Observed

Seth suggests asking yourself this before hitting Send: Am I "taking advantage of the asymmetrical nature of email--free to send, expensive investment of time to read or delete?"

Of Seth’s 36 Questions To Ask Before You Send An E-mail, my favorite was Number 32:

If this is a press release, am I really sure that the recipient is going to be delighted to get it? Or am I taking advantage of the asymmetrical nature of email–free to send, expensive investment of time to read or delete?

Of course, this applies to IMs, Twitter and other digital platforms, yes?

Not that this would have done Anthony Weiner much good.  After all, making a stupid choice doesn’t make him stupid, does it?

Yet, too many of us (me included) would be smart to slow down, read the rest of Seth’s list and consider the following in addition:

1. How important is this relationship?
2. What does this client prefer?
3. How much is it worth to stand out?
4. Is it really either/or?
5. Is anybody there?

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Many of the nation's leading law firm marketing pros -- including Laura Meherg (not pictured!) -- gathered in Chicago in May 2011 for their annual RainDance conference, produced by the Legal Sales and Service Organization.

Laura Meherg has a pretty good handle on the relationships between lawyers and their clients. After all, she has conducted hundreds of top-level law firm client feedback interviews over the past few years.

This week, Laura and one of her associates at Wicker Park Group, Nat Slavin, offered their insights into what businesses want when they hire a lawyer or a law firm.  When she has asked them, according to Laura, most clients tell her they’re looking for three qualities in their lawyers above all others: (more…)

If you write for a living (or think you might want to try), do yourself a favor.  Watch this movie:

What the 50 screenwriters in Tales from the Script (2009) tell me is important for any writer, especially one with a client.  However you define that.

Here are four of the many lessons they offer:

1. Get used to chaos. No matter how sincere the time line and approval commitments, life has a way of showing up.  Things slide,  and before you know it, you’re part of a train wreck.
2. Develop a thick skin. There’s never any way to predict how your work will be received.  Clients are human, and it’s impossible to know who might have a bad day or when.  Plus, people can disagree.  Your take on something might not be their take on something.  Even if it’s personal, don’t take it personally.
3. Great writing alone isn’t good enough. Writing for hire is a team sport.  If you’re not good with people, find something else to do.
4. Don’t quit. It can be discouraging to go through draft after draft after draft…even when you’re getting paid to do it.  Nothing ever gets created, however, without the risk of failure.  Be brave.

The sooner you accept the legitimacy of these things, the happier and more serene your writing life will seem.

When I build a bio page for an attorney, I remind them that getting picked is an emotional process, at least in part. That’s why it’s important to let visitors to your page know they’re dealing with someone who’s more than a list of impeccable credentials.

Carl Aveni, a litigator based in Columbus, Ohio, agrees. Take a look at this recent clip:

Making your bio like a personal story will also make it more readable and set you apart.

PS:  Thanks to Larry Bodine for sharing this clip with me.  Plus, there’s a related post at http://doug-stern.com/blog/2010/11/19/people-buy-from-people/.

George H.W. Bush understood the importance of superficial impressions. In 1988, he used this picture of a hapless Michael Dukakis to win the presidential election. Bush's fabled campaign ads featuring escaped felon and murderer "Willie Horton" drove the final nail in his opponent's coffin.

We’re hard-wired to judge others.  And situations.  Some of us (e.g., parents of young children) seem to acquire this urge under the right circumstances.

Judging others factors into how much we trust and feel safe.  This is one reason why chemistry and even small, tangible details seem to figure into the hiring choices clients make and whether they remain satisfied with a vendor’s performance.

So, too, it seems when picking presidential candidates.  A recent story in The New York Times vetted several Republican favorites with an eye toward how they present the qualities it takes to win as opposed to govern. (more…)

Does anyone care to speculate why phone sex is (was?) popular? Is there something *special* about aural (ahem) stimulation? Something for which humans are hard-wired?

All hat and no horse.  That pretty much describes the feature piece in today’s New York Times about the demise of the phone conversation.

Yeah, I know that phone time is trending downward and that texting is trending up.  But the author’s anecdotal musings do little to advance insights into why, who and the like.

I don’t know about you, but I still spend a LOT of time on the phone, including time with clients, vendors and other colleagues.  Mostly, it’s for the sake of efficiency.  It’s also because there aren’t many better ways (other than face-to-face) to create a sense of personal connection and I-care-about-you trust.

Judging from the frequency and number of clients who want to talk with me on the phone, I’m not alone. (more…)

When you work for popes, you have more than your share of client satisfaction ups and downs. So, naturally, Leonardo liked the calming rationalism offered by Vitruvius, the great first-century Roman architect and polemicist. In his "10 Books on Architecture," for example, Vitruvius advised that owners hold their architects accountable for any cost overruns. Reward your architect when the projects comes in on budget or better. "But when more than one-fourth of the estimate was exceeded, he was required to pay the excess out of his own pocket."

The New York Times told a fascinating story this morning.  It’s a quintessential New York City story, combining sex, political power and (of course) real estate.

What really caught my eye was the piece of the report that dealt with the design and construction of the subjects’ over-wrought bay-side mansion in Brooklyn.  In referring to Luchese mob boss Anthony Casso, the prior owner, the Times explains…

It was Mr. Casso who originally conceived of the giant complex, only to order the execution-style murder in 1991 of the architect who designed it, for fear that the man, Anthony Fava, could become a witness against him. F.B.I. agents stormed the house looking for evidence, punching holes in the walls as they searched for hidden bodies.

I doubt that either da Vinci or Vitruvius could ever codify what to do when your client pays your invoices in stacks of small bills. (more…)

What is it that motivates my urge to deliver outstanding customer service? It it economic sustainability? Greater profitability? Is it something more personal, such as a code of ethics? Or, is it something else?

Many years ago, a friend of mine was applying to medical residency programs, including the one at Yale-New Haven Hospital.  “I had never been to Yale,” according to my buddy.  “So, when my train arrived, I grabbed a cab.  I told the driver to take me to the hospital and that I had 45 minutes to get to my interview.” (more…)

John Kralik's book -- 365 Thank Yous: The Year a Simple Act of Daily Gratitude Changed My Life -- extols the virtues of the tangible...and how it benefits all of our relations, including the one with ourselves.

On NPR this morning, there came a story about John Kralik, a product of the Midwest (born in Cleveland and educated in Ann Arbor, Mich.) and now a superior court judge in Los Angeles.  It was about the fruits of writing — and receiving — hand-written notes.

As he puts it…

“In this day and age, a handwritten note is something that people really feel is special.”

Kralik says he is often moved by how many people have saved his notes: “It’s up on their wall,” he says. “It’s like part of you that’s there.”

So, check out what else Judge Kralik has to say and let me know if this speaks to you.  Give me your mailing address, and I’ll write you a note.

If I knew about a problem that causes problems for my clients AND DID NOTHING ABOUT IT FOR YEARS, I'd deserve to have someone bite off my head!

If no one hears a college administrator fall in the forest, does the dude really fall?

The excuses given for a long-standing, vexing and high-stakes programming error in the widely used and vaunted Common Application tells me that someone is hard of hearing.  The responsible party was quoted this morning as follows:

Mr. Killion said the issue of “truncation,” as it is known within the Common Application offices, is not new, and had been a reality of the process for more than a decade, causing barely a ripple.

Read the rest of the article and tell me what you think.