Are You Investing in Your Clients?

By Kimberly Alford Rice
Special to the Legal

You may offer extraordinary service to your clients if you provide them timely, spot-on legal counsel to either solve their problems or help them prevent problems in a proactive way. But I challenge you to take it up a notch.

Consider taking some of the steps below to demonstrate your understanding of your clients' business and that you care about its success:

• Read what your clients are reading. If you do not subscribe to at least one industry publication in which your client does business, find out what your client is reading and subscribe today.

• Accompany a client to his or her trade conference and offer to pick up part of the tab. How better to get to know your clients' competitors and related suppliers than to be in the middle of them. Not only would this be a tremendous learning experience for you, but it would also send a strong positive message to your client that you are very interested in deepening your relationship.

• Scan through a client's 10-K statement. These documents are usually on the website of a publicly traded company and can typically be found in the investor relations section. Pay particular attention to the "risks" listed in the 10-K then spend some time thinking about how your client is affected by these risks – and how you can help him or her better manage them. If your client is not publicly traded, look up the 10-K of a competitor company as the risks will be similar.

Kimberly Alford Rice is principal of KLA Marketing Associates, a business development advisory firm focusing on legal services. As a legal marketing authority, she helps law firms and lawyers develop practical business development and marketing strategies which lead directly to new clients and increased revenues. Additionally, she provides career management services to lawyers in transition. She can be reached at 609-458-0415 or via email at kimberly@klamarketing.net.

Comments

[joye]

Great idea attract to the clients by offering extra services or some other promotional products.

[Susan Rubinovitz]

Great advice as usually, Kimberly. I find that another way to provide extra value to one's clients is to forward any information such as new case law or an article on their industry that may help them.