Book Review: The View from the First Chair by Martin L. Grayson

In his book “The View from the First Chair: What Every Trial Lawyer Really Needs to Know,” Martin L. Grayson defines a trial as follows–

[N]othing less than a six-dimensional merry-go-round-jigsaw-puzzle-demolition-derby all playing out in your mind while you sit relatively passively at counsel table, trying to concentrate on 12 things at once while listening to witness testimony.

This passage gives you the sense that Grayson knows what he’s talking about and is going to tell it to you with a certain amount of wit.

Grayson wants you to think of his book as “a virtual mentor for attorneys.” It’s filled with the type of tips you don’t get in a typical trial manual. Examples: a chapter titled “Thinking on Your Feet,” a chapter on the proper uses of email, and a chapter on communicating with clients. These chapters are written and organized in a way that invites you to read the book from beginning to end, rather than skipping around from issue to issue.

Other highlights–

• A how-to for finding the best experts (“most attorneys have no idea how to find well-qualified experts,” says Grayson);
• Useful tips for settling cases (“settlement is about psychology and rhythm; the numbers are just music in the background”);
• A technique for dealing with abusive counsel at depositions (“98 percent guaranteed to change the entire tone of the proceedings,” according to Grayson–and I think he’s right).

Throughout the book are sidebars containing the author’s real-life litigation stories. Although the book is slanted towards defense lawyers, I’d recommend it to any type of litigator who lacks significant trial experience.

[thanks to evan schaeffer via cc]

Black’s Law Dictionary Apple iPhone App: Price Is Too High

If you work in the legal industry and you’re an iPhone or iPod Touch user, you’ve probably picked up on the fact that Black’s Law Dictionary is now available for the iPhone or iPod touch. You may also be aware that West released the new application at a price of $49.99.

This post is not intended as a feature review. For that, I suggest you link on over to Jeff Richardson’s iPhone JD blog for his comments which went up this morning.

What I’m curious about is the price point chosen. I think it’s too high, and not because West doesn’t deserve to make a profit. In fact, I think they’ve missed profitability equation on this new product entirely. Let me explain why.

As Connie Crosby points out in the comments on this Slaw post, a firm that spends a couple hundred dollars on legal dictionaries isn’t going to increase their budget to thousands just because we are now able to tether a digital copy to a smart phone. If you price the print edition and iPhone edition the same, you are inevitably asking for comparisons to be made. It forces an either-or decision.

That’s not what West wants (or at least not what I think West wants…). The goal should be to avoid media format competition at all costs; especially when the possibility exists of selling their IP twice, once in each format.

West could have skipped the whole ‘firm budget’ equation and moved this purchase into being a personal expense just by lowering the price point below $30. Had they lowered the price to a discretionary level, many lawyers would skip the firm paying altogether and picked up the bill themselves.

The key, I think, is to create new non-competing markets. West is far better off, both short and long term, with $25 apps on every lawyer’s smart phone, over shared copies of print products. Any firm out there, even a two-lawyer operation, will logically make the decision to resource share when possible – thus reducing the number of purchased copies. This part’s simple math – create the demand for a lower-cost personal edition, and you create a larger & more lucrative market. Moving shared product purchases to personal product purchases is just good business for West.

But equally important to the profit equation is to not let digital content – iPhone apps included – exist only for business consumption. Lawyers are also consumers, and individual purchases made outside of work will be a growing market for legal publishers – but only if they are priced low enough. Price it too high, and the personal copy becomes a questionable decision.

Additionally, if law firms aren’t picking up the tab, they will still see value (for the short term) in keeping a few print copies around. For West, that means an opportunity to sell the same content in multiple formats. It also means the original print market isn’t disrupted by forcing it to compete for the same purchase dollars.

Group subscription pricing models will inevitably come along, but when is difficult to say. Until that time comes, however, legal pubishers like West are simply missing out on a window of business opportunity.

[via vancouverlawlib]

Battle of Referral Books: Referral of a Lifetime v Endless Referrals v Get More Referrals Now

As a business owner, I’ve been trying to build my base of incoming referrals. I get very few clients from referrals, and I want to change that!

Referral marketing is a basic way of building business that’s all about word of mouth. But true referral marketing uses a system to consistently obtain referrals. It’s not just a clumsily relying on people to occasionally drop your name.

To beef up my referral marketing, I checked out three books from the local library. I want to share my thoughts on these books with you.

The books are:

• The Referral of a Lifetime: The Networking System That Produces Bottom-Line Results Every Day by Tim Templeton
• Endless Referrals by Bob Burg
• Get More Referrals Now! by Bill Cates (with a “C”, not Gates)

The Referral of a Lifetime

My favorite book was The Referral of a Lifetime: The Networking System That Produces Bottom-Line Results Every Day. It lays out a solid system that any business person could use to get great referrals.

You get a system. Like I mentioned, The Referral of a Lifetime gives you a referral marketing system that you can quickly implement to obtain results. The book sets out goals for you, action steps, and even example letters and notes to send. I love this practical approach!

It keeps the list manageable. All referral marketing centers on a list of people that you try to get to referrals from. But The Referral of a Lifetime boils this down into a list of 250 people. Focus on those 250 people and cultivate them into your referral base. Think about it: if you had 250 people who really believed in you and your business, they could refer all the business you could ever handle. Why would you even need a bigger list than that?

It’s written like a story. While reading The Referral of a Lifetime, you follow Susie through the process of learning about referral marketing. This style of writing converts the book from a dry business text to a mildly fun novel.

Did I mention that I like this book? I really think it’s a great book and system for developing your referral base. I’ll be returning this copy to the local library, but I might go buy it for my own library.

Endless Referrals

Endless Referrals is the thickest book of the three. It’s chocked full of good tips on referral marketing. But it’s not my favorite.

It’s too in-your-face. Two of the big tips in Endless Referrals are to send personalized thank you notes and to give your contacts a scratch pad with your info on it. I like both these ideas, but I think the author’s proposed designs are too loud. Instead of a tasteful, professional note card, he suggests a card with all your contact info, your picture, your benefit statement, etc. I think it goes way too far. He uses the same design for the scratch pads that he sends out; I certainly wouldn’t use one like that. The idea is good, but I don’t like his execution.

There’s no system. Endless Referrals provides some good tips about referral marketing. But I didn’t feel like it provided a solid system to implement. Perhaps this book is better used to supplement your existing system.

Ask in isolation. One good tip I took from Endless Referrals is how to better ask people for referrals. You should just ask: “Do you know of anyone who could use my services?” That’s great, but it’s overwhelming. So isolate the sphere you’re talking about. Ask the person if they know of anyone in a more limited group, like their weekly golf foursome, could use your services.

Get More Referrals Now!

I wasn’t very impressed by Get More Referrals Now!. It has some good tips, but it seems a bit more limited than the two books above.

The one thing I really like about Get More Referrals Now! is that it provides some solid tips and advice on actually asking for referrals. Specifically, it explains how to prepare contacts for the ask, how to ask effectively, and how to talk to contacts who may be resistant to giving referrals.

Go get some referrals

Why are you still reading this post? Go read one of these books and start building your referral marketing plan. That’s what I’m going to do!

[via andrew flusche]

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