My first press release paid off in a big way, and I was contacted today by the regional general counsel for a VERY large insurance company that wants to start a pilot program with my virtual paralegal firm to outsource some of their paralegal needs.

Specifically, as legal business tends to ebb and flow, they want to utilize my services to handle overflow work for up to five offices in Texas and Oklahoma.

I've done the work, and I have a good initial consultation form so I can help "drive" the consultation process. I will be able to finalize a packet of information I can leave with him so he has a professional looking presenation of my business and the services I can offer.

I'm going to rehearse my b*** off this weekend, but was hoping some of you wonderful people could give me some advice as to your experiences with your first consultations or consultations in general, and maybe illustrate some possible pitfalls so I can further prepare.

It looks like I may have to start recruiting other virtual paralegals, but that's a topic for another post.

Congratulations on your new client, sounds like all of your hard work is paying off. As an aspiring VA I relish these "success stories" as they inspire me to move forward in my own venture. As a current paralegal student I am looking forward to tapping into the new world of virtual legal assistants down the road. One of my teachers provides virtual legal assistance to several BK attorneys and she says it was one of the best decisions she ever made.

Congrats! It is good to hear that even large firms or established companies are looking to virtual outsourcing. I am an ABA certified paralegal with a specialty in real estate who has not yet tried to reach a "wider audience" than just a few attorneys and Realtors. I am going to work on a press release and will keep you posted on my results!
Good Luck

Dashya Ferguson

Congratulations! I'm thrilled for you that you got such a great result from your press release. Well done!

My absolute best advice is to go in well rested and focus on feeling confident. You are going to do great - you know your craft, you know exactly what you can do to help this company, all you have to do is articulate and keep that confidence high.

I haven't consulted with a company in this field, nor have I done a business presentation for a company of that size so you've got me there I wish you the best and perhaps some others in your niche will jump in with specific advice.

Keep us posted on how it goes for you!

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That's fantastic! Congratulations!

As is the way with most large businesses, he is likely considering other paralegal firms as well so you need to stand out. Along with an information package, how about giving him a short Powerpoint presentation on your capabilities and the benefits of working with you and leave that presentation with him on a flash drive for further consideration. When considering various options, he might just be more inclined to view your presentation again than wade through many information packages.

Good luck and let us know how it turns out!

Lynne

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The Wordpro Wizard
www.wordprowizard.com

From my initial phone converation with him, this is going to be a one-on-one discussion, so a Power Point presentation probably won't be appropriate in that context. However, I am going to create an "e-brochure" via PowerPoint, and will leave that with him on a flash drive, along with a V-Card.

He was also concerned about how I could bill to his various cost centers. Each case is assigned a budget, and he wants my billing to be done accordingly. That's fine and I have no problem accommodating him; I'm just hoping he can accommodate my billing and payment policies; i.e., 50% up front for hourly work and the remainder upon completion.

Any suggestions anyone may have about billing and corporate clients would be greatly appreciated.

It sounds like you have a good plan in place, I'll look forward to hearing how your meeting goes.

I will say that I have worked with large corporations on a few projects and in every case it was like pulling teeth to get them to pay on anything close to my terms.

Most big companies pay on Net 30, 60 or even 90 in some cases - although you might be able to negotiate a large deposit or retainer payment up front.

We no longer take corporate accounts for this very reason - the last one was such a large project with a relatively large invoice that took literally months to get paid - they had paid our deposit request, and actually paid our late fees in the end as well, which was unexpected actually - but having that much income tied up for that long was very stressful.

For me, I've learned that an ideal client is a company with no more than two or three decision makers and no billing 'department'.

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My consultation went very well. I have been asked to come back to talk to their "office manager" who oversees some of the processes in the firm so I can help identify specific tasks I can perform for them and to discuss working out the processes for doing the work. We have tentatively agreed on some of the areas where I can help, and after meeting with the office manager I'll have enough information to write a proposal with various solutions for them.

He seems eager to get going on this. He understands I'm relatively new, but seems enthusiastic on developing this pilot program for outsourcing some of their legal work. I'm glad it won't be an overwhelming amount of work, and something both my potential client and I can grow into and work on together.

Keeping my fingers crossed on this one.

Oh, he also discussed their payment processes and it doesn't seem there may be too much lag time.

Anyway, back to the marketing grindstone. Not going to count my chickens before they are hatched.

That is awesome. Congratulations!

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Patty

I have learned one key lesson after many presentations over the years. You can prepare a killer presentation and drive the conversation, but the best sales person is a listener.

I think if you follow this one piece of advice you will seal the deal, that's how confident I am in this little pearl of wisdom.

After introducing yourself, tell him/her that you have a lot of information to share but first you'd like to ask what they're hoping to accomplish in this business relationship, or exactly what are they looking for. (not those exact words, but something like that)

After you ask this, the ball is in the customer's court and they will tell you exactly what they want. My guess is that you won't even deliver your prepared spiel. This way you will have targeted questions to answer and information to share. You won't waste anyone's time, and both you and the customer will be happy campers when the meeting is over.

Please let us know how it goes. Best of luck to you!

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Marlene Eldemire
Mars Virtual Assistant & Travel