Let’s say you want to get more referrals from your clients. Not a bad idea. Now, how will you go about it?
Your strategy might be to give your clients lots of attention, show them that you care about them, and make them feel good about choosing you as their lawyer.
Good. An excellent strategy. What techniques will you use to effect your strategy?
What will you say to them at their first appointment? What will you give them? What will you send them, and when? What will do, and how often?
Strategies before techniques. Roots before branches.
Strategies derive from your values and beliefs. If you believe it’s important to surprise and delight your clients with over-the-top service and extra value, if you believe that doing so will endear them to you and make it more likely that they will return to you, say nice things about you, and send you referrals, your actions will reflect those values and beliefs.
If you believe that giving clients lots of attention takes too much time and won’t produce more loyal clients or more referrals, however, your actions will be different.
If you believe that your clients can provide you with more referrals than they now provide, you will be more inclined to invest time equipping your clients with information and tools they can use to send you more referrals. If you believe that your clients do what they can and can’t do any more, you probably won’t.
What many lawyers do, I think, is implement certain techniques before they have firmed up their beliefs and committed to a strategy. They hear that it’s a good idea to send new clients a thank you letter, for example, so they do it, but their heart isn’t in it. They say the words, but they don’t feel the sentiment behind them.
Sure enough, when they speak to the client, their words and behavior often tell a different story.
Start by asking yourself what you want to accomplish and choose one or more strategies for accomplishing it, based on your values and beliefs. Only then should you examine the techniques that are available to you.
My new course, “Maximum Referrals,” can help you do that. It shows you both the strategies and techniques you need to build a successful referral-based practice.
Check it out, here.
