I’ve been on a kick lately with many of my clients about focusing on building relationships.  This really applies to any business anywhere, but particularly for attorneys and law firms, building relationships is absolutely essential to your long-term success.

There was a time, in the US and elsewhere, that almost all business came either because you had a captive audience (you were the only lawyer in town) or else because someone knew somebody else who recommended you.  In other words, if you had any competition, then you relied almost exclusively on recommendations and referrals.

Without overstating the obvious, times have changed.  For well over a hundred years now, lawyers have been able to advertise in newspapers and periodicals.  Radio and TV offered new forms of marketing, and the Internet is another story altogether.  Personally, I highly recommend making use of every opportunity you have to market yourself and your firm.  However…

You CANNOT rely solely on the Internet, TV, or any other form of advertising. 

You MUST build strong and lasting relationships in your field…

On the one hand, I’ve seen attorneys and law firms who rely solely on one form of advertising do amazing business one year, only to have it completely dry up for the next couple years because something has gone wrong with their advertising or their Google rankings.  On the other hand, I routinely meet and work with attorneys and law firms who do almost no advertising yet have a constant and continual stream of clients.  These attorneys and law firms maintain dozens or even hundreds of excellent relationships in their industry, and people who know them constantly refer clients.

I don’t know about you, but I’d rather be in that second group of attorneys and law firms.

Now, building relationships sounds like a great idea to almost everyone, but the problem is that it’s not easy to do.  It requires work on your part, and it takes time.  Here are a few tips to get started:

1. Get out there!  You’ll never meet anyone in your industry unless you’re in the same places that they are.  Industry events are great places to network, and I don’t include bar events in this category.  You need to widen your network beyond lawyers.  If you’re a real estate attorney, for example, get out to real estate events and meet brokers and investors.
2. Follow up with everybody!  It’s amazing how many people (myself included) meet someone, hit it off, and then never follow up.  I have to find this tendency constantly, and so should you.  If you meet someone, at least send them an email.  If there is some way in which you can help them, then by all means, do so.
3. Offer Help!  If you see someone that you can help, particularly with legally-related services, then offer your help with no questions asked.  Obviously, I don’t mean to take on an entire case that will take up hundreds of hours of your time.  However, if you can spend a couple hours helping someone, then those couple hours will almost always pay off down the road.

As I said, none of these tips will lead to a quick influx of clients very often.  There are other ways to do that in the short term.  However, there is no better way to guarantee your long term success than by establishing a strong network in your field. 

If you have any additional tips or tricks, or any stories about building relationships and how it’s helped your business, please share them in the comments below!

Here’s a quick video where I talk about more: