GATEKEEPERS: MAKE ALL THE DIFFERENCE

Just imagine a nice person standing on one side of a gate and letting in all kinds of referrals to your business each time the gate is opened.  You could even have each referral be a real qualified lead and if you have trained your gatekeeper correctly, it will be.

OK, we all feel this would be great for our business. But how do we know what our own gatekeepers looks like? Going back to the basics, what is your target market?  Hopefully after all my blogs you have come up with at least one target (best client) profile.

To help you understand, let’s use my example from the time when I practiced personal injury and workers’ comp law.  My best client was someone injured in an accident which, for PI, was not their fault and for WC it didn’t matter as long as it happened at work.

After identifying the target client, I needed  to figure out what person or profession finds out about the problem of that injured party.  In my case, I decided for a lot of injuries it was chiropractors.  Additionally, they might see the injury first but then refer the patient onto other medical professionals if the injury is outside their scope of practice.  This then brings them into contact with other professionals who also treat injured people and might eventually become referral sources for me.

So I chose my Gatekeepers as chiropractors who lived in my community. Now the question is: what do I do next to meet these gatekeepers and get them on board.  Working from the Zig Ziggler premise of doing something for other people as your best marketing tool, I wrote a book in collaboration with a Chiropractor titled: The Medical-Legal Survival Guide, A Handbook for the California Chiropractor.  We published it ourselves and marketed it to all Chiropractors in California.  More importantly, I had my best business card available when I met a chiropractor. I could give them something of value.

Additionally, I gave seminars in my office about how to do depositions, ethics and writing reports.  I taught at some seminars and the book was used by two chiropractic colleges in California as a text book.  Well worth the hard work and expense!

This partnership went onto produce many cross referrals over the 21 years I had my solo practice.  I could refer accident victims to a doctor I knew could write a good report and also give outstanding service to my client.  The chiropractor knew, in turn, that I was ethical, experienced and trustworthy. They could also reach out to me for advice if necessary.  I was available!

So that’s my story about gatekeepers.  Who are your gatekeepers?  Again, start with your target market.  If you are a business attorney, it might be small and mid-sized start ups.  Who knows of their problems?  CPA, Financial Planners, other attorneys, bankers, etc. Next question is how do you reach those people? Get creative.

EVERY ATTORNEY IN THE PRIVATE SECTOR NEEDS GATEKEEPERS TO FILL OUT THEIR MARKETING PLAN.  Let’s talk more about this next week.

HOW TO BECOME MORE CONFIDENT

So I hope you all read last week’s post.  I’m really interested in your comments.  Should women “buy into” every suggestion as how to become more confident in a “man’s world”.  Or is there some other answer?

Well this week I am going to give some well known HINTS about how you can gain more confidence if you feel you might like to……

  • READ MY BOOK, BE A BETTER LAWYER, A Short Guide to a Long Career. If you were a better lawyer than you are right now, wouldn’t you gain confidence? Of course.  Also I have that 20% off offer for you extended to 12/15.  Just go to the ABA.com website and find the book.  Then order it with the code: BBLES20 and that will give you a 20% discount.

Next you will have to do the exercises.  Unfortunately just reading it and thinking about all the ways you are          going  to improve, won’t do it for you.

  •     * Commit to have a fully filled out calendared with all the times and tasks you will be doing each week, completed by Sunday Night so you can start on it first thing Monday Morning!!!

* Decide one goal right now that will bring you confidence if you completed it.  If you can’t think of anything, then make “Write one article for a Journal for submission by December 1,2014.  When the article is published, send it to your A list and post it on Linkedin” your goal.

  • Call one person who you need to speak with but have been avoiding.
  • Make a BUCKET LIST of all the things you want to do with your life in the next five years.  Put dates of completion by each item and get busy.

It’s pretty apparent from this list that building confidence entails doing something.  You can’t just sit and pray it comes to you.  However, the slightest forward movement will create confidence.  I guarantee it!

I’M BACK…

Hi to all,

Yes, I made it back just to check in on you and see if you did the Action Tasks that I gave you before I left.

I’m still too jet lagged to write much but I did want to tell you that my book HOW TO BE A BETTER LAWYER: A Short Guide to a Long Career, is not out and ready for purchase.  I don’t have the correct link yet, but you can go to Shop ABA Store and click into books and then put in title.  If you are a member of the ABA or a Bar Association there is a reduction in price.

Let me know your comments.  Hopefully you will find it useful.  Take the tests and if you don’t understand how to form your goals (although I have fully explained how to do that!LOL ) give me a call and I will help you through that.

All for now.  Will be back next week with more for you to do…….

READ MY BOOK: CHANGE YOUR LIFE

That sounds pretty presumptuous but I know it is true.  I firmly believe that if you take the tests in Part One of the book, you will find the areas of discontent in your life.  Identifying them is the first step.  Then you can go onto making the changes that will bring you greater satisfaction with your career and life.

That’s a lot to predict.  But being a coach, I have been able to see this happen time and time again.  Once we have identified the areas in a career that are troubled, we can find a path to heal those and move forward.  It is something like AA, where you first have to acknowledge that something is wrong before you can change it.

The next part of the book sets out how to go about changing the areas identified.  Take for instance Public Speaking.  You know that being a good public speaker would enhance your career.  You could give seminars, workshops or just shorts talks to colleagues.  How about Court.  Shouldn’t you be a great Public Speaker before a jury? But great fear holds you back from even trying.

This is a perfect example of an area of a career (all lawyers) that could be developed for projecting greater influence in the profession.  My book will give you exact steps to take so that you can overcome this fear.

The Part Two of the book will tell you exactly how to approach and get started on reaching your goals.  I wrote the book for each one of you. I want to see you succeed and have greater satisfaction with your chosen profession.  I guarantee that this book will help you do that.

I would give you a money back guarantee but the ABA won’t let me do that!!!!

 

MY BOOK IS ALMOST HERE!!!

I know I promised you a blog every Monday, but I was excited and had to share the news that my book BE A BETTER LAWYER: A short guide to a long career is coming off the presses as I write this.  It is going to take a couple more weeks for the ABA to get it ready for distribution and I will be sending you the link to purchase it.  It is only $39.95 and you know that you can always get some money off for being a member of a Bar Association or a member of the ABA Section.

It is being published by the GPSolo section, so if you belong, go for the reduction.  It is a book that can help every lawyer, solos, in house, government, partner, associate, teacher.  The first part is identifying what areas of your life you would like to improve.  The second half of the book is how to go about doing that. Next I have included some things to think about how to keep up with all the stuff going on in the future.  There are also two appendices which include a special section for Solos and another on handling difficult problems in the practice of law.

There is something for every lawyer.   It is an ideal gift for an attorney.

It has a story behind it.  About two years ago I started to write it.  I bought a laptop and would write a little off and on but never really “getting on with it”.  Then my friend in the ABA GPSolo publishing committee who I have worked with for many years on the Executive Committee of the Solo and Small Firm Section of the California State Bar, asked me if I didn’t have a book to publish.   Well, I had a couple of chapters in my laptop.

She pushed me a little and I sent my proposal to the ABA Publishing Committee with my first chapter.I sent the chapter because I was scared that they might accept my proposal and hate my writing! Anyway, they like both the proposal and the writing so I “got on with it”.  The result is a publication which I hope will help many lawyers to uncover their strengths, weaknesses, challenges and what they really want to get out of their practice of law.

The Book is meant to be used over and over again as you go through different periods in your practice.  Hopefully, it will become your companion in reminding you how to always BE BETTER.  Lawyers are great people and it has been my privilege to be able to work with many as they create the best careers for themselves.