Browse Archives | Subscribe | Home

LawBiz® TIPS – Week of January 28, 2014

www.lawbiz.com

LawBiz(r) newsletter

Another busy week, with the last few days focused on the final edits to my new book, The Attorney & Law Firm Guide to The Business of Law, 3rd ed. The book will be released by the American Bar Association in March.

And, mark your calendars for March 6-7, 2015 for our next LawBiz® Practice Management Institute's Women's Leadership Program in Marina del Rey, CA. More details will follow soon.

Ed signature
lawbiz.com

What Successful Rainmakers Do

Effective rainmakers find out not only what clients or potential clients need, but also what they want. That requires communication with clients at their level of understanding, finding out how they best receive information and then providing it to them in a way they find useful. Successful rainmakers communicate in a way that builds loyalty and collaboration over time by putting the emphasis on the client and not on the lawyer.

Rainmakers take a customer-service approach to dealing with prospects, just like a successful shop or restaurant (businesses ultimately not much different from law firms) takes with its customers. They make clients feel like part of the team, seek out their opinions, ask them what they want to accomplish. Rainmakers never put prospective clients on the defensive. They follow a win-win communications strategy that does not use the same style of questioning required when taking a deposition or structuring a contract. The better prospects feel when talking to a lawyer, the more positive they are and the more they will seek out the lawyer's services. The rainmaker's key attributes are empathy and rapport, expressed by using a lawyer's skill to ask a hypothetical business client questions like:

  • What's the biggest project you have going on now?

  • What kind of a year has it been so far?

  • Are you concerned about recent product liability litigation trends?

  • What do you think would give you the most help in dealing with employees or customers?

  • What do you want your organization to look like in one year, two years or five years?

  • Will you be offering new products or services in the next year?

There is only one way to get this kind of information: personal, face-to-face meetings. Social networking on the Internet is effective, but personal contact is the differentiating factor that gets a lawyer noticed. An excellent example of how to do this is attending a trade show. There is no better way to establish effective marketing relationships with prospective clients than by establishing a presence at industry trade shows and association meetings. By properly researching and targeting attendance, a lawyer can meet more prospects in one day than might otherwise be possible in months. And by physically being present at these meetings of potential clients demonstrates knowledge of their business, understanding of their concerns, and seriousness about offering solutions. Rainmakers use this kind of contact to begin an ongoing process of contact with clients or prospects to develop and expand a working relationship outside of the lawyer's own services.

Practical Profitability

and Small Business Planning Package

Practice Profitability and Small Business Planning

$99
until Feb 1
(reg. $119)

Learn how to create effective business plans to increase your productivity and profitability.

To Order:
1-800-837-5880

or order online at lawbizstore.com

This package will help you to learn the process of planning effectively for your business and will ultimately help you to increase your profitability and success as a business. Learn more.

This Package Contains:

  1. The Profitable Law Office Handbook:
    Attorney's Guide to Successful Business Planning,
    16th Anniversary Edition

  2. Business Competency for Lawyers:
    A Lawbiz® Management Special Report (eBook)

  3. Small Firm Logistics: Turning Your Practice into a Business
    (a 3 CD Set)

IN THIS ISSUE:

What Successful Rainmakers Do

Practice Profitability and Small Business Planning Package - $99 Special!

Video: Client Communications

FEATURED VIDEO:

(Click image to view)

Ed Poll on YouTube

Client Communications 

Twitter Facebook Linked In YouTube
New Life After Law Coaching Program

 

CLIENTS SAY:

"In the short time that Ed has been coaching me, his comments and guidance have been invaluable. Within weeks, he has improved my self-confidence immeasurably, guided me to run my law practice more like a business and most importantly, helped me obtain my goal of increasing my income while decreasing the time I spend working. It is a joy and pleasure working with Ed and I look forward to each coaching session. My only regret is that I did not start with you sooner."

JRL
Atlanta, GA


"I was initially reluctant to expend the money for Ed Poll's strategic planning session, but knew that in order to grow in an organized manner, I needed to spend the time in a one-on-one session. By the end of the first hour of our session, Ed helped me formulate a plan which, when implemented, resulted in an amazing return on the investment of the session. Ed then proceeded to analyze my financial statements and helped me to see my business in strictly financial terms - something us attorneys don't normally do. If we had concluded our session then, I would have felt that it was extremely worthwhile and would have felt that I had received my "money's worth." But I have now used Ed as my business coach for the past two years and have been extremely impressed with his practical approach to the practice of law. With Ed's encouragement, I find myself coming up with creative ideas regarding how to grow my business. I now feel that I can engage in the business of law, leaving my team to engage in the practice of law."

KH
London, England

spacer

Ed Poll, LawBiz® Management

800-837-5880
©2014 LawBiz® Management. All rights reserved.

This LawBiz Tips E-Zine is categorized for the following audience(s):

This LawBiz Tips E-Zine is listed under the following categories: