Ferris Consulting

Networking Tips: Get The Most Out Of Each Event

Accelerated growth of your practice will require that you attend events where you can meet people face-to-face.  Most people think networking is a simple matter of meeting and speaking with others but networking requires a strategy just like any other marketing strategy you may use.  Here are some tips to help you get started:

• Know why you are going.  Have a goal.
• Be familiar with the group and the participants.
• Have your core message ready.
• Ask open-ended questions and listen attentively.
• Don't monopolize any particular person or group.  Be prepared to move around the room.
• Send a thank you note to the organizer as soon after the event as possible.
• Follow through and contact the people you met.
• Offer to be a resource for the group.
• Make a contribution. If the group is a particularly good fit offer to be involved in the organization on a volunteer basis.
• Attend the networking events that are consistent with your ideal target market. You are better to attend fewer more qualified events than frequent and unfocused events. Continue to network even when your practice is full so that you have a steady stream of potential clients when you have time to work with them.

How Do You Measure Up?

What does the Pareto principle (also called the 80-20 rule) mean to you?  In relation to your business it means that 20% of your activities creates 80% of your income.  Your job is to measure the results of your activities so you can focus on those that bring you the greatest reward.  This not only makes your efforts more targeted but it saves you time. 

To move your practice ahead in the most efficient way track:

• Where your clients and prospective clients find you, i.e., were they referred by a current client, referral source or did they find you on the internet?
• Google analytics: review your web site traffic monthly to determine what is working and what needs improvement.
• Your monthly targets. These targets may include, referrals per month, new clients per month, hours billed and gross revenue. Adjust your plan if you are not meeting targets.
• The results of your tracking will give you a clear picture of how your marketing activities and referral plans are working.  Drop what doesn't work and focus on the rest.  Continue tracking and analyzing the data to fine tune your strategy.

Creating A Marketing Plan Isn't Enough

For the past 20 years, I have been working with lawyers, business owners, physicians, mental health professionals and financial specialists to identify and execute strategies for accelerating their business.  The clients who have been most successful in building their practice are those who take action to implement their plan.  They focused their plan on building and maintaining relationships and they kept it simple.
To create and implement your marketing plan:

• Develop a goal.  Focus on who you are, what you want and what you intend to accomplish.
• Identify  1-4 of the most important strategies to help you achieve your goal. Make your strategies achievable and measurable.
• Organize a plan around your strategies and determine an order.
• Take immediate action on one of your strategies right away.  Don't wait or put off action.
• Set aside time every day to take action on your plan.  You need to carve out this time and stick to it faithfully.
• Do something every day that moves you toward your goal.  You may write an article, call a referral source, speak with your coach, participate in an on-line networking group.  As the commercial says "Just Do It".

Who Do You Serve?

No one business can meet the needs of everyone in their target audience.  There simply isn't enough time or resources to be all things to all people.  Do you know the profile of your ideal client?  Answering the following questions about your ideal client can help you build a  profile for attracting similar clients:

• What is their goal? What is most important to them in their divorce or family law issue?
• What is their age range?
• What problems do they have?
• What services do I perform for them?
• Why do they like working with me?
• What extra value do I bring to our working relationship?

Once you determine your ideal client then you can create a plan to reaching out to these clients people and referral sources who serve your "ideal" clients.

Grow Your Practice By Changing The Way You Think About Marketing

Instead of focusing on the negative aspects of selling your services you can focus on the positive aspects of ethical marketing and reap the rewards.  Rather than selling, focus on educating, building relationships and having a plan to get to know your clients and referral sources better.  Ask questions and understand the needs of your audience. By knowing more about the people you want as clients and referral sources, you are in a better position to  make a contribution to assist them in some way.  People will want to work with you if they know, like and trust you. The best way to establish trust is to demonstrate that you have the other persons best interest at heart.

Create An Effective Marketing Strategy For Your Family Law or Collaborative Practice

An effective marketing process includes a complement of multiple strategies and repetition. Research shows that people need to hear, see or touch a message nine times before they finally listen.

Consider a combination of speaking, networking and outreach to referral sources and prospective clients. The following are marketing strategies to help you grow your law and collaborative practice.

1. Make a list of your best referral sources. Schedule time to take them to lunch and tell them about your practice and the services you provide including collaborative practice.
   
2. Organize your experiences, create a speech and seek out people who could benefit from learning about your family law or collaborative practice i.e.  business lawyers and wealth managers who have clients who want a private and less destructive process for resolving disputes.
   
3. Make a list of key networking opportunities, schedule them in your calendar and make it a priority to attend.
   
4. Send a press release to your local publications highlighting the outcome of a successful case. Tie your press release to a story of interest, i.e Madonna’s divorce.
   
5. Consistently update your web site to include new information useful to your targeted clients. For family lawyers, include articles and content on children and divorce, finance and divorce . Include tips and strategies for dealing with the issues that arise in divorce. i.e. 5 ways to talk to children about divorce.
   
6. Create a blog and include information relevant to your ideal client and referral sources. Examples of good family law  blogs include: dick-price.blogspot.com divorce.clementlaw.com justdivorceblog.com

Remember that marketing is an ongoing activity that requires commitment and consistency. Schedule your marketing activities the way you schedule other appointments. Every week schedule 1-3 hours to execute one of the strategies from your marketing plan, these activities  may include setting up appointments with referral sources, sending out letters , writing an article, preparing for a speech, updating your web site and blog, etc.  By doing at least one thing from your marketing plan every week, by the end of the year you will have reached your goal.

Free Tele-Class - Strategies For Taking Action To Grow Your Family Law And Collaborative Practice

Please join me for a 45 minute complementary tele-seminar on December 17th on how to take action to grow your practice.

Taking action to grow your practice is an essential component to achieving your practice growth goals.  December is the perfect month for creating your 12 month plan for 2009  and taking action to implement your plan and achieve your goals.  Many practitioners know they need to do “something” to grow their practice, but find it difficult to actually “do it.”

In the call, I will give an overview of the barriers to taking action and the seven steps to overcoming those barriers. My goal is to help you build a practice that is financially profitable, brings you fulfillment and attracts desirable clients.

Take action today and register for the complementary tele-seminar at http://www.ferrisconsult.com/action-strategies.html

December 17th, 2008

9:00 am Pacific
10:00 am Mountain
11:00 am Central
12:00 pm Eastern
5:00 pm UK and Ireland

The tele-class is free but long distance charges apply.

Successful Practitioners/Struggling Practitioners - What is the difference?

How to achieve success in building your family law and collaborative practice.

By Elizabeth Ferris

What is the difference between highly successful practitioners who consistently attract desirable clients and other practitioners who continually feel stress about where their next client will come from? In this month's newsletter, I would like to share with you the major difference between those who are achieving success in building their family law and collaborative practice and those who are struggling.

The number one difference is "action." Those who have a thriving practice consistently take action towards a focused and targeted goal. Their focus comes from having a clear vision of what they want their practice to look like.

Do you have clarity of what you want your practice to look like?  If not, take a moment to define your "ideal" practice.

Taking action will give you results

After you have clarity on what your ideal practice looks like, the next step is to take action to help you get there. Taking action will give you results that can be measured and evaluated to determine what modifications you should make to help you progress towards your goal. Without action, you will not know what works or what you need to do to improve.

In sports, world class athletes consistently practice every day, they don't let external interruptions keep them from training and they don't let a difficult practice or a bad competition discourage them from the end result. Michael Phelps, the greatest swimmer in the world achieved his vision for winning 8 gold medals by clearly focusing on a defined goal and taking action directed toward his goal. Phelps didn't just wake up one morning to be an Olympic champion swimmer. Phelps trained every day of the year. He woke up at 4 AM daily even though he hated waking up early, but like most successful people he persisted for greater rewards.

Like the best athletes in the world, successful practitioners know what they want and commit to the action required to achieve their goal.

Barriers to taking action

We all know the importance of taking action, so why is it so hard to implement? What are the barriers to taking action? The barriers I have seen in my consulting work include:

    * Afraid of making a mistake
    * Over analysis
    * Activity is outside of comfort zone
    * Mindset that this "has not worked in the past."
    * Self stalling stories (the time is not right)
    * Not scheduling the time or claiming there is not time
    * Internal thinking that this is not going to work

Do any of these sound familiar?

One of my clients had the vision of growing a successful collaborative practice group. The group decided on sponsoring an annual meeting to bring members together to learn, share and develop relationships. Everyone was enthused with the plan. The vision was clear, the plan was laid out, but the annual meeting never took place. The group had very good reasons ...the timing was not right, the committee is going to be changing, "not sure if we can fit it in the budget", etc. Action was not taken and the vision for the group is still a dream.

Compare this to a successful law firm I worked with, the firm met with me 12 months ago for a 2 day strategic retreat to define their vision, and to develop a 12 month plan. In addition to the firm plan, each member of the firm created their own plan. Every staff meeting was dedicated to following through on the actions required to move the plan forward. The team was committed to the goal and accountable to each other for taking the action necessary to achieve the goal. After 12 months, the firm achieved 90% of targeted goals, including a 15% increase in new clients.

Connect your actions with your most important goal

Having an impressive vision and plan won't matter if the first action isn't taken. The critical component to achieving the result you want is to get out and do the activities that are directed towards your goal. Use your vision and goal to help you focus on the activities that will produce the greatest return.

So starting today, contact a key referral source, write the article you have been thinking about, contact your local editor for a story idea, give a speech to a community/business organization, attend the networking meeting you did not think you had time for, revise your web site to attract more clients, attend a training that is outside your comfort zone, lead a training, sign up for advanced training to improve your skills, etc. It does not matter what you do as long as what you do is in alignment with your vision and goals.

It is difficult to implement your action plan alone. You will be more successful working with a colleague, coach or group of professionals. Please contact me at [email protected] if you are interested in monthly tele-seminars with like-minded colleagues, a retreat to get your group or firm focused on a shared vision or a marketing workshop to lay the ground work for executing your plan.

Take action today

As Malcolm Gladwell said in his best-selling book, The Tipping Point, it is the small events that result in big change. What are the small events you will do to create the big change in your practice? These small events or actions will give you control on building a practice that brings you fulfillment, is financially profitable and attracts desirable clients.

Please forward this newsletter to a friend or colleague who you think might benefit from the information.

Elizabeth Ferris helps law firms and businesses to attract profitable clients. She conducts workshops for Law firms, and collaborative practice groups on strategies for building a law and/or collaborative practice. She also facilitates retreats and workshops for Law firms, Financial groups and businesses on strategic planning, including creating a firm wide core message and branding campaign.

© 2008 Elizabeth Ferris, All rights reserved. You are free to use material in whole or in part, as long as you include complete attribution, including live web site link. Please also notify me where the material will appear.

The attribution should read: "By Elizabeth Ferris of Ferris Consulting. Please visit Elizabeth's web site at http://www.ferrisconsult.com for additional marketing articles and resources on marketing for dispute resolution professionals."