Something in Patrick Lamb’s post a few days ago over at In Search of Perfect Client Service really hit me today. Not because he succinctly retells a story about passion for one’s work, nor because I have also written on the subject here and here.
No, it’s because he relates a story from Harry Beckwith’s newsletter about a maitre d’ named Giovanni in Italy who works twice the hours of anyone else because of his passion for what he does. Patrick quotes from Beckwith about Giovanni as follows:
“He has found his passion, and you can feel it. You want to be around him, to be served by him, to feel your sense of life elevated by him.
“You know he will do everything he can to make your visit perfect.
“And he does.”
It caused me to ponder: “what if” lawyers exhibited such passion in their dealings with clients? They wouldn’t ever have to market their law firm or themselves to attract clients. Their passion for their work and serving their client is all the legal marketing they would ever need.
If your clients could “feel” your passion (not just for the law, but in serving them), they too would want to be “around” you and be “served” by you; and yes, be “elevated” by the experience. Passion is contagious. You may not be able to make the outcome for your client “perfect,” but you don’t have to. When a client feels the passion, they will know that you did “everything” you could and they’d be right.