Page 7 - Dallas Vol 5 No 1

words, max. This is a marketing task that we never want our lawyer clients allocating time to; it’s just not worth their limited time, and likely, the content developed may not be marketing ready. Check this task off your list and consider, instead, how you can re-direct that time to nurturing leads, new contacts, and other qualified sources of new/expanded business.
It’s somewhat troubling to me, after over 25 years of work- ing with lawyers, that they complain about not having enough time to do “x y z” in an effort to develop a prosperous book of business. Yet, when I hear how they spend a typical day, I think to myself, “Oh my gosh, he/she is wasting so much time on tasks that others within the firm could do.” For instance, one of our clients insisted on doing all of her own document revisions because “my assistant can’t read my team’s writing.” Really?
In connection with building a prosperous business, why do some lawyers resist engaging business development experts instead of beating themselves up not for knowing “what” or “how” to attract new clients? We hear from frustrated lawyers all the time that they know “what” to do but don’t know “how” or they’ve never made the time to get organized. In short, they don’t know how to build a book of business, in an organized manner. And, why would they? Law school or anything/one up to this point has taught them how. Building a prosperous book of business is not intuitive, for most.
When we hear these lamentations from well-intentioned lawyers, I use the common example of “you retain a CPA to handle your year-end accounting/taxes, right? Then why would you not retain a legal marketing expert to guide and advise you on how to build a prosperous legal services business?”
So, the question is this: on a daily basis, are you doing what you do best and delegating those tasks outside of your legal ex- pertise to other trained professionals? Why or why not?
Consider these steps to re-capture your valuable time:
1.For a month, enter into your time/billing system all ad- ministrative, marketing, and non-billable entries. Keep as detailed entries as possible.
2.At month’s end, review all non-billable time entries to identify those tasks which may be delegated/outsourced. 3. Of those tasks which may be delegated, discuss with your
firm administrator or trusted advisor/colleague how tasks may be re-assigned internally and/or the outside expertise needed sourced. Seek the needed resources within your network and marvel at how solutions will appear.
Our time flies by too quickly not to ensure that we are maxi- mizing and leveraging every minute to propel our business goals forward. No more playing postman, bookkeeper, ste- nographer, or housekeeper. Do what you do best and re-assign the rest. You will find that you have more than enough time to build that prosperous business for which you aspire.
Kimberly Rice is president and chief strategist of KLA Marketing Asso- ciates (www.klamarketing.com). As a legal marketing expert, Kimberly helps law rms and lawyers develop practical business development and marketing strategies. She may be reached at (609) 458-0415 and [email protected].
searching
for our next
ATTORNEY
of the month do you know someone to
nominate?
Submit nominations at www.AttorneyAtLawMagazine.com/Nominate/
Vol. 5 No. 1 Attorney at Law Magazine® Greater Dallas | 7