Skip to main content

90% of Marketing is “Half” Mental

Written by Allan Colman on . Posted in Allan Colman, Attorney Marketing, Business Development, Content Marketing, Conversion Rate Optimization, Email Marketing, Law Firm Leadership, Leadership, Managing Partners, Marketing for Law Firms, Marketing Partners, Practice Group Leaders.

Yogi Berra’s famous quote, in it’s modified use, addresses the most important aspect of marketing and accelerating new business development. Ultimately it is the attorneys and paralegals that will drive law firm business development into the “accelerator zone.” For management, understanding how to support and drive their people by using our “one page strategic plan” becomes the road to success. Psychologist Bruce Tuckman observed a 4 phase path that teams need to follow on their way to high performance and accelerating new business — “forming, storming, norming and performing.”

Today’s column deals with the “forming” stage, where team members are positive and polite. Some are anxious as they do not fully understand what work they will be doing. As the leader, you play a dominant role at this stage, because roles and responsibilities are not clear. Be aware that this stage can last for some time, as people begin working together and make an effort to get to know their colleagues. The so-called attorney “silo” operational set is still all to present and prevents early acknowledgement of entering the “accelerator zone.”

Next column will cover “storming.”

Don’t Make Flying Pigs From Law Firm Rainmakers

Written by Allan Colman on . Posted in Attorney Marketing, Business Development, Content Marketing, Conversion Rate Optimization, Email Marketing, Law Firm Marketing, Marketing Partners, Strategic Planning.

It is stunning how many lawyers treat all leads alike, and market to the wrong prospects. Another major leadership mistake is asking law firm rainmakers to get out and prospect, which is analogous to “teaching pigs how to fly.” It would be far better to determine where each attorney needs the most business development help.

36ixty asks:
* Are they comfortable building rapport with new prospects?
* Do they know how to qualify the buyer/user?
* Will they build real value for clients?
* Can they create the desire to buy?
* How do they overcome objections?
* Do they close?

Use these questions and marketing training tools to bring along the next generation of law firm rainmakers.

Are Hamsters Running Your New Business Strategic Planning ?

Written by Allan Colman on . Posted in Allan Colman, Business Development, Business Strategy, Client Retention, Content Marketing, Conversion Rate Optimization, Marketing for Law Firms.

New business strategic planning is the process by which an organization’s leaders define and implement the plan needed to achieve the firm’s fundamental purpose — successfully solving problems and preventing them in the future. The output is a set of high level objectives [we identify them as “critical improvement areas” per 36ixty] and initiatives/specific actions to achieve these objectives.

In other words, turn strategy into action. And since most strategic plans sit on a shelf, gathering dust, we propose starting out with a ONE PAGE STRATEGIC PLAN – yes, one page. State the purpose, identify the anticipated profit, set the priorities, measure the performance and track the progress. Insure that firm members all understand what is happening, anticipate how their roles are critical to success, and build it into your firm’s/company’s culture.

Why Focus on Your Client's Bottom Line?

Written by Allan Colman on . Posted in Allan Colman, Business Development, Business Strategy, Content Marketing, Conversion Rate Optimization, Email Marketing, Law Firm Marketing, Leadership, Marketing for Law Firms.

Accelerate Your Business Now – Chpt.3

Note that these 12 Practices from 36ixty [brand, leadership, strategy, communication, team, core message, marketing, sales, customer experience, revenue and systems]Closers Group: Is Your Firm in the "Accelerator Zone"? break down into 3 manageable groups; how people work; how processes work; and systems to integrate and manage them all. We call them “impact areas” where clients focus on bottom line results. And in order to define these, we start with having senior firm management answer these questions as a group.

• What do I need to do more of?
• What do I need to do less of?
• What do I need to start doing?
• What do I need to stop doing?

The right questions are designed to focus on what is really important to the business and internal aspects necessary for success. The answers become the foundation that might lead to refinement, transformation in effectiveness and profits. They are the keys to growing new business. What then follows is the strategic planning process in our next column.

Are There Really “Magic Pills” for New Business Development?

Written by Allan Colman on . Posted in Attorney Marketing, Business Development, Content Marketing, Conversion Rate Optimization, Law Firm Marketing, Marketing Partners, Online Marketing.

ACCELERATE NEW BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT NOW
Chapter 2

Are there really “magic pills” for new business development?

Following our last post, on what happens to your new business development efforts when you are not in the “accelerator zone,” one wonders why isn’t everyone in business living in an “accelerator zone”? We find in our work that a primary reason is that most people don’t know what ingredients are necessary for leaders to new business development success. 36ixty Inc. cites 12 Essential Practices that lead to new business growth. They are branding, leadership, strategy, communication, team, value creation, core story, marketing, sales, customer experience, revenue and systems to manage all of these.

These 12 are not an end-all, cure-all or a series of magic pills. What they are equates to actual implementation of a business plan. They are especially applicable to firms and companies which are too often managed by consensus or collegiality. Practicing these 12 will lead to more clarity, focus and execution in new business development.

Our next chapter will address Business Development “Impact Areas”.

12 Essential Practices for New Business Development

Written by Allan Colman on . Posted in Allan Colman, Business Development, Content Marketing, Conversion Rate Optimization, Email Marketing, Law Firm Marketing, Leadership.

 

Why isn’t everyone in business living in an ACCELERATOR ZONE for new business development?

We find in our work that a primary reason is that most people don’t know what ingredients are necessary for marketing and new business development. 36ixty Corp. has identified 12 essential practices that lead business leaders to new business success. They are:

  • Branding
  • Leadership
  • Strategy
  • Communication
  • Team
  • Value creation
  • Core story
  • Marketing
  • Sales
  • Customer experience
  • Revenue, and
  • Systems to manage all of these.

 

These 12 are not and end-all, cure-all or a series of magic pills. What they are equates to a BUSINESS ACTION MODEL, leading to marketing and sales leadership success. They are especially applicable to firms or companies managed by consensus or collegiality. Practicing them lead to more clarity, focus and execution in business development.

More in the next post.

Is Your Firm in the “Accelerator Zone”?

Written by Allan Colman on . Posted in Allan Colman, Business Development, Content Marketing, Conversion Rate Optimization, Email Marketing, Law Firm Marketing, Marketing for Law Firms, Online Marketing.

 

Acceleration is about generating new business development successfully in less time. In order to enter the “accelerator zone”, one must first understand what happens when you are not in the -accelerator zone-. Chances are that you:

  • Put growth before value;
  • Don’t know what you stand for;
  • Have a strategic plan that is gathering dust;
  • Aren’t sure how to create a commitment-based culture;
  • Don’t have a core story;
  • Have not deployed all the marketing tools available;
  • Have undervalued the sales process;
  • Haven’t modified or eliminated outdated policies.

Sound familiar? Where does your law firm fall in addressing these? Does firm management address issues such as these? If they did, is firm “leadership” capable of major refinement? Would they even understand the value of moving their firm into an “accelerator zone”?