Developing a healthy and profitable client mix

by David J Bilinsky

I’ve been down - I’ve been beat
I’ve been so tired-that I could not speak
I’ve been so lost that I could not see
I wanted things that were out of reach...

Written by Bryan Adams and Elliott Kennedy

You have been working late, again. Your gaze wanders from your half-empty coffee cup to the piles of files surrounding you. Attempting to clear some desk space just reveals more unreturned pink phone call slips. Glancing at the clock you realize that despite all efforts to the contrary, you are little or no further ahead in accomplishing your goals for yesterday, much less today. It isn’t that you lack for clients, it is just that you don’t seem to have enough good clients. You are working your tail off for relative peanuts. What has happened?

Maintaining a healthy and profitable client mix is difficult work–it requires pruning, persistence and a proactive approach to marketing. Lets examine some suggestions to pull a practice back into better shape:

Pitch
This is the time for spring-cleaning. Go through each and every file in your cabinet. Be hard-nosed. If your father (or mother) were the client, would you be advising them to carry on with this matter? If we can’t answer that question positively, then we need to do something with the file. Advise the client to settle, send the case to mediation or send the file to another lawyer--they may have a different insight. But get it off your desk.

Persistence
Hit a roadblock? Tell the client that you can’t carry on with the file. Period (Be sure that you get off the record in an ethical and proper manner, of course!). Being a nice guy and appeasing the client isn’t helping your bottom line and definitely isn’t helping the client.

Prune
I knew a lawyer who advocated moving out the bottom 10 per cent of their files each year. Concentrate on the clients who bring you positive returns (cash and otherwise).

Proactive
Adopt a marketing focus to your practice. Carry business cards with you wherever you are. Practice answering the question: “What kind of law do you practice?” until you are comfortable with your response. Always leave it clear that you are happy to help someone find a good lawyer in an area where you don’t practice => and establish yourself as someone who is in the know and willing to help.

Put your best foot forward
When that new client comes in the door, don’t let them leave without doing something on their file–even if it is just making a phone call in their presence. Show in act and words that you are a doer and not a procrastinator.

Personnel
Take that new client and introduce them to everyone in the office that will be working on their file. In that way, you have made an effort to reduce the unknown, you have let the staff know who the new client is and you have demonstrated that you have a committed team who has the client’s interests in mind.

Phone manners
How is your telephone answered? Have a friend call one day while you have excused yourself from the office. Are they told you are out, unavailable, gone to a meeting, gone to court or they simply don’t know where you are? How many rings did it take for the phone to be answered? What are they told when asked when will you return? When will the call be returned? How was the attitude of the answering staff member? Did anyone offer to help the person who called? The way the phone is answered in an office says loads about the treatment of clients and the atmosphere within a firm.

Poll
Send out a survey to your clients. Ask them what they liked, what they didn’t like and what they would like changed. Ask if they would refer work to you (many clients don’t know that you may be looking for referrals! They may think you are too busy or already have a full plate).

Presto! When meeting a client, “Make something happen Now.” Demonstrate your energy and committment.

Promises
If you make them, keep them. Treat a promise to complete something as if it was a peremptory court date.

Polish
Always do your best. The most routine matter, properly handled, can result in a handful of referrals. Remember the present value of all that future business!

Personable
When that new client calls, take the call, if at all possible. Make an appointment. Get the client and file details. Make a note and have that note before you when they come in. Demonstrate that you have a real interest in them and in their problem.

Principled
If you can’t handle something properly for the price that the client is willing to pay, then send the client elsewhere. You have maintained your credibility and established that you have principles that can’t be overrun, including doing a file in a proper manner. That client may come back if the next lawyer who takes the file ends up eventually charging more than you quoted. You have also avoided taking on another money-losing, time-eating file.

Physical
Exercise frees up your energy, it releases your mind and burns off the stresses of the day. It is a paradox that getting away from your desk improves the time spent behind it.

Plan
Set aside time and money to develop client opportunities. Reach out into the community and work on social projects. Devote time to a school or community group. Expose your interests, your drive and legal background. Cultivate a positive image as a problem solver and someone who is willing to show leadership and imagination.

Purchase
Get a legal contact and file manager, such as Amicus, TimeMatters, Prolaw or one of the generic information managers such as Outlook, CorelCentral, Act!, Maximizer, Organizer, Day-Timer or alternate. These programs assist in keeping track of clients, dates, appointments, promises, To-Do’s and do other cool things. They can assist in building a client database. From here you can send out reminders or newsletters to clients, recall birthdays or other important events and keep track of your calendar and commitments in an organized fashion.

By refusing to accept anything less than what we want, we may find, much to our surprise, that we actually get it. If we work at developing a healthy and profitable client mix, we may realize one day that we have developed the practice and the lifestyle and attained the goals that we thought were once out of reach.

David J Bilinsky is a partner at Lakes Straith & Bilinsky. He was the Co-Chair of the 1998 ABA’s TECHSHOW, and is Co-Chair again in 1999.

Correction
Errant fingers dept: To give credit to those who noticed: In the last article on the Y2K problem, I mistyped one of the potential problem days: The correct day to watch for is Feb. 29, 2000, not Feb. 28, 2000. Reason? Feb. 29, 2000 is a leap-year day. Computers are not set up to handle leap-years that are also a century year. David J Bilinsky

This article originally appeared in the April 1999 issue of BarTalk and is reproduced here with permission of both the author and the Canadian Bar Association, British Columbia Branch.