It seems so basic that anyone involved in legal marketing would stay in touch with their clients between assignments. In fact, such is so fundamental that I hesitated in doing this post. But when I ran across a post by Mike McLaughlin on the Guerrilla Consulting blog advising consultants to be accessible between projects, I realized that I don’t always do so myself. That got me to thinking whether small law firms and solo’s sometimes don’t either.
The main point of Mike’s post is not to keep in touch just to get more work (although obviously that should be a goal), but rather to show that you are committed to the relationship. He suggests a few simple ways to show you care:
*Stay in contact regularly,
*Invite your clients to events,
*Help them with issues as needed,
*Propose coauthoring an article or presenting jointly at an industry conference, and
*Continue to build relationships within the client’s organization.
Pretty basic stuff. If you did a good job for the client, they’ll likely use you again. But, as Mike says “[I]t just may not be when you expect it.” If you don’t stay in touch, however, it may be never.