Tag Archive for: WRA

It’s the time of year for holiday specials, and last night’s offering was Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town.  And while I enjoyed the story and the theme, I was dumbfounded when I realized that there’s a bit of a link between Santa and client development!  If you remember the lyrics to the song, you’ll know that Santa is “making a list and checking it twice, [and] he’s gonna find out who’s naughty or nice.”  And we all know that Santa doesn’t reward the naughty.

Do you reward naughty potential clients by letting them hire you?  Just about every lawyer has had the truly awful client: one who doesn’t pay or pays so slowly that the process is agonizing, one who blocks your efforts to get information you need to handle the representation, one who’s routinely rude or unduly demanding or critical, and so on.  Unfortunately, naughty clients come in a lot of flavors.  The good news is that you can avoid many of them if you know what to watch for during your initial conversations.  A few red flags:

• You’re the third or fourth lawyer this person has consulted or (worse yet) hired on this, or a closely related, matter.  Clients fire lawyers for good reasons sometimes, but you should explore to find out what went wrong.  Trust your gut as you listen to the explanation.
• The potential client balks at your fee.  As I discussed with a client yesterday, a negative reaction to your fee may be sticker shock, or it could be a sign that the potential client isn’t going to value your services and will argue every step of the way.  Listen carefully.
• The potential client misses the first appointment, is very late for it, or arrives unprepared.  This isn’t necessarily a dealbreaker because, as we all know, sometimes life interrupts the best-laid plans.  But pay attention.  As with dating, the behavior you see early is likely to be the best behavior you’ll see in a representation.
• The potential client seems to have unrealistic expectations and is unwilling to hear a contrary point of view.  Clients often expect a more favorable result than their lawyer.  If you explain counterveling considerations that make a matter less certain or less favorable and hit a brick wall, think carefully before you proceed.
• The potential client blames everyone and everything for his or her problems.  Chances are high that you’ll end up on the blame list, and possibly on the wrong end of a malpractice claim or bar complaint.

None of these red flags necessarily means that you shouldn’t accept the matter, but if one arises, you need to listen carefully to what is and isn’t said and to pay attention to non-verbal communication.  And trust your gut.

It is, perhaps, a bit of a cliché to focus on gratitude during the United States Thanksgiving week.  Nonetheless, the theme is so important to business development that, cliché or no, that’s the focus for this week’s Weekly Rainmaker Activity.

I’ll begin today’s lesson with a story.  After I’d been in practice for several years, I referred an acquaintance to a lawyer who was a family friend — let’s call him Keith.  I wasn’t expecting anything more than a quick “thanks for the referral” and a good representation if my acquaintance hired Keith — the most I’d received for other referrals I’d previously made to other lawyers.  Instead, I received a “thank you” email, a handwritten note, and (on 9/12/01, a date when anything kind was a welcome distraction) a lovely gift basket.  And periodically over the next few months, when Keith and I crossed paths, he would mention something about my acquaintance’s matter — nothing invasive, of course, but an aside that the matter was proceeding, that he enjoyed working with my acquaintance, and so on.

When the matter concluded, Keith sent me another note to let me know it had ended and that he appreciated the opportunity to work with my acquaintance.  Meanwhile, my acquaintance let me know what a terrific lawyer Keith was and how much she appreciated being in his capable hands.  I felt fantastic about that referral!  Not because of the multiple forms of “thank you” that I received — though I certainly did appreciate them — but because the matter was handled so skillfully.  I’ve referred other matters to Keith over the years, and every single time, the response has been similar.  I absolutely love referring people to him!

A story for contrast.  About the same time, a member of my family (also a lawyer) referred a matter to someone I knew very well professionally.  My family member (let’s call him John) didn’t receive any direct thank you, though the lawyer to whom he’d referred the matter (whom we’ll call Lawyer X) asked me to tell him thank you.  No big deal, but it struck me as peculiar, especially in view of the multiple forms of thanks that I’d received for my referral.

What came next was astonishing to me.  Lawyer X not only didn’t let John know how things were going, but he also didn’t pull out any stops to take good care of the client who’d been referred to him.  Yes, the representation was competent, but nothing more.  When John checked in with the person he’d referred (who was, in fact, his client referred out because of a conflict), he learned that the client felt unnoticed, as if he had to make a lot of noise before getting Lawyer X’s attention.

And during the course of the representation, a few things even slipped through the cracks.  Nothing big, as far as I know, but a few promises went unmet, and some pieces of the matter didn’t happen in a timely manner.  All of this information went back to John, who was appalled.  He felt that he had made a bad referral that not only had the potential to harm his client but also to harm his client relationship.  Within a few months, John had vowed never to make another referral to that lawyer.  And, indeed, he never did.  My guess is that Lawyer X has no idea, to this day, how poorly John (and his client) felt the referral went.

These two stories go beyond expressing gratitude for referrals and into client service, but let’s focus for today on how to thank someone for a referral.  Sending an immediate thank you, followed by another thanks (perhaps with a gift), and yet another with a larger (but still appropriate) gift sends a clear message of gratitude.  Equally importantly, keeping the referral source updated on the matter, while protecting your new client’s privacy, allows the referral source to be confident that the matter is being handled well.

Today’s assignment: create your own plan to thank those who send you referrals and to continue the flow of information.

The holidays are just around the corner, and today’s WRA calls for you to begin planning ahead.

Do you send cards or gifts to your clients to mark the holidays?  As you no doubt know, current clients and referral sources are your most immediate route to more business.  Because business development is all about growing and maintaining relationships, recognizing those relationships in an appropriate way may further your rainmaking goals.

More importantly, it’s gracious to thank your clients for putting their trust in you and allowing you to serve their legal needs.  Failing to do so probably won’t rupture a healthy relationship (nor will it repair a relationship on the rocks), but it’s a nicety that reminds your clients that you view them as more than a source of income.

So, what is an “appropriate way” to recognize your clients and referral sources?  The answers are as varied as givers.  A few guidelines for you to consider as we move toward the holiday season:

• If you send cards, write a short note (even just a few words) and sign the card yourself.  A preprinted card with a preprinted message has all of the personal charm of spam.  And don’t even get me started on e-cards.  (I’m sure this will offend some, and I’m sorry for causing offense, but I assure you that I’m not the only person who feels this way about impersonal greeting cards.)
• If you send a gift, don’t send an over-the-top gift.  Some corporate clients have policies that forbid employee acceptance of gifts over $X in value.  Even if such policies aren’t in place, clients who receive expensive gifts are likely to think that they’ve overpaid if you can afford to send something expensive.  Aim for nice and relatively modest, except in unusual circumstances.
• Select gifts that are selected for your specific recipient…
• Or gifts that are universally well-received or easily passed along.  If you know your client or referral source well enough to send a book or CD set you know they’d enjoy, perfect.  If not, don’t go out on a limb or send something that reflects your own tastes or brand.

One-on-one meetings with individuals offers one of the best opportunities for business development, and attending organizational meetings and networking opportunities gives you the chance to meet a lot of people in a short time.  That’s ideal — if you’re meeting the right people.

How can you identify the right organizations for your purposes?  First, refresh your recollection of your ideal clients and referral sources, and then check the strategy that you’ve devised for meeting those people.  Chances are good that your plan will include a specific description of the people you want to meet.  Do (or better yet, delegate) a bit of research to find the groups that those people might attend.

If your business development plan does not provide clear guidance as to where you should network to find your ideal clients and referral sources, answer the following questions to help specify the best groups for you to attend.

• What are the common features of my ideal clients and referral sources?
• What are their common interests?
• What business circumstances concern them?
• What kind of educational opportunities might they seek?
• What are their professions likely to be?
• Will they likely attend national or local meetings?

These questions will help you to focus on where you might be able to find the kind of people with whom you should be networking.

You might also consider working backward based on substantive area of practice.  For example, if you are an estate planner, think about where large numbers of people who might hire estate planners or refer clients to estate planners would congregate.

This week’s activity: take another look at the organizations whose meetings you’re attending.  Is the fit good?  Are you meeting enough of the right people?  If not, run through this exercise and locate a few more groups to investigate.

What written marketing materials do you have?  Examples include a website, a one-page description of your practice, a newsletter, articles, and so on.  For this week’s activity, choose one item for review.  (Although I would generally include a biographical sketch as written marketing material, exclude it for this week’s purposes.)

As you read your marketing material, how much is written from your perspective (generally indicated by lots of “I” and “we” statements), and how much is written from your client’s perspective?  Although your potential clients will be interested in your qualifications and experience, they will be primarily interested in whether you are someone who could meet their needs.  (Don’t allow yourself to imagine that legal sophisticated potential clients are different here.  They aren’t.)

In other words, potential clients won’t care about all of those “I” statements until they have a sense that you understand their concerns, that you know where they’re coming from, and that you are someone who serves clients like them.  It’s important, then, that your materials speak to your potential client and not at her.  How you accomplish this will vary somewhat depending on your area of practice.  In general, though, you’ll want to describe the concerns your ideal client is facing, the decisions at hand, the problem he’s confronting, the doubts or worries she may have.  Then you’ll describe how you assist someone in that position, preferably with examples based on past experience.

Review the material you’ve chosen through the “speaking at”/”speaking to” filter.  If you find many more “I” and “we” statements than statements designed to speak to your ideal client’s situation, it’s time to revise what you’ve written.

If you’re uncertain whether your written marketing materials speak to your ideal clients, perhaps we should talk.  Please send an email to schedule a complimentary consultation, during which we’ll explore the challenges you’re confronting and the solutions that may be available.