growing your client base in 2007:  25 low cost, high impact ideas!

User Instructions  Print out and place directly on the top of your desk. When waiting for a document to print, a meeting to start, or the phone to ring, commit to implementing just one of the following ideas; many of which can be accomplished with a simple telephone call.

Expected Outcomes  Staying in touch with your valuable clients and referral sources, having the tools you need to effectively market your services, reconnecting with old friends and colleagues, satisfied clients, motivated referral sources, and of course, fame, and fortune.

• Pick up the phone and call a client or contact you have not talked to recently - touch base, check in to simply see how the person is doing; consider inviting them to have coffee with you.
  
  

• Make a list of your top referral sources; call one of those people and schedule coffee or lunch.
  
  

• When you are reading the daily paper or a industry journal, make a point of selecting an article that would be of interest to someone you know and send it with a personal note.
  
  

• Tell your assistant how much you appreciate his or her role in helping you serve clients.
  
  

• Take a partner, associate, or colleague to lunch or coffee and find out more about the work (s)he is doing.
  
  

• Develop one piece of representative experience and add it to your biography - both online and for distribution. Cover the Client's Situation, Your Approach, and the Result.
  
  

• Review and update your biography - enlist your assistant to automatically add speaking engagements, published articles, etc.
  
  

• Call a client for whom you have recently completed a transaction just to see how well their expectations were met.
  
  

• Enter your time into the system each day (don't let it accumulate) - or ask your assistant to do it for you.
  
  

• Take a moment to write down what your best clients have in common (traits, characteristics, type of individual or company, from whom they were referred).
  
  

• Send a quick email to a few of your clients letting them know of changes in the industry that may impact them - or make a list of the clients and ask your assistant to send an email on your behalf.
  
  

• Proactively provide a status update to one of your current clients of your work on their behalf.
  
  

• Identify a trade or professional association that attracts your ideal clients or referral sources (see #10) and consider contacting them about membership.
  
  

• Identify what you know the most about and develop the title for a presentation you could give on the topic; identify the ideal audience.
  
  

• Schedule a non-billable meeting with a client to review how the relationship is going and address any concerns your client may have.
  
  

• Contact a client who recently ended their relationship with the firm and determine what happened; communicate to those on your team to prevent future client dissatisfaction.
  
  

• Go to the firm's website and make a suggestion on enhancing the site.
  
  

• Use your time entries as a marketing tool to demonstrate the value you bring to your clients; provide more detail.
  
  

• Contact two clients whose businesses or interests may complement one another and introduce them.
  
  

• Review your contact list from the database and scan it for accuracy; make corrections and additions and have your assistant enter them.
  
  

• Create an outline for an article you would like to have published and where you would like to see the article in print.
  
  

• Revisit and reflect upon where (and how) you are spending your time on pro bono matters or community service.
  
  

• Identify five clients of yours you would like to introduce to one of your partners or colleagues with a goal of expanding your work with each.
  
  

• Look at what you're working on. If an associate, paralegal, or assistant can do the drafting or research for you, delegate, delegate, delegate!
  
  

• Reflect on what has led to your success to date. If you found yourself with no clients, what would you do first? Revisit what marketing behaviors have led to your success to date.

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