Malofsky & Schwartz, LLP •ATTORNEYS AT LAW

Ok, so last week we discussed whether a salesperson only sells. There were many comments about how a salesperson should be developing a relationship, not just making the sale and then moving on. What if there is a customer service issue? You sell a service to someone, who buys. There is a challenge with that service and the client contacts you, even though you were the “salesperson,” not the customer service rep. What do you do or what don’t you do? Why or why not?

Ok, so this may seem obvious to some of you, less obvious to others. Say you sell widgets. I buy widgets from you, cut you the check and your company deposits the check. Are you done with your job? Obviously I have had a personal experience which has led to this posting and my reentry into the blogging world, so I hope that many of you will post comments and make this an incredibly active blog.

When you join a networking group, you join to ultimately make money, but is your approach that if you just tell people about yourself they’ll send you business? Do you try to build relationships or just stand there with your hand out? When you go to a networking event, do you offer your card to everyone you meet and explain what you do or do you ask them what they do first?
My goal in my BNI chapter is to always give more referrals than I receive. I don’t just mean the number of referrals, I mean the value of those referrals.
If you can’t give a referral to someone with whom you want to develop a relationship, do you try to connect them with a referral source? Perhaps let them write an article in your newsletter? Do you help them with a non-profit event they are working on? There are so many ways to give to other people, so I encourage you all to remember to focus on giving first. Then you will undoubtedly receive many times over. I definitely remember an expression about it being better to give than to receive…

So most of you know that I am an attorney. If you don’t know that, please email me so that we can get together and talk about what we both do!

Well, I am driving to work yesterday and I see a sight that, to be blunt, was just shocking for me. Perhaps it should not have been. Here’s the scene. I am driving along just below the speed limit (that’s how I drive for the most part these days) and I see a fire department car (probably one of the local Fire Marshalls by his attire) waiting to turn onto the road. It’s a 2-lane road and I am in the left-hand lane. So he turns into the right-hand lane pulling up next to me. Ok, all sounds normal so far, right? So the shocking part is that he was driving with just his left hand while holding his cell phone in his right, talking on it! Am I missing something here? We expect our kids (and ourselves) to not do this, but the guy who would have had to pull us from the car wreckage is doing it???

Besides making me think what a poor example this guy is and how dangerous he is being as a driver, it made me think in general about practicing what I preach.

If you are a marketing expert, do you use your own expertise to market your business? How many unhealthy doctors have you gone to see for a checkup? How many estate planning attorneys don’t have their own will? If you are a web site designer, do you have a top-notch web site?

Now watch out for this Worcester Fire Department employee on the roads. He’s not a safe driver until someone gets him a hands-free device to use.

So I was reading Rick Roberge’s most recent post

RainMaker asks “Are you happy?”

and it got me thinking. Well, most of Rick’s blog posts get me thinking. This one in particular really struck me. I am pretty much always happy. From the moment I wake up until the moment I go to sleep, that is how I feel about 99% of the time. I’m ready to work from the moment I wake up until the moment I go to sleep. Ready to play too. Very little complaining. Learn from every situation. But always with a smile on my face and a friendly voice.

How about you? Can people hear the smile on your face over the phone? Can they seat it on you at the networking mixers? When you talk about your job, do you do so with passion and energy or do you talk about it as if it is just a job that you would rather not be doing?

Thanks Rick for keeping me thinking!

Ok, so my wife and I have this awesome law practice. We are great at what we do, but we very rarely give discounts on our fees. If you want the best, you have to pay us. I don’t mean to say that in a cocky way, but this is our livelihood here, so we can’t just go giving it away for free.

We got a call from a client who has used our services in the past. That client had refinanced a few times over the years, although we did not know that. The reason we did not know is because another attorney had been doing the closings for this client’s lender. The main reason that client had not asked us to get involved and represent his lender? The other attorney was not charging him legal fees. Now don’t think that the other attorney was not still making some money. He was. But he was making $400.00 to $500.00 less because he was not charging the legal fee portion of the closing costs.

Now we get to why this client called us. He is building and buying a new home and he said that he could only use us because he trusts us the most. While the other attorney had not charged him for previous deals, he still not only feels loyalty to us, but he also feels that we are the most competent attorneys to handle the work.

So did giving away his services for free hurt the other attorney? Did it cause the buyer to think that he was just getting what he was paying for, which was nothing? What are your thoughts on this?

I love asking people to what networking groups do they belong. It’s always fun hearing the usually very short answer of “the Chamber,” “BNI”, “Board of Realtors,” etc. Those of you who know me know how expansive this list should be. Give me some examples of “networking” groups that don’t involve professional associations, referral groups and Chambers.

Ok, so I went to the New England Home Show just a couple of weeks ago and was sadly amazed at how many booths were either not manned or had people just sitting as far in the back as possible reading a magazine. What does everyone out there think about this? I know my own opinions, but I would love to hear some other opinions.

Having watched some of the best bloggers around, like Laura Briere, Rick Roberge and Cys Bronner, I have decided that I want to blog too! I have a lot to say about a lot of different things!