Before I became a law firm marketing consultant, I was a solicitor. When I started doing the job of a solicitor, long before I qualified as one I might add, I had to take all and any clients who were sent my way. I was not able to pick and choose, so ended up with some very interesting lower level cases, but also with some very demanding clients who no one else wanted to act for.
At first, I didn’t have much say in the matter, but as time went on and I was billing the same as or more than anyone else in my legal team, I realised that I could change this and indeed I needed to.
I fired my first client for not following my good, sound legal advice. A funny thing happened, they refused to be fired and overnight turned into the most well-behaved client that I had ever had.
Wow. People can surprise you.
When I first started my law firm marketing consultancy I was back at square one. I worked for every solicitor who wanted to work with me, but very quickly realised that this wasn’t a good strategy necessarily for me or for my law firm clients. I found my sweet spot and a method of working that means if I am paired with the correct client, I can achieve excellent results for them in a relatively short period of time. I can help them to grow their law firm and to do so quickly.
The sweet spot is a combination of things and I can spot a great fit client a mile away.
Conversely, if someone approaches me who is clearly not going to be a good fit, as has happened a few times in the last few weeks, I will decline to act. It will not work for me or for them.
The same is true for you too – I know from my practising days.
If you take on a client who is not a good fit for you, either because they beat you down on price at the beginning of the transaction meaning that they have complete control from that moment forwards, or you take on a type of legal work that you would prefer not to do, you lose all ways around.
Clients who are not a good fit wear you down. They sap your energy, leaving you with less motivation to go and speak with the ideal clients who would otherwise be coming your way.
The biggest mistake any of us can make, myself as a consultancy business owner or you as a law firm owner, is to take on the wrong clients or the wrong types of work. Steer clear of this if you are serious about growing your law firm.
If you are interested in what makes a good fit for me as a client, here are some of the main points:
- A nice, genuine person. I haven’t always worked with nice people, but it is now a prerequisite for me. If I wouldn’t choose to have dinner with them I won’t work with them. This is important to me because I have to fight for them and with them, so I need to ‘want’ to do so.;
- A solicitor who is committed to growing their law firm and has a genuine reason to do so (both are required to make this work – one without the other generally means that they won’t cross the line);
- They are willing to share all of their figures with me and are willing to be held accountable for them; and
- A solicitor who has the ability to make decisions to grow their law firm and when they do so, they will follow them through (with a little nudging from me if required).
If all of these characteristics, traits and desires exist, then I know that I can help them.
If this sounds like you, we should talk.
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