Securing referrals to grow your practice

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Securing referrals to grow your practice

Marketing for lawyers usually involves referrals. In fact, as a lawyer, you probably gain most of your instructions from referrals, either through your colleagues, business associates or existing clients.

It’s a smart way to drum up business because it is traditionally less costly than finding new clients in terms of both time and money and has the indirect benefit of reinforcing your brand reputation

The irony is that most lawyers tell me that apart from having a quid pro quo arrangement with a local accountancy firm they don’t have a formal system of developing referrals even though they know that they are to a great extent, dependent upon them!

Given that we all agree that referrals are a basic requirement when marketing for lawyers, let’s take a look at your top priorities if you want to ensure those referrals keep flowing in:

   1. Establish a register for new instructions & the source
   2. Ensure referrals are reciprocated
   3. Organisations not offering referrals should be excluded from corporate hospitality
   4. Register details should be discussed at each management meeting
   5. Ensure clients who refer are rewarded or at least acknowledged
   6. Make sure referrers have the firm’s literature
   7. Ensure organisations who may possibly refer are aware of your full range of services.
   8. Build relationships and don’t forget to ask for referrals.

The last bullet point is a hugely under-utilised technique when it comes to marketing for lawyers, probably because we don’t like ‘asking’ for business and making the first move, but it doesn’t need to feel uncomfortable.

I have found that the secret to pain free referral requests is to ask for a specific type of referral. This takes the pressure off the person you are talking to and has the knock on effect of putting you at your ease too.

For example, when you have successfully completed a case and the client is thanking you, try saying something like: ‘do you think any of your [describe a niche market with whom the client has a special relationship, such as a sector within their own supply chain] suppliers would be interested in our [name of a service that would tempt this niche market]’.

It is often said that buying is an emotional experience so, marketing for lawyers can build on the emotional relationship between client and lawyer. Niche marketing capitalises on the needs of a highly defined market segment. Combine these two elements and you will produce a stream of new referrals.

When you receive referral leads, follow through by sending the contact a letter explaining that [name of referee] suggested they may be interested in [name of the product] and suggest a no-obligation next step, such as accepting an invitation to a breakfast seminar.