How to develop and implement an effective Marketing Plan for your small/medium law firm...

My 40 years in the Profession, including advising 1335 small-medium law firms, has demonstrated to me powerfully that unfortunately even very good lawyers aren’t naturally excellent at Business Development at the best of times…

Even in the good times marketing small-medium law firms is getting harder and a bit more competitive, but when times are tougher many lawyers need experienced guidance and assistance more than ever…

This upcoming KMS workshop will deliver to you practical advice…you will learn “street-smart” tips from your very experienced workshop leader in the “absolutely must get it right...especially now” areas…

·       An expose of the massive hidden cost of not having enough work….a "healthy backlog" across the firm...

·       How to calculate how much extra work you need…including the scope to confidently reject work you really should reject!

·       How to structure a Marketing Plan for any area of work…

·       How to structure a One-Page Marketing Plan for each fee-earner on a horses for courses basis…

·       How to take the completely unnecessary mystery out of Marketing your firm…

·       How to utilise your existing client base (long before you worry too much about social media)!...

·       Exactly where the Internet fits in to the mix these days…and how to take proper advantage...

·       Wide-ranging examples…

·       What it should cost and, importantly, what it should return!

·       How to track results and assess your progress…

·       How to learn to love what Marketing really is…following a sound process in assisting clients, potential clients, and referrers with their real needs...

Who should attend?

Marketing team members wanting to further impress, Partners, Practice Managers, Managing Partners, Office Managers, Associates, and any employed lawyer interested in understanding how to make themselves more valuable to the firm and progress their career…

When and Where?

I will personally lead your intensive August workshops on this critical topic…

In Melbourne CBD on Tuesday Morning 5 August 2014, 9am-1pm…

In Brisbane CBD on Wednesday Morning 6 August 2014, 9am-1pm…

In Sydney CBD on Thursday Morning 7 August 2013, 9am-1pm.

I'll work closely in each workshop with you...maximum 20 attendees...using my long experience to take you through the proper process, and in chapter and verse demonstrating how to get this key part of your practice right for all time...explaining what really works...how to turn the paradigms on their head...and how to overcome the challenges you may perceive...

These will really be workshops...not a presentation...with plenty of time to discuss specific examples and for me to answer every question you will undoubtedly have...

It will be powerful and beneficial...as usual, for the over 26 years consulting to the Australasian Profession, I fully guarantee it!

Your investment comes with the usual KMS unconditional money-back guarantee...

If you aren’t delighted you attended the session…just e-mail me before the end of the next business day and give me an opportunity to understand why…if I can’t fix things totally for you promptly I will refund your entire investment immediately…so you have absolutely nothing to lose…and lots of extra disposable income and peace of mind to gain from the seminar...key elements in your satisfaction levels for the rest of your practising career!

What do your peers, recent attendees, say about KMS workshops and seminars?

Testimonials…

Hi Rob,

I recently attended your LIV seminar on practice development.  It was brilliant.

PD

Melbourne 

Dear Rob,

Thank you for an informative and effective seminar yesterday. I appreciated your straight talking and no BS approach. I will be applying much of what was covered in my practice. Melbourne.

Good morning Rob…Many thanks for yesterday afternoon. I was delegated to attend by my partners to see if you had any new answers to our old problems and you certainly do! I made copious notes and will be in touch after I discuss them with my partners. Thanks again…best wishes XXX. Auckland

Hi Rob...I thoroughly enjoyed yesterday’s seminar and I am looking forward to implementing the key points you highlighted... Auckland Practitioner

Hi Rob... I was very pleased with the return on our ‘investment’ in your seminar and heard much that was helpful and relevant to our firm – all delivered in a clear and straightforward manner. Thank you...Auckland Practitioner

Hi Rob, It was great to meet you at the Auckland seminar yesterday and of course to spend some more time over lunch. XXX and I have agreed that we should immediately subscribe to your newsletter and I have done that already via the website. We have both talked briefly to the staff solicitors in our team regarding various aspects and will put in place as many of the tips as we can over the next few days.

Dear Sir,     Many thanks for your very insightful and informative seminar yesterday.

It was a pleasure to attend. Regards T.  Brisbane Seminar

“I wanted to send you a quick note to say how much I enjoyed the seminar yesterday! Sydney practitioner

 Hi Rob, Thank you for an excellent presentation.  As a result of attending your seminar yesterday we have already put together a draft action plan incorporating many of the ideas and systems that you have suggested.  We realise that transforming our firm will be a "work in progress" and look forward to working with you in the future. Please forward a copy of your presentation notes. Thanks and Regards.  Queensland practitioner

“Thank you for an informative seminar yesterday.  Plenty of good ideas for our fee earners to put into practice. I would be grateful if you could email me a copy of the seminar notes.”  Melbourne lawyer.

  

 “Hi Rob…I was at Tuesday’s seminar and it was excellent…" Sydney practitioner

Many thanks for a very interesting morning.  John has already started to get rid of the time wasters and 'dogs' - something I have been trying to get him to do for the last six and half years.

Cheers       Melbourne Seminar

Dear Mr. Knowsley, I enjoyed your seminar today as I mentioned to you at its conclusion.

Could you please forward the notes through to my office. I will contact you shortly to arrange a meeting, possibly in Sydney.

Kind Regards   Graeme...  Managing Partner

 “Thank you for your terrific seminar in Melbourne on Thursday morning. I am quite excited about some of the concepts which we discussed"... Melbourne practitioner.

Dear Rob... I am working on my priorities, honed from yesterday’s worthwhile seminar.  A few were actioned yesterday! Sydney practitioner.

Your Investment... AUD $295 per person...plus GST...two people $545…plus GST…three people $775…plus GST…more than three attendees per firm please email for a tailored quote…

Your Early-Bird Discount... Assist our forward planning and save your firm $50 per person by registering and paying by 5pm AEDT Friday 27 June 2014.

Free consulting included…Your investment also covers up to two hours free consulting time for the firm with me on the telephone/by email over the ensuing six months...

I trust this intensive workshop on such an important and abiding management challenge has strong appeal for you, and look forward to seeing you there...

Your CPD Points...The long-lasting benefits you will obtain from the workshop will make CPD points pale into insignificance, but if as an additional benefit you want to earn CPD points for this workshop and the free one-on-one consulting, your State Rules should allow you to claim 4 points for the workshop and 2 points for the ensuing 2 hours consulting training in practice management…The CPD falls within the crucial category of Practice Management and Business Skills.

To have a Registration Form sent to you please just click the link below and send the resulting email…

5 August Melbourne

6 August Brisbane

7 August Sydney

I'm very much looking forward to working closely with you in one of these workshops…

PS LinkedIn: Excellent Management In The Small Law Firm...For those of you who are members of LinkedIn and not already members of the Group, you may be interested in joining my new Discussion Group, Excellent Management in the Small Law Firm  

I'd be delighted to have you on board!

Trends in Employment Flexibility and Remuneration of Employed Lawyers

I recently started a new engagement with a substantial and long-established legal firm in a major regional centre in New South Wales. It quickly became apparent that the firm had no part-time professional employees, and I commented on how unusual that was these days, especially for a firm of that size.

The seismic shift in gender composition in our Legal Profession, coupled with societal changes in people’s expectations of work-life balance, has meant that a huge gamut of non-fulltime roles has become very normal across most firms.

It is not at all unusual to see roles in which a person works less than five days a week, and is located some of those days at home and some in the office, or at client locations. Hours per day also vary greatly, with 4 being about the lower end of the scale and ten the highest I’ve seen in recent years.

The strong trends towards more flexible working arrangements will continue for the foreseeable future for categories of employees that are in demand and have market power. Where there is an over-supply there is much less ability to drive terms, but smart employers should be looking at attractive working arrangements, and at reducing the need for expensive premises, wherever possible.

Some firms have no traditional office at all, with everyone working "on the go".

Firms need to be able to cope with the change in the workforce and its expectations, and establish individual guidelines for employees’ inputs, and remuneration systems that work well for employer and employee.

One of the biggest areas of waste I observe in firms is in failure to utilise human resources properly, and particularly the all-too-common inclination to remunerate professional staff based on fees collected.

This focus overlooks the obvious facts of time delays in billing/collecting fees as a result of team member inputs, and also that it is not only inputs that directly produce fees that are important for achievement of a sensible business plan.

I am still encountering far too often firms that are basing remuneration on simple formulas, often as out-dated as one third of collected fees!

The approach is fundamentally flawed for most circumstances, and in my experience will limit rather than grow the fees volume, and firm profitability.

Systems involving more common sense can achieve the genuine Win-Win, in which employees get work/career satisfaction along with higher than market remuneration, while the firm gets higher than traditional inputs, and outputs.

Planning and goal-setting around a combined package of actual/probable fees and quality involvement in other agreed firm activity leads to better fee volumes and happier professionals.

In the past 26 years I have not observed market pressures forcing my client firms into backing away from this more sophisticated approach to planning utilisation of professional staff, and it pays big dividends all round.