Go through your current client list. Look at the numbers: how much did each client pay you over the last year and over their lifetime?
How much are they likely to pay you in the next few years?
Some clients might not have a lot of work for you but may send you a lot of referrals.
Add this to your numbers.
You should see that some of your clients (and cases) are worth a lot more to you than others.
Let’s call those “high value” clients.
Everyone else is either “average” or “low value”.
Study your numbers. You should see some patterns.
You should see that a large percentage of your total revenue comes from a small percentage of your client list.
Maybe 80/20, maybe a different ratio, but you should find that “a precious few” of your clients and cases bring in a disproportionate amount of your income.
Obviously, you want more of this type of client or case.
One way to get them is to reduce the number of low value clients, and also perhaps many of the “average” clients, to free up your time and other resources so you can focus on attracting more high value clients.
How do you “reduce” the number of low value clients in order to do that?
You could increase your fees. That’s the easiest way to do it. If it doesn’t, keep raising them until it does.
You could ask for bigger retainers. Reject cases with smaller damages. “Fire” clients who slow pay or who are “more trouble than they’re worth”.
I know, the idea makes perfect sense to you but it also makes you nervous. So you’re unlikely to go “cold turkey”. You don’t want to let go of low value clients until you see more high value clients coming your way.
Okay. Go through your list and study the high value clients you identified.
Where did they come from? What marketing methods did you use to attract them? Did they find you through search? Referral? Ads? Did they hear your presentation or meet you at an event?
Who are their colleagues, clients, friends or neighbors? Who do they know who might have legal needs or know people who do?
Then, get busy.
You might not be ready to let go of (all) low value clients just yet but there’s something you can do. You can stop marketing to them.
From this day forward, focus exclusively on marketing to your high value clients.
