“There is no short cut to achievement. Life requires thorough preparation – veneer isn’t worth anything.”
George Washington Carver (1860s-1943) an American botanist and inventor
Major Ployer P. Hill sat in the cockpit. As a pilot for the U.S. Army Air Corps, he was one of the best.
He was just waiting for the “OK” from command.
It was 1935 and the U.S. military were just about to acquire one of the deadliest planes in history.
It would come to be known as ‘The Flying Fortress’.
At the time it was by far the most sophisticated airplane that was ready to go into production.
Boeing spared zero expense at putting an elaborate show on for the military commanders.
This deal would propel them into the billion-dollar corporation that came to dominate the aviation industry over the next 75 years.
They were all watching in anticipation at Wright Field in Dayton, Ohio.
The pilot, Major Hill, finally got the “OK”. He was excited. He had never flown a plane that is this well put together.
They take off was perfect. It was smooth, stable, and achieved perfect lift.
Everyone looked on with excitement and pride.
However, the smiling faces of the commanders soon turn to faces of horror.
Within seconds of achieving the perfect take off the plane stalled and crashed into the field.
Crash of Model 299 on October 30, 1935
Major Ployer Hill did not survive.
Embarrassed and confused, the Boeing bosses immediately started an investigation.
They found something very odd. In actuality, what puzzled them most was the absence of anything odd.
There seemed to be nothing wrong with the plane. It was in perfect condition.
There were no mechanical failures whatsoever. Everyone was perplexed.
They investigated further, double checked, and triple checked everything. Nothing.
Then they started taking eye witness accounts, including the surviving co-pilot, and what they found was astonishing.
The flight crew had simply forgot to release the flight control gust locks. In other words, the plane was still in park mode. This caused it to nose dive soon after takeoff.
Shortly afterwards, Boeing introduced a mandatory checklist.
Eventually they were able to sell the Model 299, and it flew for years without incident.
Today, you can’t takeoff or land in a commercial airplane without a mandatory checklists being used by pilots.
It doesn’t stop there; from the creation of each plane, to maintenance checks, to the flight attendants who assist with your in-service flight, checklists are mandatory throughout the airplane industry.
The checklists keep improving. 2017 was the safest year on record. Some pilots refer to it as their “Cheat Sheet” to saving human lives.
Businesses up and down America who use these checklists or ‘Cheat Sheets’ tend to grow faster, make less mistakes, and serve their customers better. That’s why I named it the “Major Cash Cheat Sheet”, after Major Hill the pilot.
“The Key To Sustainable Law Firm Growth Might Be Boring, But It Is Incredibly Powerful”
For example, a study in 2009 showed that introducing a checklist in surgery reduced deaths by half and complications fell by more than a third.
Even though the surgeons and teams had experience and knew what they were doing, they still benefited from a cheat sheet.
Can you imagine how much someone would benefit from a cheat sheet who doesn’t have experience? The potential for a shortcut to success is immense.
The same is true for you and your staff. Instead of maximizing safety, you’re going to maximize income and client satisfaction.
“By having a clear and dedicated cheat sheet, you’ll be performing all the tasks you need in order to keep increasing the cash coming into your firm.”
The more cash you have, the better you can serve your clients.
Luckily, growth checklists for attorneys are simple. It isn’t anything like flying an airplane or fixing someone’s spine.
After working with countless attorneys to grow their law firms we have certain cheat sheets work better than others.
Each firm will slightly tweak the cheat sheet as they go along to suit their workflow.
Below is an example of an Easy Retainer®Cheat Sheet:
Download PDF of this cheat sheet here.
As you can tell, this sheet is incredibly simple. When you start using it you will keep adding little sub-parts to it so that you do not forget details, or something that makes the process easier.
For example, you may choose to use Google Sheets to collect their answers or use a CRM to automatically tag them in each process. Or perhaps you’ll simply keep them on paper.
The aerospace industry still updates their lists so why shouldn’t you?
In this case it is important to use it and tick off the process as the clients go through it.
Especially with financing. Once you get in a habit of offering it, you’ll see how seamless it becomes. Clients love it, you get more cash up front, and it removes delinquencies.
All because of a simple one-page cheat sheet.
“It is so effective I would recommend this to be the very first growth strategy you implement in your firm.”
The second thing you should implement are reviews.
As with financing, you need to weave reviews into the very fabric of how you do business. Nothing turns you into more of an authority in your business than a bunch of five-star online reviews. The cheat sheet will help with that.
There was one law firm, out of Connecticut, who went from almost giving up, to thriving, because they used it. As with any growth tool, the Mass Referral Reviews System is useless without proper implementation.
On the flipside, once you start doing it regularly you’ll find yourself getting addicted to it. There is no better feeling, in the business world, than seeing clients praise your services.
Work is a big part of life, and when people appreciate it so much they share it with the world, there is a deep satisfaction that comes with that.
Below you will find the reviews cheat sheet. Once you have your mini review website set up with everything in place, start using it like your livelihood depends on it. With the coming waves of change, it just might.
Download PDF of this cheat sheet here.
When I consult with law offices I will always have these cheat sheets handy. One of the tasks will be for us to go through each one. The staff, or the attorney, have to give me examples of how they have used it.
We’ll comb through all of their experiences.
What went well? What went bad? What didn’t make sense?
This helps to reinforce the existing sheet as well as adding to it. At the end of the initial consulting period of a few weeks, the office is likely to see consistent growth and smooth implementation. Then we move onto the next big growth strategy.
There is always a steady and consistent movement towards growth. The ONLY thing that will prevent the firm from growing is if they do not implement or act on the tasks at hand. They are simple, yet some law offices are not putting in the necessary minimal effort to get it done.
“You don’t have to reinvent the wheel and try untested strategies. You simply have to implement what is tried and tested already.”
You know this stuff works. You simply need to mobilize yourself, and your staff, to get it done.
Here’s one way you can make sure your cheat sheet gets implemented.
Split the sheet into two categories:
1. One off tasks
2. Ongoing tasks
The one-off tasks are pretty self-explanatory. You do them once and you don’t have to do it again. For example, getting a cheap tablet in order to collect reviews.
The ongoing tasks need to be broken up into daily, weekly, monthly, or client tasks.
A client tasks refers to a task which needs to be completed once a client is involved. It doesn’t have a specific time associated with it.
An example of a daily task might be to type up reviews written on paper by the client. Another task may be to update the review booklet and get more printed.
Depending on how many reviews you get, you might want to do it only once every quarter and not every month.
Assign each task to a specific member of staff. You may even have one person doing all of them.
I once worked with an attorney who printed each staff member’s tasks on small cards that they can carry around with them. This worked very well, especially in the beginning when everything was new.
The staff would constantly consult their little cards and write notes on them. We’d go around the room and review all of the tasks from the week using those little cards.
Hopefully you are starting to see the value of cheat sheets that can help your law firm to grow. Even the best pilots and surgeons in the world use their own cheat sheets to get the best results.
Don’t forget, procrastination doesn’t only affect your prospects, they may affect you and your staff as well.
To see what attorneys think of our strategies click here.
Or I’ll simply copy and paste a recent review by Alfredo B.
“Big Mouth Marketing has set the bar when it comes to helping attorneys grow their practice. Reading their material, whether through the website or via helpful emails, empowers the reader with the knowledge needed to succeed today and into the future. We spent about an hour discussing my specific needs and David was very approachable and engaged the whole time. I highly recommend his services!”
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