Maximizing Potential: A Client-Centric Approach for Relationship Growth

In the world of legal marketing and business development, it’s generally understood that expanding business with current clients is easier than landing a brand-new client. The challenge lies in implementing this approach thoughtfully, ensuring that your efforts enhance, rather than jeopardize, these valuable relationships.

This article offers tactics for gradually strengthening your existing client relationships, all while keeping their needs at the forefront.

Getting Started

Start your journey by conducting a gap analysis. The purpose of this project is to gain a holistic view of your top clients, what work your firm is currently doing for them and where opportunities might be for growth. For example, your firm may handle corporate and real estate matters for Client A, but not labor and employment. Therein lies the gap. For many years, law firms have been operating under the Rule of Three: If a client routinely hires your firm in at least three different practice areas, your client retention rate increases dramatically. In recent years, that figure has risen to five practices, underscoring the importance of this gap analysis exercise.

Begin by asking your friends in finance to pull a list of the firm’s top clients (typically 50-100). Review the list and identify the point where there’s a significant drop in fees — this is where you should trim the list.

From there, ask for practice financials to be added to the top client list by both percentage and dollar. Make sure to share the project’s goal with finance, as they may have more ideas of what information could be helpful to include. Presenting this information in a chart is a helpful way to visualize were the gaps truly lie.

Understanding Client Needs

Now that you’ve identified a handful of service gaps, approach relationship partners to learn more about the client. Do attorneys at the firm enjoy working with them? Do they pay their bills on time? If yes, then talk further about their existing legal and business needs — those that the firm is currently helping them with and what they might be sending elsewhere. Discuss what they know about the client’s goals and brainstorm ideas to further cement the relationship.

Encourage lawyers to actively share insights about their clients’ needs with partners in other practice areas. Urge them to seek advice on the right questions to ask, in an effort to uncover potential risks or unmet needs that could be addressed by different areas of the firm. This intentional collaboration creates more opportunities to cross-sell services and ensures that you and the relationship partner have a comprehensive understanding of the firm’s full capabilities — essential for growing and deepening existing client relationships.

Going the Extra Mile

Client service is one of the critical, few differentiators in a crowded legal marketplace. What initiatives can help us get closer to clients and grow those relationships?

• Email Marketing Communications: Ensuring that key contacts at priority clients receive relevant thought leadership is an important pillar of client communications. Relationship attorneys should forward those alerts — especially those highlighting areas of hoped expansion — with a personalized note, sharing why the information is important for their business.
• On-site Visits: Arrange a visit to your client's office, plant, facility or headquarters. Take this opportunity to bring one or two partners from other practice groups that align with potential growth areas. Use the visit to meet with key contacts as well as individuals outside the usual circle, particularly those who may have influence or buying power in areas relevant to your firm’s other services. Engage in thoughtful discussions and ask plenty of questions, providing your team with valuable insights that can lead to actionable strategies.
• Client Introductions: Facilitate connections between the client you want to grow and other established firm clients who share similarities in size, industry, or location, and who already engage the firm across multiple practice areas. Use an upcoming initiative, such as a new strategy for identifying commercial real estate sites or implementing a SaaS solution, as a conversation starter. By introducing your client to a peer who has navigated similar challenges, you’re offering valuable insights and showcasing how the firm’s comprehensive services have supported others in their success.
• Training: Year over year, in-house counsel rank complimentary training as their top value add. Leverage this by polling your key client contacts to identify any challenges their teams might benefit from addressing. This may include full CLE for their legal department or specialized training for their business teams. Tailor your proposed training topics to align with the practice areas you’re aiming to grow, demonstrating the firm’s value while positioning these areas for future collaboration.
• Annual Forward Planning Meeting: Use this meeting – which should be off the clock – to explore your client’s goals and priorities for the upcoming year. These discussions can reveal new opportunities to expand your partnership. Prepare questions that address ongoing projects and services, while subtly asking questions (using insights gleaned via conversations with partners in other practice groups) to uncover potential legal needs in new areas. This approach can help you identify where the firm can offer additional value in the coming year.

Growing and maintaining strong client relationships demands a proactive, thoughtful approach that prioritizes the client's evolving needs. By conducting thorough analyses, engaging in intentional internal collaboration and implementing client-focused initiatives, your firm can uncover new opportunities to partner with its clients. These strategies help solidify existing relationships and pave the way for long-term growth, ensuring your clients view your firm as an indispensable partner in their success.