Christian Companion Senior Care is very unique. They are legally able to hire only
Christians to work as care givers. Why? It's part of the job description.
We did this video last week for their website.
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Monday, May 26, 2008
Farming 101---8 Steps for Tripling the Number of New Referrals to Your Law Firm in 90 Days
You don't have to be an attorney to get business help from Mr. Fairley!
Posted on October 3, 2007 by Stephen Fairley on The Rainmaker Blog
In my last post, we discussed the 4 myths about referrals believed by legal professionals:
• Clients are the best source of new referrals. False!
• Most legal referrals come from other lawyers. False!
• Online legal directories can produce a lot of new clients fast. False!
• Formal Networking is a great way to find new clients. False!
If these are myths, then what is the best source of referrals? Strategic Referral Partners (SRPs) are the best source of new referrals. SRPs are people who already have a relationship with or already do business with the people you want to reach.
For example, if you target small business owners, a few potential SRPs are:
• Accountants & CPS
• Financial planners
• Insurance brokers
• Commercial real estate agents
• Community bankers
• Payroll processing agents
• Chambers of commerce
• Industry-specific trade associations
• Temporary staffing agencies
• Management consultants & business coaches
• Executive and Management Recruiters
• Angel investors and small private equity firms
• Commercial lenders
• CEO-only clubs (YEO, YPO or WPO groups)
By building a network of people who already have relationships with your ideal target market, you can reap the benefits of more referrals
There are 8 easy steps attorneys can use to create a network of Strategic Referral Partners:
1. Identify the best 2-3 professions or industries where you can find SRPs. You don’t need to focus on all the groups above, only the 2 or 3 which have the best connection with your ideal client.
2. Create a database of at least 200-300 people in these fields who work in your local area. This should include every person who has ever referred someone to you as well as every professional service provider your current & former clients have worked with. If you still need more names you can either purchase a list of names or go to http://www.superpages.com and search for the industry or profession, like “accountant” or “financial planner” and then enter in your zip code. This is a great little tool to quickly build a database.
3. Write up a letter of introduction to serve as a template. This letter introduces who you are, briefly describes your ideal target market, what's different about your law firm, and requests that they contact you if they are interested in getting together to determine if the possibility exists for cross-referrals.
4. Call several people in these fields to identify their challenges. Before you meet with a prospective SRP, be sure to contact some people you already know in these fields to discover common industry trends and challenges so you can talk intelligently about the field when you meet with the potential SRP.
5. Send out 10-20 letters per week. Do not send a bunch of letters at once, pace yourself. For each letter you send out, plan on having your assistant make 6-8 calls to try and reach the person you sent the letter to. So 10-20 letters can represent 60 to 100 calls over a month—that’s a lot of dialing. The purpose of your call is two-fold: to see if they are interested in getting together or not (about 30-50% will be based on our experience) and second, to set an appointment if they are.
6. Create a spreadsheet to track your efforts. Include information like: when you sent the letter out, date of first call, date of 2nd call, date when you actually spoke to them, whether they agreed to meet with you in person, when the meeting took place, if they agreed to be a referral source for you, date of first referral, etc.
7. Follow up on your letters with a call within 3-4 days to set up a face to face meeting. The goal is to set up 1 to 2 in-person meetings per week. The in- person meeting is critical because it allows you to start the process of building a relationship with the person and educating them about what kind of referrals you are looking for. During this meeting you should only talk about 25% of the time and listen/ask powerful questions 75% of the time. Be clear about your goal and ask them if they would be willing to be a referral partner for you. Be clear about what you can and cannot offer them in return.
8. Immediately follow up each meeting with a thank you letter or email. This will set you apart as someone who is professional and follows up. Create a plan to stay in touch with each person at least every 6-8 weeks via email, telephone, letter, or newsletter. In your follow up remind them of the exact kind of referral you are looking for and how you can help them in their business as well. For this system to work you must approach it as a ‘win-win’.
Skeptical? Of course you are, but we have taught this easy step-by-step system to hundreds of attorneys and they have used this exact process to quickly build networks of 50-60 new referral sources in 90 days.
What would happen to your law practice if you could have 20, 40, or even 60 new referral sources every single year who consistently send you new clients?
Posted on October 3, 2007 by Stephen Fairley on The Rainmaker Blog
In my last post, we discussed the 4 myths about referrals believed by legal professionals:
• Clients are the best source of new referrals. False!
• Most legal referrals come from other lawyers. False!
• Online legal directories can produce a lot of new clients fast. False!
• Formal Networking is a great way to find new clients. False!
If these are myths, then what is the best source of referrals? Strategic Referral Partners (SRPs) are the best source of new referrals. SRPs are people who already have a relationship with or already do business with the people you want to reach.
For example, if you target small business owners, a few potential SRPs are:
• Accountants & CPS
• Financial planners
• Insurance brokers
• Commercial real estate agents
• Community bankers
• Payroll processing agents
• Chambers of commerce
• Industry-specific trade associations
• Temporary staffing agencies
• Management consultants & business coaches
• Executive and Management Recruiters
• Angel investors and small private equity firms
• Commercial lenders
• CEO-only clubs (YEO, YPO or WPO groups)
By building a network of people who already have relationships with your ideal target market, you can reap the benefits of more referrals
There are 8 easy steps attorneys can use to create a network of Strategic Referral Partners:
1. Identify the best 2-3 professions or industries where you can find SRPs. You don’t need to focus on all the groups above, only the 2 or 3 which have the best connection with your ideal client.
2. Create a database of at least 200-300 people in these fields who work in your local area. This should include every person who has ever referred someone to you as well as every professional service provider your current & former clients have worked with. If you still need more names you can either purchase a list of names or go to http://www.superpages.com and search for the industry or profession, like “accountant” or “financial planner” and then enter in your zip code. This is a great little tool to quickly build a database.
3. Write up a letter of introduction to serve as a template. This letter introduces who you are, briefly describes your ideal target market, what's different about your law firm, and requests that they contact you if they are interested in getting together to determine if the possibility exists for cross-referrals.
4. Call several people in these fields to identify their challenges. Before you meet with a prospective SRP, be sure to contact some people you already know in these fields to discover common industry trends and challenges so you can talk intelligently about the field when you meet with the potential SRP.
5. Send out 10-20 letters per week. Do not send a bunch of letters at once, pace yourself. For each letter you send out, plan on having your assistant make 6-8 calls to try and reach the person you sent the letter to. So 10-20 letters can represent 60 to 100 calls over a month—that’s a lot of dialing. The purpose of your call is two-fold: to see if they are interested in getting together or not (about 30-50% will be based on our experience) and second, to set an appointment if they are.
6. Create a spreadsheet to track your efforts. Include information like: when you sent the letter out, date of first call, date of 2nd call, date when you actually spoke to them, whether they agreed to meet with you in person, when the meeting took place, if they agreed to be a referral source for you, date of first referral, etc.
7. Follow up on your letters with a call within 3-4 days to set up a face to face meeting. The goal is to set up 1 to 2 in-person meetings per week. The in- person meeting is critical because it allows you to start the process of building a relationship with the person and educating them about what kind of referrals you are looking for. During this meeting you should only talk about 25% of the time and listen/ask powerful questions 75% of the time. Be clear about your goal and ask them if they would be willing to be a referral partner for you. Be clear about what you can and cannot offer them in return.
8. Immediately follow up each meeting with a thank you letter or email. This will set you apart as someone who is professional and follows up. Create a plan to stay in touch with each person at least every 6-8 weeks via email, telephone, letter, or newsletter. In your follow up remind them of the exact kind of referral you are looking for and how you can help them in their business as well. For this system to work you must approach it as a ‘win-win’.
Skeptical? Of course you are, but we have taught this easy step-by-step system to hundreds of attorneys and they have used this exact process to quickly build networks of 50-60 new referral sources in 90 days.
What would happen to your law practice if you could have 20, 40, or even 60 new referral sources every single year who consistently send you new clients?
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Loss Leader Losers!
Loss leaders are goods or services offered at steep discounts (generally below cost) in order to attract new customers to a store. It is a time-honored practice that has been met with much success, especially by large discount retailers. The intent of this pricing strategy is to not only having the customer buy the (loss leader) sale item, but other products that are not discounted.
Precision Tune Auto Care's main loss leader is the oil change. In our city, you can get an oil change there for about twenty bucks. If you change your own oil, you'll pay between twelve and twenty dollars for five quarts of oil and an oil filter. As you can see, it's a loss leader.
For dentists the loss leader is usually a teeth cleaning or free x-rays or a combination of the two.
Your local grocery store usually publishes its loss leaders in the paper or in their circular ads. Popular loss leaders for them are products like Coke, Dr. Pepper, Pepsi or other beverages.
A loss leader for a bank is free checking and free checks. I recently got ad-letter from Chase Bank. They are willing to give me $50 if I open an account there.
A loss leader for your cell phone company is your cell phone. They will give phones away all day long in order to get people to sign up for two years.
If you decide to use a loss leader to get new business, be smart and never get sideways with a customer over the loss leader. Let me give you a real T-Mobile example. My wife and I have been using T-Mobile for our cell phone service for the past five years. It's been pretty good with fairly good service when I travel. A few weeks ago my wife broke her phone and needed a new one. I stopped in and picked one up on a Monday morning. It had a built in mp3 player and a few other bells and whistles she never touched. On Thursday of the same week it quit working. The battery cover wouldn't fit right and it kept shutting itself off. I got all of the wires and parts together and returned it to trade it for another. I spoke to a little phone-nerd named Pat. He said, "I'm sorry this phone got wet and we won't be able to help you with a new phone. You'll have to buy a new one." I smiled and kindly let him know the phone did not get wet and I would like to have a different one. Pat handed me a brochure from a local company that fixes phones that have been water damaged. I showed him the phone, how it doesn't close properly and asked again for another phone. Any phone, I need to talk to my wife, a lot. We have five kids and one of them is in need all of the time. Again, he said no and I'd have to buy a brand new phone and since I just got a new one, I couldn't get a discounted one. I smiled at him one more time and said, "If I walk out the door, I will be looking for the T-Mobile off-ramp and I will find it. Are you sure you want to lose thousands of my annual dollars over a fifty dollar phone?" Pat said he was sorry he couldn't help me and told me to go get my phone fixed. I got Sherri a new phone and am shopping for a new company to give thousands of dollars to.
If you get sideways with me over an oil change, you'll never get my brake and engine work.
If you get sideways with me over x-rays, you'll never do my root canal and crown.
If you get sideways with me over a bottle of $.99 Diet Dr. Pepper, I won't be buying your produce, dairy and meat.
Am I making you some cents?
Precision Tune Auto Care's main loss leader is the oil change. In our city, you can get an oil change there for about twenty bucks. If you change your own oil, you'll pay between twelve and twenty dollars for five quarts of oil and an oil filter. As you can see, it's a loss leader.
For dentists the loss leader is usually a teeth cleaning or free x-rays or a combination of the two.
Your local grocery store usually publishes its loss leaders in the paper or in their circular ads. Popular loss leaders for them are products like Coke, Dr. Pepper, Pepsi or other beverages.
A loss leader for a bank is free checking and free checks. I recently got ad-letter from Chase Bank. They are willing to give me $50 if I open an account there.
A loss leader for your cell phone company is your cell phone. They will give phones away all day long in order to get people to sign up for two years.
If you decide to use a loss leader to get new business, be smart and never get sideways with a customer over the loss leader. Let me give you a real T-Mobile example. My wife and I have been using T-Mobile for our cell phone service for the past five years. It's been pretty good with fairly good service when I travel. A few weeks ago my wife broke her phone and needed a new one. I stopped in and picked one up on a Monday morning. It had a built in mp3 player and a few other bells and whistles she never touched. On Thursday of the same week it quit working. The battery cover wouldn't fit right and it kept shutting itself off. I got all of the wires and parts together and returned it to trade it for another. I spoke to a little phone-nerd named Pat. He said, "I'm sorry this phone got wet and we won't be able to help you with a new phone. You'll have to buy a new one." I smiled and kindly let him know the phone did not get wet and I would like to have a different one. Pat handed me a brochure from a local company that fixes phones that have been water damaged. I showed him the phone, how it doesn't close properly and asked again for another phone. Any phone, I need to talk to my wife, a lot. We have five kids and one of them is in need all of the time. Again, he said no and I'd have to buy a brand new phone and since I just got a new one, I couldn't get a discounted one. I smiled at him one more time and said, "If I walk out the door, I will be looking for the T-Mobile off-ramp and I will find it. Are you sure you want to lose thousands of my annual dollars over a fifty dollar phone?" Pat said he was sorry he couldn't help me and told me to go get my phone fixed. I got Sherri a new phone and am shopping for a new company to give thousands of dollars to.
If you get sideways with me over an oil change, you'll never get my brake and engine work.
If you get sideways with me over x-rays, you'll never do my root canal and crown.
If you get sideways with me over a bottle of $.99 Diet Dr. Pepper, I won't be buying your produce, dairy and meat.
Am I making you some cents?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)