Authored by: Ollie Lammers
Developing your law firm practice can help you serve more clients in your community. Many lawyers accidentally self-sabotage developing their firm. According to Sally J. Schmidt’s Attorneyatwork.com article, here are some common business development mistakes attorneys make.
Preparing.
Give yourself and your team time to prepare for a meeting before seeing if you can take on a prospective client. You can’t take on every client that walks through your law firm’s door, and you need to prepare to see if you and your team can dedicate the time the client needs for their case. Whoever answers the phone and sets up meetings with prospects, have them collect as much information as possible from the prospect. Do your research before the meeting and go into the meeting prepared to listen.
Schmidt says you should prepare “how will you open the meeting, what roles will people play, what questions do you need answered, what are the primary points you want to make … the list goes on and on.”
Staying in Touch.
Ensure that you regularly follow up with your prospective client. Your prospective client might look into other attorneys before deciding on having you represent them.
Make sure your prospect knows why you want to represent them and let them know about the previous results you’ve obtained for former clients. You can share former client testimonials, ask them if they’d be interested in talking to a former client or even point them to some of your recent client victories on your website or social media profiles.
For more information on how you might be preventing your firm from growing, click here to be taken to Sally J. Schmidt’s Attorneyatwork.com article.
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