Rainmaking Recommendation #265: The 7 Reliable Sources of Potential Clients

You can find clients almost anywhere. 

You can meet them standing in line. You can meet them via articles and blogs. You can meet them at conferences and educational webinars/seminars. The point is that your clients are right outside your door – whether it’s the door to your office or the door to your house. And while these places are great for meeting potential new clients, there are seven reliable sources where you can come across potential clients regularly.

• Current Clients:  Your existing clients are one of the best sources of potential clients. You just need to ask them. 

• Former Clients: When happy with how you have treated them, former clients will refer new business to you. But, again, you just need to ask.

• Strategic Referral Partners/Centers of Influence – a Strategic Referral Partner (or Center of Influence) is a person who works with and around the clients you would like to meet. These are other professional service providers and vendors operating in the same industries/target markets as your clients.

• Other Lawyers IN your Firm:  Many firms have industry/target market focuses. When clients are brought into the firm in one practice area, they should be introduced to the other attorneys in the different practice areas. For example, suppose a client is brought into the matrimonial area for a divorce. In that case, they will likely need a new place to live (real estate department) and updated trusts and wills if they have children/dependents (trusts and estate department). They can be introduced to the corporate department if they own a business.   The one thing you never want to hear a client say is, “I didn’t know your firm did that?”

• Other Lawyers NOT in your firm: Conflicts of interest exist. And for whatever reason, if there is a conflict of interest in which an attorney cannot take a client, you want to be the person to whom they refer that business. 

• Associations/Organizations:  I have talked about target markets/industries over and over and over again. Almost every hobby, interest, industry, and target market has its own association or organization. Join to meet potential clients who are also members.   

• Social Media:  According to Statista, 82% of the United States population 12 years of age or older has at least one social media profile. You bet your book of business that your ideal prospective clients are also using it. 

These seven sources are just about people – people who you need to meet and with whom you need to create a relationship.   The legal industry, for all of the talk about technology and transactions taking over, is still a relationship business. And like any relationship business, people do business with people they know, like, and trust.