4 Keys to Breaking the 7-Figure Barrier
By Stephen Fairley, CEO Rainmaker Institute
Bankruptcy attorneys have it pretty tough right now. Bankruptcy filings are at historically low levels which means more attorneys are fighting over fewer clients. Many bankruptcy attorneys are struggling to grow their practice, yet some law firms are growing faster than ever. How are they doing it and what’ s their secret?
At The Rainmaker Institute ®, we have personally trained over 18,000 lawyers on how to manage and market their law firms more efficiently and effectively. We have probably helped more attorneys break the 7-figure barrier in revenues than anyone else. I’ m not sharing this to impress you, but to impress upon you that there are specific strategies and compelling keys they are using to break the 7-figure barrier.
1. Run your law firm like a business.
You studied the law as a noble profession, but to break the seven figure barrier, you must run your law firm like a business. As a solo practitioner or the owner of a small law firm, your primary focus-- after gaining competency as an attorney-- is to understand the key principles of business development, operations, finances, management, and law firm marketing and to apply them every single day. There are ten major parts every successful law firm owner must focus on— in this order:
Marketing— the purpose of marketing is to generate leads. There are a wide variety of ways to get more leads. Almost all of them work, but not all of them work all the time or for all practice areas or for every attorney. We have attorneys who do really well with SEO, Google PPC, pay per lead, direct mail, giving webinars or live seminars, and TV and radio ads. We also have clients that have failed at all of those methods. There is no silver bullet or magic strategy that works every time for everyone. Experiment, test and find 3-5 different ways that work for you and use those methods over and over again. Not every attorney will be a top Rainmaker, but everyone in the firm can do something to grow and market his or her practice.
Sales— the purpose of sales is to close the deal or sign up the client. Once you start generating leads you must become better at getting prospects to sign up for your services. Far too many attorneys have never learned how to overcome pricing objections and close the deal. Perhaps they feel uncomfortable or believe it’ s unprofessional to ask people to“ sign on the dotted line” before they leave the office, but if you want to build a million dollar law firm you need to be trained on how to sell your services.
Services— once you have become proficient at generating leads and closing the deal, now you must perform the actual services for the client. When you fix your marketing, then you have a sales problem. When you fix your sales problem, then you have a services problem. See how this works?
Staff— when you become successful at marketing and sales, eventually you will also need more staff to do the work. You cannot hire just any staff, they must be the right staff for you. What kind of culture do you want your firm to have? Who will best fit that culture? Develop a list of qualities and characteristics you need your team members to have. I really like the book Top Grading by Brad Smart for best practices in hiring.
Systems— policies, procedures and systems allow you to scale to the next level. Without written systems you cannot scale your business. You will hit a breaking point. It may be at half a million or more, but eventually you will experience a lot of unnecessary pain and suffering because you didn’ t invest in creating written policies, procedures, and systems for your law firm. You need written systems for every major part of your business; from marketing and intake, to money and metrics, it all must be logically written down so even a brand new team member who knows nothing about your business can follow it.
Space— after you start hiring the right staff because you have more clients to serve, eventually you will need more office space to house them. Far too many attorneys get caught up in renting a much bigger or nicer space than they can afford in an attempt to“ keep up with the Joneses” or give off the appearance of being more successful than they are. The pleasure you may gain from having a fancy office is nothing compared with the worry of making those big monthly payments. Don’ t strap yourself with too many financial obligations and be
26 CONSUMER BANKRUPTCY JOURNAL Summer 2016 National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys