Marketing Tips

Rule No. 1 - When less is more, or, How many counties do you list in?

david@david-case-attorney.com (David Case) — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 11:49:28 EST

In the SOT directory, or other directories, how many counties do you claim to cover? If you purport to cover more than one primary county, plus perhaps a few adjoining ones, you may be shooting yourself in the foot.

I've heard that potential clients prefer using true local experts if they can find them, and thus avoid contacting title vendors who claim to cover large numbers of counties. The other day, quite by chance, I "overheard" a conversation that confirmed this.

A national vendor called me while I was out so the call went to voicemail. After the vendor left his message he failed to disconnect. He kept on talking, unaware that his call was still being recorded. What ensued was a lengthy and fascinating conversation between this person and a trainee who was being mentored on how to evaluate potential title vendors, contact them, and respond to certain questions the vendors might raise such as fees, payment, etc.

As they talked, they were going down the list for the county they called me about and simply rejected out of hand any vendor whose listing indicated that they covered more than a handful of counties. Didn't even give them a call. They were out. Period.

Let those who have ears listen. I sure did!

When, why and how to require payment by PayPal.

david@david-case-attorney.com (David Case) — Mon, 04 May 2009 15:53:40 EST

What follows was taken from a recent post in the Discussion forum. I had been wanting to do a brief article on using PayPal in our trade and this post gave me the opportunity to do it. For those of you who have not read the post, the thrust of it was "Why do we not require payment for our services up front?" While I do not usually require payment up front, I do sometimes require payment before I will deliver the work product. Here's my reply to the aforementioned post explaining why and how.

I do require payment at the time services are rendered with some clients.

If I get an order from someone with whom I have never dealt, and with whom I will probably never deal again, I tell them up front that upon my completion of their work they will be invoiced via PayPal and upon payment of the invoice I will forward my opinion of title.

Invariably three things happen next:

   1. They say that they have never done things that way before. I politely tell them that I understand, but that is how I work with new, out of town, clients.
   2. They then say that they do not have a PayPal account. I remind them that they do not need a PayPal account to pay via PayPal, and direct them to the PayPal site to learn more. They say they will look into it. I figure that half the time they are shopping around for someone else, but then...
   3. They call back and say they will pay via PayPal.

I have done this multiple times. Always with success.

When doing this it is important ...

   1. that you are polite and professional
   2. that you do not project an arrogant "take it or leave it" attitude
   3. that you are ready for their objections with the answers set out above

Since you are usually talking to someone lower on the food chain, and not the ultimate decision maker, remember to...

   1. Be kind, they are doing the best they can with the novel situation you have just presented.
   2. Adopt a helpful attitude and briefly educate him/her about PayPal so they can report back to their superiors knowledgeably.
   3. Point out that you are not requesting money up front. Remind them that they will only be billed upon completion of the work. Assure them that you are raring to go on their project as soon as they give you the word and "times a wastin."
   4. Do what you promise to do and send them the work immediately when they pay.

I do not do this with clients with whom I've developed a good working relationship, but I do monitor their payments carefully.

You take a certain amount of risk here by working without payment up front. However, if they do not pay you as agreed you simply do not send the work. It's better than submitting work that the unknown client uses then never pays you for.

Remember too that in the scenario I am describing, the client does not know you either. You at least take steps to alleviate their fears of the great unknown (namely, YOU) by not requiring payment until you at least purport to have done the work. Additionally, they have the hope of some recourse through PayPal for reimbursement of their payment should you utterly fail to deliver the product you invoiced them for.

There are two other things going for you right now that make it easier to take the PayPal approach I outline above:

   1. In the current fearful economic climate it is understandable for parties who do not know each other to deal with each other more cautiously, even if that means adopting new non-standard methods as long as those methods appear reasonable and secure.
   2. Over the years, in spite of its rather lame name, PayPal has come to symbolize security in internet payments between parties who do not know each other. It is the way to pay for goods and services on the internet. eBay saw this early on. That's why they acquired PayPal in a 1.3 billion dollar stock deal in 2002. A bit of PayPal’s image rubs off on you by using them. Guilt by association you know.

I hope this gives you some food for thought. As I said, I do not use PayPal across the board, but I use it frequently when the situation seems to call for it. It is one more tool for your tool box.

Sincerely,

David Case

wdavidcase.com

Track your time with Toggl

david@david-case-attorney.com (David Case) — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 11:16:57 EST

An independent user review of Toggl, a web-based time tracking application of considerable use to title attorneys and land title abstractors. The basic version is free.

Recently I was given the onerous task of conducting a complicated research project involving questions of rights of way and boundary line issues affecting expensive commercial property in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. Because of the nature of the project the client agreed to pay fees based on an hourly rate.

Keeping accurate track of time spent on such projects has always been something of a bugaboo for me. I've tried various time-tracking programs but never found one that rang my bell. So before starting this new project it Googled around a bit to see what was new out there in time-tracking land.

One feature that I specifically wanted was that the program be web based, rather than resident on my computer. Web based programs, such as Google Docs, as offer certain advantages over resident programs. For one thing, they are always up to date. You never have to bother with installing new versions or upgrades. The online version is always the latest version. Secondly, if you change computers, buy an additional computer, or if your current computer just plain self destructs, your program (and saved information) is always still available to you where it has always been...online.

My Google search brought several possibilities, and as luck would have it, one of them filled the bill perfectly for my needs. It's a little jewel of an application called Toggl.

Toggl has everyting I look for in software, namely:

It is simple to use
Its cheap [The basic version is free. I upgraded to the Solo Premium plan for a whopping $5.00/month which lets me (among other things) set hourly rates for projects.]
It works as advertised

Here's a quick rundown of what can be done with Toggl:

Track tasks in real time and easily switch between tasks:

Set up workspaces for projects and add team members. Members can only see the projects I assign them to.

Organize basic info on my clients and projects:

Instantly view detailed reports of time spent on projects:

Export reports in pdf or csv:

Cool extras:

Toggl integrates with Basecamp

Toggl Desktop (Windows)
A desktop application that lets windows users track time without opening the browser.

Toggl Timer Widget
The Widget allows Mac, Linux and Windows users to run Toggl Timer on the desktop.

iGoogle gadget
Toggl Timer gadget for your iGoogle homepage.

View a quick video tutorial.