From Goals to Growth: Breaking Down the Numbers for the New Year

The end of the year is the BEST time of the year.

It sets both the finality of that arbitrary block of time (this year) while also doubling as an opening to the possibility of the next block of arbitrary time (next year).  

People tend to be happier with the end-of-year bonus and upcoming holiday gift giving.

And in Florida, the weather is usually pretty nice too!

If you did great in 2022, you could look to continue the success in the next year. On the other hand, if you didn't do so hot in 2022, you should call me, but also, you have 2023 to look at as the year you turn it around....either way, you're set! You can start a clean break from things not going the way you want if you want it or keep the good times rolling if you don't.

Here's how I plan my end-of-the-year planning for people in either boat.

I REALLY like the traction VTO. It sets out your long-term vision and big goals, then breaks it down into your rocks for the quarter and such. So I would suggest you start there, but then when it comes to breaking it down to execute, what does that actually look like?

Follow me on this journey, and let's figure it out together.

2023 Goal - I want 120 referred viable PI cases to my firm.

To get 120 viable cases, I need 132 overall (Florida requires $0 in BI coverage, so we get about 10% of our cases with no money to recover for anyone).

To get 132 cases overall, I need about 147 leads (we close almost 90% of our PI leads). I will call it 156, just in case, so it breaks down better.

That becomes 13 cases per month or just over 3 per workweek.

So how do we get to the 156 leads?

We went into our numbers and found that we can support about 50 referrals to doctors for initial treatment. Our average doctor sends us about 1 case each quarter. For the sake of math, we went with 12 offices at four leads a year (48 referrals total). This has us adding three more offices to our referral list.

We looked at about 30% of our referrals coming from current clients in either repeat work or someone they know. So that was 46.8 (we went up to 48 for math).

We found BNI and our other groups sending about 6 cases a year (with 2 of us), so that was 12.

We pulled a list of 15 lawyers who sent us, on average 1.6 cases per year (then pushed ourselves to 20 when we looked at how many cases we refer out) and moved that to 2 cases per year (40 total referrals).

We had eight non-lawyers send us more than 1 case over the last two years (moved this to 10 people with one a year) - 10 more cases

And we looked at our past numbers and saw that we had a random lead per month (my mom's neighbor or one of our staff member's high school best friend, etc.) - 12.

So that's 170...which covers me EVEN if we drop to an 80% close rate OR don't add a single new lawyer referral, OR every doctor goes down to 3 a year...etc.

So what do we do to ensure we get referrals from that list?

12 treatment providers

40 lawyers

10 non-lawyers

4 organizations

A handful of clients

Let's be honest, for the purpose of my ability to drive referrals - the treatment providers, lawyers, and non-lawyers are the same.

We host two parties a year - Cinco De Mayo and Friendsgiving

Other large-scale yearly things - scratch-off tickets for St Paddys, a movie over the summer, a back-to-school items drive, and a Gingerbread house contest

Then I connect with my referral sources at least every quarter above that - whether that's a Magic Suite, Topgolf, Lunch, etc

And we have social media posts geared toward referral sources.

(for anyone reading who IS one of my referral sources, please understand no one makes the list unless we genuinely like them, and the once a quarter is my bottom bar, hopefully, we see each other more).

For organizations: we go to events, follow the rules (bring guests, send referrals, present, do 1-2-1, etc.), and we try to get more involved in fewer organizations by being on the board or a committee, hosting events, sponsoring, etc

And for clients, they get Valentine's stuff, invited to Cinco De Mayo, a movie, the school drive, holiday photos with our photographer, and the Gingerbread house contest. Plus, we try to make connections for our professional clients, use our Food & Beverage clients for catering events and networking meals, invest in their cottage industries for thank you gifts to people, etc.

Plus, social media posts for clients.

I want to be clear - for as organized as it sounds, 1) I could definitely still do it better, and 2) it's still a lot of fun!

Next week I am going to talk about AI in a hopefully fun (and not terrifying) way. In the meantime...may your future baby daddy not get sent back in time to save you from being killed by Arnold because your child leads the resistance against SkyNet...

Have a wonderful week!

Until Next Friday

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