Don’t worry, this isn’t Nancy Regan’s anti drug campaign from the 80’s, although that message is still good advice today.  Instead, I’ve provided a current insight on the power of saying “no”.  If you’re a people pleaser, or think you want to be one, this lesson will challenge you!

I was recently acknowledged by a respected colleague for my ability to say “no.”  Many self employed business owners want to do whatever we can to accommodate others when they ask for a favor, or want us to join a committee, lead a board, give a presentation, etc.  However, saying yes to those things when you don’t have the time or energy to adequately devote to them can do more harm than good.

I’d rather politely decline so that I don’t over-extend myself, than say yes and risk tarnishing my good brand by doing a so-so or poor job.

My objective is to honor all my existing commitments, while leaving enough margin for unexpected interruptions or delays and sufficient down time.

Key Questions:

To make sure you aren’t taking on too much and diluting your effectiveness, ask yourself these questions:

1. Does this opportunity fit with my skills, target market, and/or core values? 

2.  Do I have sufficient time, energy, and resources available to meet the requirements of the request, without sacrificing quality? 

3.  Is there someone else available who could do a better job of honoring this request than me? 

4.  Do I really want to do this? Do I feel called to do this?

If I can’t answer “yes” to all four questions, then I say “no” to the opportunity.  There are numerous opportunities to distract me, drain me, motivate me, amuse me, and annoy me.  Some of the opportunities are dressed up as really good things, but the book Good to Great by Jim Collins reminds us not to let the good distract us from becoming Great. Whether we’re considering taking time to do a favor for someone, or embark on a business opportunity, pursue a spiritual endeavor, or agree to a volunteer commitment, we really should make sure that all 4 points above can be answered yes.  If not, we should say no.

Illustrations:

You may be wondering, “what harm could it do if I said yes to these good opportunities?”    The following consequences come to mind, and I’m sure we could come up with many more if we tried:

• Let’s say you agree to speak for a civic group because a friend asked, but it requires you to be there at 7am when you normally drive your child to school at 7:30am.  Do you assign someone else to drive your child, or do you cancel the speaking opportunity the day before because you forgot about driving your child to school?  If you cancel last minute, it leaves the group hanging and you get classified as someone they can’t count on.  If you tell your spouse at 6:45am that he/she needs to drive little Johnny to school, you may create problems at home.

• You agree to sit on a board for a worthy cause, simply because they asked.  You don’t really have the time to attend all the meetings, but you show up on occasion if other things don’t pop up in your schedule.  Are you helping the cause?  Not really.  Are you hurting your reputation?  Most definitely.

• Your friends talk you into going to the bar after work, when you have a 7am presentation the next morning.  You can probably see where this one is going….

A New Perspective on “No”

None of these “opportunities” seemed like a bad thing, but it’s really all about choices and priorities.  Saying “no” to the non-priorities, frees us up to say “yes” to the things we are meant to pursue.   Derek Siver’s book, “Anything you want” really speaks to this point.  He has an awesome filter, which I’ve started to adopt myself.  When presented with a choice, such as an event to attend, an item to purchase, or time to invest, he asks himself, “do I really want to do this?”  If his answer isn’t an enthusiastic  “Hell Yeah!,”  he declines the opportunity.

Those of us who are self employed have to be very cautious and prudent with our time.  It is a precious resource, along our financial resources, and our skills/talents.  It’s easy to say “yes” because we want everyone to like us and think of us often, but he who says “yes” to everyone pleases no one.

Think about these 4 questions and Derek Siver’s “filter” next time you are presented with an opportunity.  If it doesn’t fit within your priorities, just say no!

Discussion Points:

• Share an example of a time you overcommitted yourself.  How did it turn out?
• Share an example of a time you declined an opportunity because your plate was already full.  How did it turn out?
• We train others how to treat us, by how we respond to their requests.  If you answer every email or phone call within minutes of receipt, no matter what time of day or night they arrive, you let others know you are available at all times.  While this is great if you have no other distractions, obligations, or a need for a life, it can’t be sustained for long.  People want to know they can rely on you, so you need to be consistent in your availability.  If you answer immediately in one instance and days later in another, people never really know if or when they can count on you.  Has this situation occurred in your life?  If so, how did you handle it? 

Attorneys, do you want to start the New Year off on the right foot?  Do a self inventory to make sure you and your staff are not making any of these mistakes:

Mistake #1: Failure to return phone calls timely, or at all

No industry is perfect, but we’ve all heard complaints at one time or another from friends, clients, and other contacts that they can’t get a lawyer they wish to hire, or one they recently hired, to call them back.

Annemarie Cronin, Public Relations & media consultant, and owner of the Annemarie Cronin Agency, noted that “our research of family law attorneys reflected the number one complaint about lawyers was the failure to return phone calls.”  Cronin’s agency represents attorneys, doctors, banks, retail stores, and other businesses seeking to gain exposure for their business through television, radio, print and internet advertising, as well as customized marketing campaigns.

A quick review of attorney disciplinary notices, confirms that failure to timely communicate is a problem for some legal professionals.  Click here for The Michigan Lawyer’s Blog summarizing the Attorney Discipline Board Annual Report of 2010.  Cronin also noted that many of her physician clients ask her for recommendations to a good attorney, but she has been reticent to suggest anyone because she also experienced non-responsiveness from lawyers in big and small firms alike.  “It is disappointing to invest 30 min to 2 hours meeting with an attorney, explaining the problem, providing documentation, and being told you’ll hear back from the lawyer in a day or two, and then not receive a call or a letter telling you whether they are accepting or declining the work,” says Cronin.

Clients in this unfortunate situation can seek other counsel.  However, sometimes the time lost in waiting for a response is detrimental to their situation, or it is too late and they give up out of frustration.

Tip #1:  If you can’t return the client’s call in 24 hours, be sure someone else in your office does.  Alternatively, solos can respond to the client’s inquiry with an email, text, or voicemail message indicating when the lawyer is available to speak to the client.

Clients understand if you are tied up in court or are away from the office, but they deserve a timely response nonetheless.  This is common courtesy.  No one wants to be left waiting indefinitely.  If the client calls your office, hears nothing, and has to call again, that’s not helpful to the client and it is damaging to the lawyer’s reputation as a professional.  Clients seek out attorneys because they are usually in some sort of predicament that needs immediate professional help.  Every effort should be made to either return the phone calls within 24 hours or instruct a staff member to reach out to clients with specific information as to when they can expect to hear back. Thereafter, the attorney should follow through in a timely manner.   In some practice areas, such as litigation, there may be periods of time where there is no real news for the client and the case may take 2 to 3 years before there is any resolution.  As most clients have little or no idea how long a legal matter could take to run its course, it is important for the attorney to explain what the client should expect with respect to resolution and time frame.

Mistake #2:  Buying advertising without a strategy

Cronin also noted that legal professionals sometimes make the mistake of taking out a full page ad and paying  up to $7,000, hoping it will generate new business.  “I’d rather see the money being spent on something that will produce the desired results, than have them throw money away hoping someone will see their ad and call them.”  While ads can be effective, they must be part of an overall strategy and not a one-time shot.  Cronin believes in doing a needs analysis with all her clients before suggesting they spend any money at all.

Tip #2:  Plan before spending money on marketing or advertising

Some of the “old school” lawyers were used to relying on ads to drive traffic to their office, especially high volume practices such as bankruptcy, divorce, or criminal law matters.  Large law firms also frequently run ads in various publications.  Today, however, more clients are using social media, researching the internet, and finding attorneys through other means.  As the phone calls started dropping off, lawyers had to turn to other methods to generate traffic.  Having a marketing and advertising strategy is just as important as having a good marketing or advertising piece.  One ad, article, or TV spot isn’t enough to sustain any law practice.  There must be an ongoing marketing strategy in order to produce consistent new business.   Your website, newsletters, articles and blogs, referral sources, and social media profiles are all components of your marketing plan, and how well you utilize these tools will determine your level of success.

Mistake #3:   Ineffective or untrained support staff

Cronin recalled one client spending $10,000 to $15,000 on radio ads each month.  The ads were generating a lot of calls, but the firm was not converting those calls to business.  After observing how the office staff was handling the calls, Cronin immediately saw the problem.  “The office staff failed  miserably in connecting with the caller.  They put the callers on hold,  made no attempt to set up an appointment and didn’t even get the caller’s name and phone number.  Sometimes the caller hung up before the receptionist came back on the line.  Without a name and number, they couldn’t call the client back.”

Tip #3:  Whenever you are running any type of promotion, you need to have the office staff or an automated system set up to handle the call volume or email response from the potential new clients.   This should be addressed in the marketing strategy and tweaked as necessary in case the response is greater than anticipated.

Mistake #4:  Shabby appearance and rude demeanor

According to Cronin, lawyers need to carefully consider the visual appeal of the waiting room and office, as well as how long is an acceptable amount of time for a client to be left waiting in the lobby.  “I don’t advise a professional spend $5,000 to $7,000 on an ad when they really should use that money to spruce up their lobby or reception area.  The same goes for the lawyer’s office or conference room, if clients will spend any time in those areas.  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen dingy upholstery, outdated furniture, and a shabby looking, cluttered office,” says Cronin.  Since you can’t undo a bad first impression, these things should be considered, especially if the professionals aren’t converting as many clients as they had hoped after the initial office consultation.

The demeanor of the office staff, as well as the professional’s demeanor, is also extremely important.  “People don’t want to be kept waiting and they don’t expect to be treated rudely or indifferently by the receptionist or front office staff,” says Cronin.  “Part of my job is to diplomatically point out all areas of the practice which need improvement.  This could range from office appearance, to professional and support staff demeanor, to their marketing and public relations options.”

Tip #4: If the Lawyer is running behind, the client should be informed in a friendly manner and asked if the anticipated wait time will be acceptable or if they need to reschedule.  The furnishings should be comfortable and pleasing to the eye.  Reading material left on the coffee table should include lifestyle, fashion and gourmet, and not limited to business and golf monthlies.  The client should be offered a beverage while waiting.  While these common courtesies are second nature to most professionals, those who don’t take heed of the small but important details lose the opportunity to make the client comfortable and set a positive tone for the first meeting.

Annemarie Cronin Agency is a full service marketing and advertising agency in Bloomfield Hills, poised to penetrate the marketplace with highly personalized marketing strategies that serve to highlight the client’s uniqueness and capture the attention of the desired audience, through the creation and use of customized websites, radio and television advertising, photo journalism, and customized ad campaigns.

It seems to be more difficult each day to keep up with the flow of information.  Often I just tune it out, or selectively read what interests me the most.  This time of year we have an over abundance of sales ads to delete from our inbox, along with the usual flow of information.  If you are feeling like “less is more” and you want to unplug for awhile to regain your sanity, you might find these time management tips helpful.

http://ourmastermindsgroup.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/information-overload1.jpg

Sam Parker, Publisher of JustSell.com and Co-Founder of GiveMore Media, sent me a newsletter recently in which he shared some tips on how he manages the distractions in his life.  The following tips are Sam’s time management “affirmations”:

Focus hours… Twice each work day, I will hold focus hours. From 9 am – 11 am and from 2 pm – 4 pm, I will become unavailable to anything but true emergencies. My phones will be off to anything inbound (no calls, no texts… airport mode on my cell). It’s only two 2-hour blocks of time where I’m unavailable to others. When I think I can’t do it and that people need to reach me because I’m so very important, I’ll remember that I’m not as important as I think I am. If I happen to notice on caller ID that someone’s calling me who I’ve been having a hard time reaching, of course I’ll make an exception.

Email… I will turn off email alerts and check it only twice a day (11:30 and 4:30). When I think that’s impossible because people need to reach me because I’m so very important, I’ll remember that I’m not as important as I think I am. (See below for letting people know how to get to you.)

Instant messaging… I will not do it. This would be like allowing someone to jump up on my desk anytime they want and interrupt my workflow (and I certainly don’t want to do that to anyone else). After all, I’m a grown-up.

Web… I will not use the web personally during my money hours (mine are between 8 am and 6 pm each salesday with a break for lunch). When this gets tough because of my addiction to distraction, I’ll remind myself again that I’m a grown-up.

Phone… I will not give my attention to my iPhone when people I know are around me. If it vibrates (a ringtone? please) when I’m in a face-to-face conversation I will do my best to ignore it and give it attention when I’m alone. Fortunately, when I’m in an airport, I generally don’t know a lot of people so I can dig into my phone all I want there (although I might miss out on some of those serendipitous moments I’ve had in the past where I’ve met some very interesting people and learned new things… hmmmm).

Proximity… I will turn my desk facing away from my door.

Television… I will not channel surf. If I want to watch something, I will watch that thing and that’s it. If I need downtime, I’ll read a book or something on the web (being careful here too, of course).

Commitment: When things get tough, I’ll remind myself that I want to succeed professionally, financially, and personally (better relationships, better knowledge). And, if I do these things, I’ll likely contribute more, make more useful things happen, earn more, and enjoy more as a result. (It’s a better bet.) When I make a mistake (break focus hours, check my email, look at the web, etc.), I’ll stop, re-commit, and remind myself I want to make good things happen (rather than living in a state of busy distraction and making less money).

Sam cautions that before you adopt such changes, that you make sure these tips fit your type of business and workflow. If your work really requires more attention to email or a phone, then adjust accordingly.  He also recommends that as you make these commitments, let others know (via your email auto responder, or below your email signature, and/or in a voicemail message) when they can expect a response from you.

Points to Ponder and Share:

What has worked best for you in terms of limiting the amount of distractions you encounter daily?

]]> http://www.bestlegalresource.com/how-are-you-handling-information-overload/feed 1 http://www.bestlegalresource.com/know-your-customer http://www.bestlegalresource.com/know-your-customer#comments Tue, 27 Sep 2011 10:00:43 +0000 Lori Williams http://www.bestlegalresource.com/?p=3379 By:  Lori T. Williams, Esq.

We’ve all heard writing instructors (whether in high school or college) tell us to write about what we know.

1) It allows you to showcase your expertise on a topic;

2) It is generally easier to generate passion or other appropriate emotion in your writing if you are very familiar with the topic;

3) It is easier to connect with your readers, when you write about what you know.  Chances are they are interested in that topic too, and may know something about it already and want to learn more.

Wouldn’t it be great if the people who wanted to sell to us also knew their audience? We might be more inclined to buy if they:

1)  Dazzled us with their expertise about a product or service we were interested in buying;

2)  Or exuded genuine passion about how the product or service would change our life for the better, because they really knew our needs and found a way to meet them;

3)  Or because we fit their target demographic, they knew what we liked, and they consistently found ways to engage us as consumers in a meaningful way.

How many companies or professional service providers do that on a regular basis? Chances are you can count your favorites on one hand.  I’m always surprised when I receive a mailing intended to solicit me as a new customer–when I’m already doing business with the company.  Is it really that hard to separate your prospect list from your client list?

I was reading a recent blog authored by business coach, Preston True, called Relationships 101, which echoed my frustration about being mass marketed to instead of target marketed.  Preston shared an example about being excited to receive what looked like an invitation or card in the mail, instead of the usual junk mail or bills, only to have his joy disappear as he read the ridiculous greeting of “Hello Diva!”   Talk about a disconnect!  I can picture his confused, annoyed, expression right now.  Clearly that marketer sent her mailing to anyone with a pulse and a mailing address, instead of carefully choosing her intended audience at an upcoming event she was promoting.

While mass marketing might work for some products with mass appeal or need (ie. toilet paper), professional service providers and niche product developers need to zero in on what their target client wants and needs.  If you don’t know what your market wants or needs, ask them or do research to find out.  It’s a much better use of your time and resources to meet the known needs of your clients, instead of blindly pitching something you hope they’ll buy.

Think about your own business:

•Do you have a clearly defined target client market?

•Does your website and other marketing materials speak to and attract that type of client?

•Do you know what type of products and services your target client wants and needs?

•Do you know who your target referral partners  or affiliates are?

Whether you are writing for them, speaking to them, or hoping to attract them as clients.  Be clear about who you want, and watch them show up!

Most of us have heard that various tax incentives are on the chopping block, per Governor Synder’s budget proposal.  One of the tax incentives in jeopardy of being eliminated is the Michigan film credit.  I decided to learn more about the issue and how it impacts local businesses.   The Michigan film incentive, also known as the film production credit, is a refundable and assignable tax credit of up to 42% of a production company’s expenditures incurred while producing a film or other media entertainment project in Michigan.   Additional information and an application for the credit can be found here.

I recently met Adrian Walker, CEO of First Element Entertainment, a film production company based in Detroit.  First Element Entertainment recently produced an independent film, called The Art of Power.  The film is a political suspense thriller about 3 young adults living in Washington DC, who learn the meaning of power through various events in their lives.  A trailer of the movie can be viewed here. 

The film was featured in the Detroit Windsor film festival in June of 2010, and reported the greatest amount of tickets sold at the festival.  Rather than continue to air the film at other independent film festivals, Walker has decided to sell the film online and through DVD distribution.  A sneak peak of the entire film will be available for public viewing online during May 17-22, 2011 for $2-$4, at www.artofpowermovie.com. More information will also available at First Element’s website, in the coming weeks.      

Walker is 2004 University of Michigan graduate, with a Bachelor of Science and Engineering.  Upon graduation, he began managing local bands and singers and eventually went back to his true passion of screenwriting.  He interviewed some of his professors after graduation who guided and mentored him, and had the opportunity to speak briefly to Spike Lee who encouraged Walker to create his own films as a way to build a resume and gain credibility in the industry.   

Walker  formed First Element Entertainment just after the film incentive legislation passed in Michigan. Initially, there was promise of receiving funding through the incentives, but The Art of Power was one of many films in the running for incentives and ultimately did not receive any funding from the State. 

Nonetheless, Walker and his team raised $250,000 from other sources and produced the film in August 2009.  Post production work was completed in May of 2010, in time for the Detroit Windsor film festival in June.   ”98% of the people involved in the production of The Art of Power were Michigan residents, and we’re proud of that,” says Walker.  “Our next goals include launching our distribution brand later this year, as well as going back onto production in 2012.” 

First Element Entertainment started handling corporate media projects in January of this year.  They are creating commercials to advertise corporate products and services.  Additional information can be found at www.FirstElementEntertainment.com.

Walker is optimistic about his future and that of First Element Entertainment.  His experiences so far have taught him “with proper planning and a great team of people with a shared vision, you can achieve your goals.”  Despite advice from others in the industry that they wouldn’t be able to raise enough money and that it was too soon in their career to make a feature film, Walker and his team made a quality feature length film in 8 months and raised $250,000 to do so. 

Walker also believes that the film incentives needed some reform, because “the legislation wasn’t conducive to helping Michigan based companies grow long term.”  However, “ elimination of the incentive completely is even worse.”  With reform of the film tax legislation and proper planning and execution, Walker believes that “there is potential to create a great new industry in Michigan that can increase employment and revenue over time.”

Points to Ponder and Share:

Has your business been impacted by the film industry, positively or negatively?

Will elimination of the tax incentives impact your business in any way?