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1. Best Practices in Trusts & Estates (PM)
   (or How Not to Shoot Yourself in the Foot)

   1. Learn from the successes, and failures, of your colleagues & predecessors. In this session, we focus on the best (and worst) marketing, administration, technology and time-management systems observed during more than ten years of private consulting with law firms, including in-depth surveys of trusts & estates firms across the country. Identify common problem areas and learn ways to resolve them.

2. Plan Your Approach (PD)

   1. Building a trusts & estates practice is hard work. To build it in a profitable and enjoyable manner you have to learn to work smarter. Kyle and Jennifer present a case study on the design, implementation, tracking, analysis and modification of a strategic marketing plan for the trusts & estates practice of the new millennium. Topics to be covered include overview of the marketing planning process, marketing background, and communication strategy.

3. Analyze This! (PM)

   1. This session will give you a better understanding of your practice, your market, and your future. It will help you "get your bearings," so to speak, in the marketing environment. Learn to organize your thoughts as well as collect and analyze crucial financial and market data. If you have good financial data and reporting systems, this session will go very smoothly for you. However, if you find that you cannot easily answer some – or many – of the questions asked during this session, then you will be challenged to implement essential financial tracking systems to guide your practice management decisions.

4. Know Yourself (PD)

   1. Expand your referral base, improve your closing ratios and boost your fee structure with effective interpersonal communication in meetings with both clients and referral sources. We begin with your online assessment, using the DiSC Personal Profile to help you understand your personal behavior style. This understanding will increase your effectiveness in a range of people situations and provide insights into the behavior of others. Then, you will learn to recognize the listening and learning styles of your staff, clients and referral sources. Learn how to keep the focus on client needs and meet your revenue goals by developing competencies in a wide variety of consultative selling situations and "flexing" your style to facilitate agreement.

5. The Vision Thing – Defining a Vision to Drive Management Decisions (PM)

   1. Too often a law practice grows in mere reaction – to market opportunities, financial pressure, etc. This "path of least resistance" leads to dissatisfaction, poor profitability, long hours and ultimate frustration. Take control of the practice development process by defining your vision – and learning how to put it into action to create a satisfying, profitable and rewarding practice. We look at key aspects, to include your ideal client, your behavioral style and attitudes, what you ARE and what you are NOT, your core values, and how you express or deny those in your practice day-to-day.

6. Branding Your Practice (PD)

   1. Marketing is not selling. Marketing is building a brand in the mind of the prospect. If you can build a powerful brand, you will have a powerful marketing program. In this session, you will learn about the power of a brand, the branding process, how to establish a firm brand, and how to integrate your brand with your marketing communications.

7. Staffing (PM)

   1. Finding, hiring and retaining appropriate, qualified staff is one of the most challenging aspects of any business or professional office. The decision to hire any new employee should be well-considered. While new employees may lighten your work load and help you become more efficient, they also bring their own set of headaches – additional overhead, payroll administration, management responsibilities, and, frequently, a whole new set of personal or family problems that will become your problems on some level. In this session you will discover how other, similarly-situated firms staff their offices, what benefits and "amenities" are common as well as how to write a job description, advertise for and interview job applicants, protect your intellectual property and client confidentiality, and a hiring process you can use to help ensure your next new hire is a good fit – for you and for the job you need done.

8. Fundamentals of Relationship Marketing (PD)

   1. Relationships are built on regular contact: personal contact, letters, newsletters, email, phone calls, etc. But keeping up with the dozens of referral relationships necessary to your practice could become a full-time job. We will show you how to automate the process, ensuring that regular contacts are made in a timely and appropriate fashion, freeing you from time-consuming routine tasks and allowing you to invest your time wisely where it is truly needed.

9. Implement, Review & Evaluate (PM)

   1. If knowledge is power, then learning to track, report and analyze your practice’s vital data is one of the most powerful steps you can take to build, nourish and protect your practice profitability. We’ll show you what to track, how to track it, and what the numbers mean to help you make better decisions.

10. Building Professional Referrals (PD)

    1. Regardless your stage of practice development, developing new referral sources is an essential skill. Learn to identify potential referral sources, prioritize your marketing efforts, and begin the relationship-building process, including what to say in your letters, your public relations, your phone calls and your personal relationships.

11. Client & Case Management Protocols (PM)

    1. Improve the quality of your relationships with minimal effort. Automated systems relieve you of the drudgery, freeing you to concentrate on the more enjoyable (and profitable) aspects of your business and personal relationships. Learn how to manage contacts with clients, prospects and referral sources to build profitable relationships. Whether you are using GoldMine!®, TimeMatters®, or any other contact manager you will learn the principles required to use automated follow-up systems in building referral relationships, nurturing client referrals, and implementing a cost-effective, profitable client acquisition and case management system.

12. Successful Client Relations (PD)

    1. Your clients can be the single best source of future business for your firm – but only if you nurture client relationships. A client relations program need not be costly, but it must be consistent. Identify the components of an effective client relations program and start implementing strategies to build strong relationships – and referrals.