prudential artisan market

Archive for April, 2009

Don’t wait for opportunity to find you… create your own. In this economy it’s not uncommon for even the busiest legal professional to be facing a certain amount of free time. But here’s the secret: we need to look at this time as opportunity rather than challenge. Here are a few ways to turn free time into business development…

1. Clean up your contact list.

Take an hour to go through your contacts and get them up to speed. Use the Internet to update information, add new acquaintances and make personal notes to help you remember specific details.

2. Reach out.

As you’re perusing your list, send off a note to those contacts you haven’t been in touch with in a while. See what they’re up to—you never know who might need your services.

3. Take stock of your marketing materials.

Do you have strong materials to leave behind for potential clients? Put together folders with a firm brochure, your bio and any publications or articles relevant to your clients and your practice. If you don’t have any…create some!



4. Enlist some help.

If your firm has a Marketing Director, schedule a meeting to discuss ways you can help each other. They may need new content for the website or have an idea for a publication you can contribute to, while you can get some help revamping your bio or other materials.

5. Collaborate with your peers.

Fellow attorneys can be a great source of referrals. See what attorneys in other practice areas are working on (within your firm and outside)—they may have work for you as well.

6. Read up.

Take the time to learn a little about legal marketing. From blogs to books (including my own “Little Black Book” series!) there is a plethora of information out there to inspire and educate.

7. Evaluate your client service.

Everything matters when it comes to keeping clients happy. Take the time to observe everything from how the phones are answered to how often clients are updated on cases. Enlist secretaries, paralegals and assistants and make the necessary changes.

8. Get out of the office.

Check in with organizations you’re a member of and see what kind of events they have coming up. Prepare a quick (semi-rehearsed) introduction that references your points of differentiation and get going. Nothing going on within your memberships? Ask around via friends who are members of different organizations and invite yourself along.

By.- http://www.MomentumStockTrading.com

We all know that in the stock market is always possible to watch certain stocks go up more than 50% within a few hours to days. This is especially true in the 4th quarter of the year where the buying frenzy starts in wall street.

The financial media constantly reports about momentum stocks that are achieving tremendous gains during the same day. And even when you can see online investors that make $3000 on a single trade, it is also not unusual to watch beginner stock investors lose a great deal of money because of a series of unwise decisions

The problem is that if you don’t know how to pick among stocks & how to properly approach them you could end up wasting dollars instead of making your wallet happy. You can’t just trade stocks like if you where gambling in Vegas or Atlantic City.

The first step in becoming a profitable trader is to start learning how to pick and trade stocks. There are many “ultimate” trading systems out there, but you need to test them in order to discover which ones help you the most. That’s part of your homework as a stock trader. Test several strategies and then test them again until you are able to produce consistent winnings.

 

Bogus stock trading software programs and complicated day trading systems that rely on a “boat load” of technical analysis indicators can confuse you and make you slow, and being slow when trading stocks can be as dangerous as not knowing what to do in the first place.

The worst thing that can happen to a beginner stock market trader is to get information overload. It’s better to go step by step, and test a practical trading strategy that can help you focus on simple ways to make money while picking SOLID hot stock trading opportunities once at a time.



 

In the end, stock trading is all about buying and selling according to your especific knowledge FILTER. Once you master and follow your proven filter parameters like a clock, you can expect to start making serious amounts of cash on a consistent basis.

Fortunately some websites on the internet can show you how to use effective and proven stock trading strategies. One of those sites that can show you how to take advantage of hot stocks using simple to understand and apply momentum trading strategies is MomentumStockTrading.com

Visit them today & discover how to profit in the stock market by picking hot stock trading opportunities in a realistic way every week.

For your planning process to mean something, it is imperative that your firm supports a thriving marketing and business development culture. If you don’t market, you risk falling behind your competition…perhaps for good.

That said, you cannot implement a marketing culture overnight. Foster it gradually and methodically through basic, focused, step-by-step efforts.

First, be a passionate leader. As managing partner you need to enlist the firm’s leaders…those lawyers with the greatest clout and respect. If you as a group aren’t committed to marketing, no one will be. Cultivate a senior level business development czar who is passionate about marketing and inspires others.

Apply structure. If your marketing effort is to succeed, it must involve concrete, tangible benchmarks and requirements that demonstrate that the firm is serious. Start by setting clear expectations for non-billable time devoted to marketing and business development…say 200 hours per year for partners and 100 hours per year for associates. Overcoming the billable hour fixation is critical to the success of your marketing efforts.

Other ways to establish a marketing culture at your firm:

Incorporate marketing into partnership requirements. Create marketing plans at every level…attorney, practice group, on up to the firm as a whole. Communicate marketing successes by every tool at your command…meetings, emails, newsletters, you name it. Monitor the firm’s marketing and business development performance. Reward the performers and hold the underperformers accountable.

Did you know that most marketing initiatives must be repeated ten or more times over a period of two-plus years before they pay off? Rewarding only the ultimate result isn’t enough incentive. Attach some compensation to efforts that support the marketing plan.

Provide training and resources. They don’t teach sales techniques in law school. There are, however, plenty of marketing and sales training seminars for lawyers that teach the basics. Exposure to marketing best practices will help the uninitiated get their individual marketing efforts off the ground.

Create a forum for results and accountability. We suggest regular marketing forums where groups of 10 to 20 attorneys can report on their initiatives, share leads and ideas, and be held publicly accountable for their marketing efforts. Make it clear that these forums are about results and accountability…then use them to reinforce both.

Invest time and money…hire marketing professionals. Every firm’s needs are different, but certain rules of thumb apply: one in-house marketer for every 40 attorneys, a marketing budget roughly equal to 3% of gross revenues. Overcome skepticism by appealing to lawyers’ lemming instinct…demonstrate which other firms are doing at least as much.

Identify your A, B, and C clients. Face it…it makes no sense for your firm to spend as much attorney time and effort getting the $5,000 real estate contract as the $5 million IPO. Identify your A-list clients — those you really want to encourage – and emphasize winning more business from them.

Focus on industries, not an area of the law. Competent legal technicians are a dime a dozen. Law firms that speak the language of a specific industry are valued much more highly. Try not to be all things to all people…focus, focus, focus. Check out the next section for more on establishing industry practice groups.

Get an identity. Emphasize that you’re not just another law firm. And remember that a well written brochure or effective website constitutes just a small part of a total marketing effort.

Lawyers tend to be better at communicating with groups (juries, for example) than individuals. Think about hiring lawyers who are extroverted, flexible and can embrace change. The same applies to support staff – basically anyone who can contribute to your marketing efforts.

Manage lawyer expectations. All the steps discussed here take time, and the plan they support will continue to evolve. As the Managing Partner, make sure your lawyers know and understand this from the start. Don’t try to move too far too fast – but do make certain that you deliver everything you promise.

That, in the end, is the definition of effective marketing…deliver on the promise. And it’s a promise that all attorneys in your firm should make…with their own marketing plans.