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.

Recession almost pales as law firm leaders’ top concern.

Our brand-new survey of more than 250 law firm leaders reveals their top concerns and a host of other leadership insights and issues. Conducted with my longtime friend and collaborator, internationally recognized law firm consultant Patrick McKenna, we dissect how these law firm leaders are approaching the long- and near-term future.

We asked law firm leaders what keeps them up at night. 6 concerns emerged, but 2 jump out as the most dominant sources causing sleepless nights:

More than ½ of corporate counsel are poised to jump ship.

While about 37% of corporate counsel are thrilled with their jobs — almost 2/3 are not. These less-than-thrilled in-house attorneys are either passively or actively looking. They sense more opportunity — and a bump up in pay.

And even those thrilled can be tempted to make a move as more companies change their legal strategy and approach.

Credit 5 primary reasons for the new-found interest in changing jobs:

Limited Opportunity

78.6% percent of corporate counsel report they are optimistic about their careers — but only about ½ say they are optimistic about careers at their current company — they need to move out to move ahead.

You can talk about career strategy and provide perspective on how you have seen corporate counsel grow.

Low Pay with More Responsibility

Not a winning formula. 16.5% of corporate counsel rate their pay as excellent — 40% report good comp but not great. 43.5% report marginal pay or less.

Help triage problems and decisions. Be a good listener, and offer guidance on asking for a raise.

Stress

21% report outright stress. They point to an endless work stream and no sign of relief, a lack of respect, and a world filled with last-minute legal needs.

Your listening skills and sharing resources to help manage stress can be helpful.

Corporate Counsel Job Satisfaction is at a 13-Year Low

Only 32% of corporate counsel report high job satisfaction — compared to 54.5% in 2020. They talk about relentless demands where the intellectual rewards are outweighed by the everyday pressures of the job.

Less Need to Stay

Corporate counsel now stay in their role for 5.4 years — down from 6.1. They are job hopping 16% faster — the law firms who can get wind of these changes can both keep their current client and follow their client to a new home.

Client job hopping can lead to immediate opportunities for law firms. Law firms face either an opportunity or threat when clients change jobs. In addition to the strategies above, we recommend the following to make it work for you:

• Onboarding any new corporate counsel landing at an existing client
• Craft questions to help you learn what your client is thinking and what they want in their career
• Talk with clients to create a sharing atmosphere
• Share new job opportunities with clients where the relationship is strong enough
• Offer clients help to alleviate the load — think secondments, legal project management, and strategy planning
• Develop a 100-day plan to work with your client to help them layout and implement their agenda
• Use your network to help clients get where they want to go
• Listening as a sympathetic ear

Helping clients land a new and better gig is a long-lasting gift. The bond created by your confidence, empathy, and investment in the relationship is hard to break. Listening and helping clients relieve stress earns the same high marks.

You have the rare opportunity to make a lasting impact. Carpe Diem.

Winston Churchill would be shaking his head in disappointment.

Widely quoted as saying; “Never let a good crisis go to waste” — he would be watching law firms let the record-setting client service in 2021 slip through their collective hands. Actually, it’s more of a thud. Client service skyrocketed during the pandemic, peaking with 69.9% of clients recommending their top law firms from 40% the previous year.

Every new bit of uncertainty creates a large need for better client service to match. The firms investing in client service protocols and infrastructure are jumping out in front of this equation — which serves in times of uncertainty and steadiness.

Superior client service continues to emerge as the tool to help guide clients through these dynamic and uncertain times. It is here to stay.

Learn where your firm is strong, where you improved, and areas in need of improvement — along with the 17 activities clients use to evaluate law firms — in the just-released BTI Client Service A-Team 2023: The Survey of Client Service Performance for Law Firms.

This is the most authoritative and only ranking of client service law firms use to guide their client-facing strategy and direction — with precision — to gain better performance faster. Learn more here.

Words have power. Groups of words bring even more power.

The words speak volumes about your actions, commitment, client service, and the relationship you want to have with your clients. Here are the 6 phrases ranking among the most impactful and powerful — and stand above anything else you have to say:

I think

Clients want to know what you’re thinking before you get started and after you start. What is your approach? How do you view the problem? It is bigger than a bread box? Clients want to understand what they are getting into and what you think they are getting into — and close any gaps.

They want your opinion — good, bad, or indifferent. Especially when the key facts remain unknown.

My recommendation is

Think unequivocal recommendation. Clients want you to draw on your experience and knowledge and stick your neck out. Your recommendation becomes a client’s baseline. They may or may not agree but as one top legal decision maker noted; “even when I don’t agree I end up with a better decision because we worked it through”.

The options are

Clients want to know their options — and rely on you to provide them. They want to know they have considered all the choices and made informed decisions. Sharing options also illustrates you have confidence and command of the situation.

I’m sorry

Things go wrong. It happens in the best of relationships.

Taking accountability is paramount. Clients understand things can go wrong. Own it and move on. An apology rivals a magical power making problems disappear.

Even if you are not at fault — apologize for the situation or the extra hassle your client incurred. You can’t show too much empathy for a client’s situation.

Here’s another way to look at it

Some partners are quick to point out they don’t practice law — they make law. Clients want you to challenge assumptions, precedents, and decisions. They want someone who can reinterpret the rules and make new arguments to change things — especially on the big issues.

Thank you — accept the compliment

Few professionals ever accept a compliment. Most will immediately explain their work process, what they did, how long it took, or otherwise start talking. Clients tell us this response tends to dilute the compliment and confidence — as if their performance has to be explained away.

We recommend saying a simple thank you. Maybe add “glad you liked it.” Then stop and smile. This exudes confidence with no hint of arrogance and tells clients you appreciate the fact you exceeded their expectations.

Accept every compliment. And — it never hurts to say thank you when you get a new assignment.

The phrases are not used lightly but at the right moment they can forge new strength in client relationships and convince clients you are the go-to source for their needs.

Deliberate client service beats all other approaches to client service. Combining the best-known practices with the right tools, training, and activities drives excellent client service. Here are the 11 strategies and tactics top-performing law firms are embracing:

1. 1. Dedicated Business Development and/or Client Service Executives. These client-facing professionals work with relationship partners to cultivate the relationship and business. The BTI Client Service 30 boast more than 40 of these individuals.
   2. Place client-facing professionals in key administrative roles, especially in matter intake and billing
   3. Using professional CX designers to design a better client experience
   4. Adopt, promote, and measure performance against clearly defined client service standards
   5. Train all partners in client service — and then train the rest of the firm
   6. Client Teams with teeth. They have a clear leader budget, plan, and metrics — including a revenue goal
   7. Deep, fully funded industry groups with dedicated attorneys becoming repositories of industry knowledge
   8. Formal processes to verbally share exchanges of ideas, and client solutions to new problems — and later share with attorneys within the firm
   9. Client feedback at scale. Conducting between 70 and 250 client interviews in a single wave or spread out over 12 months — including qualitative insights and quantitative metrics. Aggregate results are shared with all partners.
   10. Embedding aspirational language in internal communication: for example — I am out of the office but to provide you with excellent client service the following person can provide immediate help
   11. Adopting client service minutes

Note the lack of technology or AI.

Client service comes down to human behavior. Each strategy and tactic requires human interaction and behavior. Any one of these strategies makes an outsized impact. Adopting more than one puts you even further ahead — and drives proportionally more new business. This relationship between client service and new business is one of the few certainties in today’s uncertain world.

Want to talk about these? Reach out at mrynowecer@bticonsulting.com.

Improving was far from easy. Against a swirling tide with unpredictable surges these 60 law firms not only successfully navigate the waters — they gained substantial ground. They are outpacing others in the race to swim upstream.

Clients are deluged with workforce issues, regulatory changes, new compliance demands, and more litigation than most have ever seen. And this is the most interested CEOs have been in legal affairs for decades.

Every new demand makes delivering superior client service more than proportionally harder. This is what makes the 60 law firms able to improve client service so impressive. They swam upstream and made it to the top.

Please join me in congratulating the 60 firms improving in the face of a swirling set of new client demands.

Law firm client service is all over the map.

There are as many law firms investing in client service as not. More small and midsize law firms are doubling down on client service — while others see client service investments as a place to cut. This helps explain why smaller and midsize firms gained so much traction.

And the client service stalwarts continue to invest relentlessly — no matter how well they do. They are convinced they can do better.

Client service is certainly the biggest differentiator among law firms despite any uncertainty in the world. It drives more referrals and inbound leads than any other source.

Our clients — both law firms and corporate counsel — asked us to find a way to give more recognition to the smaller and midsized firms delivering superior client service. We are excited to introduce the BTI Client Service 200 — the top 200 firms in client service.

You will find 3 groupings within the BTI Client Service A-Team 2023: The Survey of Client Service Performance for Law Firms:

• • The BTI Client Service 30 — the top 30 firms ranked by client service score

  • The BTI Client Service 100 — the top 100 firms ranked by client service score

  • The BTI Client Service 200 — the top-ranked 101 to 200 ranked by client service score

650 law firms compete for business at large companies — over $600 million in revenue. The firms included in The BTI Client Service A-Team perform better than 70% of all law firms — BTI’s new report singles out each firm’s percentile — and exactly how they perform on each of the 17 activities driving superior client service.

Please join me in congratulating the top 10 firms in each BTI Client Service A-Team Grouping:

We conduct an enormous number of client interviews at BTI. We have conducted more than 300 just this year. We hear a lot. It covers the spectrum and always brings an unexpected surprise. Most good — while others grab your attention — immediately.

These 7 mini cases offer a learning experience and the extreme edge of the unexpected:

The company offices of the GC we were going to interview were raided by the FBI the morning of the scheduled interview. We did not make it into the building and quietly left.

4 of every 100 interviews are at meltdown. Doesn’t sound like much — except the average size of these relationships is $14,000,000 in annual billings.

As one Chief Legal Officer explained to us — he used 2 firms in a big way — and these 2 firms merged. The 2 partners now managing his account didn’t get along. They got to the point of submitting different proposals for the same work at different rates. To his credit — the GC called them into a meeting and told them to learn to work together — he didn’t want any part of it.

The 2 partners continued their personal rivalry — crossing the GCs redline.

We recommended our law firm client intervene immediately. This interview ended at 3:20 on a Friday afternoon. We were meeting with our law firm client’s chair at 4:30. The chair met with the GC the following Monday. He apologized and listened for more than 2 hours.

They still have the client — with higher billings — and a new relationship partner — approved by the client in advance.

After scheduling an interview — and confirming — we showed up. Most interviews are with one person. We often interview multiple people at a single client — usually individually. Maybe 2 at a time.

We walked into a room of 9 in-house attorneys. All are eager to offer their feedback about our client. We orchestrated the feedback and painted a detailed picture of our client’s performance. And — the GC noted the benefit of his staff being able to hear each other’s thoughts and comments — and have a better understanding of our client.

11 of every 100 clients tell us they love their law firms — but don’t understand why they keep proposing the same size teams — mostly in M&A — when their deals have gotten so much bigger over the years. This client believed the law firms can’t handle larger transactions. Our law clients usually quickly adjust their proposed teams based on deep discussions about the deal and its size — with our most successful client tripling their already 7-figure billings.

It is easy to picture long-term relationships in the same state as when the relationship began. A fresh look can change your view — and opportunity.

After 3 interviews with the same person — all interrupted by the in-house attorney’s family needs — our interviewer became friendly with this client. In the final interview — this in-house attorney indicated she was getting over a brief flu which had traveled through every member of her household.

Our interviewer indicated she thought she might be coming down with something and at the end of the interview they wished each other well. The phone rang at BTI about 30 minutes later — this in-house counsel who worked at a restaurant chain offered to deliver “the most awesome chicken soup” from their restaurant in the Boston area.

In 4 years of annual interviews with the GC of a large NY Bank, the GC talked about what a well-oiled machine our client was. He likened them to a symphony. “It was a joy to watch” he would say. Year 5’s interview lacked the considerable praise of the prior 4 years. The quantitative ranking dropped to unacceptable levels — the discussion portion and open-ended questions revealed the litigation had been resolved — and — the firm submitted a final bill for service rendered.

The final bill included an amount for budget overruns. This client was pleased with the litigation’s outcome — but budget overruns are not tolerable. He would not be working with them again. Our client was unaware they had been exiled.

This prompted an intervention and detailed discussion about the overrun between our client and the bank. They agreed the firm had done excellent work — but they didn’t fully understand the consequences of overrunning a budget.

The firm designed a special online budgeting system for this client — and the client agreed to try again, and they agreed to frequent meetings and updates. And the firm pledged to never deliver an overrun again — on the managing partner’s word.

It was our client’s largest client. We interviewed the GC for 8 years in a row. While she praised the firm in so many ways — she indicated their women’s initiatives were weak. The firm took these comments seriously and increased its investment in the program. This cycle went on for 4 years. The firm could not meet this client’s standards. And this GC has great passion for the issue.

We recommended our client invite this GC to be part of the group managing their Women’s Initiative. She would attend all meetings — and would play an active and visible role. This GC made a number of suggestions and helped our client collaborate with other women’s advocacy groups.

The feedback after this GC joined the committee changed. She was impressed with our client’s progress — and started holding our client up to other firms as the standard. It pays to embrace criticism.

Good client feedback offers so much more than pinpointing your performance. You get backstories, unseen strengths, insights into client personalities, and maybe some unexpected excitement.

So many client interactions fly under the radar or remain unnoticed by their ubiquitous presence. Your ability to spot the subtleties can be the difference between enduring and episodic.

Thanks to our clients for letting us use their redacted experience.

The MAD Clientist is always happy to talk client feedback. Please feel free to reach out.