March 2008
Accountability for Your Practice
"I'd like to market my practice but I am incredibly busy." The attorney told me on the telephone. Still she had come to me for help with client development. When did she plan to do her client development work?
Many attorneys think of marketing as something they do in addition to their practice but the truth is marketing is part of the work of the practice. As such it needs to be scheduled in the same way that you schedule case work.
At the start of your practice you have plenty of time to market because you have only a few clients. As your practice grows your time for marketing becomes less but you still need to schedule it.
Every time you get a new client be sure to ask how they heard about you. By doing that you know what works for you. With less time to market a busy attorney must limit themselves to the use of the marketing actions that work best for him or her.
There is no doubt that the majority of attorneys I talk to prefer legal work to marketing. (Actually though we always find some forms of marketing that are fun for them.) So how do you insure that you take the steps necessary to make marketing your focus for the number of hours a week that you have determined you need?
If you don't do your legal work, your clients complain. Who complains if you don't do your marketing? Probably no one until you notice that fewer and fewer clients are showing up. That's when you think about client development work.
So because you don't love to do the marketing work and no one complains when you don't do it, there is no wonder that marketing work doesn't get done.
Clients and bosses actually make you accountable for getting your work done. It is painful when you don't. You either have a dissatisfied client or boss or both and that can make life very stressful. That is what I would call negative motivation (you move away from the pain and towards the goal) and that does work.
If you have no one to be accountable to for marketing then it just doesn't get done no matter how good your intentions were.
How can you insure that you will do the marketing you need to do? First develop your marketing plan and use the marketing actions that have worked before. New to the practice of law? Experiment with a few methods and track the results to see what works best for you.
Make sure that at least 2 of your methods are ones that will put you in front of the potential referrer and/or client. You can't get the client without being with him/her on the phone or face to face! (Writing articles, having a website, and advertising are one step away from being in front of the client.)
Now set up some goals for yourself based on your marketing plan. Be sure to have a time and date that you want to complete your goal and move forward.
Taking action will make you feel better, but it still may be difficult to do. There are always interruptions and distractions. It's easy to excuse yourself if you miss a deadline. Do these statements sound familiar? "I'll do it tomorrow." "I have a big case coming up. No time!" "I'll wait until I have more time." "I'll do my marketing on the weekend."
When you find you are procrastinating and finding a million other things to do instead of working on your marketing, enlist the aid of a colleague or friend. Ask that person to become your accountability partner so that you can move forward. Share your goals and your time line.
You are now making a commitment to that person and to yourself that you will complete the action or actions you have promised to take by a certain date and time.
Where do you find an accountability partner? Ideally you'll know someone who also needs an accountability partner so you can help each other. It can actually be fun with right approach and attitude.
Finally of course people hire coaches to work with them. Accountability coaches can help you to set realistic goals and then make you accountable for attaining them.
Coaches are also trained to help clients to address the obstacles that sometimes come up. As unbiased partners coaches hold the vision of your successful practice. So in addition to having an accountability partner who supports you and your goals you also have a skilled partner who sees the vision of your practice and hears what you have said are the obstacles to your success. The coach helps you to find ways to overcome those challenges toward your dream.
Take Action
- Do you have a marketing plan? If not then that is the place to begin.
- What are your 3 or 4 chosen marketing methods? Would an accountability partner be helpful for you?
- Make a list of possible accountability partners? (This could be helpful even if you don't want to have one right now. You might listen for opportunities to help the people on your list with their goals so that when you need them they will be available to do the same for you.)
- Read Getting Things Done http://www.asparker.com/rts0907.html
for other ideas about getting your marketing goals accomplished.