Most lawyers will have some marketing and business development goals and objectives in mind. However, such goals often tend to be aspirational and lacking in specificity — things like “make partner,” “generate more referrals” or “increase my visibility.”
You could set a goal of “bring in ten new clients through digital marketing in the first quarter” or even something as simple as “establish a strong brand presence on social media.” These goals will let you know what steps you need to take to make them happen, like getting a new website, setting up email campaigns or optimizing your social media profiles and filling them with …
Jan 09, 2015 · Make the goal worth working for, but don’t set yourself up for failure. A 40 percent increase in settlements, for instance, is a goal based on luck. Determine your firm’s actual strengths and weaknesses, then build goals around them. Don’t …
As a firm, your law firm strategy should include several concepts: Your mission and values are clear and documented. You have a business model built around solving client problems in line with their expectations at an appropriate price and pricing options that appeal to those clients and work well for your firm, too.
Jan 07, 2015 · Legal departments do not always lend themselves to neatly setting goals like the business units, i.e., it can be difficult to measure “success” in legal vs. measuring profits and sales or setting key performance indicators (“KPI’s”). That said, setting goals for the department or yourself is important and a fresh opportunity to take ...
Whatever goals you decide to focus on this year, the key comes down to three factors: 1 Be clear about why you’re pursuing a goal. 2 Measure your progress. 3 Stay accountable.
SMART goals result in goals that are easier to track, monitor, and assess —in the short and long term.
SMART goals for lawyers go hand-in-hand with KPIs for lawyers because both value measurement, tracking, and accountability.
Hyper-focusing only on performance goals like getting good grades as a law student or making a lot of money as a lawyer. To be your most successful self and to keep you fulfilled and well-rounded as a lawyer and as a person, it’s important to widen the scope of your career goal-setting.
Worthy Goals and Potential Strategies 1 Buy several boxes of notecards and send at least one personal note a week. 2 Set up three client visits or tours next year. 3 Meet with one client contact you’ve never met before. 4 Schedule a certain number of coffees and lunches each month. 5 Whenever possible, pick up the phone instead of sending an email.
3. Engage in credentialing activities. Clients want to hire an “expert,” but how do they know how much you know? They don’t. That’s why they look at your articles, blog postings, honors, activities and presentations. A few tips: 1 Identify a publication in which you’d like to be published and pitch an article topic. 2 Contact an industry or trade association with an idea for a presentation. 3 Write an alert for a newsletter or blog. 4 Volunteer or run for a leadership position in a key organization. 5 Offer to give a presentation at a seminar or symposium.
2. Provide better client service. Everyone knows that existing clients are the best sources of new business. So it only makes sense to spend more time and energy nurturing those important relationships. Some ideas: 1 Acknowledge every email ASAP, even if just to say you will answer more fully later. 2 Return all phone calls within a half-day. (Or, if you are tied up, have your assistant do it for you.) 3 Change your outgoing voicemail daily to reflect your availability. 4 Set up intake meetings with the lawyers and staff — and possibly the client — to discuss and coordinate new matters. 5 Establish a formal client team for a major client.
When setting goals, you want to be sure that they’re: 1 Achievable (a 10% increase in revenue versus double) 2 Time-specific (to give a deadline so it gets done) 3 Concrete (bring in five new clients next month versus vague “I want to be successful” goals)
Examples of goals to set could include: 1 Increase employee retention by 6 months 2 Automate collections to reduce the time spent on it by 6 hours a month 3 Reduce overhead by 5% by the second quarter
Determine your firm’s actual strengths and weaknesses, then build goals around them. Don’t rely on hoping and wishing. Relevant. Choose goals that will actually impact your business. For instance, you know that social media plays an important role in online marketing.
FindLaw, part of Thomson Reuters, is a leading provider of business development solutions for law firms. Through its team of legal marketing experts, FindLaw drives the industry by delivering a comprehensive portfolio of proven online and offline marketing solutions designed to connect law firms with targeted prospective clients.
Law firm strategy is a future-proof plan that enables firms to prioritize objectives, remain competitive, and optimize financial goals. It allows firms to differentiate themselves from the competition, reflecting both strengths and weaknesses.
Your law firm’s mission is the reason your firm exists, the ultimate purpose. It helps define what it is your firm does, how you do it, who you do it for and the value you bring to your clients.
To communicate your mission, create a mission statement: a short sentence describing your firm’s purpose and goal. For example, take a look at Google’s mission statement: “To organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.”. Keep it simple.
To create a sustainable business, you must plan for the future of law practice. Through the technology at your disposal, it’s possible to create unforgettable experiences for your clients. By designing your firm for innovation, you’ll stay flexible as client needs evolve.
Design thinking is an ideology aimed at applying long-established design principles to the way we build our businesses. It’s used to intentionally craft your law firm over time to deliver services simply and functionally. Using design thinking, you can approach innovation and problem-solving in a user-centered, responsive, intentional and experimental way, tolerant of failure.
You use a set of key performance indicators (KPIs) to monitor your firm’s health and help you predict your future success. Your KPIs are regularly reviewed and updated. You conduct a competitive analysis and adjust your strategy to win your market on at least a quarterly basis.
Deadlines, billing pressures, client demands, long hours, changing laws, and other demands all combine to make the practice of law one of the most stressful jobs out there. Throw in rising business pressures, evolving legal technologies, and climbing law school debt and it’s no wonder lawyers are stressed.
Rising workloads and shrinking staffs are translating into more work hours for lawyers than ever before. The demands of global law practice also mean that some lawyers must be available to clients around the clock.
The cost of a law school education has outpaced inflation in recent years. Tuition at even mediocre law schools can reach well over $40,000 annually. Entering practice with a six-figure law school debt is not uncommon.
Today’s lawyers face one of the bleakest job markets in history. Record numbers of jobs have been cut and salaries have plummeted but law schools aren't dialing back on enrollment. Some lawyers have been forced to settle for less-than-ideal employment or to change careers altogether.
Clients have become more conscious of their legal spending. After years of seeing billing hikes that far exceeded inflation, clients began demanding more value for their dollars. This forces lawyers to keep their billing rates reasonable.
The practice of law is changing dramatically and lawyers no longer have a monopoly on the field. From legal document technicians to virtual law offices and self-help legal websites, today’s lawyers face competition from a variety of non-lawyer sources.
Technology has transformed the practice of law and, like it or not, lawyers must become proficient in a wide range of technology platforms. These range from document review and management tools to spreadsheet, presentation, and billing software.