Your clients and former clients, your professional contacts, everyone who knows your name and would take your call—that’s your family.
One of the simplest and best ways to grow your practice is to grow your family.
That means (a) increasing their number, and (b) increasing the strength and depth of your relationships
And you do that by going out of your way to serve them and help them, not just with legal matters but with other areas of their business or personal life.
Make them feel good about themselves for hiring you or referring people to you
You also increase their number by looking for opportunities to meet the people they know—their employees, partners, friends and colleagues. People they can introduce to you and who can become a part of your ever-growing professional family.
As your family grows, look for ways to get to know these people better and help them. Give them referrals, advice, and introductions. Give them helpful information and stay in touch with them.
In other words, by networking with the people you know and the people they know., your family will grow and so will your practice.
What does it take to do this successfully?
You need to be willing to talk to people who aren’t necessarily in need of an attorney, and be genuinely interested in them and not just what they can do for you. You need to be a good listener, because that’s how you show them you are interested in them and how you learn what they need or want so you can help them get it.
And you only need to find a few.
Yes, you need to talk to more than a few to find that few. But just long enough to learn what they do to see if they might be a good match for you.
Find a few of the right people and they can lead you to more.
To start, commit to getting to know your clients better than you do now. Call or email them off the clock, say hello and ask how they’re doing. Don’t be surprised when they’re glad you called and ask you about a new legal matter or tell you about someone they know who might need your help.
If that happens, enjoy the win. But don’t contact them solely for that purpose. Contact them to say hello.
Heres a step-by-step plan for growing your professional family
