Upon factoring together the number of appointment-based businesses and the average no-show rate across all industries, I estimate the American economy loses at least $66 billion each year due to missed appointments. You’ve likely seen how no-shows can hurt your law firm’s bottom line. So how can you make sure people stick to their appointments? While ending no-shows entirely is unlikely, there are tactics you can use to increase the likelihood your clients will show up — and that they show up on time. The key? Automate. ... READ THE REST

Applied well, technology can make any task more efficient and cost-effective — and that includes your marketing activities. Whether it's tracking those marketing dollars to find out where they are best spent, managing the minutiae of client relationships or riding herd on multiple social media accounts, there are apps that can make it better. This month, we asked the gurus for their favorite marketing automation tips. Today Mike Ramsey, Gyi Tsakalakis, Jim Calloway, Nora Regis, Heidi Alexander and Tom Lambotte share their secrets … READ THE REST

Social media marketing has, unfortunately, become the techno-version of "marketing by wandering around." It can be immensely time-consuming while producing an extremely low return. You can spend considerable time chasing down likes and followers instead of using methods that produce actual business. In fact, social media without a plan can become an addiction, wasting time and creating dozens of distractions and interruptions every day. Tired of aimlessly wandering the social media landscape? Here are five principles to keep in mind when formulating a more focused plan. ... READ THE REST

Recently I was contacted by someone looking for good articles on cross-selling. I noticed that a lot of material discussed the obstacles — compensation systems, internal competition, lack of confidence in colleagues, lack of knowledge about firm capabilities — but few addressed how to do it effectively.

Google Drive, through Docs, Sheets or Slides, has given users a free way to create documents, share them and allow multiple users to edit simultaneously or asynchronously. So, how would you use this? Say you are on a conference call discussing the language of a document. In Google Drive, everyone on the call can see the document in real time and make edits as discussed. Or, during a meeting your assistant can be taking minutes, and the meeting attendees can correct them in real time. READ THE REST

Some years ago, I conducted a half-day workshop on business development at an AmLaw 100 firm's retreat. I closed the session by saying the following: “If you don’t remember anything else we have discussed in the last three hours, please just remember one word." Then I printed the word in great big letters on the flip chart — and explained what it stood for. ... READ THE REST

When I see other lawyers trying to be perfect, I want to help them. More often than not, it's a female lawyer who is also a mother, trying to be everything to everyone all the time. I want to stop and give her a pat on the back. Or maybe even a hug. This lawyer is clearly suffering from what I call, “I-Must-Be-Perfect.” Fortunately, I do not suffer from this affliction. I am more of the, “Look, I’m Doing the Best I Can, So Back Off” type. ... READ THE FRIDAY FIVE

In yesteryear, if you wanted to circulate news, you yelled it over the fence. In two minutes your neighbor had all of it. In 20 minutes it was around the block, and in two hours it was all over town. Fast-forward. In the 1980s, corporate communicators relied on faxed press releases and wire services such as PR Newswire and Business Wire to disseminate need-to-know news. Now, the 24-hour news cycle, the Internet, mobile technology and social media have changed the public relations landscape entirely. We’re back to yelling over the fence, but now the whole neighborhood hears you. So, do lawyers today need to pay distribution wire services — at $2 a word — to spread their announcements? Borrowing a line you’ve heard from countless lawyers, "That depends." Let’s consider some scenarios and strategies. READ THE REST

No one would describe "The Future of the Professions: How Technology Will Transform the Work of Human Experts" as a light and frothy read. We are huge fans of Richard Susskind’s previous books and his evolving thoughts about the future of the legal profession. In this latest book, he and his son Daniel, a lecturer in economics at Oxford University, look across all the professions to see what the future might hold. For us, there is a kind of complex crystal ball embedded in this book. Lawyers would be well advised to heed the Susskinds’ view of the future, which we find extremely compelling. ... READ THE REST

Sponsored. Amicus Attorney, the leading developer of practice management software for lawyers, has announced the launch of Amicus Premium 2016, the latest release of one of the most widely used programs in the legal community. This release contains a multitude of new features and advances that will further improve performance and profitability for legal professionals. ... READ THE REST