In this episode, Steve Fretzin discusses:
Key Takeaways:
"There is a process for everything related to business development from how you run a meeting with a friend to get an introduction, how you meet with a prospective client and walk them through a buying decision, how you drive client loyalty, so that your clients never leave. There's processes that I've developed for everything." — Steve Fretzin
Connect with Steve Fretzin:
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Twitter: @stevefretzin
Facebook: Fretzin, Inc.
Website: Fretzin.com
Email: Steve@Fretzin.com
Book: The Ambitious Attorney: Your Guide to Doubling or Even Tripling Your Book of Business and more!
YouTube: Steve Fretzin
Call Steve directly at 847-602-6911
Show notes by Podcastologist Chelsea Taylor-Sturkie
Audio production by Turnkey Podcast Productions. You're the expert. Your podcast will prove it.
Steve Fretzin 0:00
I had a client in my office last week. And his big issue was he really wasn't sure what to do with his time or or how to spend it as relates to networking and business development and meeting with people and he just felt like he was just spinning his wheels not really getting anywhere. And I could tell there was a lot of frustration there just didn't have a real plan for how to execute.
Narrator 0:24
Your listening to be that lawyer, life changing strategies and resources for growing a successful law practice. Each episode, your host, author and lawyer coach Steve Fretzin will take a deeper dive, helping you grow your law practice in less time with greater results. Now, here's your host, Steve Fretzin!
Steve Fretzin 0:46
Well, hello there, everyone. Welcome to my show, be that lawyer. My name is Steve Fretzin and if you're a first time listener, I am a business development coach for lawyers here in Chicago. But working nationally, and actually internationally. My job is to help lawyers to not only make more money, but also to live a better, more free life where they have control over their career. And, you know, my goal is to help them to be confident organized in a skilled Rainmaker, and today, we're doing a special segment called teachable moments. The last episode was on time management if you missed it, and today, I'm going to be talking specifically about developing a marketing plan or prospecting plan. For those of you in the large firm or mid market space. You may have developed a marketing plan, I take a look at these firm based plans all the time, and they're fine. I mean, I think that they go through and they say, Hey, you know, what events? Are you going to go to? What conferences are you going to go to, you know, who are your targets for the year? My biggest concern with these plans is that they're not very tactical, I think that you can read it and say, Yep, that sounds good. And stick it on a shelf. And that'll probably be it for the year. Or you were just doing it to turn something into your firm because they asked you to and again, I'm not faulting them for that. But let's get into how we can get a marketing plan written, that's going to really help you that's really going to get into tactical, actionable elements that allow you to take control of your day, and how you're going to do things as a way to drive business and grow your book and go from 200,000 in originations to 400,000, or grow from a million to 1,000,005, or whatever the number is, and it always starts with a plan, my process and what I teach lawyers every day, I call the three P's methodology. And I apologize that this is not achievable. In hearing my podcast or in reading my book, it just isn't. That's the reality, I could give you a book on how to be a great fisherman, or how to be a great golfer that doesn't make you that, you know, top fisherman bass fisherman in the world, and it certainly won't make you a scratch golfer. So the three P's that I work on with my clients over now six months to a year, typically in a pretty high intensity type of program is number one P is planning. And that's what we're going to cover a little bit today. The second P is process, you have a process for how you litigate, you have a process for how you develop a contract. Okay, there is a process for everything related to business development, from how you run a meeting with a friend to get an introduction, how you meet with a prospective client and walk them through a buying decision, how you drive client loyalty, so that your clients never leave. There's processes that I've developed for everything. Okay. So we start with a plan. And the plan needs to speak to how you're going to invest your time wisely. There are processes which we're not going to talk about today. And then what I also help attorneys with in the final P is performance improvement. And this is where we take the process, we work on it, try it out on the field, and then we debrief it, talk about it make it improved for you, everything needs to be customized to you as an individual, so that you can figure out how to keep getting better and better. So the best example I can give is if I am looking to win a blue ribbon at the state fair for chili, and every time I make chili, it's just okay. In every time I make it, it just it's it's always the same chili, I'm following a recipe or a process, but I'm not making improvements. So if the difference was that when I make the chili, I have 10 people taste it. And they give me feedback, it needs more of this needs more of that more spice, more seasoning more this, okay, use a slow cooker, whatever it might be. And I make those changes and it improves the chili again and again. And again, the chances that I can win the blue ribbon at the cook off is much greater than if I'm just putting out the same average chili all the time. So again, I'm working on plans, processes and performance improvement with my clients. And as I mentioned, it starts with a plan So, I want you to think about two things as a starting point. Because I think without this, it's really very difficult to proceed forward. And that is, what is your objective? What from a business development, we're not talking about your goal, although this could be, you know, brought into your life goals. And I do, you know, also sometimes help clients with that. The point is, is that what's your objective for the year as it relates to growth? Are you looking to go from 200 to 300,000? In originations? Are you looking to bring in three new clients, or maybe if you're just getting started out, maybe it's that you're looking to develop two new strategic partners or referral sources. If that's fine, that's a great goal, if you're a first second, third year attorney, and you're just looking to build up your experience in the law, and you're looking to network as a way to develop, you know, your base of contacts, and you say, you know what, I'm not looking to bring in business, I just need to develop two or three or one new strategic partner, someone that that aligns with me that can can refer me or my firm, that's fine. But for the people that are kind of in the in the pool at the deep end, and they need to develop a book of business or grow their existing book of business, your objective might sound something like this, I will obtain 600,000 in originations by December 31 2020, that could be your objective, it's a one sentence I will and boom, lay it out. Okay. From there, you need to go to step two, which is developing strategies. And there's a lot of different strategies or ways for you to develop business, probably not 100. But there's probably five to 10 that exists that you can look into. And if you're saying right now, I don't even know what you're talking about, Steve, as it relates to strategy, you will, because you've been doing one or two or three of these along the way, or you've thought about them along the way. And we just need to clarify what they are. And the focus here is, what's the low hanging fruit? What's the things that you should be focusing your energy and time on? that's going to get you the greatest return? In my book, the attorneys networking handbook available on Amazon, by the way, I talk about networking being one of the worst ways to grow business. And I get some pushback from that. Because people like what are you talking about networking is the best networking is the best way to get business. Yeah, maybe networking with your existing clients, your past clients and your strategic partners. But what if you don't have those, then what you're going to an event where everyone in the room is a stranger, you have to then figure out of those strangers? Who do you want to invest time over coffee with? And where is their benefit and value for you're very important in billable time. That's why I say networking is the second worst way to your business. And I'm not saying don't do it. But I would say don't do it if you don't have to. So I'm talking with a client. And this client and IP attorney, his name is john and john, if you're listening, this is you, Betty, this is all about you, buddy. And we talked about this. He was networking here and networking there and attending all these events and everything. And I said, how much business are you getting from it? He said very little. But it's sort of my jam. It's what I do. And then I asked him the next question. I said, john, let me ask you, how many clients do you have? And he said, I don't know, 250 300 clients, and I said how much time you spend with them. He says, well, when they need something they call me. And I just about lost it. Because at the end of the day, to go out to a bunch of events where you know, no one and basically, you're just meeting a bunch of strangers. That's so much worse than sitting down with your clients to talk about a potential upsell to talk about a potential cross sell to talk about the fact that your client may think you're the best thing since sliced bread. And you're not asking for introductions, or you're not talking through people that that client may know that could use your help that could use your services. I mean, that's like night and day, that's like going to an apple orchard and carrying around a 50 pound ladder that's 16 feet long, and climbing to the top of a tree to pick an apple and then going down and putting it in a basket, when you can literally walk up to five trees at your height and just grab apples off the tree. So that's what I mean by low hanging fruit. So the first thing that you need to do after you get your objective written down, is to think about what are your strategies? What's the low hanging fruit? And so the important thing to think about is, do you have a client base, and they're your own clients, obviously, if you're doing everyone else's work, which is a percent large percentage of illegal population, that may not be viable, okay? Because unless you talk with your partner who's given them to you and get there, okay, which most of them would will say no, you know, the idea that that you need to go out and find your own stuff. So, if we're starting if we look at it like a pyramid, and at the bottom of the pyramid is cold calling and networking, I don't suggest cold calling, but even contacting people on LinkedIn Considered cold calling that might be something to do to connect with people that are either prospective clients or potential strategic partners. And I define strategic partners as people that can routinely refer you. So if you're an estate planner, and you've got a relationship with a wealth manager, and that wealth manager is interacting with clients that need to state plans regularly, that would be a good strategic partner. And what if you had five to 10 of those that were that refer you over, you know, the year many, many multiple times, that's going to produce some business. So at the bottom of the barrel, bottom of the pyramid, I should say, is the cold calling and the networking, if we step up from there, it might be friends and family, it might be doing things like speaking and, again, you know, different people get different benefits and value from speaking, it might be more of a branding play, where you may occasionally get a client, I have some thoughts about speaking, when I work with clients on that to get much better results than maybe they're currently getting. But I'm not going to share that with you today. If we move up the pyramid another step it might be development of strategic partners, again, people that routinely refer you it might be developing centers of influence people that know everyone, and that try to bring you into such situations and scenarios on a regular basis. And then top of the pyramid, the little, you know, cube at the top or triangle at the top, I should say, is your client base, it's your your past and existing clients, they have the best opportunity to refer you because they know your work, they like you, maybe you've even helped them out of a bad spot. So as you're developing strategies for achieving your objective, I would say keep it to maybe two to four. And so like for me, my three strategies are leverage my past and existing clients for introductions. Number two, is presenting because I actually do a ton of presentations. And I've developed strategic partnerships with organizations where they have lots of lots of lawyers that attend my presentations. And quite frankly, they get to hear me present and get to listen to me recognize I've been doing this a long time. I've been in the legal community for 12 years, and exclusively and I know my stuff. So they then may say, Oh, I want to, you know, talk to Steve about his services. And so I get quite a bit of business from that. And then I also have developed some strategic partners with other people that work in the legal space. So for you, you need to obviously customize this plan for yourself. And the idea that you're going to lay out a couple of strategies are is great. And you can incorporate marketing in there. If you want to do social media, if you want to do writing in blogs, that's fine, too. But at the end of the day, I like the idea of proactive business development being you going out there and getting it, you putting your time and energy on the line, as opposed to throwing money at the problem. And again, for some lawyers in personal bankruptcy or in personal injury, or certainly maybe maybe you know, some some forms of Family Law state planning, you can definitely throw money at the Internet and get a return on that investment. But for people in litigation and corporate and transaction and m&a and IP, you know, you're going to have to you know, leverage your time to go out and get the business to go in and meet with people as a way to drive your future business and existing business. So you might write a strategy that sounds something like this, leverage existing and past clients to upsell, cross sell and obtain new quality introductions. Okay, so what I'm suggesting is that your past existing clients could be leveraged properly. And again, you need to have a process which I'm not talking about today, but a process so that you don't feel dirty or you don't feel pushy or salesy, asking people for things, but I have approaches that are very soft, nurturing and easy. And that's what you would want to you know, utilize. Some of that stuff is in my books, ambitious attorney networking handbook. So you know, again, just some thoughts there. But you can also call me if anybody has any questions about this, and you want to just ask a question, you can reach me through my website, threaten calm. But the strategies are, you know, two or three different ones. Networking might be one, again, leveraging clients, leveraging existing contacts, development, strategic partners, and you're going to want to write two or three. The last piece of the puzzle is, once you've developed a strategy, or two or three, you want to then lay out tactics. And this is the part where I'm not seeing a lot of law firms pushing this piece because they're just looking to get a flavor for what are you going to do and how you're going to spend your time. But it doesn't really help you. So So tactics are the key to the kingdom as it relates to how are you spending your hour your day, your week, your month? What are the actual you know, tasks that you're going to do? So it's the difference between me tossing you a compass and saying go north. That's what a strategy is. Like, I've heard Managing Partner say, just get out there. Just get out there and network. That's not helpful. Okay, because while that might be a strategy, it's not tactical It's not actionable, it's not giving you the language, it's not giving you the steps, it's not giving you how you're going to actually do this. Okay? So the tactics would be written like a story. So underneath your strategy, you would write an outline. And it would include what's the plan? What's the execution? And what's the follow through. So what's the beginning, middle and end. So, you know, you don't want to walk into a movie missing the first 20 minutes, you don't want to walk out of a movie, you know, with 20 minutes to go, you want to know soup to nuts, how it's gonna play out. So you want your your tactics to be very similar. So I would suggest writing five day tactics under each strategy in the form of an outline. And there might be multiple bullet points that relate to those tactics. Okay, that would answer questions. Like who, what, when, where, how, and why. So if I said, if you knew that the first thing you had to do to leverage your past and existing clients properly, is that you need to get a list of all those past and existing clients in one spreadsheet. Okay. Then you would say, well, who are they? Okay, well, they're past existing clients, maybe that spent above $1,000. Okay, so you're starting to put a little more clarity around who's worth your time to reach out to someone that did $500 with you 10 years ago, may not be viable versus someone who did 15,000 with you a year ago. Okay. And then another tactic around that same point might be, how am I going to determine sort of who these past existing clients are, as it relates to maybe relationship and opportunity? Do I need to rate them or rank them, okay. And then by the way, when are you going to get this list done, if you don't have a deadline for yourself of when you're going to get this list on, I can tell you from 12 years of working with attorneys, it ain't gonna happen, you're gonna put it off and put it off. And basically, without doing step one, you're never going to get to step 234, and five, so everything is hinting on the idea for this strategy that you need to get a list of your past and existing clients together, write them out A, B, or C, right and set a deadline to do it. And then as we talked about in time management in our my last segment, you know, schedule some time to do it, you know, it's gonna take you an hour or two hours, or you need to bring in your assistant to help you with it, fine, but set a deadline and knock it out, because everything else is hinged on it. Okay. So again, you've got an objective, that's the big picture, you've got a strategy. And then under that strategy, you're listing out a bunch of tactics, including planning, how you're going to execute, and how you're going to follow through. And that can all be laid out. Now, if you're saying, Steve, that all sounds good, but I'm still not really picking up how to do this, or what this looks like, if you email me at Steve at frets and calm, okay, hearing this podcast, email me and say, Hey, Steve, I heard your podcast, I would like a sample of what you're talking about strategy and corresponding tactics, email me and I will send you a sample. So you can take a look at what I'm saying here. Okay. And I'll do that for you. No worries. Alright. So this is really important because having a plan that is maybe two or three pages of strategy, corresponding tactics, and you say, geez, if I do all these tactics, I'm going to really crush this strategy. If I crush this strategy, and the other one or two strategies, I'm going to be able to hit that objective, I'm going to hit that goal. Wow, that's powerful. You're almost seeing the roadmap. So I didn't finish this analogy earlier. But it's the difference between me tossing you a compass, or me putting a high level GPS in your lap, that not only tells you which way to go. But it also tells you maybe what hotel to stay at, or what restaurant to hit along the way, you know, things that are going to be valuable to you on your trip. Okay. you'd much rather have that type of a plan than a strategy that just says, Hey, you know, go this way or go that way. Okay. So that's really what I wanted to focus on today, as it relates to planning. There's a lot more that goes into it as far as tracking after the fact, but I'm not going to, you know, I don't want to blow your head up with all that all that information. I'd rather just kind of leave it at this. And so again, if you're interested in the plan, you can email me at Steve at Fred's Comm. I also have some planning information in some of my books, where I talk about those things available on Amazon. And so again, this is a segment entitled teachable moments. Hopefully, this was something where you were able to get a couple of takeaways or some ideas that will help you in growing your book of business. And without a plan. I think they say if you fail to plan you plan to fail. That's the saying, coming up in management and sales. Okay. So this is an opportunity for you to get organized in early enough in the year where you can really make some headway as a relates to planning and executing. And I want to thank you for being you know, my audience and hopefully this was helpful to you. Again, my name is Steve Frandsen, and I want to help you be that lawyer confident organized in a skilled Rainmaker. Take it easy, everybody Bye Bye.
Narrator 20:05
Thanks for listening to be that lawyer, life changing strategies and resources for growing a successful law practice. Visit Steve's website fredson.com for additional information and to stay up to date on the latest legal business development and marketing trends. For more information and important links about today's episode, check out today's show notes.