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CLE Leadership & Management
Ideas, Resources, and Techniques for
CLE Professionals
A periodic e-newsletter
By Chuck Bingaman - chuck@chuckbingaman.com
#22 July
2005
Leadership  Did you ever think about how closely
managing a CLE program resembles managing a circus? Every year you need to
find, recruit and sell new talent, new acts, and new approaches to connect
with your audiences and to keep them coming back. However successful you
were with last year’s approaches, chances are they will look less exciting
this year. In an article on Cirque du Soleil in the July FAST COMPANY magazine,
President and COO Daniel Lamarre emphasizes the importance of taking risks
to keep things fresh. “It’s part of who we are”, he notes. “Every
time we are in a comfort zone, we will find a way to get out, because being
comfortable in our business is very, very dangerous.” Same in CLE and
many other businesses. As soon as you stop trying new things, stop experimenting,
stop taking some risks for the sake of shaking things up, the sooner your
offerings will be seen as old hat, dullsville, boring. And the sooner your
customers will be looking elsewhere for their wants and needs.
Management
I
frequently consult on CLE sales letters. You know, the letters extolling upcoming
courses or publications. Drafts I am asked to re-work are often weak in thinking
about how recipients will read them and oblivious to what direct mail research
that tells us about how to write such letters. Ten key points about drafting
sales letters that all CLE leaders should insist on are as follows: 1.) All
sales letters should focus on the RECIPIENT’S wants related to the product—NOT
the writer’s interests. How often do we see letters that start with “I’m
really excited about the new courses/publications our organization is bringing
out!” Wrong! Make it about the READER—not the writer! 2.) Use the
magic word “you” in the lead sentence. That will help you aim the
lead properly. It’s also the reason why letters should be individually
addressed if at all possible. We ALL like to see our names at the top of letters
and more frequently read them when that magic name is there. 3.) Make sure
the letter clearly describes EVERY benefit, short- and long–term, of
the product advertised. You never know which benefit (or combination of benefits)
will hook which reader. Or which one he or she can use to sell a supervisor
on buying! 4.) Note relevant biographical points of the key faculty or authors
involved. Forget long bios—no one cares where someone went to law school.
But, wherever possible, insert that one telling point—that key case they
tried—that builds credibility for THIS project. 5.) In longer letters,
insert interesting sub-heads in sans serif type. Make it easy to scan your
letter to see what’s coming up. 6.) Let them know EVERYTHING that is
included in the offer. Details sell! 7.) Make your letters easy to read. Indent
paragraphs. Use New Times Roman or even Courier typeface in the body of the
letter. Don’t use san serif type in the body. And don’t expect
anyone to read typeface smaller than 12 points! 8.) Don’t worry about
multi-page letters AS LONG AS you’re talking about real benefits of interest
to the reader. And, if you DO use multiple pages, make sure the sentence at
the bottom of each page carries over to the next page. Lead your reader read
on to the next page! 9.) Test, test, test! For instance, test a “Johnson
Box” at the top of page 1 just under the inside address. A Johnson Box
is a box with a substance-filled headline and/or benefit that is in a box made
of asterisks. Some tests have shown that inserting Johnson Boxes raises response.
Also, test all letters on sample readers—lawyers who are in the target
market. Often they will raise questions or point out confusing aspects that
are invisible to you. 10.) ALWAYS use a P.S. with a strong benefit to your
offer. Research shows that, after the inside address, readers most often look
next to see who has signed the letter and THEN they’ll read any P.S.
they find there. Give them a great P.S. to whet their appetite to dig into
the whole letter.
Resources many
of you are considering whether to begin blogging, either for your organization
or yourselves personally. Here’s a “to the point” quote
from the 7-14-05 Scobleizer blog you might consider. “Not
blogging is a missed opportunity to start a new conversation—on
the customer’s
terms.” Bob Scoble, whose official title with Microsoft is “technical
evangelizer”, writes the interesting blog called. www.scoble.weblog.com. On
the subject of useful info, I continue to enjoy the fresh information
and opinions of Monica Bay, Editor-in-Chief of LawTechnologyNews, at
www.thecommonscold.com and
Larry Bodine’s professional marketing
e-newsletter that you can subscribe to at www.lawmarketing.com.
Also, I recently found the Tech Support Center of SmartComputing Magazine
at
www.smartcomputing.com.
It’s filled with very good plain English
explanations and problem solving tips. On
the Walpole front, I have recently announced five new hour-long training
classes for in-house CLE or bar association staff that can be delivered
by conference telephone call. Each class is stand-alone and subjects
include Why Smart People Often Underachieve And What We Can Do About
It, Managing the CLE/Association Exec’s Challenge: Providing Leadership
When You’re Not in Charge, Growing Your EQ: Understanding, Using
and Building Your Most Vital Skill Set, Your Emotional Intelligence!,
Writing to Sell: Creating Letters, Brochures, Proposals—Even Emails—That
Get Positive Responses, and Getting More Done than You Dreamed: How to
Make and use a Powerful To-Do List. Each has detailed print materials,
is highly interactive, and can be given on YOUR schedule. Phone me if
you would like further information. Karen
Darby and Len Matteo have co-chaired the planning for the ACLEA Annual
Meeting coming up July 30 to August 2 in Washington, DC. Looks like a
great program! I look forward to seeing many old—and new—CLE
friends at the meeting.
I welcome your feedback! Please
keep in touch! CCB
Following 20 years as Executive Director of a major American CLE organization,
Chuck now consults on strategic planning, marketing, blogging and management
challenges with CLE and other legal organizations, law firms, law schools and
others. He welcomes your inquiries
on projects designed to
enhance your organization’s effectiveness. You
can contact him at chuck@chuckbingaman.com,
at 1-603-756-9268, or at P.O. Box 390, Walpole, NH, USA 03068-0390. Past issues of this newsletter are archived
at www.chuckbingaman.com.
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