Get Retained Before You Get Retained
Engaging in preliminary discussions with many prospective clients is the key to building a strong client base.
The Art of Maintaining Client Relationships During Times of Crisis
The upheavals caused by this pandemic present a unique opportunity for lawyers to genuinely connect with clients and colleagues.
Differentiation: The Whole Product
Either in the course of my “client experience innovation” work, or in helping groups of partners do a better job finding new clients, I hear the following frustration, “We’re a great law firm! However, as great as we are, we’re no different from other great lawyers at other great law firms who do what we […]
The Focus Challenge – Part 2: Your Clients
1. The Legal Matter Here are some of the essential lessons I have learned after several decades of listening closely to clients, conducting my own research, and reading a myriad of surveys and research studies by others: a) Clients do not have legal problems. They have personal or business problems that may require them to […]
Client Relationship Reviews
The highly competitive nature of the legal sector provides an unprecedented number of choices to clients. Investing in existing client relationships can generate growth at less cost than developing new clients. Why then is there a reluctance on the part of many lawyers to invest time listening to their clients? Common retorts include the following: […]
Building and Leveraging Relationships: The True Essence of Business Development
The concept of ‘business development’ is often over-rated when it comes to law firms. The phrase may resonate with such metrics as ‘financial targets,’ ‘meeting new contacts,’ ‘cold-calling,’ ‘attending events at relevant forums,’ ‘undertaking activities that contribute to the revenues and profitability of the firm,’ etc. Most firms like their partners to be ‘rainmakers’, the […]
Cultivating Connectors from a “Standing Start”
Force multipliers or “connectors” are often easier to cultivate than are prospects. It can be easier to build a history and therefore trust because the relationship is not weighed down by the “heaviness” of a retention goal. At the same time, it can be hard to build trust if you are viewed to be merely […]
Storytelling Is an Effective Communication Strategy
“Storytelling” may seem an odd word choice for a profession like law, which focuses on very academic-oriented activities like drafting contracts, legislative provisions, proposing a regulation, writing a will, researching case laws, etc. However, the increasing competition faced at home and abroad demands that lawyers make efforts to guide their teams to surpass expectations and discover […]
Sell the “Whole” Legal Product
“We partner with our clients.” “We build relationships with our clients.” “We understand our clients’ businesses.” Blah, blah, blah. . . . What does all this really mean? Generally speaking, not very much! Clients don’t have time to tell you how to add value, but they are very open to working even more closely with […]
Ask Gerry Riskin: Should Corporate and Other Transactional Groups Spin Work off to Litigation Teams?
Question from a Client* While it seems to be a commonly held assumption that corporate and other transactional groups in firms spin work off to litigation teams (and that this is and should be the primary source of clients for litigators/trial attorneys), we aren’t finding any literature or research that supports this premise. Our numbers […]