By Jay Sullivan
Some legal practice areas slow down at year-end, and some grow busier. There isn’t a typical “busy season” for the law.
What never slows down is the need to reach out to clients and build business. That never ends. As we head into 2025, here are some steps you can take to help your attorneys deepen their book of business in the new year.
• Have your accounting office send each attorney the list of clients he or she has worked with in the last three years — We all get so busy that we forget about the relationships we developed over the years, and the years fly by fast. You will be shocked by the clients you worked with intensely on major projects and who were a significant part of your work life for months only to disappear from your life the minute the deal wrapped and you moved to work on the next matter. Assuming the deal or case went well, that person has fond memories of working with you. They could be a source of additional business.
Pick the top 10. Perhaps your marketing team will send them the firm’s holiday card. Much more impactful would be a quick email from you just saying, “Your name (or your company’s name) came to mind recently. It’s been a while since we spoke. Would welcome the chance to catch up. Let me know if you’re available for a call in the coming weeks.” Even if they don’t reply, you’ve just bumped your name to the top of their memory. As new needs arise for them this year, you have a better chance they will reach out to you rather than one of the many other firms they use.
• Prepare more strategically for that upcoming conference — You’ve been going to the same industry conferences for years. If you are like most people, you start thinking about the conference on the plane to Las Vegas or Orlando or the Bay Area. Think about the conference now. Think of attending a conference as a project with you as the project manager. The life cycle includes the following:
– As soon as the conference is advertised, schedule a practice group meeting to debrief on last year and plan for this year. Who on your team should go? What clients or potential clients should you reach out to? (If you follow No. 1 above, you’ll have a refreshed list of contacts.)
– If you just got the conference announcement, so did many of your clients. That’s your excuse to reach out to people to ask if they plan to attend. Rather than emailing someone the day before the event, start the conversation now. Everyone’s time is precious. Scheduling a “catch-up lunch” with you without a clear agenda sounds like a big ask. But meeting with you for coffee when you’re both at a conference anyway is not such a big deal.
– The week before the conference, meet again as a team to discuss a more specific game plan. Who did you all reach? Who do you think will attend? What meetings have you scheduled? Who else should we contact?
– In that same time frame, run an internet search on whatever company you expect to see at the event. Stay up to date on what’s going on with it so you can comment intelligently on its work or avoid mentioning something its leadership would rather ignore.
– At the event, talk to your contacts about them and their business. Mention what you’ve been doing only to the extent you think it will be relevant to them. Ask more questions. You can highlight your expertise and innovation by asking relevant and insightful questions just as much as by talking about your accomplishments.
– After the event, send follow-up emails not only to those you connected with, but those you missed, either because of time or because they didn’t attend.
The conference is about an excuse to connect with people. It provides a half-dozen touchpoints with each contact. The goal is to keep yourself top of mind for others.
• Put yourself in new settings where you are likely to meet new contacts — If you’ve been going to the same conferences or talks for years, it’s time to try something new. If you’ve been going to conferences dominated by other law firms, try to attend an event where the business leaders who need your services are the bulk of the attendees. Even if you don’t meet the contacts that will buy your services, you’ve learned more about the industry you serve and will be a more valuable resource to your clients as you understand their industry concerns and developments better. Remember, your clients don’t have legal problems; they have business problems that have legal components. Knowing their industry pain points helps you serve them better.
• Make realistic New Year’s resolutions — If you are saying to yourself, “I’m going to double my work with Acme,” something significant must have happened with Acme to warrant twice the legal spend unless you know another firm they used is no longer on their go-to list. Instead, aim for a 10% increase in work from a variety of clients. If you increase your overall revenue generation by 10%, that’s a huge win. It also doesn’t seem as daunting and doesn’t become demoralizing by the end of Q1 when you haven’t seen an increase in work.
For years, every December, I listed writing my first book as among my goals for the new year. I never even tried to tackle that goal. It was too overwhelming to even think about it. The year I wrote, “Write the first two chapters,” I wrote half the book. A big part of the journey is just taking that first step.
A new year provides an opportunity for new thinking. Use the next couple of weeks to rethink how you’ve approached your clients in the past and how you might try an innovative approach this year.
Jay Sullivan, a former practicing attorney, is the author of “The New Nimble: Leading in the Age of Change,” “Simply Said: Communicating Better at Work & Beyond” and “Raising Gentle Men: Lives at the Orphanage Edge.”