Legal Nurse Consulting

Every Certified Legal Nurse Consultant who reads my Tech Tips knows I’m a keyboard guy and not a mouse guy. I’ve confessed this in the past. Every time a CLNC^® consultant reaches for their mouse you may as well be reaching for a cup of healthy green tea for all the time it will save you. Those precious seconds off the keyboard are billable hours lost forever. End of story.

That being said, sometimes looking through a long Word^® document, like that legal nurse consulting case report you just finished for your favorite attorney-client, can take a long time too. Repeatedly hitting Page Down like an OCD patient makes you feel like you’re slogging through a document. Even using the Find button to look for a particular word, like a name, can be cumbersome when the physician’s name is repeated every couple of lines.

Legal nurse consultants who want a quick way to look through a Word doc (or docx) can use the thumbnails view. Simply click View on your top toolbar and then check the “thumbnails” box. A series of thumbnail images of your pages will then appear on the left side of your page and you can drag the scroll bar on the left side of the page to quickly browse through your thumbnail pages.

This will save you loads of time and it works in PowerPoint^® too!

One more freebie while I’m in a good mood: the next time you’re in a Word doc, click the View tab then on Zoom and set your document view to Page Width. This will make it much easier to edit (and easier on the eyes) by viewing the document at (are you ready?) the width of your screen. If you have a big monitor, it’ll feel like you’re at the movies (watching a case report being typed). If you want to check your formatting, you can set the view to Whole Page instead and you will see how the page will look when printed.

In an earlier blog I gave a few other keyboard shortcuts. Here’s one more you can add: hitting Ctrl and the a key (Ctrl+a) will select all the text in a document or a complete URL in a web browser (after you’ve clicked in the URL box). Then you can Ctrl+c (copy), Crtl+v (paste) to put it in a document and Crtl+p (print)!

If you have a favorite keyboard shortcut, I’d love for you to share it here with your legal nurse consulting colleagues.

Keep on techin’ (with your fingers on the keyboard, not the mouse!),

Tom

Five years ago yesterday, Hurricane Katrina forever changed the lives of so many people I know – family, friends and strangers. We often forget it affected people not just in New Orleans but throughout the Gulf Coast region and will do so for years to come.

We never know what life will throw at us and how we react to it is entirely up to us. Like many New Orleanians, my family suffered from varying degrees of flood damage. One of my best friends left the city for good and another lost everything due to flooding that nearly reached her attic. They’ve all recovered and are doing better than ever – they all still have that “New Orleans Spirit” wherever they are.

After Katrina struck, I was lucky enough to be in a position to give financial support to my family and friends. One of my best friends who lost everything, asked me to help her family instead of her. I was in awe of her generosity toward her family when she herself was in need.

In the years since Katrina, my best friend purchased another house in a neighborhood close to where her original home stood. She didn’t recover much from her home, only some cookware (the metal survived the immersion), a quilt (that was lying on her mattress when it floated to the ceiling) and some Christmas ornaments (stored in the attic). All her photos and family mementos were lost.

Despite the loss, I never heard her complain about her situation. She moved forward, staying in the same area, rebuilding her life and keeping her “New Orleans Spirit.” Anytime she’d visit me in Houston, we’d go shopping as she rebuilt her home. One piece at a time, she would buy a lamp, outfit or other item. I would joke with her that her car looked like a homeless person’s packed with all the treasures she’d picked up while traveling between New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Dallas and Houston and she’d joke back, “Vickie, I am homeless.”

Throughout her own rebuilding, she helped and supported her family including cousins while they rebuilt their homes and lives. Although her story is just one of many, her selflessness stays with me today. She was, and is a model to me of how to deal with difficult situations.

Ask yourself if you lost everything, could you rebuild your home, family and legal nurse consulting career with my friend’s “New Orleans Spirit?” My hat is off to all those who have and who are still working to do so. I only hope I would be as strong.

Success Is Inside!

Attorneys were probably the last group of professionals to embrace email. For years they hid behind their assistants and never touched a computer, much less sent or received an email. While I still know a few dinosaurs, for most attorneys today, email is the preferred form of communication.

I love email and the efficiency of communicating by email. My staff teases me that they often receive succinct, one- or two-word email messages from me (Yes. No. Thanks! Do it!). I receive more email than most people in my office and quite frankly, some of it is simply horrific. (I can’t put in writing what comes to mind when reading some of it.) It’s often hard to believe that it was composed and sent by a professional.

With this in mind, I’d like to offer you my top 9 tips for communicating clearly and effectively with your attorney-clients. These tips will keep you from hitting “horrific” status with any of your attorney-clients or prospects.

1. Have a proper email address. Email is a business communication and your email address is part of your marketing. PinkBunny1969@whatever.com may be appropriate for your online dating profile but sends the wrong message to attorneys. Go to GoDaddy.com and register your legal nurse consulting business’s name, or a derivative of it as a domain name. Then follow GoDaddy’s simple steps to create an email account. Now you’re JesseCook@JMC-Consulting.com – much better plus it helps brand your business every time you send an email.
2. Use a clear subject line. Many people scan their email box by subject to determine not only the priority of the communication but also whether to classify it as spam or to file it. If you get an email with a subject such as “You need my services,” “A question for you” or “Re: Additional Issues in the Smith Case,” which one do you think you’d open first, if at all? If you don’t know the answer, you’ve got some homework to do. Address your subject clearly and succinctly. Your attorney-recipient should know just from the subject line what your message relates to, its priority and where to file it for later review.
3. When possible, keep it short. If it’s a longer communication consider putting it in a letter on your legal nurse consulting company’s letterhead and attach it as a PDF or Word^® document so that the attorney-client can print it for the file. Email is great for shorter communications but remember, many people read email in their preview window on their screen or on a cell phone. Shorter messages are easier to comprehend (that’s why the webpages of news organizations are short). If someone has to print your message to understand it, you may as well brand it on letterhead. If I have an important email I’m working on, I’ll often compose it in Word and then cut and paste it into my email. This allows me more control over my thoughts.
4. Compose sensitive and important email before filling in the “To” field. Have you ever accidently hit Send before you were ready or before you completed composing your important missive? I know I have. To remedy this, I recommend adding the recipients’ email addresses for the to, cc or bcc fields only when you’re sure you’re ready to send your final email.
5. Take a deep breath before replying. Not every email requires an immediate reply, especially one that raises your blood pressure. This is especially important if you haven’t yet cooled off before firing off that terse reply letting the recipient know exactly what you think. Remember, there’s not really an “undo” button and this tip combined with #4 above will help to keep you on good terms with all your attorney-clients and colleagues.
6. Don’t use text-messaging slang such as IMHO in a professional communication. Save them for Facebook, Twitter and texting. Remember you’re communicating professionally, not personally.
7. DON’T TYPE IN ALL CAPS – that’s still the Internet equivalent of shouting. It’s hard to believe in 2010 I still have to remind people of this. If your “Caps Lock” key is stuck, it’s time to buy a can of air and blow the brownie crumbs out of your keyboard. Here’s a link to Tom’s Tech Tip on cleaning your computer.
8. Proof your work. Yes, it sounds too simple but often, due to the perceived informal nature of email, people don’t proof it. I’ve often received email that contains incomplete sentences and thoughts that aren’t fully developed. This is simply because the sender was in a rush to click Send. If it’s an important email, I’ll print it and hand proof it prior to sending. Adhere to basic grammar rules. In today’s world you don’t have to be perfect, but likewise, you don’t want someone labeling you a grammar-barbarian.
9. Use a spell checker. Just about every email program has this capability. Make sure you turn it on. What is an attorney going to think of someone who can’t spell simple words or who sends their communications full of typos?

Every day I get email that breaks these rules – some even break all 9 at once! Email is probably your typical form of communication as a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant. Make yours a reflection of your professionalism and your email will help you gain attorney-clients, not lose them at “helllo.” Yes, that typo was intentional.

Success Is inside!

I talk to thousands of RNs every year who are becoming increasingly dissatisfied with the healthcare system. Many of these conversations remind me of a dinner I had with my father at an Italian restaurant. After an animated discussion with the waiter, my dad ordered a pasta dish that wasn’t on the menu, telling the waiter exactly what he wanted in it.

When the food came, it was presented beautifully and prepared exactly as he had requested. Bits of scallion, garlic and peppered chicken glistened over a serving of fettuccine, all mixed with basil and olive oil, topped with chunks of ripe, red tomato lightly dusted with Parmesan cheese. The dish looked so good, I wanted it instead of my own.

I expected my father to be delighted with his meal. Instead, he started comparing it to a completely different pasta dish from a different Italian restaurant. Rather than enjoying his dinner, he found fault with the waiter, the restaurant and the chef for not serving this other recipe. According to dad, the dish was prepared wrong and even had the wrong ingredients! He specifically complained that there shouldn’t have been any tomatoes and there wasn’t enough garlic.

I sat there both stunned and amused. Even though my dad’s pasta was prepared exactly as he had requested, it wasn’t what he really wanted because it wasn’t the dish he was used to ordering at the other restaurant. Finally, I gently interrupted his litany of complaints, reminding him that he had received exactly what he ordered. In fact, after tasting it, I liked it even better than the dish he was comparing it to.

Dad replied, “I may have gotten what I ordered, but it isn’t what I want.” My father had expected the waiter to read his mind and bring him something other than what he ordered. Eventually, my dad’s hunger got the best of him and he enjoyed his meal to the last bite. After all, when you’re hungry, even the wrong dish fills your stomach.

What Career Menu Are You Ordering From?

As an RN, are you hungry for job satisfaction but ordering the wrong dish off the wrong menu?

• Do you feel exhausted by your working conditions and environment?
• Do you dislike the hours, the weekends, the administration, the HMOs?
• Are you cranky about too many patients and not enough time to provide the quality of care you know you’re capable of?

If your nursing career isn’t where you want it to be, are you confusing your expectations and desires with what a traditional nursing job menu offers? Are you trying to order a dish that isn’t on the menu?

Like my dad, you may have expectations about what you are being served. You may have tried your best to order exactly what you wanted. Yet what’s on your plate has turned out very differently from what you were expecting.

If you stay at your same RN job and order off the same old RN job menu, don’t be surprised when you get what you’ve always gotten even though it’s not what you want. Much like the Salisbury steak in a hospital cafeteria, what healthcare facilities serve up for your nursing career has been on the menu for years. Sometimes the description changes, sometimes the preparation changes, but it’s still the same old Salisbury steak, and it is still not very satisfying for many RNs I’ve come to know.

Feast at a Brand New Restaurant

If you’re salivating for a nursing dish with different ingredients, if you want more autonomy, freedom, control or money, it’s time to feast at a new restaurant with a new and modern menu.

Certified Legal Nurse Consultants don’t order off the traditional menu offered by healthcare facilities. They’ve found a new menu that features more of what they want for themselves and they’re willing to leave their hospital restaurant to enjoy that innovative menu. For these nurses, the legal nurse consulting restaurant has the right menu – dishes that satisfy their palate in every way, and choices so plentiful they don’t have to look anywhere else because any dish they can imagine is already on the CLNC^® menu.

Life is meant to be an adventurous banquet filled with tasty and satisfying dining experiences. It’s your meal – you get to choose the restaurant and write your own menu. Shouldn’t you get what you want, what you deserve, like so many other nurses who have chosen to stop ordering off the wrong menu?

Your right menu is just an action step away. Go to the right nursing restaurant today and you’ll find that one dish you’ve been craving. I invite you to join me and my CLNC^® colleagues at the legal nurse consulting banquet – the taste sensation of a lifetime. Don’t miss another minute of this exciting feast – reserve your place at the CLNC^® banquet table today.

Success Is Inside!

Some time ago I blogged about privacy concerns for legal nurse consultants and using a frameless privacy filter on your CLNC^® business’s laptop screen. A privacy filter keeps people (like your spouse or some other nefarious villian) from looking over your shoulder while you’re working (or not) and seeing what you’re working on (or not). I spend a lot of time on airplanes and am amazed at the things I see on people’s computer screens, things that make me blush!

I’ve noticed that more and more people use iPhones^®, BlackBerrys^®, Droids^® and other phones to view video, html email, etc. Studies show people spend more time texting and emailing from their cell phones than they do talking. The result? Now, while I’m waiting in the checkout line at Walmart^®, I can often see what a person is doing on their phone and sometimes even read what’s on the screen! 3M^®, maker of the nifty privacy filters for computers, now makes a Mobile Privacy Film for Blackberry and iPhone phones.

Yes Virginia, I did say iPhone phones. Because of the amazing ability of the iPhone to display on either a vertical or widescreen frame, you’ll actually need two different Mobile Privacy Films! Using your iPhone as a phone (and who really does?) requires a phone film and using your iPhone in horizontal mode, requires a different film.

As your ace tech tipper, my advice for Certified Legal Nurse Consultant iPhone users is fuhgeddaboudit! CLNC^® consultants using a BlackBerry, could give one of these filters a try, or, keep your money and just check your immediate area for rapscallions, miscreants and other blackguards (like insurance defense attorneys) before you use your phone, then use it discreetly.

Keep on techin’ (under cover),

Tom

Screening medical-related cases is one of the most important legal nurse consulting services you will provide as a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant. Not only is it one of my favorite CLNC^® services but it is the first CLNC^® service you usually provide for new attorney-clients. Do it well and the attorneys keep coming back for more. Here are 16 screening strategies to keep your attorney-clients coming.

Stay Focused on the Essentials

1. Give the attorney an objective, candid and honest opinion without regard for what you think the attorney wants to hear. Put aside interests in personal gain (e.g., more billable hours) and focus only on what is ultimately best for the attorney, the client and the case.
2. Discuss the issues and theme of the case with the attorney-client and ascertain the date of the incident (when known) to help you focus quickly on the important events. If the case has been filed, request a copy of the complaint or petition. You will screen many cases in which the attorney knows little about the facts and has formed no opinion. If the attorney does have an opinion and you believe he is focusing on the wrong issues or your opinion is different, be sure to communicate your reasoning right away.
3. If you do not have time to do the screening as soon as you receive the case, at least read the cover letter and scan the medical records. This helps you to establish deadlines, determine the basic issues of the case and assure you have all the necessary records. If relevant records are missing, inform your attorney-client immediately.
4. Scan all relevant medical records and, where appropriate, note important observations and opinions. Avoid excessive writing at the screening stage, especially if you haven’t yet identified the essential issues and themes of the case. Your goal at the screening stage is to be efficient, and until you’ve reviewed all relevant records and identified key issues, it is very easy to go down unnecessary rabbit trails.
5. Use the screening form to track all possible defendants, types of experts needed, additional documents needed and recommended research. When you give your screening opinion to the attorney, you can incorporate some of these into recommendations for the next indicated steps.
6. Screening a case is similar to reading a mystery novel. You may even be surprised by the outcome because the focus may shift from something obvious, like a patient fall, to a less obvious issue, such as medication administration or safety policies and procedures. As new and more relevant issues arise, determine their significance and how they impact the essence of the case.
7. Do not overlook the obvious by overanalyzing the records. Likewise do not assume that the issues will automatically jump out at you. If you become overwhelmed by the task at hand or the volume of medical records, walk away for a while, or a day or two, then come back fresh and start again.
8. Do not assume the case has no merit simply because a physician reviewed the records and found no merit. Physicians tend to limit their reviews to doctors’ records and in so doing, they often miss vital information. For example, many MD experts do not review the nursing records and often it’s the nursing notes that shed the most light on what really happened to the patient. Always review the records completely and look for discrepancies in documentation by different providers.
9. If you were hired by the plaintiff attorney, look at the case from the defendant’s viewpoint. (What are the defenses or rationales in this case?) If you were hired by the defense attorney, look at the case from the plaintiff’s viewpoint. (What went wrong, if anything? Could anything have been done differently? Were any standards of care or practice guidelines breached?)

Efficiency Saves You Time and Saves Your Client Money

10. Don’t organize the medical records before you screen and you will save valuable time in the initial review process. If organizing the records is necessary before screening, do not organize them for comprehensive review and analysis, but organize only with the objective of making screening easier.
11. Do not do a formal report during the screening stage – just complete the screening form to facilitate communicating your opinion clearly and concisely. More comprehensive reports are only indicated once you have communicated your screening opinion and both you and the attorney agree that a comprehensive review and analysis of the medical records is indicated.
12. Access relevant healthcare references as needed while you are reviewing but don’t overdo it at this stage. Unless you need some piece of information before you can move on, make a list of topics to search on the Internet and do all your searching at once. This will keep you focused as you read through the record. Narrow your searches to match the factors in your particular case (e.g., octogenarian, female, femur fracture, mortality). Be sure to research any articles and publications authored by all the relevant players in the case.
13. Consider subcontracting the screening if the issues are outside your area of expertise. Make the decision to subcontract quickly, then act on it. Don’t wait until you need a CLNC^® subcontractor to try to find one. Develop a pool of CLNC^® subcontractors who are ready to respond to your needs. All successful CLNC^® consultants know what they don’t know and wisely tap the expertise of their peers.
14. Use a magnifying glass (buy the best one you can afford) so you can read those little squiggles and impress the attorney with your knowledge of hieroglyphics. You may determine the outcome of the case by being able to decipher something illegible to the average eye.
15. Keep a calendar of the year in question close by. Look for weekends and holidays when short staffing is common.
16. Pay particular attention when operative notes, admission history and physicals, discharge summaries and autopsy reports are dictated and transcribed. If an unusually long period of time elapsed between the event and the transcription, note that for future consideration.

Use these 16 strategies to make screening medical-related cases one of your most popular and satisfying CLNC^® services. Keep your attorney-clients coming back for more.

Success Is Inside!

After I became a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant, I worked for a corporation doing internal auditing. After two years, a CLNC^® friend told me about an opportunity to have an exclusive Certified Legal Nurse Consultant contract with an attorney. At first I wasn’t sure I wanted an exclusive contract with any attorney because I did not know if he would have enough work for me. I was wrong. I ended up signing a contract with this attorney-client for $150,000 annually for 40 hours a week. This year I will make about $175,000.

Technology has been a big plus for my CLNC^® business. My husband retired and we moved to Tennessee. My attorney-client lives in California. Technology allows me to work full time at home out of an office that used to be part of our barn as I watch over llamas grazing outside. My attorney-client, who has a protected server that allows her to download documents, copies everything to a disk. One of the best things I’ve adopted from one of Tom’s Tech Tips was dual monitors. I review the files from my attorney-client on one screen while I write my report using the second screen. I also take my work on the road when I travel. My husband races cars so I can just pack up my bag with my laptop and go with him. It’s great because my legal nurse consulting business is completely portable.

The benefits of being a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant are endless. I work out every morning, have coffee with friends, then I go to work. The more I work, the more money I make. I can work 50 hours one week and take a day off the next whenever I choose. In my prior job, I only slept in my own bed about eight nights a month because I had to travel so much. Now as a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant, I enjoy staying at home.

When I worked at a full-time job, I could count my friends on one hand. Now, I am more involved in my community and I’m active in the charities that are important to me.

I was going to semi-retire, do a little CLNC^® work but not really do much. However, I have stayed busy and have had numerous offers for additional legal nurse consulting work. When this happens, I contact my network of CLNC^® peers. The NACLNC^® Directory has a wealth of CLNC^® consultants who I can refer business to or recommend as experts.

My advice to nurses is to stop waiting – do it now. Become a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant today. Stop procrastinating!

Guest Blogger Profile

Sheila Silvus Chesanow, RN, MS, CLNC is owner of Chesanow & Associates in Tennessee. She has been a nurse for 30+ years and has been clinically active as a nurse practitioner. Sheila’s CLNC^® practice specializes in acute care, long term care and geriatric medicine.

As all Certified Legal Nurse Consultants know, I’ve written myriad tech tips that will save you valuable time for your legal nurse consulting business. Now I’m letting you in on more timesavers I regularly put to good use. For instance, if you want a little more screen depth when you’re researching medical literature for your legal nurse consulting business, you can get an extra 1/4” or so of visible screen (or just as much screen as you can get) with only a few clicks. Just right click the Windows^® XP Start button, then left click Properties. You’ll see a variety of options for the taskbar. Click in the box beside “Auto-hide the taskbar” to make the taskbar disappear until you mouse over it. Now you have the maximum amount of visible screen.

While you’re there uncheck the “Lock the Taskbar” button and click Apply. Then add a check in the “Show Quick Launch” box. It will give you a place to put shortcuts for the programs you use the most. Using Quick Launch, you don’t have to minimize your desktop or navigate through your Start menu to find a program you use on a regular basis. Instead, you simply right click the shortcut you want to place onto the Quick Launch bar and drag and drop it there (select “Create shortcut here”). This only works if your taskbar is unlocked, so once you load the taskbar with shortcuts, you should then re-lock it.

Once you’ve loaded your taskbar with shortcuts for the programs you use the most in your legal nurse consulting business, all you have to do is mouse over the taskbar and left click on the appropriate shortcut to start a program. This sure beats minimizing all your programs or sorting through your Start menu. Remember, seconds wasted build up into minutes and then into hours lost, so the more time you save, the more billable hours you’ll have as a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant.

Keep on techin’,

Tom

A study published in Speech Management shows that when meeting someone for the first time, 62% of a person’s effectiveness can be attributed to voice and delivery and only 38% to content. In persuasive speeches, such as a sales pitch, delivery accounts for a remarkable 76% of the presentation’s effectiveness, while only 24% is due to content.

Delivery is the way you talk – your speech mannerisms, the sound of your voice and even how you change your posture as you speak. What you say is important, but the way you say it affects listeners as much as three times more. Your voice is a vital communication tool for your legal nurse consulting business. Effective communication is essential to interviewing successfully with attorney-prospects and for assuring your attorney-clients are fully present when you communicate your opinions on a medical-related case.

As a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant preparing for interviews with attorney-prospects and presentations to attorney-clients, you should analyze your voice to discover where it needs improvement. Do you whisper or mumble? Do people constantly ask you to repeat yourself? Do you find yourself using your parent or cell-phone voice in normal conversation? Do you sound interested or bored? Do you race like a runaway train or buzz along in one endless sentence after another, providing no opportunity for the attorney to speak? Do you needlessly punctuate your speech with ahs, ems, hmms, sighs, “like,” “I mean,” “you know” or other fillers? Or worse, do you always sound like you’re lecturing instead of engaging?

Most of us are not aware of how we sound to others. If we were, we might talk a lot less. I’ve appeared on radio, television and DVDs enough to know all too well how I sound. This process has taught me that the best way to learn your own verbal “ticks” is to record a conversation and then listen to it. Use your digital camera, a video recorder like the “Flip” or, if you don’t have video available, use a simple voice recorder. Try and forget the camera/recorder is on, relax, be yourself and just speak. You can do this on the telephone, in a mock interview with a friend or spouse or simply in a casual conversation.

Now assess whether you sound like one of these:

• The Dying Swan fades out at the ends of sentences – losing all sense of command. Sometimes the dying swan doesn’t even close a sentence and just tapers off in mid-thought. Instead, punch those final words for closure. You’ve spent your nursing career learning how to draw conclusions – do it now in your conversation.
• The Flatliner speaks in a monotonous, boring rumble. Open your throat and your mouth. Imagine placing your voice forward, varying the pitch – from occasional high notes to more frequent low notes. Vary the volume too. When appropriate to what you’re saying, raise your volume. Occasionally, if you’re imparting information that can be done with a conspiratorial smile, use a brief stage whisper – your intended audience will lean forward to listen. That’s when you know you have them.
• The Valley Girl pitches up at the end of sentences, as if questioning. “After the meeting, we went to lunch?” “We ate the best Mexican food?” My legal nurse consulting fee is $150.00 per hour?” An upward inflection indicates hesitancy or a question. Most statements should be made with a downward inflection at the end to suggest certainty and confidence. At the end of a sentence, lower your pitch while still sounding confident.
• The Mumbler sounds like “We’re goan to see-um layer.” This usually results from lazy lips and running words together. Like stage actors, you must practice “biting” the words out. Form your vowels carefully. Own those consonants. Speak with the authority of a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant and slow down if you have to.
• The Whisperer sounds like the shyest person on the planet, but being shy is not an excuse. Having a “soft” voice is not an excuse. Open your mouth, inhale deep into your abdomen and speak up. Pretending you’re on your cell phone in a noisy room is a great way to overcome speaking too softly.
• The Artful Dodger leans back when she’s challenged on a point or unsure of her position. She leans forward when confident but fidgets when verbally cornered. Practice sitting still with a slight forward lean.
• The Conjurer waives her hands in the air while speaking like she’s stirring up the spirits. Keep your hands in your lap unless it’s really, really important to wave them around. Also, keep them away from your face and don’t hide behind them (the attorney can still see you).

Recording yourself makes all the difference in the world. Using a video recorder will let you hear what you really sound and look like when you speak. If you consider the time you’ve spent rehearsing your script for an attorney-prospect interview, you need to spend at least as much time, if not more, energizing the instrument that will deliver those important words – your voice. Chances are you concentrated more on content than delivery and it’s delivery that will prove determinative for your legal nurse consulting business.

Read those percentages at the top of this blog again. Now, focus your attention on your verbal delivery. Record your networking introductions and your answers to common attorney interview questions. Listen to the recordings and honestly assess what you can improve. Re-record it until you sound the way you want to sound – a highly confident, skilled and valuable Certified Legal Nurse Consultant with your nursing experience and education backing you up. You have the confidence – you just need to be confident about it.

Take care of your voice as much as you care for your laptop and iPhone^®. With only a little practice this important marketing tool will gain you instant credibility, visibility and profit while you achieve your CLNC^® goals. Ignore it and you might never realize how many attorneys you’ve lost through poor communication. Even one is too many, so start tuning up your voice today.

Success Is Inside!

Marketing your CLNC^® business successfully to attorney-prospects and attorney-clients requires that you provide a safety net and build trust. Here are some strategies for achieving both:

1. Make a professional first impression. In doing so, you have begun to construct a safety net for the attorney-prospect, ensuring the attorney that he is making the right decision in hiring you for his medical-related cases.

2. Communicate. Listen carefully to the attorney-client’s needs and demonstrate your understanding of those needs as you proceed through the meeting. Ask questions to clarify specific points. Confirm the attorney-client’s expectations regarding the CLNC^® services you will provide and the schedule for its completion.

Stay in touch. Provide an easy way for the attorney to reach you and notify you of any changes in needs or the case. When you deliver your work product, make it clear that you are available to collaborate on any necessary additions or amendments.

3. Guarantee. This step may seem risky, but think about how much more secure you feel about purchasing when you know you can return a product that fails to meet your expectations. For example, if your report failed to meet your attorney-client’s expectations, wouldn’t you be eager to correct any problems? Then why not offer that guarantee up front, thus satisfying your client’s psychological need for security?

Guaranteeing satisfaction does not mean you would compromise the integrity of your opinion or work product by adding something you know is incorrect or misleading or by making inappropriate changes. Nor does it mean you guarantee your work product will win their case. It means you will make any corrections or additions needed to the research, wording or format to guarantee the client gets value for the dollars invested. You aren’t offering to revise your work product endlessly either. State a specific time period, say two weeks from the date of delivery, during which the guarantee is in effect.

4. Start Small. Before you get to those bigger projects and cases, you may have to build trust step-by-step. Customers generally are more comfortable starting a new relationship on a small scale. When a woman buys a new line of makeup, in addition to being sure the color is right for her, she wants to know if the makeup suits her skin type, contains sun protection and holds up during the day. Likewise, a new attorney-client wants to make sure your product will perform as expected. The attorney wants to know:
• Will your work product meet expectations?
• Will your report be supported by appropriate standards and research?
• How conscientiously will you meet deadlines?

A woman at the makeup counter might start out with a smaller container or trial size of a new product. Similarly, an attorney might suggest beginning with a brief report and ask for a quick turnaround. Recognize this as an important step in building a long-term relationship.

5. Deliver. Actions sell and quality counts. Your attorney-clients often deal with people who talk a good game but who don’t deliver on promises. By turning in a quality product on time, or even ahead of deadline, you reinforce that the attorney has made a wise buying decision and can depend on you for bigger and bigger projects and more medical-related cases.

When you provide a safety net and build trust, hard-sell is never necessary.

• Every time you present yourself with professionalism, you sell.
• Every time you listen intently and affirm the attorney-client’s expectations, you sell.
• Every time you deliver a quality product, you sell.

Every step of the way, you build into your attorney-client relationship a sense of trust and dependability – a safety net.

Beginning with that initial interview and that first small project, you can create a mutually satisfying, long-term business relationship. And a few loyal, lifetime attorney-clients will make your legal nurse consulting business prosper. You won’t need dozens. Soon you will find attorney-clients relying on you, recognizing your CLNC^® and nursing expertise and your ability to make them look good. They will begin to trust that without your help and expertise they could miss significant issues and even lose cases.

Success Is Inside!