Practice Management

Over at Content for Reprint I found an article The Rainmaker Institute, which upon reading I found to basically true and helpful.

The article is more in depth that what I write hear, but the principals are universal in network and relationship marketing if you want this practice to work.  Ignore these three keys at your own risk.

1.  When it comes to referral relationships you need to take an active roll. My take on this is to get off your keister and meet people, collect their information and take an interest in what they are doing.

2.  Increase the frequency of your contact.  This is staying top of the mind with the people that matter most.  Let us face facts, people get busy in their own lives and professions and they are not concentrating on you.  You want them to remember to refer you business when it comes up.  They do forget or they think about it too late.  So you want to provide them useful information and gently remind them that you exist for a particular purpose.

3.  Focus on serving and not selling.  Exactly.  I think this is where many attorneys get hung up in this approach.  They fear they will be seen as hucksters or something.  It is the old line that goes - do not tell my mother that I am a lawyers, she thinks I am a piano player in a whore house.  Law is about serving needs of people and organizations.  It is important to understand that you do not have to be like a carnival barker.  You do not, and should not think, you need to act like a snake oil salesman.  Just be there and be helpful and you will be rewarded.

It is another way, and a more practical way, of stating the older acquire, retain and develop line.  That is good advice, if a little misunderstood or generic.