Why Lawyers Need a Marketing Niche
One might think that the topic of niche marketing has been covered ad nauseum, but I regularly coach lawyers who resist the concept. So I know that most lawyers don’t understand what they are missing, and why they should seriously consider establishing a niche. The first thing I point out is that each client wants an attorney who knows how to handle their specific problem. Who has enough time, money or energy to successfully market in several diverse practice areas? Read more
Post Date: May 3, 2013
A Chance to Grab a Better Law Firm Website Name
There’s a big shake up going on in the world of internet domain names. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is accepting applications for new generic Top Level Domains (TLDs). Top Level Domains are the second half of your website name – the part that follows the “dot,” such as .com, .net and .info. Historically, ICANN authorized only 22 generic TLDs and 248 country code TLDs, like .ca or .fr. Recently, however, ICANN began accepting applications for the issuance of new descriptive TLDs, such as .book or .auto.
So why should you care about all this mumbo jumbo? Read more
Post Date: March 28, 2013
How to Properly Shorten Client Meetings That Drag On
In my last post, I wrote about how to recognize bad clients before you make the mistake of taking on the representation. Among the responses I received, there was a request to discuss how to deal with basically good clients with a few unappealing behaviors. These are clients you want to keep, but you just wish that it was a little easier to deal with them in some respect. In this post I’ll make some suggestions on how to wrap up meetings with clients who take up too much of your time. Read more
Post Date: March 6, 2013
Picking the Wrong Clients? You Can’t Blame the Wreck on the Train
“When the gates are all down
And the signals are flashing
And the whistle is screaming in vain,
And you stay on the tracks, ignoring the facts
Well then, you can’t blame the wreck on the train.”
Almost all lawyers have rued their decision to take on some client, and with hindsight can recognize the warning signs that they disregarded. Many of us learned our lessons the hard way, but you don’t have to. Well…you probably will learn the hard way that a difficult client can cause you a lot more harm than the lost fees you wind up writing off. But after one such experience, if you ignore these warning signs, then you can’t blame the wreck on the train.
Here are 10 flashing signals that your new potential client may be a train wreck waiting to happen. Read more
Post Date: February 12, 2013