San Jose Estate Planning Attorney Blog

I have previously posted Part 1 & Part 2 of this series looking at Networking while attending or speaking at a conference.

Today I want to finish this series with some thoughts for maximizing your results through follow-up after you get home from the conference.

1. Always implement at least ONE idea you learned at the conference.

I usually learn much more at a conference than I can possibly implement right away. However, I make it a point to implement one idea right away. It may come from one of the seminars or presentations. It may also come from one of the meetings you set up earlier. Either way, that one idea usually makes the whole trip worthwhile.  And I still have the rest of those ideas I can work on later.

2. Follow Up With Thank You Cards & Phone Calls

Emails are cheap. They don't take much effort. Accordingly, they don't produce the best results. Follow up with a thank you card if someone did something nice for you. Make thank you phone calls to the others.

Ask them to join your network on LinkedIn. Arrange to meet at a different conference you will both be attending. Ask questions about how they are implementing what they learned at the conference. Pick up where you left off.

After this, emails will be fine for staying in touch to maintain the relationship.

3. Offer Something of Value

Invite them to visit your office or take them out to lunch when they are in town. Offer to send them a form you created from an idea you discussed at the Conference.

You don't measure the ROI on attending a conference based on the number of business cards you collected or the information you learned. Ultimately, it is about relationships. How many did you make, and how long will they last. You may not meet the referral source of your dreams at the conference.

But I am confident about this: You will meet more people at your next conference than you did at the last one. You will be more productive, and you will have more fun.

Last week I posted Part 1 here. It focused on the planning and arrangements you could make before the conference begins. Today we will focus on what you do while attending the conference. There are many benefits to attending a professional conference. Most CPA's, Enrolled Agents, and Financial Advisors I know attend so they can satisfy their Continuing Education Requirements and learn from the presenters so they can improve the quality of the services they provide to their clients.

However, taking advantage of these suggestions will help. Here are some suggestions to implement while attending the conference.

1. Make a Point of Meeting Everyone You Called Face to Face

Meet everyone! Over breakfast, lunch or dinner. For a quick coffee or tea. Talk about the things that made you put them on your list. But don't forget to ask about them. Why are they at the conference? What sessions are they attending and why? The point is NEVER eat alone. There is always someone to meet and someone to talk to.

If you will be attending the same session at some point, make arrangements to sit together. This gives you a chance to connect again. It also gives you a chance to talk about what you a learning at that session and how the two of you will implement those concepts in your various practices.

2. Meet the Leader of the Next Conference

If you want to be a speaker at the next conference, make sure you meet the person responsible for running the conference next year. Let them know of your interest and find out their process for selecting speakers. When you follow up later, they will be able to put a face to the name.

3. Host a Dinner

Every year in January I attend the premier estate planning conference, the Heckerling Institute, in Orlando, Florida. Often I will arrange a dinner for a number of people that I am trying to build relationships with. I don't usually pay; we go Dutch Treat. However, I make the reservations and invite the people I want to know.

You can also look for people that seem to be all alone (the orphans). They will be grateful for the new friend and someone to talk to. You never know how that will turn out.

4. Use Free Information as an Incentive to Collect Names & Addresses

I have never done this, but it will work depending on your goals for the conference and whom the attendees are. If your firm has a company newsletter, email subscription list, etc., you can offer to send someone a copy if they give you their business card. It is a lot less threatening for someone to hand you their contact information face to face then fill out a form online to receive it.

5. Ask People You Meet to Help With Your Article Research

If you are writing an article for publication, as attendees you meet to help. What thoughts do they have on your topic? Do they find it interesting? Any comments or suggestions they might make?

We do not have a Comments section on this blog. Your feedback is appreciated, however. Please call the Sheffield Law Office and talk to Amy or myself to let me know your comments, or if you have any questions on how better to implement the above suggestions.

As a thought leader in the legal community, I am often asked to speak at conferences in the Bay Area and around the country. Last month, I was in Chicago speaking at Wealth Counsel's Annual Conference.  I believe there were close to a thousand estate planning attorneys at the conference.  My topic was International Estate Planning (or estate planning for Non-Citizens and Non-Resident Aliens who own property in the United States).

Since most of us travel from time to time to attend classes, annual updates, and conferences; I thought I would give some suggestions on how to maximize your personal branding and connect with others at a conference.

In this post, I will talk about attending a conference composed mostly of your peers.  Depending upon the nature of your practice, you may or may not get many referrals from this group.  But there are still things you can do to enhance your reputation in your community that will have a positive impact on your practice.

Let's start with things to do before the conference starts.

1.   Have a Game Plan

What is your goal for attending the conference?  The purpose is to make or deepen relationships with the people you meet at the conference.  Pick a realistic goal for you.  Is it 2 or 20?

2.   Get a List of Attendees

If you can get a list of attendees before you travel to the conference you will be able to target the people you want to meet.  If you can't get this years list, get a copy of last years.  Many of the same people will probably be in attendance.  Worst case scenario: go over the list of attendees when you get to the conference, and target a few names at that point.

3.   Set up Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner Appointments with your Targeted Attendees

Call or email the people you would like to connect with and invite them to meet.  Everyone has to eat, and most people will welcome an invite from another attendee to break bread.  If you are nervous about meeting someone one-on-one, get a group together.  Make the meal around further discussions of one of the topics presented at the conference.  You can use any reason that your targeted attendees will find useful.  They will want to meet with you to see what you know as well.

In future posts I will discuss some potential targets for your meetings.  I will also provide a strategy for what to do during the conference and after as well.

If you have any great ideas on how to make our reader's next conference a better marketing opportunity send me an email or fill out the Contact Us form with some comments we can include in future posts.

I think you will acknowledge that it is hard to meet a client's objectives unless you understand what it is they need and want.  Understanding is one of the underpinnings of good advice.  Without it, you can't give it.

But how do you come to this understanding?

Do we just know what the client needs?  Is this client the same as the last one who was the same as the one before?

Many of you know that my practice is not based on just filling out some forms and producing documents.  We are a Counseling oriented practice.  We take time with the client to find out what their needs and want's are.   We do that by … LISTENING!

Can you really understand what the client needs without listening to what the client tells you?

So, how do you listen?  Or, let me put it another way, what part of you does the listening?   If you said your ears, you are only partly correct.

What about eyes and ears?  Getting closer.  Certainly the eyes are as important as the ears because non-verbal communication is important.  How someone is saying what they are saying matters as much as what they are saying.

When a client is talking about their children, it is important to me to watch their body language as they describe them.  Some parents light up when they talk about one child and then slump or frown when they talk about another.  This helps me to follow up with questions for additional feedback on their relationship or issues regarding the child's ability to get along with siblings or their ability to manage money.

Everyone knows that email messages don't always communicate the best (especially with emotional content) because the reader may take something written in a way that the writer never intended.  Talking on the phone is similar.  Only 45% of the message is communicated over the phone.

This is why we always try to meet with client's in person if possible.

Early in my practice, I was so eager to show client's how much I knew, I didn't stop to listen.  I was always talking.  Of course, if you are talking, you are not listening.

Suppose a prospective client told you that her current professionals were “not responsive.”   Most professionals would not bother to ask “why” or “how” or “in what way,” etc.  Instead, they immediately launch into a speech about how they are “responsive.”  But what did the client mean when they said “responsive.”  Did it mean that their advisors didn't return phone calls?  Maybe they don't explain things very well?   Frankly, it could mean any number of things, but you won't find out unless you dig deeper and listen to their response.

Listening takes concentration and patience.  It is not easy.  But listening also build's trust with the client.  Demonstrating that you understand where the client is coming from or the feelings they are communicating will help you help them.   And isn't that what we are trying to do in our professions anyway?

I have tried to model my marketing efforts about this simple phrase.

Be a “Problem Solver.”

How can you help a client solve a problem?  Is there a referral source that could use your help?

Make yourself valuable to others irrespective of whether you get paid or not.

Will everyone thank you?  No!

Will everyone send you a client?  No!  Become a client?  No!

But some will remember.  Some will become clients.  It will create opportunities to work with others.  To get to know them better. 

And along the way, you have the satisfaction of knowing that you helped someone else with whatever was troubling them. 

Many of the advisor's we work with have asked us to blog about marketing issues.

Of course, they don't put it quite like that.  They ask questions on how to take care of clients, how to get new clients, and how to network.  They want to know why we did our Boot Camps and were they successful for us. Others wonder about internet marketing, blogs, and social media opportunities.

Marketing Monday will be a regular column on this blog designed to flesh out some of these questions.  Hopefully we can provide some answers.  Or, at a minimum, some food for thought.

Do not expect life changing secrets.  In fact, most things we will write about may be well known to many of you.  However, they do provide thoughtful reminders to all of us that without Client's we do not have a business.  If we can't take care of them, and provide them with meaningful service, then what are we doing?

I know very few CPA's, Enrolled Agents, and Financial Planners who don't genuinely care for their client's well being.  Many have known their client's for a very long time.  They try their best to protect their client's from harm. When one of them is hurting, they hurt too.

Together, let's see if we can improve the service we provide to our clients.  And hopefully find a few more as well.

Look for Marketing Monday every Monday on our blog:  San Jose Estate Planning Attorney Blog