Quick question: who’s your favorite client?
You know who I mean. The one who pays you big money and hires you more often. The one who sends you lots of referrals, promotes your website, and shares your social media posts. The one who follows your advice and never causes problems.
Bottom line, if you could clone him, you would be one happy camper.
So who is it? What is his or her name?
(I’m going to call him Jim.)
What’s that? You have more than one Jim? Good stuff. You can do this with each of them (and trust me, you’ll want to).
Okay, remember waaaay back where you said you would be happy if you could clone Jim? Let’s see if we can do something like that.
Get Jim on the phone, or you can do this the next time he’s in the office. Tell him he’s one of your favorite clients, that you enjoy working with him and you want to ask him a few questions so you can do a better job for him and your other clients.
Then, interview Jim.
Start off with a few easy questions about his work and family and what he likes to do for fun.
Next, unless you already know, ask him how he went about finding you. Did he find your website? What did he search for? Was he referred? By whom? Did he see an ad, come to a seminar, or meet you at an event?
Then, ask him what he liked best about the work you did for him and how you and your staff treated him.
Write this stuff down. It’s golden.
Once Jim has said some nice things about you, ask him, “What could we do better?”
Next on the list, ask him for the names of a few other professionals he works with and recommends. What does he like best about them? Will he introduce you to them (or would it be okay if you use their name)?
Finally, ask Jim what you can do for him outside of your legal services. What does he need or want? Does he have a problem? Can you send him more business? Help him find a new vendor or employee? Write a college recommendation letter for his oldest? Buy his youngest’s girl scout cookies?
Okay, what have you learned?
You’ve learned how people like your favorite client are finding you. Now you can do more of what’s working and attract more clients like Jim.
You’ve learned what you’re doing well and what you need to improve. This helps you fix anything that needs fixing and do more of what makes you great.
You’ve learned the names of other professionals you can reach out to. You can meet them and start a referral relationship and you also have a high quality professional you can recommend to your other clients.
Finally, you’ve learned what you can do to help Jim. You’ve got something you can do that will make your great relationship with him even better.
Oh yeah, one more thing. When you asked Jim what he liked about you and how you helped him, you can use the nice things he said about you as a testimonial.
After the interview, send Jim a thank you note. Tell him how much you appreciate his help. Maybe enclose a gift card or send a fruit basket.
After that, make sure you continue to let Jim know how important he is to you. Call him, just to say hello. Send him articles he might find helpful or interesting. Give him freebies from time to time. And make sure he hears from you around the holidays, his birthday, and his anniversary.
If you want more clients like Jim, focus on Jim because what we focus on grows.
To learn how to create a profile of your ideal client, get the formula
