What Can Lawyers Learn From Billy Mays (the OxiClean Guy)

The last 2 weeks have been just ridiculous with celebrity deaths.  But the one that really hit home for me was Billy Mays (for those who don’t know the name he’s the OxiClean guy with the beard and the “authoritative” voice).  Don’t get me wrong.  I’m not happy about any of the departed.  Ed McMahon was elderly so his death could have been anticipated, poor Farah fought hard but it was just a matter of time, and Michael Jackson’s was outright shocking.  Hell, I even had posters of all of them growing up (ok, not Ed but at least Farah & Michael).  Nevertheless, when I found out that Billy was gone it just hit home.

He was one of us.  He was the guy we hung out with at 2 in the morning wondering whether we really needed another potato slicer or 5000 HP chainsaw that fit in the palm of your hand.  And we really liked him.  Sure, many found him loud and borderline obnoxious but that just made him like family.

At a professional level he was also one of us.  He was a pitchman.  Now I’ve only used a handful of infomercial products but did you ever doubt that Billy believed wholeheartedly in anything and everything he sold?  Not for a minute.  Nothing cleaned better than OxiClean and nothing bonded better than Mighty Putty (which by the way is one that I’ve actually used).  Are you giving your clients the same feeling of security and confidence?

Billy could have easily been an attorney the way he exuded confidence about anything he did and how he was smooth enough to make you see the benefit in anything he sold.  Sometimes we didn’t even know that we suffered enough to need his products he showed us.

That’s what we need to do in our law practices.  We need to make our clients secure and confident.  We’re in a better situation than Billy because our clients already know what pain they’re suffering or going to suffer (usually) and they know they need a solution.  That’s where we come in.

But that’s not all.  It’s also our jobs to show other pains/concerns which may exist or rise that are not as obvious and that our clients may not be as aware of.  Of course these should all be legitimate issues and not stuff made up to simply scare your clients into working with you.  This serves two purposes.  First, it shows them that you are looking out for them.  Two, it generates more business for you.  If you are a real estate attorney and you point out that your client should really have a will now that he’s a property owner you have looked out for his legitimate interest and you’ve opened a door to new business.

On top of that you absolutely MUST show your clients light at the end of the tunnel.  Sometimes there isn’t any.  They ARE going to go to jail, they ARE going to lose their house, have to pay alimony and a laundry list of other events that will be painful.  There’s still something you can do and that’s make the trip smoother, less costly, less painful and that’s what you need to show your clients is what happens when they work with you.  They don’t care how you do it (believe it or not) as long as it’s ethical and won’t put them in a worse situation than when they came in.

Like Billy you must exude that utter confidence as to how good your services are and how the price that your clients are paying is an amazing deal for what they are going to get from you.  Plus, you’ll be showing them how their lives will be better after working/buying from you.  And if you haven’t figured it out yet, you are a pitchman (or woman) just as much as Billy was.

RIP Billy.  You are an inspiration to us all!

What Lawyers Can Learn From NetFlix

Two days ago in the WSJ I read a great article about Netflix and how the owners are preparing for the demise of DVDs.  Well, demise may be a bit of a strong word but they are well aware that snail mail is going the way of the typewriter and they will need to prepare and adapt their business to what modern technology holds (which as of now appears to be movies sent digitally directly to subscribers’ TVs).

So here’s a really quick summary of the article and how you can employ the same wisdom to your practice.  The first point was that they know that although they are cranking out cash with their current setup it’s not going to last forever (in fact they’ve predicted that in 4 years DVDs will be almost obsolete – not movie-watching, just the DVD part).  What elements of your practice are going to become obsolete or are going to require adaptation to keep up?  Are your clients going to still come into your office to see you, are they going to work with you remotely, does video integration into your current structure make sense.  Is paperwork that is currently being mailed going to be filed electronically (or more of it be filed electronically).  If the economy booms, what areas will take off.  If we have another recession what areas of law will take a hit.  Are you prepared for any or all of these possibilities.

The second part of the article made reference to how Netflix invested several million dollars to create a small box which would go on top of your TV and allow movies to be delivered directly to your TV.  Great idea except that they nixed the idea AFTER development and realized that they were in the movie business.  Not the gadget-development business.  Smart people.

So they outsourced the work to a company that does it best and they focused on what they do best.  Question is, “are you focusing on what you do best and outsourcing what you do not?”  Most lawyers don’t.  Not only do they practice areas of law that they have little or no knowledge about (aka the “general practitioner”) but they also handle their accounting, administrative duties, etc.

Focus people, focus.  We’ve been taught our entire lives to work on what we’re “weak” at.  Forget that.  Our weaknesses are infinite while are strenghts are limited.  Focus on what you do well and do it better.  Besides keeping you happier and sane it helps the bottom line by making sure you’re earning $300 an hour for what you do well versus $0 for making photocopies and sharpening pencils (which I can’t imagine is that hard but it’s certainly not paying you what you’re worth).

Lessons from NetFlix:

1) Be forward thinking by pulling your head out of the sand and seeing what is either forseeable (remember that great term from law school) or inevitable; and

2) Do what you do best and outsource everything else to others who do that stuff best.

Now take a break and watch a DVD while there’s still time!