Ten Rules for Rainmakers*

I often quibble with the term “rainmaker” because I think it too often describes lawyers more interested in getting new clients than in keeping current ones. However, because “Ten Rules for Keeping Clients So You Don’t Have to Replace Them” doesn’t have the same ring to it, I’ll use the term here. Let me know what you think

1. You’ll never be passionate about rainmaking until you start searching for clients you’ll be passionate about serving. Remember, a great client is one for whom you’d work for free, but one who’d never ask you to.
2. The best way to get new clients is to impress old ones. Measure the happiness of your existing clients with the same diligence you measure your time, so you can work less on developing new business and more on deserving it.
3. While there are hundreds of “strategies” to get new clients, there’s only one strategy to keep them: serve them well.
4. When meeting a potential client, don’t sell your competence, sell your compassion. They must know you care about them before they’ll care about you.
5. The single best way to get new clients is to ask your best ones, “How do I get more clients like you?”
6. A client will never be as surprised by great legal work as they will by by good service.
7. Your new client’s definition of a “great” lawyer is probably far different from yours. You must understand their expectations before you’ll ever be able to meet them.
8. Recognize that while it is usually easier to ask for new business from prospective clients than it is to ask for more business from current ones, it is rarely more profitable.
9. If your answer to “What kind of clients are you looking for?” is “Ones who pay,” you’ll get paying clients. Terrible paying clients.
10. The best thing you can promise a prospective client is more sleep. Ask what problems keep them up at night, and build your practice to solve them.

*This was originally posted in 2008 on The [Non]Billable Hour