We’d all like more referrals. However, we—many of us, anyway—aren’t comfortable asking for them.
How can we get them? This approach will work for you. I promise.
Identify some good referral sources. Come up with a list. Think about professionals who come in frequent contact with your ideal client. Consider attorneys, mental health professionals, clergy, accountants, and even hairdressers. Identify some specific people in these or other groups.
Now think about what you can do for the people on your list. Come up with ways you can help them. You might have to do some digging to figure it out. You might have to ask the referral source what you can do. You might have to ask one person what would be of use to the other. Dig, dig, dig. Don’t worry: you can’t get into much trouble by aggressively trying to help others.
Here are some ideas. Your neighbor is a TV reporter. She’s working on a story about a big criminal case. She needs an attorney to comment for her story. You’ve got a criminal defense attorney on your list. Hook them up: that’s a two-fer.
You’ve got an attorney on your list who has a high school junior in the family. You’ve got an old classmate who’s an administrator at a big college. Maybe you can arrange a personal tour for the kid.
You’ve got a client who’s a chef at a restaurant where it’s impossible to get a table. Your referral source has an anniversary coming up with his foodie wife. Can you score a table?
One of your referral sources is having marriage trouble. You know who the best (and worst) marriage counselors are. You can provide some guidance and advice on selecting one of the good ones.
It works. Trust me, I know. Here’s my proof.
Over a year ago, I started writing these articles on this site. I did it in an effort to help. I’m taking what I know and passing it along.
What happened?
Referrals, that’s what happened.
I did something nice in an effort to help you out, and you reciprocated. I didn’t have a plan when I started. I never asked for your referrals, but you came through with them. (Thank you, by the way!)
You don’t have to ask for referrals. You can simply do your best to help others, and the cycle will commence. What are you waiting for?
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What would you think if I handed you my business card and all it had on it was a QR code? What’s a QR code? That’s the doohickey pictured next to this article. It’s a special code that, when scanned by your mobile device or webcam (with the right software running), takes you right to my biography on my website. Why would I bother with putting my name, address, and phone number on my card when I can do all that and more with a QR code?
Would that work for you, or would I be getting ahead of my market?
I’m guessing I know the answer, and that’s why my business card still has that identifying information printed on it.
What would your client think if she hired you and discovered that she can’t get her billing info or check the status of her case online? What if she can’t check to see whether you received an e-mail from opposing counsel? Or whether a document is ready to be reviewed? What if she tries to connect with you on LinkedIn and you aren’t there? What if she tells her friend about you and he or she can’t find your website?
Of course, your client uses the Web to check package delivery status, review her banking balances, receive her lab results from her doctor, and schedule appointments with her dentist. She moves money from one mutual fund to another online and reviews her children’s homework online. She buys hotel rooms and plane tickets online. She can even pay her property tax online to that backward bureaucracy at the county office building. What do you mean she can’t get an update about her divorce case online?
It’s important to know your market and stay even with them. Don’t get too far ahead or too far behind. You want to be in sync with expectations and seek to do more than they expect, but not so much that you leave them baffled and befuddled.
Use your own perspective as a test of where you stand. Think about what you’d expect if you were the client. Many of us have been a client, and we know what it feels like. If you haven’t yet had a need for a lawyer, try to imagine what it feels like from a client’s perspective. Put yourself in a client’s shoes. That’s a great way to start.
More importantly, ask your clients what they think about how you’re meeting their technology expectations (and other expectations as well).
You know how you spend hours sitting with your clients during mediation or negotiation sessions? You’re desperate for conversation. That’s a great opportunity to research your market. Ask what they expected. Ask what would have made things better. Ask what they liked and disliked. They’ll be thrilled to have the tables turned and be the dispenser of advice rather than the recipient.
Don’t create an issue for yourself by getting too far off track from what your clients think you’re supposed to be doing. Stay informed, continue asking questions, and keep your practice even with your market.
TechnoLawyer is running some columns I’ve written in its SmallLaw series. They have some excellent writers (plus me) addressing small firm issues. TechnoLawyer makes the columns public a week after release on the TechnoLawyer blog. You can get the content a week earlier by subscribing to SmallLaw via e-mail.
My most recent column came out yesterday. I hope you enjoy it:
The success of your practice depends on a core of solid, reliable referral sources. You count on these people to send you business in good times and in bad. They know you, like you, and trust you. You can’t live without them. You’ve got to create and nurture these relationships, or you’re dead. In this column, you’ll learn how to do so and have fun at the same time—nine tips in all.
To keep reading, click for the rest of Nine Ways to Nurture Your Referral Relationships.
Two weeks ago, I posted an article about virtual law offices (VLOs) as a result of my concern that lawyers buying these services and the service providers fail to fully discuss and/or understand the marketing challenges involved. I got some great feedback and some criticism. I’m glad to have stimulated some discussion (here, here, here and here).
Just so we’re clear, I love the idea of a virtual practice. We’ve had a client portal for more than a decade, and I’m experimenting with some other VLO concepts on my North Carolina Divorce website. We’re iterating on a weekly basis. It’s a struggle, but I believe it will work—eventually.
In pondering the issues involved, I came up with a modest proposal that I think would help the lawyers thinking about buying a virtual law office as well as the sellers.
Vendors, how about sharing anonymous post-audited financials from some of your customers? Show us that customers are making money using your product. Prove it to us.
Help us understand where virtual practices are working and where they aren’t. Give us data so we can make objective decisions before buying your product. Lot of vendors, of other services, provide case studies. Will you do that for us and provide the data?
That’s a win-win. We, as customers, get proof that we’re making a good investment. You, as vendors, build trust. Plus, if some of you are helping your customers generate greater profits than others, you’ll win even more of the available business.
I’d love to see some financials for the purely virtual practices as well as numbers from more diversified firms showing us the results for the virtual portion of the practice. Assuming that the numbers are good, this can only accelerate the adoption of these technologies.
While we’re at it, wouldn’t it be great if we got financials for the clients of consultants trying to sell us management and marketing consulting services? I’d love it, and I’d be far less skeptical of some of the claims I’ve heard.
What I’m asking for is kind of like what the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) requires of franchisers. The FTC mandates all sorts of disclosures plus a list of 10 recent purchasers in close proximity to the customer. Let’s bring some transparency to the industry so we can all know what we can expect.
Vendors, what do you say? Are you in? Can we bring some tangible reality to the virtual marketplace?
Lee Rosen has practiced family law for more than twenty years. With three offices, 