GROW YOUR LAW FIRM IN 2019
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THE RIGHT AND WRONG WAY TO ANSWER YOUR PHONE
Did you know that how you answer the phone can — quite literally — make or lose you thousands of dollars? Indeed, answering the phone is a lost art. So many attorneys consider answering the phone an afterthought. However, believe me, it can easily cost you thousands or make you thousands every month. How do I know? I used to provide a lead-generation service for attorneys, and when we would mystery shop them, it always blew my mind how they would practically flush those leads down the toilet due to the way they answered the phone. The truth is that no matter how hot a lead is, they’ll go cold as ice if you answer the phone the wrong way. Now, you may not have time to answer the phone yourself. However, answering service answers correctly. After all, you’ve spent money on a website, Avvo, Facebook, SEO, or any number of ways to get people to call you. So if you don’t treat the callers coming in from your paid advertising seriously and say the right things if that’s the case, it’s even more critical that your secretary or
–Richard Jacobs and wrong way to answer the phone. You’ll get word-for-word scripts that can help you collect potential profit and quickly transform more callers into paying clients. Speakeasy.marketing/phone
in the right order when you pick up the phone, then you could be losing buckets of money on a regular basis. If you suspect that’s happening, let’s fix that now. I want to show you several ways to answer your phone that could help you bring in two, three, or even 10 more cases per month. In Episode 70 of my podcast, I explain the right
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SAT I SF I ED WI TH LAST YEAR ’ S PERFORMANCE? ARE YOU SURE YOU SHOULD BE? Calculate Customer Churn — And Learn How to Reduce It in 2019
addition to end-of-year churn, you’ll begin to notice trends that you can address. Does the highest churn always happen in the third quarter? Did you sell more subscriptions in 2018 but lose more longtime customers in the course of chasing those leads? Noticing how these threads lead back to your losses is the first step in decreasing your churn rate. Of course, it’s impossible to calculate your customer churn if you haven’t been tracking and measuring it throughout the year. If you haven’t, you now have the opportunity to do so for the coming year. Add monitoring these numbers to your resolutions for 2019.
of customers you started with in 2018 by the number of customers you lost in 2018. Churn can also be measured by the value of recurring business lost or as a percentage of recurring value lost. Choose the measurement that makes the most sense for your business. Why is this number so important? Think about it this way: Beyond representing how many customers flew the coop in 2018, churn represents an exponential loss of profit. Each year those lost clients don’t do business with you, you lose a year’s worth of potential revenue. By tracking customer churn throughout the year — ideally quarterly — in
You’re looking over last year’s numbers, feeling pretty satisfied about the results for 2018. Production increased and you have a lot to feel proud of overall. But what about those customers or subscribers who said goodbye to you in 2018? If you haven’t yet calculated your end-of-year churn, you should feel a little less comfortable. Looking at that churn rate is key to your business’s success. Most business owners say that if they could change one thing about their business, it would be their customer churn rate. Retention is key to success because it almost always costs less to retain a client than it does to attract a new one. Increasing client retention and reducing churn in the coming year can only happen if you know what your churn rate was last year. CALCULATING CHURN It’s not rocket science! One of the most straightforward ways to express yearly churn is to calculate it as a percentage of customers lost: Divide the number
...continued from page 4 MOST OVERLOOKED WAY TO GET MORE REFERRALS?
you connect with complementary attorneys and create win-win referral scenarios. I’ll show you how to build a quick list of several hundred attorneys in your metro/practice area, form trust- based relationships with lawyers, and establish an extensive referral network that delivers a flood of high- quality cases on a regular basis. This is one of the most powerful and overlooked marketing strategies I know. I highly recommend setting aside a few minutes to listen in and take notes so you can put it to use right away. If you’d like to know how to form your referral network, visit the link below or save it to listen to later when you have a few minutes. Speakeasy.marketing/referrals
If you approach them the right way, it’s not only a fantastic way to generate fast referrals, but also one of the best methods to establish multiple streams of high-quality referrals that fill your pipeline for years to come. The key to making this happen is finding, contacting, and cooperating with attorneys whose services complement your area of practice. For example, let’s say you’re a criminal defense attorney and you handle violent assault cases, but you don’t want to take on sex crimes. There may be other attorneys in your
area who handle sex crimes but don’t focus on violent assault cases. You can work with them to create a solid referral strategy that benefits the both of you: You take their unwanted approach other attorneys properly. Merely going to a networking group and shaking hands won’t cut it. Moreover, you can’t just pick up the phone and ask. That’s why, in Episode 117 of my podcast, I give you several examples, strategies, and specific steps to help cases and they handle yours. However, as I said, you have to
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ARE PROFILE PICTURES REALLY THAT IMPORTANT?
At the end of the year, entrepreneurs sit down to develop their goals for the new year. They craft specific objectives based on best practices they learned from other leaders, implementing S.M.A.R.T. goals or strategic plans to give their company a clear path to success. But every year, perfectly crafted benchmarks fall by the wayside and join weight loss on the scrap heap of New Year’s resolutions. Owners scratch their heads wondering why they didn’t reach their target, not understanding the root cause of their failure. You can have the most carefully planned-out goals, but if you haven’t built a foundation on these three concepts, you’ll never achieve them. ORGANIZATION Nothing derails a goal faster than ineffective systems and processes. Procedures aren’t dynamic, so as your business changes, an audit of processes isn’t just useful; it’s necessary. But as your business must continue to improve its organization in order to adapt to change, so do your team members. At the root of every system is an employee, so without teaching basic principles of time management and prioritization, those systems are limited in their capacity and effectiveness. COMMUNICATION Negative external and internal relations are surefire goal- killers. Internally, the success of your company is dependent on the dynamics between team members, management, and leaders. Complacency and gossip tend to spread like wildfire and can cause a dip in productivity. External communication between partners and potential clients is very similar. Without clear expectations and mutual respect in relationships, your business will cease to scale. CUSTOMER SERVICE Clients need to feel valued to have a future with your business, and that’s rooted in every interaction. Customer service is a broad term that is often miscategorized. In truth, every role is based on customer service, but many people go about it wrong by taking on the attitude of “It’s not my job.” Lack of ownership and willingness to serve customers in every capacity will undermine any long-term objectives your company may have. The good news is that with proper execution of these three concepts, you can focus on attaining your goals, and in the process, achieve levels of success you previously thought impossible. Don’t let your objectives for the new year fall by the wayside. Achieve those goals by rooting your business in organization, communication, and customer service. AREN’T THE ONLY ONES THAT FAIL Why Your Business Goals Won’t Work PERSONAL NEW YEAR’SRESOLUTIONS
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— especially if you include elements in the picture that visually overcome their hesitations. I highly suggest setting aside five minutes today to listen to a short podcast I recorded need, how to get them done professionally, what to include in the picture, and how to stand out from your metro/ practice area competitors. Visit the link below to listen now or save for a five-minute break later. Speakeasy.marketing/photos awhile ago that explains the kind of pictures you
Because people do business with people. They don’t do business with words on a page, and they don’t hire firms — they hire people. So if you have a really nice picture, you make yourself look more accessible and trustworthy. This is the way to overcome hesitations a potential client may have as their hand is hovering over the phone. If they see you as friendly, real, approachable, and knowledgeable, they’re much more likely to call. Your profile photos can make all the difference in that moment
‘REAL SECRETS OF ATTORNEY MARKETING LAW SCHOOL DARES NOT TEACH’
2nd Edition
• Five new chapters, live chat, the 2018 marketing changes for personal injury attorneys, and more • Completely revised and updated for 2018 • Complimentary copy mailed or emailed upon request
Available on Amazon Kindle or by emailing rj@speakeasymarketinginc.com.
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THE RIGHT AND WRONG WAY TO ANSWER YOUR PHONE SATISFIED WITH LAST YEAR’S PERFORMANCE? ARE YOU SURE YOU SHOULD BE? PERSONAL NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS AREN’T THE ONLY ONES THAT FAIL
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MOST OVERLOOKED WAY TO GET MORE REFERRALS?’
ARE PROFILE PICTURES REALLY THAT IMPORTANT?
ARE PROFILE PICTURES REALLY THAT IMPORTANT? You know, it’s kind of tragic really. Most attorneys don’t even bother including their profile picture on their website. And if they do, the quality is just not up to snuff. This is a big mistake. Now, more than ever, the quality of your profile picture can bring you more business online. After dealing with hundreds of attorneys and their websites, we’ve discovered that those without profile pictures get far fewer calls. The websites with low-quality profile pictures do a little better. But the firms with high-resolution profile pictures that are done professionally outperform the others by a wide margin. However, a simple profile picture isn’t good enough anymore. These days, it has to be a certain quality and needs to include certain elements. Why is this so critical?
You’re about to know one of the best ways to generate a flood of new clients. As you know, referrals tend to make the best clients. Most attorneys would agree that referred clients are the least likely to bother you for everything under the sun once they’ve retained you, and working with them is usually far more pleasurable. So, where can you find more referrals? Traditionally, you’d look to past clients, coworkers, and friends. Yes, that works sometimes, but asking for referrals that way is more of a hit-or-miss situation. Plus you don’t want to wear out your relationships by asking for referrals all the time. But what about asking other attorneys? At first blush, this may seem like it wouldn’t be a great method because other attorneys are usually considered adversaries. But it’s actually one of the best (and most overlooked) ways to generate a steady stream of referrals. It’s all in how you ask. MOST OVERLOOKED WAY TO GET MORE REFERRALS?
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