Leverage networking is one of the best possible ways of making the most returns on what you invested in your referral networking. Most attorneys do go out seeking for referrals and at the end of the day , they get few people simply because they have not used leverage networking techniques. First of all you need to understand that you can’t catch large number of fishes with a small net. You need to understand how networking can create opportunities for you before seeking out for such referral networks.
You need to understand that networking is not always the use of people but the use of the personal relationships you have with others in increasing your exposure to opportunities and information. Most attorneys are making random contacts with those they believe will work effectively for them on their referral lists however they fail to make follow-ups, most of the people they meet often do not have any client to refer or they don’t have confidence in the attorney to whom they are referring potential clients.
The objectives of law firm referral networking are; Creating an ever-expanding relationship within the networks and potential clients, and gathering information that will be very helpful for your business. Being successful in your leverage marketing means you have to detect those you want to reach, you have successfully figure out those among your referral network that will help you contact such people, You need to ask the primary network members if they know any of your targeted potential clients, you need to have a personal introduction with the leverage contact and establish a relationship with him and have a follow up. When you follow these simple steps you will optimize your law firm referral network marketing to your best advantage.
Expanding your network is one of the major steps you must take in enforcing your leverage referral network. Remember, for each person you add to your network there is a potential of adding more than double the potential clients on your law firm services, your added clients will thus serve as the secondary referral network. Remember to ask members of your secondary referral network for potential clients after you have satisfied their needs- Doing this will help you create chains of referral networks through leverage network marketing. You need to seek out for people with leadership and people-oriented minds who are in professions that expose them to meeting different kinds of people.
Though most attorneys prefer a one approach rate ,however the ever changing economic situations as well as changes in the intensity of legal services provided has made it imperative for attorneys to consider different factors while setting their legal service fees. There are different forms of approaches that can be used in setting legal service fees and some of the commonest ones include; The contingency sliding scale tactic, The split fee tactic, The hourly sliding scale tactic, and the minimum fee tactic.
1.The minimum fee tactic is most suitable for legal cases such as uncontested divorce cases, and plaintiffs’ employment cases. In this situation, the attorney only accepts a non refundable retainer which is the minimum fee acceptable for such cases. The retainer is often replenished if the case exceeds the hourly rate, however in contingency cases, and where there is recovery, then the retainer is deducted from the attorney’s fee upon disbursement.
2.The Hourly sliding scale tactic involves a tactic in which the attorney bills a client for the first 100 hours of his service at a normal hourly rate , then the percentage of charges levied on subsequent hours of legal services offered increases. Bigger clients often prefer this method of billing because they think the attorney becomes more efficient as the percentage of charges increases.
3.In the case of Split fee tactic, the client is charged at half of what obtains normally on hourly rates . In this situation , the half of the contingency fee is taken upon recovery. This is a tactic that is becoming more popular in litigations involving contractual obligations including the collection of debts and related issues. Corporate clients often prefer this mode of fees because they feel the attorney is sharing the risk involved in such litigations with them and the attorney is not getting a huge share out of the money recovered.
4.The contingency sliding scale traffic is not a static fee arrangement but it depends on the nature or kind of work done. The fee might be low in situations where the attorney settles the case without filing a suit, the fees chargeable increases if a lawyer has to file a suit and the case goes to court. One other variation in this situation is that an attorney may charge his client base on recovery- the charges increase as the weight of recovery increases.
It is ideal for an attorney to understand retainers and other fees chargeable for legal services to have a better relationship with prospective clients
Many law firm proprietors still get themselves confused when it comes to setting their retainers and fees. Most attorneys do act of their irrational fear that raising their retainers fees above a certain level will make them lose their clients, while some do believe that there should be a chance for bargaining and if some simple rules are followed, it will be ideal at the long run to follow some principles which will likely drive prices.
Understanding the price movement between supply and demand is the first step for an attorney to set your law firm’s retainers and fees. You need to know that more pressure are placed on prices especially when there is an increase in demand relative to supply. The scarcity of your legal services will make more potential clients compete for your attention and legal representation. An increase in law firm marketing and advertising for instance can drive the demand for your legal services upwardly , while lack of such law firm marketing techniques may decrease the demand for your services.
The upward and downward trend movements of demands and supplies often make attorneys insecure about their rates, however you can beat these challenges by focusing your rates on three important factors which are; service buying trends, income of individual clients and then the scarcity of your legal services within your area of profession. One other factor you must consider is the fact that if your service demand is high compared to you inability to meet up with such demands then you can raise your fees. If your hourly rate is higher then you will need to work fewer hours to generate the same desired income level.
Setting your hourly rate is another factor you must consider when deciding your service rates. Having one hourly rate is most suitable for a law firm. You need to understand how you will negotiate with your clients before setting your hourly rates and you need to ask other attorneys about their charge rates within your geographical location before setting yours. There are basically two ways you can increase your hourly ways and charges in general. You can increase it across boards in which your potential clients and old clients are affected with the changes, if you are not comfortable with this arrangement, you can quote a new rate for your new clients and leave the old ones with the old fees and rate.
There are several types of retainers obtainable with law firms, however the commonest ones include; The full payment retainer, The partial payment retainer, and the Replenishing retainer. In cases involving full payment retainer, payments are paid in full and in advance. This form of payment agreement is imposed by an attorney when he feels that the client is a credit risk to his law firm{ for instance, criminal clients are often expected to pay in advance}. This form of retainer is also used in flat fee matters which are often completed within a month{ for example, incorporation and company registration issues}.
The partial payment retainer arrangement involves a situation in which the attorney ask for part of the fee in advance { usually half of the whole agreed fees} and he balance due on completion of the legal case. This is the most suitable for more expensive and complicated jobs that will turn around in less than 60 days or 2 months. Immigration hearings and estate plans are some of the legal cases where this form of retainer fees is charged. One other advantage of this form of payment is that little invoicing is involved.
The replenishing retainer is most suitable for hourly legal services. It can be described as a form of deposit payments in which a lawyer accept some money for specific hours of a legal services that will be offered. They are payments made against future extra hours that will be spent on a case and the client replenishes the fees as the hours are exhausted but the case continues. The client is invoiced especially when he is exhausted and hasn’t been able to continue with the replenishing. Though the retainer in this case must be reasonable but must not be ridiculously small in such a way that your client takes your services for granted.
A replenishing retainer can be set right in a number of ways. The client for instance pays a retainer equal to the estimated hourly rate which will be billed within the next two months, and at the end of each month the client is invoiced. The retainer should be placed in escrow and you can subtract the invoice from the escrow account , indicating the remaining balance that will be paid. You need to attach statements that explains any extra charges or fees spent during the course of the legal case, and a statement indicating that the client will receive his balances after the settlement of the case.
As a solo practitioner or a small scale law firm, you know very well that you have lots of responsibilities on your shoulders and without proper management and planning strategies you may find yourself out of business or find yourself struggling with your operations. You will have to handle several issues at a time. You need to understand that a bulk of your revenue generation will depend on how well you can market yourself and your law firm.
Most solo and small scale law firm attorneys are at cross-roads when it comes to marketing. They often rely on running after individual clients to remain in business, they also rely in putting few ads on yellow pages and putting phone calls to their friends and they do rely on such for the constant generation of clients for their law firm practices. This is a step in the right direction but it is ideal for an attorney to understand that a solo legal practitioner cannot survive without collaborating with other law firms { especially the bigger ones}. Bulk of the jobs which successful solo practitioners and small scale law firms get when they start operations often comes from the “remnants” of jobs handled by bigger law firms.
Referral marketing is one of the driving forces that must be used by small scale law firms and solo legal practitioners . A small scale law firm will remain the same if it doesn’t expand its network beyond the initial stage it started from. Referral networking should be optimized in such a way that other attorneys and professionals from different walks of life are actively included and will continue to generate potential clients that will help the small scale law firm grow and expand.
Nobody else needs internet SEO optimization techniques and marketing more than a solo practitioner or small scale law firm. Online SEO optimization puts your law firm at a certain advantage where potential clients can locate you. A proper Internet optimization strategy will make your law firm looks bigger than it is actually and that can help your expand your scope of activities in a relatively short period of time.
Online SEO strategies will also ensure that you include all the components of your law firm on your web pages. You don’t have to spend much on brochures and other paper works to get your law firm noticeable, all you need is to include all information on your web pages and you get noticed.
Executing your law firm marketing strategies is one way of getting your desired rewards. In executing your law firm marketing strategies, you need to define your targeted clients and your practices. The latter comes first . Many lawyers do not define their law firm practices, rather they always want to concentrate on being an expertise in their legal practice area. This however has not lead them to the position they actually desire. Your law firm practice should be defined in terms of the individual clients you meet and not by your own obligations as an attorney-your clients should come first.
Whether you are a solo practitioner operate a larger law firm, you need to identify the area of practice where you hope to meet your client needs. You need to understand that when a client has a problem, it is an individual problem and not a general problem and should be handled individually. It will be ideal to be a specialist in a certain field of practice than handling a generalized legal problem. Hence the best possible way of defining your law firm practices is to focus more on your strength which makes you more perfect in handling some specific issues. When you try to make yourself a generalized expertise, there is a likelihood that you will miss something out when handling several complex cases and that will create a dent on your law firm marketing strategy and your reputation.
Once you have defined your area of expertise the next move you should make is defining your clients. You can’t execute your law firm marketing strategies effectively well without defining the target audiences and potential clients where the marketing strategy will be directed at. Your target demographics should be defined in terms of the composition of the people, their lifestyles, their educational levels, their profession and every other factor that may influence your decision in selecting them as your targeted audiences. Defining your target audience will help you in serving your clients better.
Once you have decided your targeted audiences and practice area, you need to choose the right marketing avenue for your law firm, you must understand that yellow pages are becoming more saturated and it takes a larger space to get noticed in yellow pages, you can choose widely accepted publications instead of such and then combine it with online and media advertising strategies to execute your law firm marketing strategies.
Creating a strategic law firm marketing plan is vital to your success in the competitive market. Many attorneys do not take law firm marketing because they feel they are in an unfamiliar territory and they often believe they have some big clients who will always pay their bills all the time. Many attorneys are always scratching their heads because their phones are not ringing as they have wanted, and when yellow page ads might not be pulling the kind of crowd they want, hence there is a need to work out a substantial law firm marketing strategy that will bring out the best in your law firm.
There is no doubt that offering and excellent service to your clients will cause your law firm to grow automatically. Aside this , it is important for an attorney to understand that the stiff competition is not generated by profession but by the market place. When potential clients have a choice, they will force you to work harder through service delivery and other forms of advertising your law firm and attorneys. You must therefore remain proactive in your approach to service delivery if you are to remain in business for a long time to come.
It is also important for you to know that the traditional attorney marketing approach is passive and reactive. This has caused a lot of attorneys to suffer especially from the market drifts, this means that most attorneys have to depend on the area of legal practices from which they generate a bulk of their profits. Good service is not enough, you need to market yourself effectively for the world to notice you.
If you are managing a larger law firm, you should know that larger law firms have the tendency to get trapped in the market drift especially when they have to rely on few “rainmakers” to cultivate their business, and as their businesses are growing so also are their expenses growing and they keep the pressure on their clients to bring in refer more clients, the problem is that when a prospective client retires or resign , then a chunk of their generated income is lost. This is where a proactive marketing plan comes in, lack of a proactive law firm marketing plan will lead to the collapse of a law firm especially when their dependent clients quit doing business with them.
There are three major types of referral marketing an attorney can make use of for his law firm marketing strategies and they are; Strategic networking, Opportunistic networking, and Leveraged networking.
Strategic Networking; This is a form of law firm referral networking in which an attorney is strategically positioned in a situation where potential clients are likely to gather. It involves an attorney joining clubs, associations and attending breakfast and luncheons where he hands out his business cards and occasionally he sponsors a business meeting and offer lectures at different venues . You can also sponsor a free seminar for a targeted group of people who will need your services in the nearest future . Strategic law firm referral networking provides more opportunistic advantages than other forms of referral networking because you are strategically located to meet your clients. Online opportunistic referral networking, strategic referral networking works depending on the people who need your services and it is not time efficient.
Opportunistic networking is a kind of networking strategy that produce instantaneous client. The strength of this referral networking lies in the identification of specific opportunities . Opportunistic referral networking is time consuming even though it produces occasional result and the person you are offering a service must need your service at the time when needed before you can count him or her as your client. This is the kind of referral networking strategy used by most lawyers. When they meet someone, they offer their business cards and most times they don’t do any follow-ups
Leveraged networking ; Leveraged networking involves an attorney cultivating a long term relationship with people who are constantly in contact with some other people who need a special legal services, such relationships are built on mutual trust that such referral network will refer people once the opportunity arises. This is a form of mutual beneficial relationship which can actually lead to repeated generation of clients .
It is generally believed that leverage networking is the most time efficient form of law firm networking strategy today. Since you can form chains of networks within a short period of time, you will definitely get lots of clients without even investing in any other form of law firm marketing strategies. Leveraged networking is ideal for small scale law firms and solo legal practitioners who will like to expand their operations within a specific period of time
Seeking referral network from other attorneys is one way you expand your law firm . You need to have a compilation of the several law firms in your region and sending mass mails to these law firms will definitely help in getting referrals that will actually work for the expansion of your client and generating your desired client lists. You need to take note of some specific facts while sending direct mails to your potential referral attorneys.
In situations where you are contacting a cold list, you will need to act in such a manner that you will maintain a strong contact and continue to get in touch with them for a long time. You can attach a free report on a situation which they need to be aware of and educate them on new techniques they can make use of in dealing with the clients and how they can avoid malpractices in their profession. If the list is short enough, you can send them second review in which you directly ask them to respond. You may decide to add a phone review to get their attention the more.
It will be ideal for your to find people you have already known and who can refer you to the attorneys on your list. You should seek out for people who may know the attorneys on your list and when you contact them indirectly then you are contacting them on mutual grounds.
You can also contact potential referrals by getting a colleague of yours to get a letter that will endorse you for a referral network connection with them. This kind of referral contact is much more valuable and attorneys tend to honor such referral request much faster than sending direct referral request individually.
You can decide to send a referral request by including a number of your clients to prospective attorneys. When your client list is made up of people of high caliber, you will not find it difficult getting the referral network of your choice, as a matter of fact , more attorneys will likely want to join your referral networks when they find that you have quality clients on your lists .
Do not stop at sending direct mails only, try as much as possible to make phone calls and back up your referral request with some personal meetings.
Many Attorneys often ask themselves- What exactly is the fastest means through which I can get the most desirable clients? The answer is quite simple, get a excellent referral marketing structure and optimize your law firm website on the internet. Though referral networking remains one of the best possible ways of generating your desired clients. They remain one of the fastest means of getting clients, however you need to consider the fact that it takes some time to build a healthy relationship , earn trust and develop a reputation for yourself.
Another quick way of generating clients is through advertising. Writing for targeted publications and networking yourself with those who matter will help you advertise yourself much more better, likewise speaking at specific events will also be a quick way of getting your desired clients. You need to ascertain if you are targeting the right market before you advertize your law firm and legal services. You ability to communicate with your targeted market is the first indication that it is the right market for you. You need to look into your services first before ascertaining the kind of information you want to give to your targeted audiences.
Another way a law firm can use in getting clients quickly is through direct mail and contact techniques. Direct mail can be emails sent to your potential client email address or through a postal services, Direct mails may also include some form of newsletters which will give a detail of your operations as well as the kind of services you render. Your direct mail should be strictly formal and straight to the point. Many law firms send thousands of direct mails and newsletters on daily basis and they have recorded a high success rate in terms of client’s reaction.
Giving speeches at public events is another way by which you can get clients quickly. Public events will offer you’re the chance of getting in contact with potential clients and the better you are able to make use of the opportunity , the better your chances of meeting the best prospective clients . Many people do not believe in online testimonials likewise they do not regard advertisements as the true nature of your organization , they want to speak to you in person before they are convinced that your legal expertise is the best for them.