top clients is to invite them to a special event just for them. It can be a lunch or dinner at an event you’ll all be at, or carve out a portion of your own live event to spend time just with them.

You can also invite them to special teleseminar or webinar where you offer them free content just for being your top clients.

4. Small Gifts

Flowers, books, a mug, or something more specific are all thoughtful gifts for clients. They can be sent for certain occasions or just because (that’s actually my favorite way to send a gift).

Click here to keep reading more ideas on Alicia’s blog

How are you nurturing the relationships in your business? I’m not talking about the relationships with your prospects, clients, or referral sources; instead, I’m talking about the people who support you and your business.

If you haven’t thought about this question before, let me just say having a support team and building & nurturing those relationships plays a VITAL role in the success of your law practice.

Whether you are a solo with a few contractors that work on a freelance basis or you have a large in-house staff; having a team that supports you free of drama or complications is an integral part of building your business. Note: If you do not have someone to support you please put that on your list of priorities for the New Year!

However, to ensure you are receiving the best support possible, you must know how to communicate effectively with your team or they can be a regular source of stress, unnecessary work load and aggravation– just the opposite of what you want in your firm.

That is why open, honest and direct communication with your team (or at least the manager of your team if you are not the best communicator) is critical to keeping everyone in sync.

This means empowering your team with communication about what the goals of the firm are, what the marketing plans are and exactly what you expect of them. Learning how to disagree and come to resolutions where no one is walking away feeling unheard or respected is also a vital part of the process.

So with that said, here are a few tips for effective communication:

* Always respect all your team members; and insist they honor/ respect each other as well, respect is a two way street and the only way to build good team morale.

* Be sure to give your team members clear project requirements and standard operations in your office — including the HOW and WHY behind each task for clarity and understanding.

* Conduct regular team meetings WEEKLY to understand and discuss the doubts, questions and concerns of every team member and provide solutions accordingly; remember no question is ever stupid!

* Explain the why when answering questions so your team understands the desired outcome and feels empowered to make decisions on their own based on this information.

* Define the role and responsibility of every team member clearly which allows the team member to take ownership of their responsibilities, avoid confusion or un-necessary re-work.

* When in a meeting or discussion, allow everyone have their turn to speak and suggest. Meetings do not serve a purpose if you alone keep talking and ignore/ dismiss what others have to say.

* Listen to your teams opinions and use their suggestions if found to be effective. Listening plays a significant role in effective communication.

* Always be polite in your way of speaking and behavior. When you tear down, criticize, use rude tone or body language it will usually bring upon negative feelings among team members.

* Clear out any personal differences and misunderstandings by dealing with them directly in a private setting. Keeping it inside and harboring grudges against one another may affect the team spirit and have a direct impact on the quality of everything in your law business.

* Always look for ways to display acknowledgement and appreciation through face to face interaction or electronic modes when a team member performs well. Just a pat on the back, or two lines of appreciation in an email can have a great impact to motivate a team member.

* Deal with tense situations calmly. If you are unable to do that because of the situation, simply say, let me think on this for a little while and schedule a time to deal with it after you have had a chance to relax.

* Avoid placing blame on others when any work is not done. Instead, try to figure out the cause and create a solution

Of course, these are just a handful of suggestions to improve communication in your firm. Start by implementing just 1 or 2 and add new strategies weekly as you feel comfortable with them.

It may seem like a hassle, or even a waste of time at first, but as you observe how communication directly
correlates with productivity, morale, and the support you receive I guarantee this will become a permanent fixture in your law firm!

 If you are a lawyer and you blog—or reach out to local bloggers as part of your online marketing campaigns,  you’ll want to take a moment and register for a free teleseminar hosted by Kevin Houchin (a well respected lawyer that specializes in online marketing) and marketing expert, Joel Comm.

While local bar rules dictate how you can market your practice and reach out to prospects, the new FTC guidliness have made things a bit more complicated –and VERY expensive if you accidently violate one of the provisions.

Gray areas now include testimonials (which most lawyers have been quick to embrace and post online), reviews from mom bloggers and claims made on social networking sites (by you or your team).

I encourage you to take one hour tonight and hear how these new regulations will effect your law practice and what you should be doing to avoid hefty fines from the FTC (with most starting in the $16,000 range).

The webinar is tonight, 11/9/09 from 8-9 pm EST.

Got to http://www.budurl.com/ftc11 to get registered.

See you there.

Are you an estate planning lawyer, family law attorney, business lawyer or just a small /solo attorney struggling to convert prospects into paying clients right now?

Maybe your marketing seems to be working…..people are calling the office, asking for more information– and even setting appointments, but for one reason or another those same people aren’t making the decision to move forward with your services.

If that sounds like you– don’t worry!  Hundreds of lawyers are going through the same thing right now and it’s a problem easily fixed with a bit of automation and advanced business skills.

Fortunately, you can learn the skills and strategies you need to succeed in running a small law firm that engages 97% of it’s clients (yes, that’s right— 97% should be the NORM for you) on a free call with my friend and law business strategist, Alexis Martin Neely on Thursday, October 29th at 12p PT/3p ET.

Below is an email Alexis sent out to her network.  I wanted to extend the same invitation to you, the readers of LegalMarketingMaven.com because I know you’ll benefit from the free coaching and advanced strategies you need to end 2009 with a bang– even in a down economy.

So please read below, jump on the call for some free coaching and watch your business grow!

- Laura Lee 

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Do you know what puts most lawyers out of business… especially in a tough economy?

It’s doing the same thing over and over and hoping to get a different result. (Albert Einstein calls that the definition of insanity.)

One of biggest areas that lawyers struggle with is client engagement. With the economy being the way it is, engaging the prospects who make it into your office is more important than ever.

The ugly truth that we all must face is that when the economy is slow, you will have fewer prospects. This makes it more important than ever for you to maximize your opportunity with the prospects who do come to your office for an initial consultation.

And that’s where I can help.

After two years of intense and painful trial and tens of thousands of dollars of error, I developed a literally foolproof system for getting 97.5% of the people who call my office to make an appointment,keep their appointment and engage my law firm – at higher fees than I’d ever commanded before.

On Thursday, October 29th at 12p PT/3p ET, I’m revealing my system for engaging just about every prospect who calls my office during a free tele-conference and you’re invited. The topic is: “How to Get 97.5% of Your Prospects to Say Yes!” You’ll discover everything I did to build my client engagement rate from a dismal 50% to almost 98%…and increase my average fee from $2,500 to $5,000!

Here is some of what we’ll cover:

* A step by step strategy that will allow you to convey so much value to your prospects they’ll feel compelled to SAY YES to working with you just about every single time.

* The #1 best way to QUOTE FEES that gets almost every single person I meet with to say “yes” and to higher fees than I ever could have charged before.

* The one thing you must do before your prospect ever comes to your office to ELIMINATE CANCELLATIONS. This is a controversial strategy but it works and I’ll prove it!

* My killer system that ensures that you DON’T WASTE TIME in long, initial consultations just to find out that your prospects are just shopping or aren’t sure.

* The perfect ice breaker that uncovers your prospects biggest concerns and BUILDS IMMEDIATE TRUST in less than 15 minutes.

* How to DOUBLE YOUR PROFITS in less time, with less effort, without having to make huge changes and upset your staff.

Want to be part of this free tele-conference?

Go here: http://budurl.com/9vuk

To Your Dream Law Business!

~ Alexis Martin Neely

PS: Check out how RobRoy Platt charges FOUR time what he used to charge and has a 100% engagement rate since implementing these strategies. Watch his video at http://budurl.com/k9af Then be sure to register for the call: http://budurl.com/9vuk

PPS: Not sure if you can make the call? Register anyway. I can’t promise there will be a replay due to special bonuses only available to attendees, but if there is a replay it will only be available to those who register.

While scrolling through my twitter stream last week, I noticed many lawyers posting the entire link to their blogs, articles and seminars instead of using a link shortening service such as budurl.com.

And while posting direct links is fine for beginners, lawyers who are serious about using social networking sites to interact with their community and share content should NEVER post a direct link from this point forward.

The reason for this is twofold:

1.   When you shorten your links through sites like budurl, bit.ly or owl.y (just to name a few), you are able to track on your dashboard just how many people are clicking your links; and

2.   The pre-shortened URL makes it easier for people to “re-tweet” or share your content with others.

As you can probably guess by reading number one, the tracking feature is very important in that it allows you to monitor just how popular or intriguing your content is to others.  On the other hand, if you keep posting links and no one is clicking, I can promise you there is something wrong with your overall social media strategy.

Alternatively, if you are posting long links right into the content box and allowing twitter to shorten it for you (which usually looks like the first half of the link followed by a …..), when other people try to post or “re-tweet” your link in their own stream, the link is usually broken or it no longer fits within the 140 character limit.

And speaking from experience, if I have to play around with someone’s link to make it fit within 140 characters, it better be the best article I ever read.   Otherwise, I’ll pass.  I can promise you that thousands of other people feel the same way too, so it’s worth it for you to pre-shorten your links and get that content spreading like wildfire!

So take five minutes today sign up for a link shortening site like budurl.com.  It’s free, it’s simple anand it’s a hugely important step in making sure you get the most out of your law firm’s social media strategy.

Image courtesy of Flickr

Online Business Manager and law firm marketing expert, Laura Lee Sparks, is one of the most authoritative and well respected voices on attorney outsourcing, legal marketing and being a virtual assistant for lawyers on the web.  Her advice and legal marketing campaigns have helped lawyers reach and surpass the million-dollar mark in their businesses numerous times thanks to her straight-forward advice and ability to make legal marketing principles easy to understand and implement.  For further information on lawyer outsourcing programs or to contact Laura Lee directly, please email help@legalmarketingmaven.com

In this economy, legal marketing is a given.  You must be spending money on email marketing, internet marketing or direct marketing campaigns to get your name out there or you’ll fall prey to your market-savvy competition.

Yet if you’re marketing without a PLAN, I can guarantee you are wasting a ton of cash on your efforts.

Why?

Because a marketing plan is the only way to ensure you are strategic in your objectives and actually get a return on your money at the end of the year.

They also help you to see and monitor your day-to-day marketing goals so you can quickly ditch a plan that isn’t resonating with your target audience.

Plus your marketing plan allows you to see what tasks or goals can be handled in-house with your team and what needs to be outsourced to effectively get the job done.

Finally, your marketing plan shows you months in advance what you’ll need to create products or campaigns that WORK rather than throwing money at “trendy” or run-of the mill campaigns and merely hoping they stick.

And while I’m not going to cover the nitty- gritty of creating a great legal marketing plan, here are a few attributes to let you know if you’re on the right track:

1. Your legal marketing plan will tie into your overall business objectives- If your goal is to make 6 or 7-figures of revenue this year, your marketing plan should pin-point exactly how many leads you need to attract (and convert) to reach that dollar amount.  It should also track your marketing budget dollar- for-dollar to ensure your campaigns are contributing to that goal and not detracting from it at the end of the year.
2. Your marketing plan should communicate your objectives to your entire team and pull them into the process- Great companies ensure everyone is on board when it comes to marketing.  Everyone has a task and key piece of the puzzle to implement.  Your marketing plan, then, will give your staff the clear guidance and instruction they need to ensure your plans are being carried out and reaching your target market accordingly.
3. Your plan will help you stay on track and manage objectives- It’s so easy to get off track when a semi-good legal marketing plan brings a few customers into the pipeline. Yet before you know it, that short burst of clients WILL dry up and you’ll be at square one all over again in your marketing efforts. Instead, resolve to keep your appointment book full at all times by creating a plan that keeps you on track and makes sure your campaigns go off each month without a hitch.

Of course, if you are totally overwhelmed with the thought of creating a marketing plan for your firm or really aren’t sure where to start, please email me at help@legalmarketingmaven.com for a boost in the right direction!