• By Laura Lee

Addressing Some FAQ’s

We‘ve had a ton of interest in the DFY materials that we have been talking about for the last few months but I’ve also received a quite a few emails and wanted to answer some of the frequently asked questions I’ve been getting.

Does Legal Marketing Maven also help with implementing the marketing materials? I don’t have enough time to do it myself.

Yes!  We are an implementation company!  The DFY packages were put together to help lawyers that have in house staff (or virtual teams that they are working with) so that they didn’t have start every month from scratch.  But we will happily put together an implementation package that meets your needs, just reply to this email and schedule a complimentary strategy session with me to explore those options.

Do all of your DFY materials focus on general estate planning (or focus on one particular niche)? I am an elder law lawyer, will it work for me?

Our DFY materials are eclectic and focus on estate planning for the young and old, we try to incorporate basic estate planning, elder law and administration into our materials each month because we believe your practice will benefit from serving clients in all stages of their life.

Do you have DFY materials for other practice areas? I am a bankruptcy lawyer and would love materials like this for my law firm.

Currently our DFY materials are only for Estate planning attorneys however, we are planning to launch 2 new practice areas this year.  If you are interested in these types of materials for your practice area please reply to this email and let me know what that is, it will help me determine which 2 areas we will roll out next.

If you need the services now, let’s schedule a time to chat about what your needs are and create a custom package that will meet your needs.

Does Legal Marketing Maven work with lawyers in other practice areas?

Yes!  We privately work with clients in a variety of practice areas – personal injury, medical malpractice, bankruptcy, business law and family law.  Our services span a wide range including but not limited to:

•    Development and execution of direct response marketing campaigns
•    Web writing, Copywriting and Blogging
•    Teleseminars and Webinars
•    Landing Pages/ Squeeze Pages
•    Email Marketing
•    Newsletters
•    Infusionsoft Management
•    Autoresponders
•    Search Engine Optimization
•    Social Media Marketing
•    Article Marketing
•    Reputation Management
•    Press Releases and Public Relations
•    Marketing of In-Person Events/ Conferences
•    Creation and Launch of Lead Generation Pieces
•    Product Launches

Do you have more questions, or would you like to talk about how we can help you save time on your marketing and help you turn ideas into action? Simply schedule a time on my calendar for a no-strings virtual cup of coffee.

• By Laura Lee

Turn Your Law Firm Team Members Into Raving Fans!

Through my years of working with attorneys I have heard more than one complaint about how their team members aren’t very good at discussing the services their law firm provides to prospective clients. The disappointment is usually because their staff members are unable to describe services to the satisfaction of the prospective client to where they make an appointment to meet with the attorney. And this is a very valid concern.

But there are a lot of people who aren’t good at sales.

So, what’s an attorney to do?

Fire all the staff and start over?

No, please don’t do that! Instead, turn them into raving fans of the firm and the services you provide.

Yes, make sure they can describe the services that your firm provides like they would if you asked them to describe their children, their favorite pet, or a hobby they are passionate about.

Get them EXCITED about what you are doing at the firm.

In my experience, the inability to describe services the law firm provides with enthusiasm is a result of not really understanding the value and benefits. Here are a few things you can try before you give your team the boot.

1. Explain why you chose the practice areas that you did.

Most attorneys choose their practice areas because they were passionate about them. Do you have a personal experience that made you choose that particular area? I once knew an attorney who had lost her husband at a very young age. Even though she was an attorney she had failed to plan properly for her own death or the death of her husband. After all, rarely to 20-somethings get motivated to do so. The story she had to tell was extremely touching and it is her passion to make sure that families don’t struggle needlessly at a time when they are grieving for the loss of a loved one. So, there was at least one person on her staff that understood that she was an estate planning attorney and could explain the services that were provided, but didn’t really have that passion that is needed to motivate people to do their own planning. That is, until she finally heard the attorney’s story.

2. Give them real-life stories of the services you provide.

If your law firm is like most, your staff is extremely busy with day-to-day tasks. Their heads are down and they are working on bits and pieces of the matters that flow through your office. But, have they ever really seen the whole picture? Share with your staff some of the stories of the problems you have solved for people. People go to attorneys to solve their problems. Just share with your staff some of the inspirational stories that you surely have and help them see, in real-life terms, how you help people.

3. Make sure they are describing the benefits instead of just the services you provide.

Your staff may be very clear and quite articulate about describing the services that your law firm provides and still not be able to effectively sell your services. The reason is that people need to understand the services you provide in terms on how it will benefit them. For example, they may understand that you litigate personal injury cases, but what they should be describing is how you put the pieces of people’s lives back together after an unexpected event like an injury due to automobile accident takes them tragically off-course. Teach them to describe your services in a way where people can understand, in terms of their particular situation, how their lives would be better if you worked with them. Ticking off a list of services you provide means very little to the general population, but taking those services and explaining how they will benefit that person will generate more clients in your door.

These are just a few examples of situations that I have observed where there may be a disconnect between having your staff members being able to bring clients into the firm. If you have a particular situation with a team member that you would like to solve, please feel free to listen to this workshop that I did with my partner Paula Woolley on effective follow-up.

Do you have more questions, or would you like to talk about how we can help you save time on your marketing and help you turn ideas into action? Simply schedule a time on my calendar for a no-strings virtual cup of coffee.

• By Laura Lee

Law Firm Management: Do you have an emergency plan?

I don’t usually share too much of my personal life on this blog (mainly because I’m just naturally a private person), but this morning as I sat and drank my coffee and looked out at the early morning dew drying under the rays of the morning sun across the pastures, I realized how important this topic was for me to share.

It’s part of the journey, it’s part of running a successful business, and I need to share it.

This year has been the absolutely hardest year of my life. In January and February my husband had four major surgeries, and then we received the horrifying news from the doctors that his cancer was not only back but it had metastasized and was all throughout his body, stage IV and no treatments were available.

About that same time, I was forced to make some sudden career shifts when it became clear the person I spent the last two years and a half years building revolutionary tools and systems for the legal industry with, no longer had the same vision for the company (or the future) that I did.

Really, could life get any worse? I wanted to crawl up in bed, pull the cover over my head and not wake up. But I have 2 kids and a sick husband so that wasn’t an option.

I’m not brave, I’m not strong, I simply am. And I had to do what I had to do when it became clear my back was up against the wall.

So, I brushed myself off, let go of the anger and ego, and said we need to make the best of this—which meant I re-launched my own business that I had put on hold doing the things I talked about above over the past few years.

However, a strong team grew from the relationships that I had made during that process (being some of the dearest friends I have) and we re-built the business that I had neglected for so long within a matter of months.

So why am sharing this now? Well, it is 6 months later and my husband’s cancer is progressing, hospice visits regularly, (nurses, doctors, CNA’s, social workers, therapists, chaplains…) he is on lots of meds, and requires more and more of my attention.

Yet because I knew this day would someday come, I re-launched my business with clear plans and systems in place so that if I ever needed to take a temporary absence (whether that be a day or 2-3 weeks) I could rest easy knowing everything would carry on smoothly and efficiently until I was able to jump back in and take the reins.

I am lucky (which seems strange because most days I’m not feeling to lucky right now), but I have been given time to plan for my absence and to have systems in place, so that my business will run without me when I need to be gone. Because, I will need to be gone a few days here and there to be with my kids and my husband as we go through this journey together.

So I said all that to say: what is your emergency plan?

Do you have systems and plans in place that would allow your business to run without you should unexpected circumstances arise? Or forget unexpected circumstances! Perhaps you just want to go on vacation. Do you have things set up so you can leave town for a week and not have to worry about whether your clients are being serviced in the same manner that they would be if you were there doing it yourself?

So many of you are my friends, and I care about you, don’t leave things to chance, you have worked hard to build your business, PLEASE make sure you have a documented, systematized plan in place in case of an emergency that would require you to be “gone” because you may not have weeks or months to plan for it….as I was blessed to have.

Do you have more questions, or would you like to talk about how we can help you save time on your marketing and help you turn ideas into action? Simply schedule a time on my calendar for a no-strings virtual cup of coffee.

• By Laura Lee

Give Back, Get Involved…..and Get Clients for Your Law Firm

I wanted to address something today that’s seemingly fallen by the wayside in the legal industry, and that’s getting involved and giving back to your local community as part of your long-term, law firm marketing plan.

Of course let me first make clear that you should NOT get involved in your local community simply to GET back.  If you read this post with those intentions, you will surely be disappointed.

But, if you can identify a cause that you feel passionate about and truly offer some sweat equity, cash or pro-bono legal help toward making that charity, organization or non-profit flourish, you’ll find referral sources and client streams in places you’ve never thought of before.

Now I understand as a small or solo attorney, your schedule is insane.  Most of you are holed up in your offices so long that you rarely see the light of day.   But I want to throw out 3 simple ways you can give back, get involved and ultimately get more clients for your law firm:

1. If you DO have some extra time, I recommend finding a non-profit, charity or religious organization that you believe in and put some cold, hard- sweat-equity into making it grow.  Serve on a board of directors, volunteer your time or offer pro-bono legal help.  It’s a hands on approach but it will grow your network base and position your firm to make a real impact where  it matters the most.
2. If your time is limited, I suggest offering monthly contributions or donating a percentage of your fees to the charity, non-profit or religious group of your choice.  One of my Legal Marketing Maven clients gives back 10% of her fees to any non-profit group that allows her to speak and ultimately serve their members.    Of course, the group is thrilled to have her donations and she’s thrilled to work with their client base.  It’s a win-win for everyone.
3. If you have office staff willing to get involved, start your own community outreach.  Distribute blankets and sandwiches to the homeless. Buy pack packs and schools supplies each fall and personally give them to families in low-income areas.  Make care packages of toiletries and other household items and hand them out to residents living in local motels.  The opportunities here are endless , provided you have the time and support staff to make it happen.

Finally, I recommend creating a page on your website entitled, “giving back” or something of that nature so  prospective clients can see what you’re up to and how you’re using the money they pay into your firm (you’d be surprised at how much community and charity involvement influences buying decisions).   You can check out my friend  John Bisnar’s page for a great example of this.

But the overall message here is that you must get involved.  By doing so, you’ll grow your referral and client base, open the door for speaking engagements and other promotional opportunities and sleep well at the end of the day knowing you played a part in helping others in your own back yard.

And as always, I’d love to hear how this strategy has worked for you and/or your law firm in the past.  Feel free to leave your success stories (or challenges) in the comments section below!

Would you like to talk about how we can help you save time on your marketing and help you turn ideas into action? Simply schedule a time on my calendar for a no-strings virtual cup of coffee.

• By Laura Lee

Officially Re-launching LM2- Coaching, Implementation and Marketing Support for Lawyers

Wow—it’s been long time coming in writing this post!

As I explained last week, I am turning the page and no longer working with Alexis Martin Neely and the Family Wealth Planning Institute.

Instead, I’ve realized it’s time to re-open the doors of my own business, which was extremely successful before my  decision to commit to one client in 2007—and ultimately one that changed the lives of many attorneys and practices all over this country.

So I’m excited to announce that I’ll once again be providing private coaching and high-end implementation services for qualified attorneys and attorney membership organizations in the US and Canada.

But here’s the really exciting part.

My company, Legal Marketing Maven, is now partnering with my good friend and well-respected implementation Goddess, Paula Woolley of Progressive Office Solutions and other incredible team members to provide full-service, complete marketing support for lawyers who are really serious about exploding their business this year.

So what does a full-service, complete virtual marketing team look like?

Basically, you’ll have a private coach, marketing director, copywriters, graphic designers, IT gurus, client service directors and administrative support staff virtually at your fingertips… devoted entirely to the growth, prosperity and vitality of your small or solo law firm.

You’ll also get the benefit of working with me as your personal mentor, coach and business strategist.  I’ve helped multiple businesses surpass the million dollar mark and I’m happy to give you the tools and strategies to do the same.

You will  also benefit from my network of service providers, marketing professionals and business gurus as I’m out there continuing my own personal education and staying up to date cutting edge strategies both in the legal and non legal communities. which of course is needed for long-lasting growth.

However, as I said this is a major time commitment on our part and we can only take a limited number of these high level relationships.  They are also limited geographically to ensure fairness and a true competitive edge to the lawyers we serve.

If you’re interested in becoming one of the few lawyers we serve at this level (and FYI a number of spaces are already filled—and filling fast just via word-of-mouth) please email me directly at help@tremendous-arm.flywheelsites.com

Yet for those of you simply looking for a la carte legal marketing , virtual administrative services or regular marketing support on a less-intensive level, we still have plenty of options to meet the growing needs of your small or solo firm.  You can see all of our services or request more information by visiting our services offered page.

Again, I am so excited to embark on this journey with you and look forward to completely transforming law firms across the country this year.

To your success & productivity!

Laura Lee

Would you like to talk about how we can help you save time on your marketing and help you turn ideas into action? Simply schedule a time on my calendar for a no-strings virtual cup of coffee.

• By Laura Lee

Weekly Staff Meetings – What NOT to Do

Last week we discussed the importance of having a weekly meeting with your team, and some suggestions to make these meetings productive and help streamline the work flow in your law business.

We’ve all had to attend meetings (sometimes regularly scheduled meetings) that we simply dreaded.  Since you do want your team meeting to happen every week, the last thing you want is for it to be something your staff does not look forward to.

Here are my tips for what NOT to do with your weekly team meeting time:

Do not assume everyone can stay in the meeting for an unlimited amount of time.  I recommend scheduling 60 minutes for the team meeting, and do your best to keep it within that time frame.

Do not spend the entire time, focused on one agenda item.  Everyone should come to the meeting with a printed agenda of items that everyone has contributed to.  If you see that the discussion of a certain item will take more than a few minutes and your agenda is full, suggest that the members of your team that are involved with that item, have a separate meeting to go more in depth on the topic.

Do not forget to take notes, always appoint someone to be in charge of taking notes (keeping the same person for this each week works well) and appoint someone in charge of reviewing the notes from the previous week and making sure that all open items carry over to the next agenda.

Do not ever use a team meeting to call someone out personally about a problem.  If you are having issues with a team members you or your manager should handle those problems privately.  On this same note if you are having a problem with a team member do not make that obvious during the staff meeting, by you comments, tone, or lack of responsiveness to that staff person.

And do not control the meeting.  You have selected your team because of the talent and gifts that they bring to the table.  When you bring all of those gifts to a meeting of the minds that is conducted in a “safe place” where there are no stupid questions or ideas, your business will benefit from this weekly activity in ways that you never dreamed possible.

Do you have tips that make your meetings more productive, or a staff meeting experience to share, please post a comment, we love to hear from you!

Would you like to talk about how we can help you save time on your marketing and help you turn ideas into action? Simply schedule a time on my calendar for a no-strings virtual cup of coffee.