Creating recurring inbound leads is a skill. Master this skill and you will control your career and opportunities — and make rain.

Rainmakers all have their favorite strategies and tactics. I want to focus on three you can learn and adopt now. These are:

You can adopt these tactics tomorrow. Select one client. Uncover the clients with more ongoing needs than others through client feedback, disclosures buried in the selected proxy statement, using 3rd party research services to measure client litigation caseloads, and searches of legal and trade publications.

Practice deep conversation skills with peers or a coach. You can also read about the art of the phone conversation here.

Firms can apply these strategies, especially targeting clients with ongoing needs — by practice and office — to help the firm drive growth and help create more rainmakers.

Last week we discussed how the recession is only the 3^rd top concern of law firm leaders. The recession is getting low billing as the associates’ biggest source of insomnia as well.

In a combined telephone/online survey — we analyzed more than 1,000 responses from associates. The question we posed: “What keeps you up at night?” The recession ranks a distant 6^th — limited mostly to associates working in corporate. With few concerns about the recession — the top causes of associate insomnia are:

While a concern — virtually no associates are losing sleep over remote work or return-to-office initiatives. They feel like they can manage this issue and find a solution suiting their preferences. It may or may not be at their current firm.

Sound sleep is a key ingredient to wellness. Law firms can improve wellbeing, retention, and productivity by sharing more about deadlines and expectations as matters unfold. Laying out a career path also helps associates sleep better at night.

Conducting a formal firmwide associate survey also helps insomnia by offering associates a clear voice — and will deliver insights you won’t get anywhere else. Please reach out to me if you want to discuss.

After crashing in the last 6 months of 2021 — AFAs are coiling up for a comeback.

December 2021 showed 48% of clients using AFAs, down from 70% just 6 months earlier. Fast forward to today — BTI’s brand-new research with top legal decision makers reveals 55% of clients are now using AFAs. This reverses a trend and signals what’s ahead.

The BTI research shows clients overwhelmingly prefer 2 types of AFAs:

• • Fixed fee by phase
  • Fixed fee for a matter

Client preference for these 2 alternative fees outweighs others by a ratio of 4 to 1. Law firms mastering these 2 approaches have an advantage.

5 reasons clients are re-adopting alternative fees:

• • Client need for budget predictability is reaching new heights
  • Law firms are more skilled as pricing and LPM professionals are now part of the law firm mainstream — helping drive a streamlined AFA process for clients and the firm
  • Caseloads are growing faster than budgets for the 3^rd year in a row — AFAs can help bring them into balance
  • In-house counsel turnover spread the AFA experience and knowledge across the client base — and they are being adopted by clients who previously didn’t use AFAs
  • AFAs reduce the amount of time and effort required to manage an outside law firm

Benefits beyond certainty

Certainty is just the beginning. Clients uniformly report outside counsel using AFAs:

• • Bring increased focus on their goals
  • Develop a well-defined defined strategy
  • Use a customized strategy
  • Field a more cohesive team
  • Articulate a clear strategy at the start
  • Deliver more timely and useful updates

In short, clients enjoy a higher level of comfort with outside counsel under AFAs — even in an already strong relationship.

A small number of savvy law firms have started offering AFAs in every single proposal. Clients may not bite — but they are impressed these firms offer an alternative. More clients are open to exploring.

Clients adopting AFAs believe they are getting the best total cost for the matter — which is rarely at the lowest rate. Certainty brings extraordinary value —a low rate per-hour matter can be expensive.

AFAs will quickly go back to the 70% client adoption level — the economics and other benefits are too compelling to ignore. We recommend law firms:

• • Develop the most simple and clear explanation of their AFAs — use a professional editor and copywriter to create drafts and client-friendly messages. Clients don’t have time to learn complete approaches
  • Offer an AFA to all clients above a certain dollar threshold — your offer will increase engagement with these clients
  • Pitch the AFA before clients ask — this will place you ahead of the curve and position you for new work before clients make a hiring decision
  • Train for the AFA pitch — clients will ask new and different questions. Your confident and thorough answers have outsized influence on their decision to use an AFA with your firm — and the proposing attorney

Think of the AFA reboot as a path to a large stream of new work instead of a stand-alone pitch. Clients have more work to give outside counsel than ever. Budget certainty is a potent differentiator — bring it front and center and make it shine.

Meetings have quickly become homonyms: one word with different meanings. Meetings can be virtual or in-person. Your mission is to make sure you know the right one. Sounds easy, but:

11 clients told us about their outside counsel showing up in person for a meeting — while they were patiently waiting at their screens remotely. Some of these clients were close by and came into the office. Others put outside counsel in a conference room to meet virtually. Others simply rescheduled.

These were no big deal breakers — but it is a pointed reminder of how important it is to understand your clients’ preferences — and confirming with clients to be sure.

The ink is still wet on our brand-new survey — based on more than 340 in-depth interviews with top legal decision makers. 70% of clients tell us they prefer to work virtually with their law firm. They note circumstances may change their mind — but this sets the tone. We recommend asking every client to be doubly sure.

A dive into the industries leaning towards in-person meetings with outside counsel

Here are the 10 industries where the majority of clients prefer an in-person meeting:

• • • Healthcare
    • Transportation
    • Pharma
    • Life Science
    • Transportation
    • Financial Services
    • Food
    • Agriculture
    • High Tech
    • Retail

Companies in these industries are among the most innovative. They are aggressive in digital transformation, face industry disruption from upstarts, deal with big IP issues, or are under public scrutiny. They see a number of their legal issues as nuanced and trendsetting. All of this leads them to be inclined to meet in person with outside counsel.

Another 4 industries need some in-person meetings with outside counsel

We found 4 industries where clients have a slight bias toward virtual meetings — but their preference can change to in person meetings depending on the topic of discussion.

• • • Energy
    • Consumer Products
    • Insurance
    • Professional Services

The clients in these 4 industries see more complexity than many others in their matters — but they are limited to a smaller segment of their portfolio.

You can use this as a guide as to what to expect and how to think about your overall communication plan with clients. There will be exceptions to every preference. Knowing when and how they apply is key to effective communication.

It’s easy to skip over what seems obvious — like the type of meeting your clients expect.

The confusion over showing up in person suggests we bring back the ancient art of confirming meeting details 24 hours before start time. Confirm meeting type at scheduling time, accept invitations in a timely manner, and check meeting invitation details to see if it’s online or in person. Microsoft is starting to make online meetings a default setting in meeting invitations which can lead to miscommunication.

Go back to March 2022. 6 months ago. We went on LinkedIn to look for digital marketing managers at law firms. We found 653. Fast forward to September 2022 — we found 1,217. An impressive 87% jump — and over 100% annualized.

And law firms are looking to add more. We found another 265 openings on the LinkedIn job site alone.

Even with this growth the digital strategy is understated in law firms. The most successful digital strategies create an ecosystem where each component supports and feeds the others. The key components of the ecosystem include:

• Website
• Thought Leadership
• SEO
• SEM (paid search)
• Blogs
• Firm LinkedIn Site
• Attorney LinkedIn Profiles
• Twitter
• Podcasts
• Video
• Business Development

Each of the tactics above can generate engagement and leads — but taken as a strategically designed set of supporting initiatives — it increases the engagement and inbound lead rates by multiples.

Note how business development is part of the digital ecosystem. The business development approach for leads generated through digital marketing is different than traditional marketing. The digitally generated leads expect the attorney with whom they speak to be knowledgeable about the thought leadership that originally captured their attention. This expectation will drive a new approach where law firms ensure these inbound leads get to the appropriate attorney.

The new marketing managers will help bring order and multiply the impact and benefit of current efforts. Digital marketing has the power to redefine market perception, brand, and value proposition. You can also use it for more targeted follow-up and to target the clients you really want.

The hiring frenzy suggests law firms are on to all this. We are likely to see a wave of epic success — where a few law firms will drive outsized growth and become a magnet for premium leads. These are the firms who will set the pace. The digital marketing race has become a lot more serious than it ever was — but not even close to what it will be.

Reading out-of-office messages can be a well-deserved diversion, amusement, or learning experience. Most are pretty dry — but others will make you laugh out loud — and teach you how you might spiff yours up a bit.

Our favorite 6 are:

You can find me in court winning a case for my client. I may be delayed in my response. Please contact…

I am out of the office looking for a new job. Please contact me at the following personal email address. If you know of something suitable, I won’t be back.

It’s lunchtime. I am at my home office today and am downstairs eating my lunch. I do not bring my devices with me when I eat lunch. I will return at 2 PM Pacific time.

My family told me I could not go more than a day without checking my emails and phone. I am going to prove to my 2 teenagers they are wrong. Please contact… while I am winning my bet. I will be back online on MM/DD/YY.

I am flat-out preparing for a trial. It takes all my energy — and I will devote the same energy to your case when the time comes. Please contact…

Thank you for your email. I am out of the office on a pitch. Wish me luck. Please contact…

The responses are drafted by the individuals behind the email. Most firms suggest language for their attorneys. And a number of attorneys view it as just that — a suggestion and opt for their own.

A small number of firms don’t use out-of-office messages to offer the appearance of being always available. These firms have protocols to ensure the emails are reviewed and receive a response on a timely basis.

Clients may enjoy a clever OOO message — but only if it includes when you will be available, who to contact, or other alternate actions. Clients (and most readers) want certainty as to where and when — and are happy to wait for reasonable time frames or talk to your alternates. They want closure and direction. And this specificity adds one more component to proving how client-centric you are.

There is little common ground when it comes to business development and associates. Women and men see themselves in vastly different places — especially in:

• Skills
• Client access
• Approach to business development
• Impact on their careers
• Importance
• Training needs
• Time management

BTI uncovered 5 more key differences in the training they think will help them most. Download them all below.

Use these major differences to your advantage — and immediately boost associate satisfaction and retention. And it’s not limited to BD — study them all by clicking on the image below.

Firm leaders who have delved into the BTI research tell me some of the women associates’ thinking — especially around mentoring and business development — is counter-intuitive, unexpected, and changes how they think about it.

Use these insights to design the training and programs to help women and men associates upskill, feel more welcome in your firm, and thrive.

You can learn about these key differences in perceptions, expectations, and more in our in our newly released report BTI Associate Satisfaction A-Listers 2022: BTI Survey of Law Firms Where Associates are Happiest.