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Author: Allan Colman

Is Your Marketing GPS Really Working?

Written by Allan Colman on . Posted in Attorney Marketing, Conversion Rate Optimization, Law Firm Marketing, Uncategorized.

Is your marketing GPS really working? Do you use tissue, or Kleenex? Do you pack a lunch in plastic storage bags or Ziplocks? See where this is going? All successful law firm marketing – and I mean all – requires properly identifying your firm with a brand. When clients such as in-house counsel, insurance company claims directors, human resource directors, etc. hear the name of your firm, what adjectives come to mind? How are you and your partners known throughout the communities you deal in?

Hopefully,the adjectives you hear to describe your firm are positive, helping to differentiate you from your competitors. Look for common themes in how your peers and clients describe you and the firm. How do you do this — ask them. And then use those themes to create and communicate who you are in every aspect of your marketing and business development. And “encourage” every member of your firm to use this brand description. [source of material from OWN THE ZONE, Allan Colman, Made For Success Publishing Co.]

What Do You Do With Low Hanging Fruit?

Written by Allan Colman on . Posted in Uncategorized.

What do you do with low hanging fruit to increase law firm closers-group-low-hanging-fruitrevenue? It certainly does not happen overnight. Clients won’t become your greatest fans if you are hit and miss with your efforts. Keep up the momentum, energy and your follow-through 100% of the time.

Do this and a bumper crop may be happening in your not-so-distant future!

How Much Revenue Is Your Firm Losing?

Written by Allan Colman on . Posted in Law Firm Leadership, Managing Partners, Strategic Planning.

How much revenue is your firm losing without an exit strategy for Senior Partners? Advance planning of exit strategies is critical to long term sustainable revenue. Failure to deal with this is a common million dollar blind spot for the typical law firm.

Success requires law firm executive committees taking a proactive role by understanding the “lifetime value” of a client from the present into the future.

* Evaluate the “identity capital” of senior attorneys.
* Build a client service team long before retirement.
* Develop a CLIENT RETENTION PLAN to advise, coach and direct individual exit strategies.

What’s Missing In Law Firm Revenue Growth?

Written by Allan Colman on . Posted in Law Firm Leadership, Leadership, Managing Partners.

What’s missing in law firm revenue growth is leadership.
Clarity, focus and execution start with a firm’s leadership. The key to transform sustainable revenue to productive revenue lies with the firm’s leaders who address critical impact areas.

Developing customized 90 day strategic implementation maps are needed to identify action details, timing, resources needed and leadership assignments. Leaders will emerge to help others overcome obstacles and challenges resulting in:

* More revenue * More clients * More open doors.

What Are 90% of Attorneys Missing?

Written by Allan Colman on . Posted in Attorney Marketing, Law Firm Marketing.

We were stunned to learn that 90% of attorneys are missing a major key to new business development – asking for referrals. This observation came from Marketing Directors in last year’s U.S. and Canada survey on client retention. And when attorneys themselves responded, 10% said “none” asked for referrals and 78% were “not sure.”

What the survey unfortunately demonstrates is the enormous loss of new business opportunities. Just because they haven’t been to see you or called you in a while does not mean clients are unhappy, but what if they were? You would only find out if you spoke with them. And if you lose track of them, it is your own fault if they begin using another firm.

So stay in touch and ask for referrals.

Don’t Let Business Slip Through Your Fingers

Written by Allan Colman on . Posted in Content Marketing, Law Firm Marketing, Strategic Planning.

You can avoid letting new business slip through your fingers by using our powerful, highly interactive workshops and strategic business road-mapping. As a business development consultant and advisor, these work.

BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT WORKSHOPS AND COACHING
Your competitors are asking for the business. Are you?
• Are you bringing in new business from clients and prospects?
• Are you selling, but not seeing the results?
• Where are your opportunities? How do you expand them?
• Do you know how to communicate effectively with your prospects?
During these powerful, highly interactive workshops, you are focused on building lasting relationships, asking for business and customizing your action plan

STRATEGIC BUSINESS ROAD MAPPING
Within 30 days, our RAPID ASSESSMENT will identify what’s missing from your business development program and identify for you:
• Missed opportunities
• Underperforming investments
• Prospect segmentation and targeting
• Issues with internal collaboration and cross marketing
• Underutilized assets
If our STRATEGIC BUSINESS ROADMAP approach sounds straightforward, it is. It serves as the first step toward lead generation, providing a platform from which clients grow, with tools to measure progress and success. Many of the groups we have advised over the past eight years have more than doubled their books of new business.

7 Ways to Overcome Objections

Written by Allan Colman on . Posted in Business Strategy, Content Marketing, Law Firm Marketing.

In offering proposals for new client work, we often need to overcome objections. In a recent conversation with Rick Justus, CEO of 36ixty, he outlined 7 ways to overcome negative reactions to your business development proposals:

* Choose your words carefully;
* Avoid talking about costs and fees too soon;
* Ask if money was not the issue, would we be selected?
* Do you see the value of our solution?
* Sustain a peer relationships;
* Don’t lower the proposed fee without changing the deliverables;
* Be certain you are dealing with the economic decision maker.

Having a client or prospect adapt your values to their needs is one of the best way to build new business.

Will Your Dog Eat the Dog Food? – Law Firm Marketing

Written by Allan Colman on . Posted in Attorney Marketing, Conversion Rate Optimization, Law Firm Marketing.

New and Improved?

Almost every day there is an advertisement offering a service or product that is new or improved, such as Will Your Dog Eat the Dog Food? Or Have you tried our new combination of juices? And even Take our test drive for free??? And believe it or not, selling a new service, entering a new market place, or offering reminders of what your firm does so well, are managed and marketed in much the same way. In law firm marketing or business development for consulting services, recognize you are entering a new “beachhead” market.

 

But We Offer Legal and Professional Services…

“But we are professionals, and not selling hard goods.” Yes you are, but new business development for professional services such as law, accounting, architecture and engineering have the same elements needed for success. To quote Bill Aulet (author of Disciplined Entrepreneurship), “. . . before you invest large amounts of time and money, make sure the dogs will eat the dog food! And, oh yes, make sure the dog’s owners (or friends or primary/secondary clients) will PAY for the dog food.”

Referring back to previous columns, remember you should have already:

  • Clarified market segmentation
  • Identified your end user
  • Developed and quantified your Value Proposition
  • Know who the competitors will be
  • Mapped and quantified client acquisition costs
  • Tested your key assumptions
  • Measured the results

 

Testing for Law Firm Marketing or Business Consulting Services

This test marketing for law firm marketing, accounting firm business development, consulting services new business growth is critical. Prior to a full launch, you must determine if prospects and clients will engage your new or refined services and actually pay for them. Are they working as intended? Are clients referring new prospects to you? Is your team consistent in their business development efforts and presenting the same core story? Are you seeing trends to take advantage of or are they leading to unexpected challenges?

The final step will hopefully be following your beachhead success and refinements. The new business development efforts will be successful.

Pricing Your Service – It’s Not What You Think

Written by Allan Colman on . Posted in Asking for Business, Business Development, Law Firm Leadership.

Pricing your service, the 2nd step in Aulet’s foundational steps for business development is Set the pricing framework. In our experience, this is another one of those efforts clients often underappreciate.

Pricing your service is not just numbers. It should include, as Rick Justus preaches:
* Value creation;
* Client’s experience;
* Marketing structure;
* Messaging used for your core story;
* Cost of sales and customer acquisition.

Most importantly, clarifying value creation for your clients, making an effort to understand what your client needs and the cost of client acquisition are often overlooked. Do them!