Yesterday, I said “don’t settle for good when you can get great.” Clients agreeing to pass out your cards if and when they meet someone who needs your services is good. Clients knocking on doors, looking for people to refer is much better.

What I didn’t say is what might happen as a result.

Imagine what your practice would be like with an army of “unpaid sales people” beating the bushes on your behalf. Every day, people who know, like, and trust you are spreading the word about you. They’re making calls or posting on Facebook. They’ll putting your reports in their waiting rooms and forwarding your emails to their colleagues. They’re introducing you to referral sources and inviting you to speak to their employees or church group.

Do you think you might get more repeat business and referrals? Traffic to your web site? Attendees at your seminars?

Your practice would grow exponentially and your clients would do all of the marketing for you.

By the way, you can (and should) do everything I talked about yesterday not just for clients but for referral sources and other “friends of the firm.” Your clients want to help you but may not be able to do as much as a handful of equally inspired professionals with big lists.

It’s true that all of this extra attention I’m suggesting you give to your clients and professional contacts requires extra effort on your part. It takes time to get to know people on a personal level, beyond what is needed to handle their legal matter. You’ll probably spend a few dollars, too. Where do you get the time and money to do that?

Well, think about all of the time and effort (and money) you spend on marketing right now. What if you didn’t have to do that? What if you put that aside and re-invested everything in delivering to your clients the exceptional level of service we’ve talked about?

It would be worth it, wouldn’t it? Especially if you no longer had to spend time on networking or social media, or spend money on advertising or SEO.

Most attorneys finish one case and go looking for the next one. They help one client and then go looking to replace them.

Dollar for dollar, hour for hour, marketing to your clients and professional contacts is far more effective and profitable than marketing to strangers. You can market to strangers too, but you’ll get a much higher return on your investment by marketing to the people who already know, like, and trust you.