If you are like most service professionals, you are thinking about where you see your practice/business going this year. By all indications, it appears that we will continue to have a fairly sluggish economy to deal with. What will not change for sure, is that service professionals like you, will need to be able to continue to create and/or sustain your value to your firm. That value is created by doing great work for your clients and bringing in new clients to drive revenue to your firm.

In a recent analysis by Hildebrandt Baker Robbins, a highly respected consulting firm in the legal industry job market, it is projected that 17,500 jobs could disappear over the next 5 to 7 years. They attribute this to overall economic activity and how it impacts client’s needs. The study makes mention how clients have become much more price sensitive. This typically happens when there is a hyper competitive environment created by a shortage of prospective clients.

While many ...

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 If you are a professional in a service business you probably depend on getting client referrals from other professionals. For most, it is the lifeline to a successful business.

A great business consists of doing great work for clients and the ability to bring in new clients consistently to drive revenue to the firm. For any of us, the key is to have professionals in the marketplace who will absolutely refer business to us. We cannot afford to “hope” that somehow someone we have met at a networking function will call us randomly and refer a piece of business. Your goal in 2012 should be to make your phone ring from the right people who have the right referrals.

One of the more exciting phone calls that you can get is a referral to the kind of client that can benefit from your expertise. The professional who referred you thinks highly of you, is comfortable with you on a personal level, appreciates your expertise and knows that the client will enjoy working ...

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 If you are like most service professionals, you probably introduce yourself by telling another individual what you do. As an example, if you are a lawyer you might say “I am an M&A lawyer and typically work with middle market businesses on issues involving the sale of the business.”.

The problem is that most people have heard that same description from many others and in all probability, have no understanding of what you really do. Would you believe a client does not buy what you do but rather, why you do what you do?

In his book, Start with Why, Simon Sinek suggests it all starts with clarity of why you do what you do. Your profession involves providing specific services to individuals or organizations. You have made a significant investment in your education and experience to acquire the skills necessary to provide value for your clients. Why did you choose to be in your profession? Is it because you enjoy working with people and solving their issues...

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 As you begin the second half of 2011, it is a good time to reflect on the results you achieved in the first half of the year. Are you on track to reach your goals for the year? Have you captured the right clients? Are you generating the revenue you expected?

As a service professional, you are a business and ultimately, clients will primarily always work with you because of you. As a business, your goal is to generate revenue and income by virtue of the services you perform. Whether you work for a large organization or are a solo practitioner, you must create value and are responsible for the results you achieve.

It is very easy to get caught up in how “busy” you are each day. The question is, are those activities that are keeping you busy “productive”? Being busy does not make money. Being productive is the only way to make money. Too many service professionals mistake busyness for productivity and as a result, they aren't seeing results even ...

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 Visualize a target at a shooting range. The goal is to hit the bull’s eye to score the maximum points. The bull’s eye is very small and the further away you are from it, the less likely you are to hit it and score.  Your efforts in acquiring new clients are similar to hitting a target. 


 

  The “Client Acquisition Target” has three rings.
1.       The inner ring or the “bull’s eye: Hitting the bull’s eye on the “Client Acquisition Target” is getting a referral from a satisfied client. A client that has experienced your work, appreciated your professional approach to their issues and enjoyed your communication with them will always be your strongest referral source. They sing your praises and urge the prospect to use your services. The likelihood of the prospect working with you is extremely high...

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Getting the right referrals to clients is the key to success for any professional service provider who depends on others for business.

Many professionals will start the New Year redoubling their networking efforts. They will join additional networking groups with the hopes that being exposed to many people will give them better odds that someone will think of them when a client issue arises. But will they and if they do, will it be the right referral to the right client? 

My experience suggests that many professionals will spend another year investing a great deal of time networking only to get disappointing results. Why? There are many reasons. But, the most significant reason is that many feel if they are showing up for networking meetings and events, putting in the time, somehow through the kindness of strangers they will get referrals. 

Referrals don’t come from groups they come from individuals. There is an art to getting the right referrals. Th...

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Many believe that “rainmakers are born not made”. I was recently speaking with a managing partner of a large law firm. He was adamant that he and his partners believe that an individual either has the rainmaker personality or they don’t. His definition of a rainmaker personality is one who is outgoing, gregarious and has no reservations about striking up conversations with strangers at events. The person has the uncanny ability to bring in the clients through their magnetic personality. So, does that mean if you do not have that outgoing personality that you can never be that rainmaker? Absolutely not!

As a service professional, you are always interacting with other people by definition. Interacting with people is the ability to connect at a level that makes both parties comfortable. It is called rapport. Wikipedia defines rapport as “one of the most important features or characteristics of subconscious comm...

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No question this economy has shaken things up. It has caused us to gasp at how quickly things changed. We have had to toil through two life changing years. Ten years prior, most of us had plenty of business as there were more clients than we could even handle. Every discipline from lawyers to insurance brokers saw huge increases of professionals within their ranks. Today, we now have too many professionals chasing a much smaller pool of potential clients.

Whether or not you get left behind is going to depend on you and your attitude. Some have already resigned themselves that this is larger than they can handle. They will hang on as long as someone pays them. Others have decided to see this as an opportunity to take advantage of a period of disruption. They are building their stable of clients by finding a way to combine out of the box thinking with hard work to make it happen. As a result, they are increasing their income and making themselves indispensable to their firms.<...

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 For years, I have always looked forward to the “Masters” week. It signifies the new rite of spring with all its beauty. It is the first major golf tournament of the year. At the professional golf level, just to play in the Masters is considered a great honor. To win the Masters is the pinnacle of professional golf. For some who have won multiple tournaments and not to have won a Masters, leaves a career incomplete. For others who have not had a lot of success on the PGA Tour, winning the Masters makes a career!

It seems that each year the Masters produces its own story filled with incredible shots, the highs and lows of human emotion, storybook endings and the disappointment of what could have been.

The Masters of 2010 was no different. Phil Mickelson, this year's champion, showed all of us how one can have the heart of a lion and produce incredible results while simultaneously being cognizant of others, acting with integrity and sharin...

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As a service provider, you enjoy making a difference for others. In fact, each time you work with a client you serve their interests by applying your expertise to either keep them safe, improve their business or support their ambitions/objectives. Your “feel goods” come from doing your best work and getting the best results you possibly can.

That is the problem! Because of what you do for a living you have a tendency to put what is important to you on the back burner because you are always pouring your heart out for your clients. Believe it or not is important to your clients that you move yourself to the front burner!

This is an age old problem for most service providers. Most of us focus on the “technical” side of our businesses because that is our comfort level and what we are trained to do. We are very structured in the process of dealing with our client’s issues and keep those efforts very well organized.

When it comes to th...

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