Six ways to invest in professional relationships

The thing is, other lawyers will be in touch with your contacts or looking to get in touch with them, so if these contacts are to remain a valuable source of new work, you must look after them. Here are six ways to ensure you retain pole position with your contacts and continue to generate new fee earning opportunities.

1. Make them feel special

An occasional visit to Café Nero is good, but does it really make your contacts feel they are one of your key commercial priorities?

The first rule to making contacts feel special is consistency; see them at regular intervals throughout the year.

The second is the right venue. Vary the setting. Try coffee, lunch, or just dropping into their offices when you’re near by. Holding the meeting somewhere that fits with their interests is important. There is nothing more flattering than to be told ‘I thought that would be the best place to meet because I remembered you like Italian food.’

2. Make valuable introductions

Like you, your contacts need to build their practice. Think of who you know that may be of interest to them and organise an introduction. I’m not talking about clients here, but recognised industry professionals.

For example, if you are a commercial solicitor planning to meet up with an accountant, you may know a patent attorney whose clients could benefit from a discussion about Patent Box and research and development tax credits.

Alternatively, you may share a sector focus with one of your clients and have access to editors, event organisers or trade body staff within those sectors. All would be valuable introductions for your contact.

3. Make them look better

If contacts are to have greater insight into legal issues surrounding a particular practice area, chances are they could use this in their own client meetings.

Ask to arrange an informal roundtable for key members of your respective teams. The agenda would be to discuss common themes you and your contact face regularly, the informal format offering a chance to discuss those issues from both perspectives.

While the obvious benefit here is to present information that will make them look better in future client meetings, there is an additional benefit. It also builds bridges between your wider teams, bridges you can use to strengthen relationships between your firms and increase the likelihood of winning work in the future.

4. Exchange (and then distribute) content

When it comes to the production of content for marketing purposes, one of the main blockers tends to be a lack of time. Instead of trying to produce 100 per cent of content in-house, ask your key contacts if they’d be happy for you to distribute any relevant content they may have produced as a ‘guest author’ or ‘guest blogger’.If they accept, the quid pro quo would obviously be for them to distribute your material on a similar basis.

For this to work as well as it can, all of the content should include a full credit for the author alongside contact details and a clear call to action.

5. Quantitative joint marketing

As with most things in life, two heads are better than one. This is especially true when it comes to marketing, as the more people your message reaches, the better the results. Discuss how to combine marketing databases with your contacts and, if they’re amenable, the type of content relevant to your respective targets to provide maximum value.

The traditional manifestation of this type of collaboration is to combine databases to promote seminars; however, as your clients’ and targets’ time is at a premium, it is worth discussing alternatives. You could produce white papers amalgamating respective professional perspectives or put together joint webinar or podcast content that clients and targets can utilise when convenient for them.

6. Qualitative joint marketing

You will know the profile of your perfect target – so will your contacts. Ask them if they’d like to sit down and compare client lists to decide who could be introduced.

The advantage of taking the time to do this is that you can choose realistic prospects that will have the highest likelihood of converting. You know those contacts who are totally wedded to their current advisers, and, you know who are dissatisfied. You also know who will be that all important personal fit and those who can be prioritised.

Given the nature of this type of meeting and the confidentiality of the lists you’ll be discussing, I’d suggest it’s hosted in your office rather than a public setting. SJ