Action Plan for Lawyers to Stand Out From Your Competitors

Introduction

In my last article titled — “Finding your Niches and Developing your Strategy” we discussed the approaches and qualities that will help you define your niches and differentiate yourself from the competitors. If you have figured that out, let us now work towards implementing the measures that will give you a deeper analysis of your progress and will allow you to keep a track of your path toward winning.

Remember how a scorekeeping is done in any sporting event! There are two levels of scorekeeping. One is the final score – the eventual win or loss numbers. The other is the game within the game – the personal performance statistics of any player that shows whether the player is on track toward the eventual win or not.

Similarly, there are two different ways to keep score of a law firm’s or law practice’s success. Measures, such as — hours billed, revenue collected, and profitability are the final scores for measuring the final success of any firm. The other is deeper analysis of your personal progress, which will allow you to see how well you’re doing on your path toward winning the market from your competitors.

What should be the approach?

To that end, you should develop your own set of personal goals and measures. This can prove out to be the single most important difference between whether you will be successful or not.

Remember the ‘Hawthorne principle’ —

‘That which is measured will improve.’

Once you define your goals, develop a system for measuring those goals and make this a part of your daily routine. By making measurement a top priority, you will be much more likely to achieve your personal goals. Set your goals and create measures that are within your reach, but put some stretch into it.

Some preliminary questions to ask yourself include:

• Where am I right now, and where do I want to be?
• What must I do to build my practice?
• What am I currently doing, and how can I improve on that?
• What am I trying to change or improve?
• How will that change or improvement impact me?
• Can I break my goals into sub-steps to measure my progress toward my goals?
• How will I measure my progress?

We can’t stress enough that one of the great secrets to developing a solid, consistent practice is to develop and track specific “progress” measures. Good measures provide better focus, they increase motivation over the long haul, and they keep business development top-of-mind. The key is to find the right measures that will lead you to your goals, and that also fit your personal strengths and interests.

Effective Progress Measures

Some effective progress measures include:

1. Client feedback meetings – Try to have regular client feedback meetings to improvise and deliver better. This can also result in greater loyalty, more of the same work, increased cross-selling opportunities, and possible referrals.
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2. Extraordinary service delivered – measure yourself on the number of “wows” you receive, the number of times clients praise you for doing more than expected.
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3. Business development discussions with others in your firm – which can result in identifying opportunities, holding each other accountable for action, and cross-selling.
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4. Leadership positions in targeted outside organizations – This can lead to meeting more targeted prospects and greater visibility in your niche markets.
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5. Contacts made with high priority targets – which can lead to greater top-of-mind awareness and being in the right place at the right time when opportunities arise.
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6. Size of key networks – the more people you know, the better chance you have of getting work. Collect a lot of the right people, and cluster them into similar categories to help you communicate with them efficiently.
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7. Referrals given and received – the more referrals you give, the more likely it is that people will feel obligated to give referrals back to you.
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8. New relationships built on both sides – meeting more people inside a client, and getting more of your clients to meet others in your firm, can increase client retention and lead to more cross-selling opportunities.
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9. Meals with clients, prospects, and referral sources – there is something magical about sharing food with another person. Increased face time and sustained conversations create deeper personal connections and more opportunities to explore their needs.
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10. Ongoing communication – given that we’ve learned it can take 7–20 contacts to get work, you need to develop many creative and value-driven methods for staying in touch with your contacts.
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11. Presentations – this can get you on-site at a client’s location, allowing you to demonstrate your capabilities, deepen existing relationships, and meet new decision-makers.
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12. On-site visits – whether for presentations, general visits, delivering documents, holding meetings, grabbing lunch, or conducting “office hours”, getting on-site opens worlds of opportunities to meet new people and find more work.
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13. Practice groups used – the more the client uses the firm in areas other than yours, the tighter the connection to the firm, and the less likely they are to leave.
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14. Time invested in business development – nothing takes the place of good, old-fashioned effort. Put in the time, in the right ways, and for better results.

Conclusion

Allow yourself to acknowledge and celebrate your progress. Whether it’s a new prospect lunch, a meeting with a new referral source, a new leadership position, or an in-house presentation to a client that gets you in front of other decision-makers, give yourself credit for doing the right things that will help you to build a bigger, better client base.

On a concluding note, remember that it is not enough to just measure – you must also set deadlines for when you will achieve those measures. Four lunches with prospective clients are good, but by when? What is a stretch, but a reasonable number of activities you can complete? Push yourself, because in most cases you can do more than you are now. Organize yourself so that it becomes part of your routine on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. And see the magic!

Hope you have enjoyed this piece. I’ll be happy to answers any related concerns you may have!

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Originally posted on September 20, 2022 on LinkedIn.

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