Leveraging Your Strengths

Practicing law can be tough and the idea of the adding onto it the requirement and in fact necessity, to develop your own client base, can be overwhelming and daunting. Most of us are not comfortable with “networking”, working a room at a cocktail party, introducing ourselves, selling our services. While all these activities can definitely help you develop a client base, they are not the only way. You will find that putting your strengths to work to develop your client base will make the process not just successful, but a lot more fun.

Just as we are all instructed to be true to ourselves in how we practice law and present our cases, the same is true for building a client base. The most effective way to build that base is by being true to yourself, utilizing your own unique skills and interests to build a strong base of clients that will carry you through your years of practice. That can still leave you wondering how does that actually happen? In my experience the most effective way is for it to be a natural, organic process.

I am from a small farming community in the prairies. My experience growing up informs the way that I interact with others. It is rare to have a meeting with me where I don’t ask about the weather or your family. Through those interactions, whether they are with clients, with colleagues through involvement in professional organizations or with other professionals through work or board involvement, friendships and relationships develop. Those friendships and relationships naturally develop into referrals.

For some, you may be passionate about a sport or cultural activity. You can leverage that passion and involvement to develop relationships that turn into potential referral sources. The key however is that your involvement in that sport or cultural activity cannot be driven by an intent to develop referral sources, rather the referral sources develop through your involvement because of your passion for the subject.

For some very lucky ones, they do thrive on the traditional networking type of activities and can walk into any situation and own the room. These individuals should embrace that strength and use it to develop a myriad or friendships and relationships. Get involved, accept invitations and invite others.

Another natural way to develop a client base is through becoming recognized as an expert in your field. That recognition comes from speaking and writing. If you are comfortable with these activities, embrace that to become the known expert. Referrals will follow.

There is no set way to develop a client base. Success will come through being true to yourself, identifying the nature and type of activities that you like to be involved in and that you are comfortable with. At the crux of the client base is the relationships that you develop in your professional life, whether that is through true networking type of activities, through maintenance of relationships with people that you met in school and the early part of your career, through nurturing the relationships that you develop with clients, colleagues and other professionals or through doing the hard work to become recognized as an expert in your chosen area. Leverage the strengths and interests that you have and know that there is no one path to client development. Embracing your strengths and interests will make the process fun rather than the chore or task that it can be when you are trying to emulate someone else’s path to client development.

About the Author

Rose Keith, KC is a partner with Harper Grey. Not only is she a skilled mediator, she also maintains a multi-faceted practice focusing on workplace law assisting both employers and employees. In both realms, she is known for her broad subject matter expertise, legal acumen and sound judgment. Rose is a blur of perpetual motion lending her irrepressible enthusiasm to many different organizations and associations she passionately supports both inside and outside the legal community.