Feature Article: Law Practice Management Series
by Mary G. Anderson, Life Management Consulting Group
In order to develop a thriving law practice, it is critical to develop the “know, like trust” factor with each of your clients. Clients want a known expert to guide them through their critical legal matters!
How to Help Your Client Know You (i.e. Character, Integrity, Ethics, Values, etc.):
- Become your client’s trusted advisor by offering your professional knowledge and advice. Look for opportunities to provide useful information and insights, especially on points or issues the client has not considered.
- Let your clients know why you became an attorney and the values and business principles you follow within your firm.
- Describe your strengths, including the reason why you have chosen the work you to do and for whom.
How to Help Your Clients Like You (i.e. Listening & Communication Skills, Approachability, Genuine Respect, etc.)
- Thank your clients for the intangible qualities about them that you enjoy or appreciate. Do this often and sincerely, with specific examples of how they are terrific clients.
- Be polite and courteous. Plan to have the connections between your client and yourself/office to always be a pleasing experience from start to finish, always.
- Be responsive. Even if you cannot address an issue or question raised by a client right away, respond to email or voicemail messages immediately, if only to let the client know that you received the message and will be back in touch by a particular time. Then, always follow through.
- Give as much as you can without charging (but note on your bills, where appropriate, advice given at “no charge”).
- Let your clients know how much you enjoy the work you do, and more importantly, how much you enjoy working with them.
- Show examples from other cases or projects (without names or identifying details) and the good results you obtained, or the clever ways that you solved problems, so your clients understand and appreciate that they are not just paying for your skill, but for your experience and judgment as well.
- Remember that everyone, including the person “across the table,” is a potential client. Treat everyone you meet with the utmost courtesy and respect, even in adversarial settings.
How to Help Your Clients Trust You (i.e. Listening & Communication Skills, Approachability, Genuine Respect, etc.)
- In Seth Godin’s book All Marketer’s Are Liars , he says that you have to be authentic. Clients respect and trust you when you give them a clear picture of who you are and what you do rather than pretending to be something bigger.
- Developing relationships with other people requires more than just telling the truth. As business development coach, Stewart Hirsch, says “it’s not just about you.” Whether it is a potential client or a referral contact, you need to focus on how you can help the other person. That way you can start building the relationship.
- Develop a network of trusted other attorneys with different (or with the same) expertise. Enthusiastically refer those colleagues to prospective clients, not because you expect or want referrals back, but because making that referral provides a valuable service to the client needing a good lawyer.
- Think about how you and your whole business model can facilitate and improve client relationships. Aim high, accept nothing less than the best, and enjoy tremendous success!
Quote to Ponder
“The very least you can do in your life is to figure out what you hope for.
The most you can do is live inside that hope,
running down its hallways, touching the walls on both sides.”
~Barbara Kingsolver
About the Author:
Mary G. Anderson, is the Program Director at Advanced Legal Training Institute. She also provides client service programs through her company, Life Management Consulting Group. Many estate-planning attorneys have clients that are in need of guidance and support as they manage their elder years. Mary offers 1-on-1 coaching support for families that are facing some of the challenging aspects of end-of-life/eldercare such as choosing/evaluating a nursing home/assisted living center, professional organizing of important papers and documents, estate settlement and support with funeral planning, grief and loss. These consulting services assist clients who are either in 1) the midst of handling a death of a loved one and executing their estate and/or ) a client who has decided to get organized and plan ahead by completing their will, organizing their important papers, completing a checklist of final wishes and creating a legacy will. Mary is the author of “My Estate Management Guide”, “Pet Protection Legal Care Plan: Financial and Legal Planning to Protect Your Companion Pet” and a Certified Mediator & Estate Settlement Agent.
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