Your Book of Business Stinks

• Author: David V. Lorenzo
• Pages: 20-21

§12. Client Attraction Secrets for Lawyers

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§12.

YOUR BO OK OF BU SI NE SS ST IN KS

Do you think like a business leader or do you think like a lawyer?

I had coffee with four friends the other day. Each is in a different line of business and each of

them market to a different type of clientele. They all had two things in common: (1) They all own

service businesses and (2) They all started their businesses in the middle of the worst recession

since the great depression.

You would think these guys would all be lamenting the demise of the economy. You would

think they would all be preaching gloom and doom about the current political climate. You would

think they would all be cutting costs to make up for the losses they experienced during the difficult

economy. But that is simply not the case.

Each of these start-ups has grown by over $1 million in annual revenue during the last two

years. Two of the businesses sell to other businesses and the other two sell to consumers. They

all spend about 20% of their annual revenue on marketing. They all have a strategic plan in place

and they all use a value based approach to their pricing.

When I asked them what one thing was most responsible for their success, the answer was

unanimous. It was their focus on creating clients for life. They all said they KNEW they would

develop big businesses if they focused on relationships as well as dollars. They had solid plans

and they made adjustments along the way but they built their businesses with this vision of suc-

cess in mind.

Workers think about transactions. Sell this service, make this money. Move on to the next cli-

ent. Sell that service, make that money. Move on to the next client. Repeat until the clients stop

coming then complain about the economy or the government or your partner.

How does this impact you as a lawyer?

It should stimulate your thinking about the business aspects of your law firm. Too many law-

yers think like workers and not like business owners.

Every time I hear a lawyer talk about a book of business I go nuts. You don’t have a book of busi-

ness. The guy who gave you work last year may not give you work again this year. Your great book

of business is nothing more than the sum of the transactions you have processed. If you have a book

of business, so does the cashier at Target. I think this term, book of business, was made up by some

legal recruiter to justify his existence.