If you determine that your practice is overloaded with C and D clients, you may need to initiate a housecleaning. The following steps will assist you in this process, and you’ll be surprised at how energizing it is to take control of your practice in this way.

• Step One: Using the client scorecard (also known as the Intake Matrix) go through your case list and rank your current clients as “A”, “B”, “C” or “D”. Note the “A” and “B” clients which you’ll keep, and identify the “C” and “D” clients.

• Step Two: If you think any of your borderline “C” clients can be “rehabilitated” and upgraded to a “B” level, sit down and have a straight conversation with them about what they are doing that is a problem (needing to bring payments current, producing documentation that is needed, stopping canceling meetings, etc.). Some will respond positively to this approach; some will not.
Take the rest of your “C” clients and refer them to another attorney if their issues are personality-based, not payment-based. Avoid sending clients who won’t pay to another attorney. Read More….

Unfortunately, the traits that make a good attorney don’t always make a good businessperson. If you are an attorney who is not buoyed by a natural sense of optimism you may live in constant fear that your practice won’t survive. Driven by this sense of impending doom, and underscored by the lack of true business training most of you receive, you tend to make poor business decisions. Among the worst is the failure to effectively screen new clients. Unfortunately, practicing “threshold law” (working with anyone who crosses your threshold) may feel like the right thing to do but invariably leads to further distress because of the many problematic (non-paying and uncooperative) clients who get in the door.

In fact, if you were to apply Pareto’s Principle, also known as the 80/20 Rule, to your client base, you would probably discover that 80 % of your income comes from 20% of your clients. Read More….

Let me tell you a story: Years ago, while having lunch with a friend, I spotted a potential referral source I wanted to meet, dining at another table. He’d been profiled in a local magazine recently and I had long wanted to make his acquaintance. I gestured for the waitress and said, “Can you find out what he’s drinking?” indicating that I wanted to send over a drink. Upon receiving the drink he politely nodded his thanks to me, no doubt puzzled about who I was. I went over to his table, stuck out my hand and said, “I just read an article about you and I’d like to introduce myself.” We started talking and in the brief conversation that ensued, he invited me to a fundraiser he was hosting. I accepted his invitation and we’ve been friends ever since.

That’s how you think and act like a marketer. When serendipity presents you with an opportunity, you capitalize on it. And when serendipity doesn’t present you with an opportunity, you create it.

Today I want to talk about how to create fundamental new habits to help you think and act like a marketer. New thinking equals new clients. Read More….