Family Wealth Planning

Wealth Secrets of Self-Made Millionaires

Several months ago I was reading the biographies of several self made millionaires looking for the common thread.

Can you guess what it was?

It was service to others.  Each of the stories I read highlighted the truth that the way they made their millions was by being extremely focused on improving the lives of the people around them.

By natural extension, their lives improved as well.

Improving the lives of people I come in contact with is what drives me as well.  There is no better feeling for me than hearing someone tell me that I've made their life better in some way.  It's pure heaven.

One of our colleagues is dedicating at least the next year of his life to service of others.

Platinum Client Engagement System Subscriber Tri Nahn has been called back into active duty by the United States Navy.  Of course, I'll be refunding the purchase price of his system and I'm going to do even one better than that.

As a thank you to Tri for serving our country so selflessly, I promise Tri that when he gets back, I will provide him with a full day of private coaching to get his practice back into full swing.  That's a $10,000 gift to Tri and one I offer with love and gratitude.

If you'd like to send Tri your best wishes, go to my blog and post your thoughts in the comments section of this post.  I'll make sure Tri reads them. And, I know he'd love to have your support.

If you want to be a self-made millionaire too and I suspect you wouldn't mind that a bit, get into serving others.  It's fun, it feels good, and the money is a very welcome side benefit.

Dedicated to Helping You Love Your Practice,

~ Alexis

PS - The last replay of the free teleseminar that will teach you to help 97.5% of the people who come into your office is today at 3p ET.  There are a few phone lines left.

Register right away and you can still make it on the call:  http://www.familywealthmatters.com/teleseminar

Do Your Clients Know Who You Are?

One of the most important things when it comes to client happiness and more referrals to you is communication.

Do your clients walk out of your office after signing their documents never to hear from you again?

One of my biggest pet peeves is when someone tells me they've done their estate planning and I ask them who their lawyer is and they can't remember!

This means their lawyer has made a huge mistake. One you might be making as well.

There is no doubt that when my clients are asked who their estate planning lawyer is, they know my name!  How do I make sure of that?

In a number of ways:

1.  Weekly emails
2.  Monthly newsletters
3.  Quarterly client events
4.  Birthday cards
5.  Membership program
6.  An ID card that they actually keep in their wallet that doesn't only identify their trust, but also lists their kids' first responders.

If you aren't making sure your clients know who you are, you're missing a huge opportunity.

Whenever your clients are asked who their lawyer is, your name better roll off their tongue.

On our Client Engagement System bonus call a couple of weeks ago, Dave Dee described a client of the month program that we are going to start implementing in our practice in '07 and I can guarantee my clients won't forget me after that!

Have a fantabulous day!

Dedicated to Helping You Love Your Practice,

~Alexis

PS - Your last chance to register for my free teleseminar that will get 97.5% of your prospects to say yes is coming fast.  Register right away.  The call is Thursday - that's tomorrow - at 3pET. http://www.familywealthmatters.com/teleseminar

Selling Sucks

There is nothing I hate more than convincing someone to do something they don't want to do.  In fact, I've realized, for me, that's the one part about being a parent that I dislike the most.

As a result of this mental block I have against convincing people to do what they don't want to do, my kids have taught me to find ways to get them to do things without feeling as if I am convincing (ok, forcing) them to do it.

For example, tonight, my daughter wanted ice cream for desert and since she's 7 now she suddenly can do things for herself, that only a couple of months ago she needed help doing - such as getting her own ice cream.

I came back in the room from putting her brother to sleep and she was eating out of the container.  I could tell that she was well on her way to eating the whole thing.  At least that's what happens when I eat out of the container!

I knew it was going to be a tough sale to get her to give up the ice cream container.  I was either going to have to force her to give it up or find a way to get her to see why that was a good idea on her own.

You might be saying "you're the mom - just tell her to put down the container and be done with it."  And, sometimes I do have to get to that point, but I always like to try something short of that first.

Kaia has taught me one of the most important lessons I've needed to learn when it comes to selling, or I guess I should say not selling.

It's this:  if I go into a meeting with a prospect with the idea of selling them something, I'm dead in the water.  Even if they do say yes, the relationship we develop will be weak, based on my needs, not theirs.

Instead, I approach every meeting with a prospect from the mindset of developing a strong relationship based in our joint identification of their needs and wants and how I can help to satisfy those needs and wants.

Before each meeting, I visualize myself serving, not selling. I see myself going through the scripted meeting, and at the end of it I see the prospects smiling and feeling good with the knowledge that I have helped them and made a difference in their lives.

As a result, the relationships I build with my clients is based in trust and respect rather than the distrust and acrimony that often results when people feel they are being sold.

Does your sales process build trust and respect or result in distrust and uncertainty?  You can usually tell by how you feel at the end of your meetings.  If you feel great (whether the client said yes or not), you are on the right track.

Dedicated to Helping You Love Your Practice,

~ Alexis

PS - Ready to learn a system that will result in 97.5% of your prospects saying yes without you feeling as if you are selling a thing?  If so, register right away for the last encore presentaton of the teleseminar that will teach you just that. It's happening on 11/30 at 3p ET. http://www.familywealthmatters.com/teleseminar

Never Surprise Me!

Ok, I shouldn't say NEVER surprise me.  There are two surprises I'm open to - but, if you aren't throwing me a surprise party or popping the question, it's best if you don't surprise me because I don't like surprises.

Guess what?  Your clients don't like surprises either.

Surprises are on my mind because I woke up this morning in "sunny" Southern California to rain.  Now, normally, I don't mind a little rain, but when it's a surprise, it's no good.

Why?

Because my roller blades, a suitcase, and a whole lot of other stuff I didn't want to get wet were outside. And, if I had known it was going to rain, I would have brought them in!

So, the surprise factor of the rain ruined it for me. I wouldn't have minded the rain at all, if I had known about it in advance.

And, this is exactly the same for your clients with many things in your practice. One of your most important jobs as a business owner is to manage your clients' expectations.

In fact, I recently switched IT providers because the first company I worked with so poorly managed my expectations. Technically, my former vendor and my current vendor are, I am sure, equally good.  But, my former vendor lost out on at least $25,000 of revenue this year alone because he was terrible at managing my expectations - there were just too many surprises.

We manage our clients' expectations about everything from our fees (we don't bill anything on an hourly basis at all) to our processes (we have clear processes in place so that clients know when to expect things from us and aren't wondering when things are going to happen or where we are in the process) to possible hiccups in the process.

And, I find that when we tell our clients ahead of time about what something is going to cost or where things might go wrong, that they very rarely complain.  However, when something unexpected happens, that's when the complaints start.

Spend some time today considering how you can better manage your clients' expectations.  And, here's a hint - it most likely begins with having predictable systems in your office.

Dedicated to Helping You Love Your Practice,

~ Alexis

PS - How would you like to learn a system that will get 97.5% of your prospects to say yes?  You get one last chance to listen to the free teleseminar that will teach you just that on November 30, 2006 at 3p ET. Register now at http://www.familywealthmatters.com/teleseminar

Marketing Lessons from Best Buy

Are you working today?

I'm kind of working, kind of not.  Mostly not.

Truth be told, I'm going to brave the stores today. I know, I know, I must be crazy, but I'm in desperate need of clothes and this is the one day I have no kids, no clients and no one needing me for anything. Ah, heaven.

So, yes, I'm going shopping. I'm actually considering going to Best Buy.  Yep, Best Buy on Black Friday.  I must be truly insane if I really do it.

But, they have a Toshiba laptop on sale for $250. $250!

I just gave my old Dell to my daughter so she could put some school software on it and that was my presentation laptop.  So, I'm sort of in need. But, of course, it's more a want.

Remember, people always buy what they want, not what they need. Do I really need the Toshiba?  No, I have my everyday laptop right here and I can use it for my presentations no problem.

I do want the Toshiba and it seems like such a great deal, it's hard for me to pass up.  And, I might actually brave the craziness of Black Friday to get it.

You are probably thinking that the retailers' Black Friday concept has no lessons for us - we're service professionals.  How can it apply?

Well, it's absolutely applicable.  One of the most important factors to the success of your business is being able to look into other industries, see what works and translate it into something applicable to your business.

Black Friday is all about massive lead generation. Best Buy knows if it can get me in the store to buy a $250 Toshiba, I'm going to leave with a lot more than that.

What can you offer your prospects or clients on a limited time basis, possibly even at a loss, that will almost certainly result in them doing even more business with you at a higher price point?

Happy shopping!

Dedicated to helping you love your practice,

~ Alexis

PS - The Client Engagement System has been so well received that the price is going up by at least $500 starting December 1, so if you've been on the fence you won't want to miss the free teleseminar on November 30, 2006 at 3p ET because that will be your last chance to get the System at its very, very low price.  Registration details next week.

Enjoy Your Family DysFUNction!

Taking a little break today from thinking about work, systems, lead generation, sales, prospects, and clients to enjoy my family and I am sure you are doing the same.

I think of Thanksgiving as my chance to be grateful for the dysfunction that makes my family unique and, yes, even FUN.

For example, every Thanksgiving my ordinarily very loving grandmother gets extremely stressed out and angry at everyone. We've learned to stop taking it personally and allow her the space to experience her feelings without getting caught up in them.

I can never resist teasing Nan a little bit, trying to help her see the silliness. And, while she acts I annoyed, I can tell she really likes it when I do.

This Thanksgiving I'll have to tease my grandma from afar because instead of braving the airports and flying back to Miami, I'll be spending the day with my ex-husband and kids at the Santa Monica Civic Center cooking huge batches of mashed potatoes, turkey, and cranberry sauce for people less fortunate than us.

I did speak to my sister this morning and she confirmed that, yep, nan's grumpy.  I'll give her a call and see if I can tease a smile out of her from across the US.

If you are feeling caught up in your family's dysfunction; try and take a few minutes today to really be grateful for it.  Remember that it's this dysfunction that made you into the wonderful, loving and caring person that you are.  And, it's these experiences with your own family that give you the compassion you need to truly serve your own client families in the very best way possible.

Have a grateful day!

Dedicated to Helping You Love Your Practice,

~Alexis

PS If you missed the free teleseminar replay last weekend, you are not alone!  Our email system goofed and didn't notify everyone correctly.  Don't worry, you'll have another chance next week on Thursday at 3p ET/12p PT, so mark the date now if you've been meaning to listen.  Details next week.

Who is Your Jamie Mills?

The very first thing I did when I started my own practice was to spend considerable time focusing on who I wanted to work with.

If you haven't given this A LOT of thought, I urge you to do so.  If your target market is anyone who walks in your door and has assets, you are making a very big mistake.

The truth of the matter is that you are best suited to serve a very limited subset of the population based on who you are, what your values are, who you best relate to, and what's most important to you.

I am sure you notice that after meeting with certain clients or prospects, you feel great, energized even.  And, I'm sure you've also experienced the flip side.  There are some people who after they leave your office or you get off the phone with them, you just feel totally drained.

Well, there is no reason for you to work with anyone who doesn't leave you with that energized feeling because I can assure you that if you get really clear about who your ideal clients are and commit to only working with them, you will have more business than you can handle and enjoy it more than you ever have before.

Start considering the characteristics and qualities of your ideal client.  If you aren't sure where to start, think about the clients you already have who you love working with and start listing their characteristics and traits.  Also, consider what it is about those people who drain you and make a list of their characteristics and traits so you can begin to know what works best for you and what doesn't.

When I did this exercise, I developed a very clear picture in my mind of my ideal client and it turned out she looked a whole lot like me.

The beauty about getting clear about your ideal client is that it makes it easy to market because you aren't trying to reach the whole world; just that one person.  And, all of your marketing should be directed to one person and one person only.

I direct my marketing to Jamie Mills (I've even given her a name), a college educated woman in her 30s who has young children under the age of 13 and wants the very best for her kids.  She researched the best car seats and cribs, all of her kids' education options, and she buys the best she can afford for her precious little ones. Jamie drives a volvo because it's safe and stylish.

This is just the start of my description of my ideal client, but you get the idea. And, this is where you should start too. Before you spend any resources on marketing, you have to get clear about who you are marketing to.  Who is your Jamie Mills?

I'd love to know.  Feel free to share.  It'll help you get even more clear.

Dedicated to Helping You Love Your Practice,

~Alexis

PS - When the Family Wealth Planning Institute website is launched, we'll have discussion boards where we can all share these sorts of things; in the meantime, go to my blog and post your ideal client there in the comments section. It will help you to get even more clear by sharing with others.

Endorsed Mailings, Display Ads, Direct Mail and More!

As promised last week, today's email is an introduction to some of the lead generation (aka marketing) strategies we have used and still use in our office.

When I first started my practice with zero clients and zero resources I had to scramble pretty quickly to get the phone ringing.  And, boy, did I make a lot of mistakes!

If you read all of my emails and take action on what you learn,you'll be able to avoid some of the mistakes I made and save yourself loads of pain, frustration and money.

One of the biggest mistakes I made was that I'd try a new marketing strategy, have fairly good success with it and then drop it in favor of something else.  As I told you this week, that was because I didn't have systems in place to keep the working strategies going while I tested new strategies.

Now that we do have systems in place, we are able to use many different lead generation strategies rather than just relying on one that could dry up at anytime. 

So, what are they?

Here are just some of the lead generation strategies we use:

1.  Display Ads
2.  Direct Mail
3.  Endorsed Mailings
4.  Public Speaking
5.  Private Speaking
6.  Newsletter
7.  In-House Events

My favorite strategies are the ones that require very little of my time.  I used to love public speaking, but it can be exhausting so when I was just relying on speaking as a source of new business for us, I was tired!  Actually, make that tired and poor (I made lots of expensive mistakes, but I'll save the details for another email).

I had to spend all that time and money getting people to the event, then I had to make sure the event was set up correctly, then I had to show up and speak.  And, I remember when I was first doing public speaking, I was the one setting up the event. 

Yep, that was me, lugging my projector and screen, making sure the cookies and coffee were there, the flowers, the sign-in lists, everything. Ugh, I'm exhausted just thinking about it.

As I'm sure you can imagine, we have a much better system now. Throughout this Thanksgiving week, I'll be talking more in depth about each one of the strategies and the systems we've developed to make them easy as pie.

In the meantime, have a fabulous day.

Dedicated to helping you love your practice,

~Alexis

PS Client Engagement System subscribers you should all be receiving your systems this week.  I'm excited for you and can't wait to hear how much you love they system that gives you every tool you need to get 97.5% of your prospects to say yes!

Happy Birthday to Me!

Yep, it's my birthday!  And, I was going to write to you today about various kinds of lead generation strategies we use in our office, but you'll have to wait to hear about that on Monday because when I opened my email inbox this morning I got a huge marketing lesson that I just had to share with you.  And, it fits in quite well with our discussion about systems.

Before that though, if you missed my free teleseminar "How to Get 97.5% of your Prospects to Say Yes!" you can listen to it until Sunday night at midnight at http://www.FamilyWealthMatters.com/teleseminar.  After that,it'll be gone for good. 

When I opened my email, I had no less than 10 emails from clients and vendors wishing me happy birthday - what a lovely surprise.  Many of the emails came through the same service; I believe it was Plaxo or something like that.

The common factor among each of the people who sent me happy birthday emails - they are all smart business people who have a system set up for sending out electronic happy birthday cards; a system they probably barely have to think about.

And, even though I knew it was part of a system, it still made me feel darn good as I opened each one and knew that the sender was thinking about me on my special day.

Are you celebrating your clients' and vendors' birthdays in a special way?  If you aren't, you should be.  But, of course, you have to have a system to make it work.  The system should be so effortless that you don't even have to think about it, but the cards get sent everytime and are customized and not generic.  Each of the cards was different enough that I felt thought went into it.

If you'd like to take it offline (and I think that's an even better idea!), check out www.sendoutcards.com.  We're looking into it in our office and I'll report back after the first of the year when we implement it.  If you implement it before then,let me know how you like it!

Dedicated to Helping You Love Your Practice,

~Alexis

PS - What are you waiting for?  If you missed my free teleseminar "How to Get 97.5% of your Prospects to Say Yes!" you can listen to it right now at http://www.FamilyWealthMatters.com/teleseminar. Listen now because at Sunday at midnight, it'll be gone for good. So, go listen now.

So, what's the most important system?

Yesterday I talked to you about systems and how important it is to have them in place to protect your time, your cash flow, and your overall well-being.

The single most important system for any business owner, and especially for us lawyers who aren't naturally inclined to love marketing, is a system for lead generation that consistently brings in qualified prospects.

You can't get them to say yes and serve them for life, if you don't have qualified prospects coming into your office.

One of the biggest mistakes I have made in my practice is relying on only one source of lead generation or starting something and then stopping it because I didn't think it was working well enough.

Most often, the truth of the matter was that it was working, but I thought if it wasn't bringing in enough business to keep my pipeline full, I should dropped it in hopes of finding some other secret strategy that would fill the pipeline. Huge mistake!

Dave Dee told me the story of a chiropractor who would start a chiropractic office, build it up to a steady stream of 40 clients per week and then sell it.  And, he would do this again and again.  He was asked, what lead generation system do you use to bring in a steady stream of 40 clients per week. His answer, there is no ONE thing I do to bring in 40 clients; I do 40 things to bring in one client from each thing I do.

Wow, this was a major revelation for me.  I shouldn't be dropping things that work.  I should continue to do each thing that works at all and keep adding more and more until I have the right number of clients coming in.

Without systems though, it would be impossible because each thing can be totally absorbing of my time and my staff's time.  But, with systems, I can have many different lead generation programs going all at once with very little effort.  Well, at least with very little effort by me -and that is the key to my happiness.

Tomorrow, I'll talk about some of the lead generation strategies that we are using in our office and how they're working.

Dedicated to Helping You Love Your Practice,

~Alexis

PS.  If you missed the free teleseminar that will allow you to increase your engagement rate to 97.5%, you'll have a chance to hear it again starting tomorrow when it will be available for replay.  Details to come.