This morning, I spoke to a coaching client, a successful personal injury attorney, about a recent decline in the number of new clients his firm was signing up. It wasn’t a precipitous drop, but enough to bring it to my attention. The economy has hurt attorneys, but clients don’t need money to hire someone on a contingency fee, right? Could it be that people are simply driving less?

After some discussion, the question answered itself. The attorney realized that he had gotten away from doing some of the things he had done to build his practice. For one thing, he didn’t have as much time to meet with clients personally. He used to do the initial client interviews himself and now has a paralegal do that for him. He knows it is the personal touch that builds relationships (and that those relationships create future business) but he doesn’t have ninety minutes to invest in the initial client meeting.

I suggested he continue having the paralegal do the interview but that he come into the room at the end, shake hands, review the file, and say something wise and reassuring. Five minutes instead of ninety.

Isn’t that what happens when you see a doctor? The nurse takes your history and then the doctor comes into the room. The doctor sees you for a couple of minutes, writes a prescription, and moves on. You expect this and you are satisfied with this. He or she is still “your” doctor.

It is important to meet clients personally, to let them know they made a good decision in choosing you, and to give them some encouraging words about their case.  This has nothing to do with the technical aspects of the case and everything to do with building a relationship with the people who are putting your kids through college.

But this post isn’t about the value of building relationships so much as getting back to basics, about doing what worked so well in the past that you stopped doing it.

Football coach Vince Lombardi began every new season with a lecture to both veterans and rookies alike on the basics of football. “This is a football,” he would begin, followed by instructions on the elements of the game–passing, blocking, punting, and tackling. Lombardi knew that mastery of the fundamentals was the key to success in football and it is no less so in building a law practice.

If your business has declined, the economy could be a factor, but there’s nothing you can do about that. What you can do is get back to fundamentals. What have you done in the past that worked so well you stopped doing it?