Friday 24 July 2015

Why You Need To Be A Great Coach To Manage A Law Firm...12 Must Ask Questions For Your Legal Staff To

If you manage a company you have huge influence over its success. Great managers deliver more sales, bigger profits and lower staff turnover. The fact is that you are only as good as your team. In their book, First Break All the Rules, authors Buckingham and Coffman report on Gallup Inc and how they researched what makes a great manager. Gallup Inc. found 12 questions that employees answered captured the most important information about whether management of a company is good or bad. Employees that gave a more favourable response worked in higher performing companies. These are the questions that employees answered and accurately reflected management and company performance. 1 Do I know what is expected of me at work? 2 Do I have the materials and equipment I need to do my work the right way? 3 At work do I have the opportunity to do my best, every day? 4 In the last 7 days have I received recognition for doing work well? 5 Does my manager or supervisor seem to care about me as a person? 6 Is there someone at work who encourages my development? 7 At work do my opinions seem to count? 8 Does the mission or purpose of my company make me feel my job is important? 9 Are my co-workers committed to doing quality work? 10 Do I have a best friend at work? 11 In the last six months has someone at work talked to me about my progress? 12 This last year, have I had opportunities to learn and to grow? These questions were answered by 105,000 employees in 250 business units in 24 different companies. With this research they then went on to find the good managers and interviewed 80,000 highly rated managers. Over and over again the researchers heard... Great managers help each person become more and more of who he or she already is. “Manager as coach” is how it can easily be summed up. The process of finding the right person for the right position and them coaching them to a higher level starts with hiring. When hiring, behaviour-based questions, (tell me a time when...) can indicate natural talent and interests, (which can then be coached). Matching the right talent to the right job can have huge results.

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Saturday 18 July 2015

How do I do Marketing for my law firm the right way? Solicitors you really need to watch this video

Just put a short video together to answer the question "How do I do marketing the right way?" http://screencast.com/t/jTUfLqoDyI Enjoy the video. It's for people that know how to market but need a refresher to simplify things for people that haven't really done it before for people that aren't getting the results they want Share it around if you like to anyone that needs a bit of help... I also have a PDF in which there's a framework for getting marketing done over a 3 month (12 week) period. It's within the context of finding partners who can make referrals and how to market to them. However, the same 12 week plan is relevant to any business. (Available on request). Most things I have discovered don't get done in an annual marketing plan. That's why 3 months is ideal because things change too much over a year. So 12 weeks is ideal to take action, see progress and get results. It's a way of having a marketing plan for certain objectives to be achieved. It makes people accountable too. I have also found that relying on other people often means things never happen. Unless you make them accountable. And the best way of this is to use a journal with the marketing plan. For example, a sole practitioner's journal may be to do at least one of these things every day. Today’s Checklist For Success I asked for a testimonial from a loyal client I called a client on the phone to see how they are I responded with a positive attitude to colleagues and clients I asked for a referral from a loyal client I sent a note to an existing client with a personal message I wrote or recorded a brief update for my website I invested 20 minutes in myself I included my partner and family in my work The positive thing I noticed today was... Tomorrow I am looking forward to... A journal on marketing keeps you focussed. Marketing is made up of three elements. Market - who you are targeting Message - what you want to say to them Media - how you get to them It really helps simplifying things in this way. Of course you have to get each element right! It's easy just to write things on paper if you are doing it yourself and then refer to the plan. But if it is a total company plan, which various responsibilities then you may have to use some type of project management tool like http://www.teamworkpm.net/

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Thursday 16 July 2015

Why Reviews Mean Trusts for Law Firms and Solicitors

This survey echoes what I have been telling clients for years... Reviews are extremely important. They provide social proof that a company is good, honest and trustworthy. They are so useful because one of the easiest ways of selling is to say, "we have hundreds of clients that have written about what a great job we did for them." What a great thing to be able to say to the dithering prospect! This proof answers the question, "why should I choose you and pay your rates?" And before you say you don't have time to collect hundreds of testimonials and get a review from every single client think again. Because this firm in Chipping Sodbury has done it and is under the same time pressure as every other firm. And this firm has a unique way of doing it... The point is that they ASK, even before working with a client... They simply say "our clients are happy to give us a testimonial when we have done good work, will you be happy to give us one at the end of our work for you?" So maybe you could spare 1 minute to send an email to your clients asking for a testimonial? Ask them the three magic questions. What were you looking for by working with us? What was the experience like? What would you say to others considering working with us? If you can get some factual answers like, "We wanted to reduce our inheritance tax liability by 50,000 pounds" then it's great. If you only have "nice people to work with" testimonials that's not as great, but can be effective if you can get people to rate you 5 stars on Google. (More about that below). If I only had one tool to sell it would be a box of testimonials or hundreds of videos of people saying I am wonderful and I helped them make 100,000 pounds. (Well I do have an email one of those here) Being known as the best because that's how people see you moves you a long way toward becoming a successful brand. In fact, claiming to be 100% The Best Solicitors is possible if you have proof. Let me ask you, "Who would you rather go to? A brain surgeon with 100% success rate or one with 85% success rate?" A law firm with a 95% success rate or one with an 80% success rate(see this) So I apologise for the firms already doing this stuff. (I hope you don't mind me reminding you to continue your great work). And to other firms I ask that you spend just a few minutes a week getting reviews and testimonials. *** This is my last newsletter before the summer holidays. I know I haven't been in touch much over the last few months. But I have been really busy setting up a network of designers to produce videos, email newsletters, logos etc. I hope you have a wonderful summer with your family and I'll come back raring to go again in September when I'll also be offering a review monitoring service, text marketing services, and a whole host of marketing tools. The reason for this is that I realise most firms want a done-for-you service. So I've committed to make this happen for a handful of success minded firms. More details come September. Thank you for sticking with me so far. Boyd ************************************************************* Here's an unscripted video I did about Google Plus and your listing and reviews...don't have to watch all 10 mins...just first 4 will give you the info you need. http://screencast.com/t/1zOkmol3utrn And here's a reminder about why getting reviews that are good is valuable. I hope no-one has left you a bad review online. But if you have online reviews there's a good chance at least one of them is bad and possibly unfair. (Although this restaurant owner in Australia has successfully sued for a review) Reviews do two things. Firstly they help your rankings. Secondly, they help people decide to click on your website link. Or not. It would be great if your clients just decided all by themselves to write outstanding positive reviews about your business. It would also be great if money grew on trees. You’re going to have to ask your clients to give you positive reviews (unless you believe in the tooth-fairy.) So here’s some things you’ll want to bear in mind. Firstly, what reviews do you want? (I’d suggest Google reviews but there are other review websites.) Secondly, have you got a simple process that allows all your employees to strike whilst the iron is hot…e.g. when your client is smiling about your work? Thirdly, do employees understand that more reviews that are positive means more business means more money and success for them and the firm? Fourthly, getting reviews won’t be really easy at first. You’ll have to adapt your strategy. But it’s a major factor in managing your online reputation so it is worth doing. There may be reviews about your already on the internet. It might be worth Googling your company name plus the word review. You might find fake reviews, negative reviews, positive reviews or no reviews. Whatever your thoughts are about reviews, you’ll surely realise that they are important factors in helping people decide where to spend their money. Here's a good article from a solicitor Yair Cohen about fake reviews... And here's a quick video about getting more reviews on Google. http://screencast.com/t/a2Or1oCvvk

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Thursday 2 July 2015

Use Reviews and Testimonials as Core Selling Tools For Your Law Firm...

Here's a really good survey about how people use reviews of local businesses to help them to choose where to spend their money. http://www.brightlocal.com/2014/07/01/local-consumer-review-survey-2014 One of the easiest ways of selling is to say, "we have hundreds of clients that have written about what a great job we did for them." That is called proof and it answers the question, "why should I choose you and pay your rates?" And before you say you don't have time to collect hundreds of testimonials think again. Because this firm in Chipping Sodbury has done it and is under the same time pressure as every other firm. And this firm has a unique way of doing it... So maybe you could spare 1 minute to send an email to your clients asking for a testimonial? Ask them the three magic questions. What were you looking for by working with us? What was the experience like? What would you say to others considering working with us? If you can get some factual answers like, "We wanted to reduce our inheritance tax liability by 50,000 pounds" then it's great. If you only have "nice people to work with" testimonials that's not as great, but can be effective if you can get people to rate you 5 stars on Google. (More about that below). If I only had one tool to sell it would be a box of testimonials or hundreds of videos of people saying I am wonderful and I helped them make 100,000 pounds. (Well I do have an email one of those here) Being known as the best because that's how people see you is a long way toward becoming a successful brand. In fact, claiming to be 100% The Best is possible if you have proof. Who would you rather go to? A brain surgeon with 100% success rate or one with 85% success rate? A law firm with a 95% success rate or one with an 80% success rate (see this) So I apologise for the firms already doing this stuff. (I hope you don't mind me reminding you to continue your great work). And to other firms I ask that you spend just a few minutes a week getting reviews and testimonials.

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