Law Office Economics Law Office Economics

The Key(s) to Attorney Motivation

Here’s an idea to motivate law firm employees:  Give the “Employee of the Month”  the keys to the company car.  From Autoblog:

[At Infusion Software], if you're deemed the month's top performer, you get the keys to the "Infusion Z," the company's silver Nissan 350Z. The car sports the Infusion logo on the door, so they get some free advertising wherever the Employee of the Month drives. That's a fair trade if you ask us. When you're cruising in the Z, it's not like you can see that from the cockpit, anyway. Oh, and should an employee get into an accident with the car, he or she has to pick up the insurance deductible.

What kind of car should law firms use?  A Mercedes, a BMW, or perhaps a Bentley?  What kind of car would motivate you to bill those 220 hours this month?

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Innovation Innovation

Soulard Idea Market Recap, Idea Speed Dating

It has been a week since the Soulard Idea Market, and though I’ve been crushed by a few projects, I wanted to share at least a little about the event (with more to come later).  Others have shared their mostly positive impressions about the night (see here, here, and here), and Dave Gray even posted a video to the “Unreasonable Request” portion of the event. 

While I’ll share my full recap later this week, for now I wanted to focus on the “Idea Speed Dating” that kicked off the evening.

At the beginning of the event, I asked everyone to pair up with someone they hadn’t met before.  For the next three to five minutes, they were to discuss the topic I gave them.  At the end of the time period, everyone moved on to another person in the room and I asked a different question.   In no particular order, here are the questions:

In what ways would you like to make a difference in people’s lives?

What would be impossible for you to do, but if you could do it, would make the most difference in your success?

What new skills have you learned inthe past year (or want to learn in the next year)?

Talk about the most interesting book you’ve read lately?

What is your favorite St. Louis Restaurant?

What is the most compelling idea you’ve heard in the last year?

What surprised me is how engaged everyone became in each conversation.  Granted, we had some pretty cool and interesting people at the event, but at the end of every question, I had to pry people apart and encourage them to pair up again before I could ask the next one.  This will definitely be a part of other Idea Markets that I put on, and I’d highly recommend using a version of this as an ice breaker for your next networking event.

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Web & Tech Web & Tech

A Web Navigation Test

Here’s some good advice from A List Apart on web design and navigation: 

Any good global navigation scheme should, at a glance, answer the top three questions every user has at the back of their mind on any page:

  1. Where am I? (Present)
  2. Where can I go? (Future)
  3. Where have I been? (Past)

Here’s a test: Go to any random page on the internet. A deep page, not a home page. Then see if you can answer all three of those questions without looking at the URL or mousing over links to see where they go. See if you can tell your present, future, and past purely through visuals. Even in our brave new Web 2.0 world, most sites fail.

Does your firm’s web site pass the test?  Check out the article for lots more great stuff.

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Client Service, Marketing Client Service, Marketing

Meet Tomorrow's Clients

According to this study:

Gen Yers spend 12.2 hours online every week -- 28 percent longer than 27- to 40-year-old Gen Xers and almost twice as long as 51- to 61-year-old Older Boomers. Gen Yers are also much more likely to engage in Social Computing activities while online. For example, they are 50 percent more likely than Gen Xers to send instant messages, twice as likely to read blogs, and three times as likely to use social networking sites like MySpace.

"All generations adopt devices and Internet technologies, but younger consumers are Net natives who spend more time online than watching television," said Forrester Research Vice President and co-author of the report Ted Schadler. "Younger generations live online, reading blogs, downloading podcasts, checking prices before buying, and trading recommendations."

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Innovation Innovation

Soulard Idea Market Final Details

I think I’ve communicated with everyone who has expressed interest in tonight’s Soulard Idea Market, but if I’ve missed anyone (and you find this post today) here is the text of the e-mail I just sent:

Good Morning!   If you are receiving this e-mail, it is because you have told me you'd like to come to tonight's Soulard Idea Market.  Though we have quite a bit of flexibility on space, I'd like to know if you are still planning on attending.  Here are the details for tonight:

When should I arrive?  I have reprinted the agenda below, but we'll get started between 5:30 and 6:00 pm.  Arriving late is OK.

Where should I go?  The Lucas School House (www.lucasevents.com) is the venue for the event.  It is located at the intersection of Gravois and Allen, on the Western edge of Soulard.  Here's a link to a Google Map.  There should be plenty of on-street parking available.

How can I contact you?  My cell phone number is 618-407-3241.  I will also have my BlackBerry with me, so I will receive my e-mail.

Should I bring my laptop?  You can, though I'd discourage it.   While there is WiFi available, I don't know how robust the wireless connection will be.  Most of the brainstorming will be done on Post-it Notes and in small group discussions.  I think laptops tend to get in the way of effective in-person collaboration.  Of course, your experience may differ.

What should I bring?  Paper, pen, money for the cash bar, and ideas.  Bring lots of ideas.

Who can I bring?  Like I said above, we have some room for additional people.  At this point, I have absolutely no idea how many people will be there tonight.  Somewhere between twenty and sixty.  If you'd like to bring a guest, just let me know.  I may have to order more food.

Will there be food?  Yes.  There will be cold appetizers, courtesy of Gill Wagner, president of Honest Selling.

Will there be drinks?  Yes, but it will be a cash bar.

When will we be done?  We have the space until 8:30.  However, if we have enough people who want to hang around, they may let us stay later.

Flickr, Delicious, Technorati?  Yes.  Use "SoulardIdeaMarket" as the tag.  If you don't know what this means, we'll explain tonight.

Why didn't you answer my question?  E-mail me or call me and I will.

What else can I do?  If you can, log in to the CollectiveX site (an event/networking site for the Idea Market) and add your contact info and details.  Here is the link.

Here's the Agenda I posted on my blog:

The Agenda:  Well, there really is no “Agenda” as I’d like to have the Idea Market be the kind of place where people can bring their business problems, issues, questions, and (of course) ideas and share them with other innovative, creative, and generous folks.  Think of this first event as sort of a “beta test” for a new type of networking/brainstorming social club that just happens to take place at a private happy hour in a cool, hip place.  There is at least a 70% chance that this agenda will change, or even be ignored when we all show up, but for now, here’s how I see things happening:

5:30 – 6:00  Bar Opens, Attendees Arrive, Initial Brainstorming.  In the last several LexThink!(R) events and private retreats I’ve done, we’ve posted provocative questions on large Post-It Notes all around the facility.  When attendees arrive, they’ll be given a marker and a pad of smaller, half-page Post-It’s and asked to walk around and contribute their thoughts and answer the questions posted.   This works wonders to get the creative juices flowing and opens up attendees to sharing other ideas the rest of the event.

6:00 – 6:30  Introductions.  Idea Speed-Dating.  I want to take a page from speed dating events: Attendees will have thirty minutes (broken up in much smaller chunks) to meet as many other attendees as possible and share the most compelling idea they’ve heard, best book they’ve read, most interesting person they’ve met, or most difficult problem they’ve faced in the past year.  

6:30 – 6:45  Break.

6:45 – 7:30  Open Space Problem Solving.  If any attendees are facing a particularly vexing business problem, and would like the group’s help to solve it, they can announce the problem (or post it on the wall) and any attendees who’d like to help can break up into small discussion groups to brainstorm solutions.  Alternatively, anyone with a topic they’d like to discuss can also announce it here and interested people can join the discussion.

7:30 – 7:45  Break.

7:45 – 8:30  Open Space Idea Sharing.  This is just like the Open Space Problem Solving session, except we’ll focus on new ideas.  

8:30  Unreasonable Request Time.  One of the three most compelling ideas I’ve stumbled across while blogging is Lisa Haneberg’s Unreasonable Requests.  In short, we often have things we’d like to ask others for, but are afraid to ask.  I’m going to ask everyone to write down an unreasonable request, post it on the wall with their name and phone number, and anyone who wants to grant the request can do so.  Because the requests are, by definition, “unreasonable,” I don’t expect many to be granted — so everyone who gets one granted will be totally surprised.

8:30 – ??.??  Cocktails on the Patio (or elsewhere).  We’ll stick around the School House as long as they’ll let us, but anyone who wants to continue their discussions after we’re politely asked to leave can do so at one of about 30 Soulard bars/restaurants that are within walking distance.


I will see you all tonight.  This is going to be cool!

Matt

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Marketing Marketing

Movie Marketing Madness

I love to find interesting marketing ideas, even (or especially) if the ideas are not directed to professional service providers.  Mark Cuban has hundreds of cool marketing ideas submitted by readers on his blog in response to this:

So if you want a job, and have a great idea on how to market movies in a completely different way. If your idea works for any and all kinds of movies. If it changes the dynamics and the economics of promoting movies, email it or post it. If its new and unique, i want to hear about it. If its a different way of doing the same thing you have seen before, it probably wont get you a job, but feel free to try.

So go for it. Come up with a great idea that i want to use and I will come up with a job for you to make that idea happen.

There are now over one thousand ideas submitted by Mark’s readers.  Take some time to read them.  You are sure to find a nugget you can use in your practice. 

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Client Service, Law Office Economics, Marketing Client Service, Law Office Economics, Marketing

What Start-Ups Want in a Lawyer

OK, so Andy Lark is talking about hiring a PR agency, but I think he could just as easily be talking about hiring a lawyer:

But I don't want $15,000 dollars worth of service. I don't even know what that is!

I want results. I don't care what it costs or whether an agency has to under or over service to deliver it. I just want results against the agreed budget. You commit, I commit, we all commit together.

What is more troubling to me as a Valley CMO is:

1) finding a great agency is bloody hard work. They are few and far between. At any billing rate. Few CMOs I know get the value of PR or AR, let alone the value of a good agency... I accept we are part of the problem, but...

2) finding an agency that gets your business and has a real enthusiasm for contributing to the growth of the business - harder still

3) finding an agency that understands that great ideas get funded - near impossible. They are caught in the conundrum or belief that ideas require budget prior to being generated. Bullshit. (and I am talking about real ideas, not those regurgitated from the last pitch)

4) finding a team that can explain why they should get paid more and then associate some kind of outcome with the result - well, if you find them, let me know. The most common justification - "we've been over servicing your business for six months now, you need to pay us more" - is nuts. Nuts!

5) finding an agency - the word is a bit of an oxymoron. It implies some kind of powerhouse of ideas and execution - the strength of a team. What you generally end-up funding is one very dedicated individual surrounded by some other folks - generally you aren't quite sure what they are doing but they all arrive for meetings and scribble madly into notebooks.

What is needed is a new kind of agency. One not built on billable hours and 10k budgets. Maybe one built on the power of ideas to drive a startup's growth curve? One with the courage and conviction to articulate a value proposition that resonates with the CMO of a start-up and ability to explain what the budget should be.

You see, we live less in the conceptual world of brand and reputation and more in the real world of qualified opportunities, pipeline growth and time to sale.

Until then, 10k sounds like a nice round number to start with. Agencies shouldn't let it end there. We will pay more. And I am willing to put my money where my mouth is.

If you want to serve this market, listen closely to Andy’s complaints.  Make it your number-one priority to contribute to the growth of your clients’ businesses, not to extract the maximum amount of money from their coffers.  Build client-centered teams — and make sure your client meets everyone on the team BEFORE their time shows up on a bill.  Finally, start your representation by focusing on the goals of the client and the results they desire.  Then agree upon a budget (or, gasp, a fixed price) to meet those goals and achieve those results.

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