A New Day Is About To Begin: The End of the Pandemic is In Sight
By Liza Vasquez CMC ICF and Jeffrey F. Silber MBA CMC
In April, we sent you a list of Five Steps You Can Take While Waiting For The Pandemic to end. If you missed it, that article can be found at:
We are getting closer to the end of the Pandemic every day, but we have not yet crossed the finish line. In the meantime, while you continue to wait for the social restrictions to end, here are ten more things you do to get ready.
1. Search Engine Optimization. You need to show up near the top of the results of Google searches. Monitor your keyword rankings. Try different tactics to move up on the search results. As long as you are moving up in the results that are shown, you are making progress.
2. Segment Your Mail List. Your newsletters and client alerts become Spam when they are not relevant to the recipient. According to Salesforce, 72% of business buyers expect communications that are tailored to their needs. Not all of your outgoing messages should be sent to everyone on your mail list.
Take the time now to divide your mailing list into specific practice areas, subjects of interests or geographic relevance. For example, why send IP alerts to inhouse Labor Lawyers?
Therefore, in the future, stop sending the same message to your entire database. Your future targeted messages will be much better received if your specialized arrows hit the specific bullseyes of a range of recipients.
3. Invest in a Strong Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Software System. Technology changes completely every 18 months. You need to get your law firm into the 21st century.
There are a number of high-quality CRMs in the market. Salesforce is the number one in the market, although we are not particularly recommending their software. The advantages of a good CRM are: lead and contact management; prospect opportunity management; customizable reports and dashboards; it is easy to follow up on leads and identify key contacts; you can see a clear and customized view of the sales efforts of your partners, lawyers and your marketing department; automatically track emails, calls and meetings; collect and sync key information from your inbox and excel worksheets; speeds up internal intelligence; personalizes every interaction; and where you use a CRM that has a mobile app function, you can update your data anytime from anywhere.
4. Strong Specialized Areas of Your Website. Some experts say to build a specific landing page for each of the practice areas that you will be promoting to your now-segmented database. We believe that your website should become or remain the core of your virtual marketing. Therefore, our suggestion is to build strong practice areas sections of your website. And we do mean strong sections.
These specialized practice area sections of your website must never be set-it-and-forget-it. These areas of your website need to be continuously updated Learning Centers for information about Real Estate Law, IP, Labor, Tax, etc.
When you send information to your specialized database segments, link them back to the corresponding sections of your website.
5. Find Webinar Partners. In the list of the first five steps of our recommendation that you saw, we encouraged you to lay out your schedule of webinars for the rest of the year and even into 2022, organize the subject matter for each and find speakers.
While waiting for the New Normal, we also suggest that you find other organizations to co-sponsor these webinars with you. If your area is IP, perhaps a bio-engineering firm would be a good co-sponsor. If your area is Trade Law, perhaps a Tax Law Firm or an Accounting Firm would be good co-sponsors. If your area is Real Estate Law, perhaps a construction company or an architectural firm would be good co-sponsors; and so on.
This is a good idea because your co-sponsors will have their own mailing lists, and you will get many more people registering for your webinars and as a result a higher level of attendance.
6. Rebuild Relationships and Re-establishing Trust. Again, in the list of the first five steps, we asked you to find out who among all the people on earth you know, who has survived the pandemic – as a way of reopening relationships that you thought were lost forever.
Now we ask you to realize that Trust on the part of your clients may have to be re-earned. Your old clients may be cautious or even fearful about spending any large sum of money until long after the pandemic ends. After all, their own businesses may be suffering terribly.
It is more important than ever that you are thoughtful and genuine in how you treat your clients and prospective clients. This includes the tone of voice you use as well as your expression of concern. Be sure a genuine sense of We are all in this together comes across. Never mind text messages or emails, pick up the telephone and call your clients. Express your genuine caring. Your assignment with your clients and prospects is to ask questions that show you care, then listen, listen, and listen some more. Do not jump in and offer advice unless they specifically ask for your opinion. Just be emotionally present.
Also, keep in mind that the cycle from prospect to clients has become longer. If prospects are even willing to talk with you, consider it is a positive sign. So, certainly do not press for legal work. Again, just be emotionally present to hear their concerns and needs.
7. Scouting for New Talent. Harvard research show that 82% of law firms that significantly reduce their budgets and another 9% that make minor reductions in their expenditure during times of crisis, do not perform very well when the crisis is over. The remaining 9% which make investments when faced with challenging economic times, always out-perform the 91% of their more cautious colleagues.
“Today I will do what other won’t, so that tomorrow I can accomplish what other can’t! “ Jerry Rice, Wide Receiver, National Football Hall of Famer.
There may be some high-quality talent out there that you can convince to join your firm. Start searching for them while they are available and see what you find.
8. Your Computer Equipment. Building on point 3 above, technology is changing very rapidly and now would be a good time to get a state-of-the-art consulting communications company to come in and assess your computer installations. How old is your computer system? No matter what you think, it is likely that your installations are no longer cutting edge.
You should put particular emphasis on having the consultant look at the ability of you and your team to work remotely with your current equipment. Remote work is not going way so make sure you are doing it well.
Do this now before you get really busy again and you will not have time to review your computer installations and then you will find yourself and the team using equipment that is several generations behind the times.
9. Build Your Communications Room. Even after the pandemic is no more than an ugly memory, you are going to do even more video calls with current and prospective clients; and, of course, you will continue doing webinars for an ever-increasing audience.
Take a small conference room and turn it into your broadcast studio. The small microphones in your computer are not good enough for use in webinars. Buy some high-quality microphones and a video camera. Also, buy a green screen background so that you can use a professional image behind you during your webinars or calls with your clients.
10. Call a Meeting of Your Team. Our fifth recommendation last time was to ask yourself “What Have You Learned About Yourself? A Time For Reflection.” Now our recommendation is to call a group meeting of your entire team to discuss what the impacts of the pandemic have been on them individually and on the firm; ask the team what they think about remote work; and discuss the road ahead. The point is for everyone to feel they are a part of your law firm and to internalize your firm’s esprit d’corps. Individuals can accomplish extraordinary things. Absolutely amazing feats when they feel they are part of a team and that their individual efforts count.
The post-pandemic world is going to be a great place to be a lawyer. Get ready for tomorrow now. Make yourself and your law firm the law firm for the post-pandemic world. For specific questions, please email us at:
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