Un-Billable Hour: Business Management Strategies for the Busy Lawyer Around the Community Table

In this episode of The Un-Billable Hour, host Christopher Anderson interviews Broel Law Group founder Erik Broel about what it means to build an “A Team,” how attorneys should hire and train their staff, and the underlying qualities of becoming a successful leader. Broel suggests that lawyers chart out and develop a position clearly before beginning recruitment. As resumes come in for the position, he says, it is best to create a series of tests for problem solving, attention to detail, temperament, etc. in order to filter through many applicants. Through the interview and selection process, Broel talks about the job, his law firm’s culture, and discusses how the position will improve the candidate’s life. In this way, the person hired is already invested in the improvement of the firm itself. Becoming this type of leader takes a lot of work, but it is worth the time and energy spent. Make changes one step at a time, Broel says.

All lawyers should start focusing on intake and lead conversion, since it is the easiest and cheapest way to increase revenue. For the purpose of this podcast, lead conversion happens when prospective clients are turned into paying clients. Lead conversion is just a part of intake, the process or system that takes a potential client from the point of contact with your law firm to signing up to be a paying or retaining client. Most lawyers believe themselves to be very good at lead conversion, often boasting up to a 92% conversion rate. However, these lawyers are only counting leads that are already sitting in consultations, who need the services the lawyer provides, and with adequate money to pay for them. Actually, a lead is anyone who clicks on the law firm website, calls for information, or is referred by an existing client. If these leads are measured and analyzed properly, there are very simple changes a law firm can make based on that data to dramatically increase revenue. In this episode of The Un-Billable Hour, Christopher Anderson interviews law firm marketing expert Stephen Fairley about the importance of lead conversion and client retention, the mistakes most law firms are making, and some simple and more complicated solutions to increase intake success. Fairley defines a lead as a person with whom the firm has never done business, who needs the services they provide, and who contacts them by phone or online. Once this potential client makes contact, he explains, conversion rate drops by 400% after 5 minutes. He recommends that every firm have an established non-lawyer and non-paralegal employee responsible for responding to every lead and setting up appointments. Tracking your firm's intake process is incredibly important, Fairley explains, because you can use the data to make small changes with big results. If a law firm is looking for a place to start, he says, they should record all contacts and hire a secret shopper to give some outside perspective. Stephen Fairley is the founder and CEO of The Rainmaker Institute, the nation's largest law firm marketing company specializing in marketing and lead conversion for small to medium law firms. He has developed "The Rainmaker Marketing System" which has helped more than 10,000 attorneys nationwide who have leveraged his system in building their businesses. Fairley has written two international best-sellers and is academically trained as a clinical psychologist. Prior to focusing on the legal marketplace, Fairley ran two successful small businesses and over a period of 14 years and he has become a nationally-recognized legal marketing expert. He has spoken numerous times for over 35 of the nation's largest state and local bar associations and he has a large virtual footprint with a highly successful rainmaker legal marketing blog.

Consumers and clients believe customer service has become increasingly bad, yet most businesses believe their customer service is above average. Lawyers are certainly not exempt from this. However, in the age of Twitter, Facebook, and smartphones, unhappy customers are able to share their bad experiences to hundreds, thousands, even millions of people in real-time. So how do law firms, solo lawyers, and other businesses combat this influx in technology and potentially harmful online information? There's no trick, loyalty program, or hack that will work. Lawyers, and all other people providing service, will just need to create a good experience for their clients and customers across the board. In this episode of The Un-Billable Hour, Christopher Anderson interviews customer service consultant Peter Shankman about how clients are changing the way they respond to bad service, the part technology plays, how businesses should respond to this change, and his view for the future of online reviews. Shankman begins by explaining the change in the way businesses have sold their products and services for the last 60 years. With the advent of the internet, people are more skeptical of advertising, and are able to connect with each other and interact in real-time. If one unhappy client shares his/her experience on social media, hundreds of people will see it. Shankman discusses transparency and genuine apologetic responses as the effective ways for lawyers to respond to these bad client experiences. However, in order to make clients fanatics, lawyers need to simply communicate with them and treat them with respect, and the client will brag about the good service to others. In the next four years, Shankman expects even online review sites like Yelp and Tripadvisor to become less relevant to business reputations than social media sites like Facebook, Google+, or Twitter. The most important point, Shankman emphasizes, is to consistently treat your clients decently and with respect. When your customer has an amazing experience, they will want to share. Peter Shankman is an author, consultant, entrepreneur, and the owner of several multi-million dollar companies. He speaks to companies all around the world about how to provide amazing customer service and how to take advantage of the social conversation economy that he believes will be driving the global commerce engine over the next 100 years. Shankman has worked with hundreds of well-known companies and brands, as well as many other companies around the world. His newest book is Zombie Loyalists: Using Great Service to Create Rabid Fans.

Most lawyers are technicians; they want to provide legal services but cringe at the necessary step of selling them. There is a negative connotation of sales and marketing in the legal field. Lawyers often feel like they are trying to convince a potential client to pay for something he or she does not really need. But what if lawyers began to think of marketing as a network of trust and sales as connecting a person with legal needs to the right lawyer? While many lawyers would embrace this as an idea situation, few know where to start. What steps should solo and small firm lawyers take to ethically and effectively sell their services? In this episode of The Un-Billable Hour, Christopher Anderson interviews networking expert Bob Burg who wrote a book about successful marketing techniques called "The Go-Giver." Burg describes a different sort of marketing in which the lawyer provides value to the consumer in the form of comfort and trust. By shifting the focus of the practice to the consumer's needs, the lawyer creates an environment in which people want to pay him/her for the legal services they already need. In order to do this properly, Burg explains, the lawyer must recognize five "laws of stratospheric success," or systems for evaluating the success of their practice: value, compensation, influence, authenticity, and receptivity. These laws are based around the idea that authentically and genuinely putting others first will inevitably be profitable for a valuable legal practice. Burg does not mean giving away services, however. He encourages lawyers to do some research; ask happy clients what qualities about the service they found valuable build upon those qualities for future marketing techniques. Bob Burg is a sought-after speaker at corporate conventions and for entrepreneurial events. He has written the well known business marketing books Endless Referrals and The Go-Giver. His latest book is entitled, Adversaries Into Allies: Win People Over Without Manipulation or Coercion which discusses how to master the art of Ultimate Influence. Bob is an advocate, supporter, and defender of the Free Enterprise system, believing that the amount of money one makes is directly proportional to how many people they serve.

Many lawyers believe they are not benefiting from the time and money spent on marketing their firm. Online marketing can seem complicated and time-consuming and most lawyers do not want to seem self-promoting so hiring marketers seems like the best option. However, the fact is that marketing a personal brand is both necessary and not as hard as it seems. Especially in solo and small practices, lawyers are marketing their reputation every day by building relationships online and in their offline communities. But in a field where everyone is doing the same thing, where should a lawyer start and how does he or she stand out from the crowd? In this episode of The Un-Billable Hour, Christopher Anderson interviews legal marketing consultant Mary Beth Monzingo about the importance of marketing a personal brand, how lawyers can start building relationships and connections with potential clients, and tips to a successful online marketing strategy. Monzingo encourages lawyers to market themselves at all times whether working with a client on a case or while engaging in outside hobbies and activities. Additionally, lawyers need to attend networking conferences, connect with other lawyers, stay in touch with law school alumni, and be an active part of associations and organizations. Online, lawyers should be available on most social media outlets, create valuable content, have a "call to action" on their website, and always maintain a consistent presence. Monzingo encourages every lawyer to spend 2-5% of their revenue on marketing in order to see an increase of 10% or more. And, don't forget, consistency is key. Mary Beth Monzingo is the managing partner of Monzingo Legal, a consulting company for legal marketing and management, business development, and law firm recruiting. A specialist in helping lawyers start and build their law practices, she has consulted with hundreds of attorneys in structuring successful firms, implementing marketing departments and strategies, and recruiting top talent for expansion and growth.

Many lawyers are hesitant to regularly look at their finances. In addition to the regular workload and marketing, maintaining a budget seems overwhelming and is often undervalued in time management. After all, when managing a business, there are so many different factors that can affect cash flow and finances: personnel issues, economy changes, client payment plans, marketing and advertising, clerical errors, and many others. Although it may seem difficult to organize and prioritize the finances of a law firm, there are six key categories that break down the budget so that it can easily be managed. In this episode of The Un-Billable Hour, host Christopher Anderson interviews financial analyst Brooke Lively about the six key numbers every attorney should know. Three are involved with the money that exists or has already been spent: cash position, budget, and accounts receivable. Lively emphasizes the importance of knowing how much the firm has, how much it is owed, and what is being spent. She recommends that an attorney then take these numbers and analyze them to provide cash projections, budget variance, and income variance. Any noticeable changes can lead to modifications to save the company unnecessary losses. By simply paying attention to these six numbers each month, the success of a lawyer's practice could greatly increase. Brooke Lively currently serves as a CFO to over twenty small and solo law firms around the country through her organization, Cathedral Capital. She focuses on fundamental analysis, firm modeling, and valuation backed by strong quantitative skills. She holds an MBA with a double concentration in Investments and Corporate Finance and has been awarded the Chartered Financial Analyst certification.

While identifying a client base, deciding on office space, and making countless other decisions, assumptions are made when developing a legal business plan that are, at best, educated guesses. Many startups have decided to follow in the path of previous companies only to find that their firm does not thrive in such a structured methodology. In the incredibly complicated world of legal business, social media attorney Scott Malouf argues that the Lean Startup method provides an alternative and relatively efficient approach to identifying the specific needs of potential clients. Lean Startup is a trial and error based business model in which a startup company makes small, specific assumptions and does vigorous testing on the results rather than depending on a big picture business plan. On this episode of The Un-Billable Hour, Christopher T. Anderson interviews Malouf about the benefits and difficulties of applying Lean Startup to law firms. New law firms can benefit by limiting wasted money, efforts, and time by truly sampling what clients might want and eliminating unnecessary services according to direct feedback. However, there may be challenges in ethical statutes surrounding lack of certain services and the ability to be transparent with clients. Scott Malouf is an attorney who helps other attorneys turn texts, social media, and web-based information into evidence and advises in social media risk reduction. He has extensive insight into the best practices for startups, challenges that may arise, and examples of how he has personally applied Lean to his practice. He writes the Social Media Law column for the New York Daily Record and can be found on Twitter @scottmalouf. Stick around to the end for details on how you can learn more about Lean Startup.

As the rate of new technology increases, it becomes more difficult for lawyers to keep up with industry standards for protecting client data confidentiality. In addition to the rigors of day-to-day practice, attorneys are expected to be familiar with terms such as SSL 256, SaS 70, and SSAE 16. On this episode of the Un-Billable Hour, host Chris T. Anderson interviews The Droid Lawyer blogger, Jeffrey Taylor. Together they discuss the importance of attorneys staying current through workshops, blogs, conferences, and state bar associations. In addition, tune in to learn more about the security issues associated with cloud-based vs. server-based practice management software solutions. Jeffrey Taylor is the author of The Droid Lawyer blog. The blog discusses Android mobile operating system for lawyers. The Droid Lawyer is one of the ABA Journal's Top 100 law blogs, and one of Biztech Magazine's Top 50 Must Read IT Blogs. Jeff is an attorney in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

Law firms are beginning to utilize Lean Six Sigma standards to improve service quality for their clients. This two-tiered approach is both paradigm and methodology aimed at increasing organizational efficiency and accuracy of work. It focuses attention and efforts toward changing those behaviors and systems that slow productivity and increase errors. On this episode of the Un-Billable Hour, host Christopher T. Anderson interviews managing consulting expert Debbie Foster from Affinity Consulting Group. Together, they discuss Lean Six Sigma and the 8 main areas where law firms are losing productivity and profitability. Tune in to learn how your firm can benefit from modern day management practices by reducing waste, down time, and much more. Debbie Foster is a Partner with the Affinity Consulting Group (ACG), where she specializes in practice management, time/billing/accounting and document management software, as well as providing technology audits for firms around the country. She has also trained hundreds of consultants around the country on software programs used in law firms and best practices when consulting on a law firm's specific technology needs. Foster is very active with State Bar Associations, a former Chair of ABA TECHSHOW, and a regular speaker on topics relating to technology, management, finance, and marketing of a law firm.

Nearly every firm has clients who are difficult to collect from. Most lawyers are not trained to deal with that. On this episode of the Un-Billable Hour, host Chris Anderson interviews experts Loretta Ruppert and Jeff Krause. Together, they explore ways to effectively track and manage client billing. Loretta Ruppert is the current Senior Director of Marketing for the SaaS Product Platform at LexisNexis. She is the subject matter expert for billing and accounting software solutions, including Time Matters, and has been involved in developing software products for law firms for nearly twelve years. She is a current member of the American Society of Women Accountants and the former Controller for the Bliss Riordan Law Offices. Jeff Krause is a Wisconsin attorney who founded Krause Practice Management, LLC and is a founding partner at Solfecta, LLC. He is a Certified Independent Consultant for software solution Time Matters and a frequent author and speaker on legal technology.