(dup) EZ Lawyer Sales

To the uninitiated, it might seem like professionals in this day and age only use digital communications. A lot of marketers have this strange idea in their head that no one uses paper anymore, but it couldn’t be further from the truth. Lawyers use regular paper letterhead

Lawyers use regular paper letterhead every day for things like:

• drawing up drafts and contracts
• retainer agreements
• sending invoices and bills (as well as “paid” copies)
• letters and reminders to clients
• letters to other lawyers
• letters and statements to government officials
• letters to witnesses or people involved in various lawsuits, etc.

So as you can imagine, a busy lawyer can go through letterhead pretty fast and they need to have it printed somewhere. Might as well be you!

It’s surprisingly easy to become a letterhead “expert” and by the end of this tutorial you’ll know more about letterhead than any lawyer you’ll run into.

Stationery, by design, is very minimal and simple, which makes it a great product to start off selling. Even a teen or a senior with some extra time on their hands can sell it and see some fantastic profits.

There’s three common paper weights for letterhead (and envelopes):

20lb (crap)

Regular copy paper. Surprisingly, it’s not uncommon to find even lawyers using it as their letterhead and that can make it a REAL easy sale. They either just don’t think to buy better paper or they’ve simply been procrastinating until they figure out a design.

24lb (a step above crap)

Slightly heavier than standard office paper. It’s what most ‘letterhead’ paper is sold as in office supply stores like Staples, etc. I find personally it more suited to non-professional firms who just need something a step above copy paper for when they send letters out to their customers.

70lb (awesome)

This is the good stuff and what you’ll want to sell 99.9% of the time. The “feel” goes a LONG way because it affects how the firm is perceived.

Imagine how you’d feel if you got an intimidating letter in the mail from a lawyer saying you’re being sued and it’s on cheap copy paper slapped together on microsoft word.

You wouldn’t feel nearly as ‘threatened’ as if you received it on a heavyweight, professional letterhead that was heavy and opaque with perfectly formatted text.

(tip: I use that line all the time when selling letterhead!)

You can source a designer almost anywhere (fiverr/freelancer/upwork/craiglist/friends),
but wherever you go make sure they’ve done print design before which must be in 300dpi CMYK.

If you need a designer you can trust, I’d personally suggest using any of these screened professionals:

Gregg Poserina …. [email protected]

Gary Hummel …… [email protected]

Karl Grabowski …. [email protected]

Jordan Andrews .. [email protected]

Font choice goes a long way with designing for attorneys because it has a such a huge affect on the perception of the firm. No one will take a lawyer seriously if his name’s in comic sans!

I personally always choose a combination from these:

• Garamond
• Adobe Caslon Pro
• Gill Sans
• Palatino Lintotype
• Trajan

TRY NOT TO USE: Times New Roman or Papyrus. Avoid those at all costs whenever possible.

Choosing the right font, particularly for their name, can make all the difference.

Trajan

Attorneys LOVE Trajan. If they’ve got an Ego, this is the one that’ll appeal to it. The only thing I don’t like so much is that it doesn’t pair well with other fonts – but Attorneys do often go crazy over it’s commanding appearance.

Garamond

I really love Garamond and try to use it as often as possible. Baskerville, Caslon, and Sabon are close-looking to it as well and are nice options if you have those available.

 

Palatino Linotype

Palatino Linotype is all-around useful and I use it frequently for both headings and body text. It’s a really nice one that you don’t see used a whole lot. It’s kind of a “friendly” looking professional font.

 

Adobe Caslon Pro

I like using Adobe Caslon Pro, often in bold, for headlines (like their names), with Garamond as the body text. It’s a really classy pairing that works well int his niche.

Gill Sans

If you’re looking for a more modern looking font, without looking too contemporary, Gill Sans is perfect. It’s the only sans-serif font I typically use.

If you want to check out other templates, I strongly suggest going here.

When I’ve got a picky client, I often just show them those and let them pick something out. It saves a heck of a lot of time.

If you don’t know already, you’re entitled to special print pricing as an elite member from me and I’ll gladly:

• triple check your artwork to make sure it’ll print perfectly
• print everything as quick as possible
• ship it to you or to your client, completely blind with your business as the shipper on the label.

Of course you can use any online or local printer, and I’m totally cool with that of course, but I’ve worked hard to have the best pricing and service you’ll find.

Email me at [email protected] anytime with questions.

Rule #1 – always get paid upfront or at least get 50% down. And if you get a downpayment, collect the balance on delivery. You don’t want to turn into a bill collector.

How much you charge is totally up to you but I like to charge a little more than what vistaprint and staples do.

I almost always find these prices go over well with little-to-no resistance.

My Suggested Pricing

250 ……………………$150
500 ……………………$225
1000 ………………….$350

I’ve gotten away with MUCH more and have done it for less too, it all kind of just depends on the situation. One thing for sure … the more you charge the more perceived value it will have.

Your Cost From Me (shipped blind)

250 ……………………$95
500 ……………………$112
1000 ………………….$119

These are for 4-5 day printing + ups ground shipping. Faster turnaround is available but obviously costs more. Email me with any questions.

It’s not a bad idea to call your local print shop and ask what letterhead costs (on 70lb paper with full color front) but you can use these major sources: Vistaprint & Staples as a guideline for competitor pricing:

Vistaprint

8.5×11 on 70lb . This includes their cheapest shipping option. Their pricing goes up dramatically with faster turnaround & shipping.

250 ……………………$134.99
500 ……………………$209.99
1000 ………………….$259.99

Staples.com

These are for full color 8.5×11 on 70lb smooth. Slowest turnaround option.

500 ……………………$154.99
1000 ………………….$293.99

Most letterhead gets sent in the mail – which means it needs a nice envelope printed with their identity to go along with it.

Suggested Retail Pricing For Envelopes

250 ……………………$139.99
500 ……………………$199.99
1000 ………………….$239.99

It’s not completely necessary, but it can often help to have a website that shows that you print letterhead., especially if you’re targeting remotely.

Creating a site doesn’t have to be hard, you can either:

1. Create a simple wordpress site, possibly with a domain that’s letterhead specific, like “letterheadpros.com”, etc.
2.  Register a letterhead-focused domain and redirect it to your regular site.
3.  Add a section of your site that’s focused on letterhead printing and always direct them to that specific page.

The key is to simply make some kind of web presence that points to you being in the letterhead business.

Keep it simple – don’t waste too much time on it.

 Tip: If you plan on selling remotely, across the country or internationally, create domain(s) that are generic enough to be located anywhere. You don’t want to be prospecting in Texas when you’re domain is “OhioLettherheadPrinter.com”.

Lawyers come in different ‘flavors’ and the marketing budget potential often depends on the type of specialty they might focus on. So I always try to  segment my lists as best as possible so I can define who I want or don’t want to target.

The good news is they all use letterhead, so you can target all of them. But if your goal is to sell more involved marketing services, you may want to focus more on practices that have higher marketing spends.

Here’s a quick rundown:

General Practice

You can’t go wrong here – they need everything in most cases and you can sell the gamut of products and services.

Personal Injury

These guys have the highest potential for marketing spend because their client acquisition costs are stratospheric.

They often can sink insane amounts of money into advertising without flinching. These guys are the ones most marketers have a very difficult time breaking into – and letterhead sales are the perfect entryway in.

DWI

DWI Attorneys can be pretty good targets. I find that I sell the most printed products to these guys. I often approach them with these products too:

• Magnets
• Business Cards (folded ones are fantastic – see the “folded biz cards” section further down)
• 9×12

Other Specialties

There’s quite a lot of other type of practices like:

• Real Estate
• Wills & Trusts
• Immigration
• Matrimonial
• Tax
• Intellectual Property

Who all need letterhead!

The ones I personally look for are newer practices that seem to offer everything. You can find new ones when you run new business lists using databases like referenceusa.

These lawyers often resemble your typical “do it all” contractor clients who advertise doing everything under the sun. You’ll see them advertising to handle tickets, criminal charges, divorces, litigation, personal injury, real estate, and most anything else.

Often they haven’t found a niche they can stand out in so they go for it all and are generally very receptive to any marketing opportunities. I really enjoy working with these type of clients as I find their attitudes to be lighthearted and zealous about everything.

You can manually look up lawyers and enter them into a spreadsheet (I suggest sheets or airtable) using:

• Google searching
• Online lawyer directories
• Yellow pages (Yes most still use them!)
• State Legal License directory
• Local Bar Associations

I should mention too that it’s a good idea to note or give particular importance to lawyers you see spending money on advertising. Anytime time I see a lawyer that’s not a current client advertising, I make sure to put them into my database. Look for lawyers who:

• Show up in your FB feed
• Advertise On Billboards
• Advertise on or in Yellow Page books
• Advertise on TV/Radio
• Advertise on billboards or outdoor media
• Show up in Google sponsored (adwords) searches
• Advertise on Youtube

Not all lawyers spend a ton of money on advertising, and you can still make money from the ones that don’t, but it’s always good to note the ones who are proven to spend bigger bucks on marketing.

Libraries (In the USA) often have access to “ReferenceUSA” or “DatabasesAtoZ”, which are database lookups that even include new business lookups. If your local library system doesn’t have it I can almost guarantee that a nearby one does – of which you can almost always purchase an out-of-area membership at a nominal fee.

And you can access the databases online right from your home computer.

Prospecting lawyers for letterhead isn’t too difficult at all.

Most of the time you’ll be initially dealing with an office administrator like their secretary or assistant.

This is actually good though because unlike marketing products, office staff are often interested in letterhead!

A lot of marketers don’t think about the fact that most employees could care less about marketing products because it’s not their business. In fact, many of them would prefer fewer customers coming in.

That’s why pitching marketing services to employees is generally a huge waste of time.

But printed products, like letterhead, is something that office staff can get excited about too.

One thing you’ll find out quickly is that people get really interested and excited over the simplest print features; like how nice a paper feels or a design looks.

So this makes prospecting actually MUCH easier than pitching marketing services cold.

The Face to Face EZ Formula

This method works amazingly well and it’s easy for anyone to do.

The key is to not give them information right then and there, and to casually gather info after their guard is down (once they realize you’re not trying to sell them something right there).

As you continue the conversation, you’re going to find that many of them have very urgent needs and they’ll be much more open about it as they talk. Simply follow up with an email later that day or the next early morning along with pricing and a sample image — use the ones I’ve included for you.

Tip: I also like to end the email asking which day is good that I could bring by a sample of the thickness of the paper. I do this especially if I got a sample of the letterhead during the initial visit and want to show the physical difference.

Cold calling is easy for this service. You don’t even have to get the lawyer on the phone!

Keep it simple:

• Introduce yourself as the owner of a local print & design business
• Offer to send them some free pricing on letterhead & envelope printing
• Collect their email and who to contact
• Ask (casually) questions about what they use now and if they’ve thought of upgrading letterhead or other print material. Gather info and use it intelligently.

The cold calling process is virtually identical to the face-to-face process. The good thing about cold calling is it can be scaled and done remotely.

You can target attorneys all across the country all day. Once you have one or more as clients, you can also leverage their names as happy customers and clients to other attorneys you’re prospecting.

A few hours of cold calling attorney offices for letterhead & envelopes can produce some very good leads very quickly. Even sales the same day aren’t unheard of.

Hi, my name’s Alisha, I own XYZ Printing here in Harenville and I was just curious … can I send you some prices on our letterhead and envelopes?

That’s it!

That’s all you’ve got to say.

They’re either going to say yes, in which case you grab their email address and then start asking questions like when they might be ordering more, who they use now, and whether they have a design or not.

Or they’ll say no thank you or we’re all set and you can simply thank them and ask one more time if it’d be OK to send pricing “just for down the road in case”.

In that case, just follow the same procedure as above if they said yes.

[it’s also ideal to ask at the end if there’s other printed products they may want pricing on, like appointment cards, business cards, or brochures).

The Follow-up

What information you give them on the follow-up is highly dependent on what info you’ve collected during your probing questions.

I generally include in my follow-up email:

1. A thank you for asking for pricing
2. Some basic information on letterhead like “heavyweight paper” that’s inkjet and laser-safe
3. The fact that it should be better pricing & quality than they’re getting currently
4. Some basic pricing for 250, 500, 1000 quantity
5. An attachment of the comparison graphic (same one I’ve included for you in this tutorial)

To spur urgency, I’ll often bump the pricing and tell them this month we’re having an X% sale.

Lastly, ALWAYS ask at the end …

“Would this type of design (attached) be something along the lines of what you’re looking for?”

I use a specific strategy when email prospecting for letterhead. It’s very clever and it works – try it.

Just keep in mind that cold emailing is pretty much spamming – so try to make it as non-spammy as possible  considering the fact you’re targeting lawyers :)

Keep it short, sweet, and casual as possible.

• Don’t give prices
• Don’t try to ‘sell’
• Don’t write too much right away

The truth is, there’s not a whole lot of selling needed for letterhead/envelopes. It’s not like you’re trying to pitch a marketing service that requires educating; it’s a simple commodity.

If there’s a chance of interest, trust me you’ll get a response and you’ll then have the opportunity to pitch some of the features, advantages, and benefits.

So save all that hoopla for once they’ve replied. 

My Secret Strategy

My “weapon of choice” when it comes to email prospecting is to ask for an opinion on my letterhead design.

The whole goal is to get the comparison picture (the image of three templates) in front of their eyes. Once they see that — if there’s any interest at all they’ll want it.

What’s great is that you can offer to give them the template free if they simply give you their opinion. Go ahead and give them the template … there’s a 99% chance they won’t know what to do with it because it’s in photoshop and they’re not going to have photoshop.

So the natural action for them is to hire you to edit for them, and obviously it makes sense to find out what you charge for printing too.

This is an incredibly well-working strategy, try it and see for yourself!

Hi, my name’s Aaron. I’m the owner of Barringer Design & Print in Morgan.

Would it be OK if I sent you a sample of my letterhead design just so I could have a professional opinion on it? 

I’m more than happy to give you the template totally free as a courtesy in case you want to use or modify it for your own use. I’m just looking for a professional opinion if you’ve got a second to spare. 

Roger Clemson.
Barringer Design & Print
555-222-4549

It’s always a good idea to bring up blank letterhead too, because there’s lots of times they’ll want to use the letterhead stock but not need the “official” design on it – such as for printing invoices.

Redesigning their letterhead often involves adding a new color, font, design element, or overall “look” they didn’t have before. And that means they usually want to co-ordinate all their other stationery, or create additionally stationery they never had the chance to utilize before.

Most Often:

• Envelopes
• Pocket Folders
• Notepads

A quick, easy sale.

Just use their regular business card design but:

• print only in matte or AQ gloss – so it can be written on
• make the back with “Appointment” lines

These are a hot seller – particularly to DWI and Criminal Defense Attorneys.

A folded business card is a business card is a folded piece the same size as a business card (when closed) but gives you lots of room for more info when opened.

The compact size makes it perfect for storing in a glove box, compartment, or wallet, and is best for reference content like “what to do if you’re pulled over” … leading to a call to action for the Attorney.

They’re very ‘sticky’ marketing pieces and can work surprisingly well.

Brochures

Tri-fold and bi-fold brochures are easy sells, but I HIGHLY suggest starting off with templates like those from graphic river unless you want to spend a LOT of time in the design stage. Attorneys, in my experience, are notorious for dragging their feet when there’s lots of information to figure out on a brochure.

It’s better to have them pick out a template and give you the info.

Magnets

Personal Injury attorneys love these especially – because they have marketing stickiness. Magnets are good sellers because they go on fridges and are always visible — just think how often someone goes to their fridge every day!

No one ever thinks they need a lawyer until they need one, and with items like magnets, it can mean being the first one that comes to their mind when **** hits the fan.

Solo Direct mail for attorney’s can be a tough sell because it requires a consistent, frequent, mailing schedule in order to keep their name at the top of people’s heads when they suddenly need a lawyer. The cost of doing that can be well outside most attorney’s budgets — but 9×12 makes it affordable for most anyone.

So if you’re currently selling a 9×12 card – sell some letterhead & print – and an ad for a few hundred bucks too.