Who Cares Wins In this article, Simon Tupman offers some philosophical and practical tips to help you to revitalise your practice. 'Not another article on business development', you may be thinking! Indeed most of the lawyers I have met recently are so busy with existing clients, that the last thing they are thinking about right now is business development. If this is you, then please read on. This article offers some tips on how to reduce those long energy-sapping hours, those demanding clients, those crushing workloads that leave little time for social or family activities and how to alleviate the guilt you may be feeling about taking that much needed holiday for fear of lost income or losing control. As my professional colleague and author Larry Schreiter writes, you can be 'like 'a stray dog at a professional whistlers' convention' running all over the place, confused, frantic and reacting to the latest crisis presented by a client with a retainer cheque in hand. This is not a smart way to operate. And yet, many lawyers operate in just that way, accepting any business on the grounds that something is better than nothing. Such a trade off does their business no favours at all. That is why it is important to stand back from your practice and reflect on the status quo and determine how you want it to develop in future. Are you happy with how things are going or would you like to make some changes? To reflect on these questions, I often find it it helpful to ask questions starting with these simple six words: ''Who?' What?' 'Where?' 'When?' 'How?' and 'Why?' Within the context of developing your practice, consider the following questions: 1. Who do you want to serve? In 1992, I watched a television interview with the late Professor Fred Hollows. He was a New Zealand-born ophthalmologist who gave thousands of people, all over the world, their eyesight back. In particular, he launched a national program to attack eye disease in Australian Aborigines. He went on to make a difference in the lives of many by introducing simple surgical techniques to communities that couldn't afford mainstream ophthalmic care, especially those in the Aboriginal communities. I will always remember him saying that his purpose in life was "to serve". Many professionals enter a profession such as medicine, law and accountancy with a desire, like Fred Hollows, to serve and to make a difference. Unlike Fred, they are not always clear about the type of clients they want to serve and often surrender to the economic pressures by shooting anything that moves. Working with the types of clients you want to work for is a sound platform to a more satisfying work practice We can all learn from Fred Hollows' example. If we all spent less time thinking about meeting budget and more time thinking about how we can assist others, then our world would be much better off. Helping people get what they want is the best way to help you get what you want. That should be the motivation behind every business relationship you have with a client. One way to help you clients get what they want is to ask them the right questions and listen closely to their answers. Some of the questions you might pose include the following: How did you hear about us? Who referred you? Why did you choose us as your lawyer? Who has acted for you as your lawyer previously, if anyone? What other lawyers currently act for you? Is there any reason why you want different lawyer to act for you? Who is your accountant, business adviser, financial planner, or merchant banker? Tell me about your business, its products and services; What are its long term and short term goals? Who are your major competitors? How do you think you differ from them? What have been the major achievements/setbacks in the past 12 months? What do you do well in your business? What's most important to you when you need advice and help from someone like me? What has to happen to make you feel that you receive that from me? How can I help? 2. What are you best at and enjoy doing the most? Research by David Maister, the world expert in professional services firm management suggests that just 20% of professional practitioners love the work they do; the remaining 80% either tolerate it because it's a living or hate it but do it anyway because it pays the bills. Which group are you in and which group would you like to be in? If you are one of the 20%, then congratulations. If you are one of the 80%, don't panic because you can turn things around. Determine not just which types of clients you want to serve but also identify the aspects of your practice that hold your interest and the key skills that you are best at and enjoy doing the most. Positioning yourself in the market as 'the expert' will also make your life a lot easier than being known as 'the jack of all trades'. You can charge higher fees, have fewer clients, and have guilt-free time to go fishing, take a holiday or play with the kids! 3. Where do you want to offer your services? I used to share my office with an accountant Bob whose desire for a lovely rural lifestyle determined where he wanted to live his life and run his business. Having worked in Sydney for many years, he overcame any fear of leaving the big city to fulfil his dreams and now runs a busy practice in beautiful Byron Bay. There may be readers who are practising in rural centres who dream of doing the reverse and working in the big cities. You may even want to move your career out of private practice into management instead. It doesn't really matter which way you want to go. The point is you can practice where you want but you must make the choice first rather than hope that someday it'll fall into your lap. 4. When do you want this to happen by? In my experience, lawyers (and other professionals) are good at planning for their clients, but not that good at planning for themselves. I have found personal planning to be a very valuable exercise. If you do want to make changes to your client base and your practice, then commit to do something by a given date. If you see a mountain that needs to be climbed, then it is easy to be overawed by it so much that in fact you decide to do nothing. I encourage you to write down on a piece of paper your short term (3months from now) and longer term (2 years from now) goals, pin them on the wall in your office so that you can see them every day and then implement them. The feeling of satisfaction on completing them will be immense. 5. How can you become more valuable to clients? Simple. Ask them! One cost-effective way of doing this is to form a "How Are We Doing?" group. This is the easiest and most cost-effective method. Invite several small groups (up to eight clients per group) to participate in a "how are we doing?" discussion. Invite an independent person, possibly a client, but certainly someone capable of asking the questions, to chair a discussion in your boardroom. When inviting your selected clients, you need to telephone them and ask if they would be prepared to come to your office, preferably late in the day for no more than 90 minutes, to participate in a discussion about what they like, what they don't like, what they need and what they don't need from you and your practice. When they arrive, greet them yourself and then disappear, leaving them in the capable hands of your chairperson. The meeting preferably should be taped (with the consent of all participants). Otherwise, there should be a scribe to take notes. The sort of questions you should ask are: "From your point of view... What would we need to do to be the best law practice in our field? What aspects of our service could be improved? What do you like or dislike about dealing with our firm? In what ways could we be of more value to you? Is there anything specific we could do to build a stronger relationship with you? Compared with other firms you may have used, how do we rate? Is there anything you dislike about our service or our people that would deter you from using us more frequently?" Their answers may be very different to what you had imagined they might be! When the discussions have been completed, listen to the tape (if it was taped) and really take on board their comments. Write to each of the participants, thank them and perhaps send them a small gift as a token of your appreciation. Then take action! 6. Why should clients choose you? Understanding why your clients choose your business over the competition is the guts to the successful marketing of any business. That's why you always need to ask clients two related questions: "How did you hear about us?" and "Why did you choose us?" (Another reason why your client feedback is so important.) The first question is important because it will alert you to referrals and enable you to go back to the referrer with the appropriate acknowledgment of appreciation. Remember to create a field in your database called "referred by" for this specific purpose. The second question is important because the answers will give you an indication about your point of difference. For example, if you are advertising your business in the Yellow Pages, don't waste your money on buying space to accommodate big logos or photographs of yourself. Nor should you place emphasis about your experience, expertise or state of the art technology when these are qualities that your prospects would expect from any lawyer anyway. (Have a look at your local Yellow Pages and you'll see what I mean.) Whatever medium you choose, make sure your message gives the reader/prospect reasons why they should choose you in preference to other firms. Your message needs to stand out from the herd, so the reasons need to be good ones. For example, here's one: you might feel proud of your firm's history and its track record; your firm has established a strong presence within the community and you believe this carries a lot of weight with clients. Is this a good reason to put to prospects? Maybe, so long as you don't brag about it. Generally, the firm's history or longevity counts for little with prospects, many of whom are looking for relationships with individuals, not the firm. Trust is at the forefront of any business relationship, so turn your claim into a message that means something to a prospect. For example: "Generations of happy clients have placed their trust in us." If you personally have served many clients over the years, then consider making a similar claim: "Hundreds of happy clients have placed their trust in me." Be able to prove your claims too. One of the best ways is to have testimonials from happy clients that can be used in your promotional literature, correspondence or framed on the wall in your reception! If you care enough about your clients and the future of your practice, you will take time out to reflect on these questions. As Harry Emerson Fosdick once said, "the world is moving so fast these days that the man who says it can't be done is generally interrupted by someone doing it." Let that person be you! Join Simon's mailing list Do drop Simon a line. He'd like to hear from you. Back to Articles Index

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