Drive Safe: Cloud Data Storage Is Not Backup
And, this isn’t about Google or Microsoft or Amazon’s server architecture going down in flames — if that happens, we’ve all got real problems — it’s more about creating an alternate pathway to your data. What if you need a particular file when your document servers are offline for maintenance? What if there’s an extended power outage, and you can’t get to your files on the web?
The Best of What’s Around: How Distributed Workforce Models Deliver Talent Like Nothing Else
If you want the best people to work for your law firm, take advantage of the current opportunity to intentionally craft the distributed workforce you want.
Bouncing Around the (Zoom) Room: Taking Advantage of Online Networking Opportunities
A lot of those networking opportunities have moved online, and lawyers can now take advantage of broader marketing options via the web.
Lead and Follow(up): What Do You Do with Potential Clients Who Don’t Convert
In order to give yourself another bite at the apple for leads who don’t convert the first time, you need to be able to develop a remarketing strategy.
Lost Highway: Modern Law Firms Require Revised Intake Systems
More than 60% of law firm do not return voicemails. It takes an average of 8 emails to schedule an appointment with an attorney.
Thinking Outside the Inbox: Email Tips
Email drives business; yet, it also drives most of us crazy. If this is the year you want to take control of your email, here are some steps you can take.
Awards Season: Lawyer Superlatives Are Great and All, But You Need More Than That to Convince Clients
If you’re a ‘Super Lawyer’, a legal consumer understands that that’s probably better than hiring an average lawyer; but, that doesn’t tell the legal consumer anything at all about whether you can handle their case.
Preach What You Practice: Practice Area Pages are Essential to Law Firm Website Design
One place lawyers don’t put enough emphasis, in terms of content development, is in the design of website practice area pages. Many lawyers draft super generic content. But, realize that potential clients are coming to you because they want your expertise, and because they want to learn more about the legal process.
Game On! Motivate Your Team with Data
Law firms still tend to make most decisions about practice management on an ad hoc basis: What does your gut tell you to do? But, those attorneys who employ data-driven decision making can gain a tremendous competitive advantage.
The Secret Sauce Is There Is No Secret Sauce: Converting Your Sales Process for the Convenience Economy
The fact is, even without the emergence of the coronavirus, the convenience economy was coming in hot anyway. In the convenience economy, a lack of information is just one more reason to find another service provider.
Next to Nothing: How to Tamp Down Your Accounts Receivable
If your accounts receivable are so high, it makes you sick, or if you won’t even look at them because you’re afraid to see the numbers, that probably means you aren’t billing with any kind of frequency.
Convenience Store: Why Your Law Firm Needs to Be Different Now
Are your services ‘convenient’ for legal consumers to use? Most attorneys can’t answer that question in the affirmative. And, if your law firm is one of those, you should not be asking yourself how you can improve over what another attorney in town is doing, but how you can more closely align to what Amazon is doing.
Raise Up: Law Firms Should Increase Rates Annually
And, while most attorneys think that raising rates is a dangerous step, there are ways to manage it, without alienating new or existing clients.
Talking Points: Cloud Software Delivers Unprecedented Interoperability
One of the best reasons to shift to cloud-based software (or, more cloud-based software) is that cloud systems, by means of a secure internet connection, can pass data back and forth.
Bill’s Excellent Adventure: Invoice More Regularly
Add a task in your calendar at the end of every month for sending out your invoices. And, put a tickler on it, so you know it’s coming up.
What Have You Done for Me Lately: Client Homework is the Great (Effort) Equalizer
Teachers have been keeping students honest with homework for centuries. Lawyers can use the same trick.
Run of the Mill: More Ways to Differentiate Yourself from Other Lawyers
Attorneys should consider new and interesting ways to create unique sales propositions, especially relevant to their customers.
Getting Closer: Can You Quote Clients a Total Price?
The job for modern lawyers is to meet and exceed client expectations. So, if you know (now you do) that clients want to know the total cost of representation before engaging a law firm, how do you provide for that?
Play in the Sandbox: Test Your Software Before You Use It
The best way forward, in implementing new software, is to first test it out in a sandbox environment, before launching it, in full. And, that’s true whether you’re a solo, small firm attorney or large law firm owner.
VoIP is the MVP: This is the Cloud Software You Need for Your Distributed Workforce
VoIP stands for ‘voice over internet protocol’; it is, essentially, a cloud-based phone system. Hardline phones are connected via PBX (‘public branch exchange’), which makes those systems cost more than VoIP, and forces business phone systems to be anchored to a particular place.