Archive for year: 2022

I’m on vacation this week, so I’m sharing a slightly updated version of one of my most popular newsletter articles, unearthing an article that’s almost 20 years old and still fundamental to understanding client relationships. Enjoy!

Nearly 20 years ago now, David Maister (a now-retired advisor to professional services firms and author of several excellent books) wrote an article that distinguishes the relational and transactional views of client relations.  Here’s the crux of Maister’s argument:

In The Trusted Advisor (Free Press, 2000), my coauthors and I pointed out that building trusting relationships with clients leads to many benefits: less fee resistance, more future work, more referrals to new clients, and more effective and harmonious work relationships with the clients.

However, many people have built their past success on having a transactional view of their clients, not a relationship one, and it is not clear that they really want to change. Stated bluntly, professionals say that they want the benefits of romance, yet they still act in ways that suggest that what they are really interested in is a one-night stand.

. . .

Most professional-to-client interactions involve little if any commitment to each other beyond the current deal. The prevailing principle is “buyer beware.” Mutual guardedness and suspicion exist, and the interaction is full of negotiation, bargaining, and adversarial activity. Both sides focus on the terms, conditions, and costs of temporary contact. Each side treats THEM as “different,” as “other.”

. . .

Moving from a one-night-stand (transactional) mentality to a romance (relationship) mindset is not about incremental actions, but requires a complete reversal of attitudes and behaviors. One approach is not necessarily “better” than another, but there is a real choice to be made.

In today’s legal economy, clients have more options than ever before. They can choose from a wide range of law firms (the size of firm and perceived expertise becomes only one factor to consider rather than the deciding factor in every instance), from numerous individuals, and even from outsourcing options that may rely on non-lawyers or technology. While transactions can be valuable, good client relationships can form a strong foundation for a practice. Relationships yield repeat business and referrals because they’re built on trust; transactions are won one-by-one, which usually yields only one-off work or entry to compete for each new piece of work. Building relationships certainly takes effort, but it’s effort that builds toward long-term value. Transactions also take effort, but it’s effort that usually doesn’t lead to a next step beyond the transaction at hand.

Consider this quote from the article:

The real challenge, however, is for all of us as individuals, not as firms. Transactions are common because they involve less hard work and demand fewer skills. Ultimately, however, they are not in the best long-term interests of either professional or client. (emphasis added)

Mutual trust will allow both sides to get more of what they seek than continued mutual suspicion. Relationships are not more “noble” than transactions, but where they can be created they are much more profitable.

If you’ve never asked yourself whether you want relationships or “one-night stands” with clients, go read Maister’s article and ask yourself now. The topic was ripe in 2005, but it’s absolutely critical today.

 

 

Further to last week’s post on the value of taking small, consistent steps toward your business development objectives, here’s a quote from Bruce Lee. It’s true in physical training, and it’s true for business development.

 

Make it a consistent week.

Over the years, I’ve noticed that some lawyers are making mistakes that will undermine their business development efforts. These are short-sighted decisions that may seem smart in the short run but will cause great damage over time.

Marketing Don’t #1: “It’s all about me” newsletters. A lawyer I don’t know subscribed me to his mailing list, using two of my email addresses. That’s a mistake (and probably illegal) in itself. Absent a business relationship, all newsletter subscribers should be subscribers by their request. Getting this right is critical. No one should ever be surprised that they’re receiving your newsletter.

But that isn’t the only mistake. The newsletter is short and well-written, but it only recounts what honors and accolades this lawyer has received since he last wrote. Since I don’t know this person, I have no interest in what he’s done. Even if he were an acquaintance, an entire email about “me, me, me” is unlikely to hold my interest. I’ve received this newsletter two or three times over the last year (I didn’t unsubscribe because I wanted to see whether and how the newsletter would change over time—but it hasn’t) and I have yet to read a substantive article or even comments that are directed to the reader.

The take-home message for you who send newsletters: Make sure there’s something that’s designed to be helpful for the reader. Yes, share your news, and let your readers know that you’re up to good things, but don’t let that be the sole focus (or even the primary emphasis) of your newsletter. Write for your readers, not at them.

Marketing Don’t #2:  Skipping relationship-building on social media. This error shows up in two ways: adding a connection without engaging or making a connection and immediately making some sort of business pitch. (I’ve also been subscribed to a lawyer’s newsletter simply by virtue of having made the online connection—see mistake #1 above.) Making a connection without engaging in some way means that the connection is unlikely to do much of anything for you, but it probably won’t alienate anyone. But going directly to business certainly could. You wouldn’t walk into a networking meeting, meet someone for the first time, and make a business request while you’re still shaking that person’s hand, so don’t do the equivalent online.

Relationship-building online should follow a similar trajectory as relationship-building in the “real” world. Meet (or make the connection online), explore areas of mutual interest to discover what you have in common, whether you like each other, and whether you’d like to have a business relationship. That process can take minutes or months. But it’s only when that process is concluded (or well underway) that it becomes appropriate to look for referral opportunities.

Even better, of course, is bringing the process to culmination by asking how you might help the person you’re getting to know. One of the best, and most under-utilized, questions you might ask a new contact (virtual or in-person) is, “How would I recognize someone I should send to you?” If you ask this question of someone who is likely to be a good referral source, you will almost certainly have the question returned to you.

The take-home message for you who network online:  Don’t skip the relationship-building phase in online networking.

Marketing Don’t #3: Don’t forget that you must invest in your practice to see it grow. Several lawyers recently have told me this is not the time to be spending money on business development, a perception that started at the beginning of the pandemic. There’s no harm in hitting pause in periods of great uncertainty, but getting stuck there is certainly risky. Some lawyers are still holding the purse strings so tight that their metaphorical hands must be going numb.

I’m certainly not going to suggest spending money willy-nilly, nor would I ever recommend a lawyer extend him- or herself beyond the bounds of sound financial decisions. However, choosing not to spend money can be a short-sighted decision made from fear. Growing a practice does require making smart investments. Just like no wise lawyer would choose to go with a typewriter to save on the costs of using a computer, no wise lawyer would reject a practice-building opportunity simply because of a financial investment.

That doesn’t mean that you need to make the Bentley-level investment every time; sometimes the used Chevy is perfectly adequate and perhaps even a better choice. If you notice yourself thinking that an opportunity is just right except for the cost, ask yourself these questions:

1. What’s the financial outlay?
2. What outcome might I see?
3. What’s the likelihood of that outcome?
4. What’s the financial investment-to-payoff ratio?
5. What are the non-financial benefits that would likely accrue?
   

The take-home for lawyers considering a practice-enriching investment: Consider not just what an opportunity costs but also what results it is likely to offer. Not all opportunities will be right for you, but don’t allow yourself to miss out on something that offers an advantage simply because it comes with a price tag.

Let’s start today’s newsletter with a little joke.

During a visit to the mental asylum, a visitor asked the Director how she decides whether a patient should be institutionalized.

“Well,” said the Director, “we fill up a bathtub, then we offer a
teaspoon, a teacup and a bucket to the patient and ask him or her to empty the bathtub.”

“Oh, I understand,” said the visitor. “A normal person would use the
bucket because it’s bigger than the spoon or the teacup.

“No.” said the Director, “A normal person would pull the plug. Do you want a bed near the window?”

This joke might offer special insight to lawyers because we so often develop tunnel vision. We may be creative when it comes to client work, ready to dream up new and inventive legal theories or approaches to help our clients achieve their goals. But when it comes to our own lives, we often fall into a rut. See if any of these statements might ring a bell with you: 

• Of course, I have to be at the office from early til late; that’s how it’s always been. (If that’s your belief, how have the last couple of years shifted it?) 
• Of course, I want to grow my book of business as big and as fast as possible; the end result is my only measure of success. (If that’s your belief, do you find that you’re bringing in good work or work that you regret taking on?) 
• Of course, I have to speak (or network like mad, or write an article, or teach CLEs, or…); that’s how [insert a rainmaker you know] did it, and it’s obviously the way to succeed. (If that’s your belief, do you enjoy the BD task you’ve identified enough to do it regularly? Are you skilled enough to do it well?)

The truth is, there’s nothing necessarily wrong with any of those beliefs. The problem comes in when a belief becomes a rut or ignores important considerations. Building a big book of business quickly is appealing—unless it means you’re accepting any work that comes your way without evaluating whether the work or the client is a good fit for you. If you’re trying to build your book by following someone else’s plan and doing the same things they’ve done, you may find that your personality or preferences make their approach a poor fit for you, which will usually guarantee equally poor results.   

There may be costs, perhaps even enormous ones, involved in making a change to your approach to practice or business development.  But the highest cost of all lies in failing to see options.

If we feel stuck, without options, in an uncomfortable practice (or in a firm that isn’t a good fit, or in a BD plan that doesn’t reflect our skills and preferences), chances are good that we’ll fight for a little while but eventually give up the struggle, succumb to the familiar even if it’s uncomfortable. 

If we see options, the struggle may be more intense because we’re struggling with the situation as well as the options we’ve identified, but eventually, we’ll have the ability to make a choice. The choice may demand a huge investment from us, but we avoid the impotent sense of surrender.  

Choice offers power.

Sometimes the answer is both as clear and as obscure as pulling the bathtub plug when presented with the options of a bucket, teacup, or a spoon to use to empty the tub. Alternatives that may be obvious to someone standing outside the situation may be invisible to the person facing it. That’s why it’s often so valuable to talk with a colleague, a friend, a spouse or partner, or a coach or consultant who can see options that you might miss.

What challenges are you facing? What options do you have? Can you identify all of the options (including those hidden in plain view) and the results of each? That’s the moment of decision and the moment of power.