The Client You Already Have May Be Worth More Than the One You’re Trying to Get
Most estate planning attorneys spend a tremendous amount of time thinking about one question:
“Where is my next client coming from?”
The answer usually involves more marketing—more seminars, more advertising, more networking, more social media, or more money spent trying to attract new prospects.
But what if one of the best sources of new business isn’t someone new.
What if it’s someone sitting in your client files right now?
The Relationships We Often Take for Granted
Think about your best clients.
They trust you enough to discuss their finances, their family dynamics, and their deepest concerns about what happens after they’re gone. You’ve helped solve important problems and provided them with peace of mind.
Yet once the documents are signed, many attorneys unintentionally allow those relationships to fade.
Months turn into years. Communication becomes infrequent. And eventually, those clients forget all the reasons they appreciated working with you in the first place.
Meanwhile, their friends, family members, and colleagues need estate planning help and end up hiring someone else.
Not because your clients didn’t like you.
But because you simply weren’t top of mind.
Referrals Don’t Usually Happen by Accident
Some attorneys seem to receive referrals effortlessly. Others struggle to get them at all.
I’ve found that the difference usually isn’t the quality of their legal work.
It’s that the attorneys receiving consistent referrals have created systems that keep relationships alive.
They stay connected with clients. They remind clients of the value they provide. They continue delivering a positive experience long after the estate plan has been signed.
As a result, referrals become a natural extension of the relationship instead of an uncomfortable request.
Existing Clients Often Become Your Best Marketing Asset
The reality is that referred clients tend to arrive with something every attorney wants: trust.
Someone has already told them that you’re competent, caring, and worth speaking to. That often makes the initial consultation easier and the engagement process smoother.
Even more importantly, maintaining relationships with existing clients doesn’t just lead to referrals. It frequently uncovers additional planning opportunities as clients’ lives, assets, and family circumstances change over time. And secures the eventual estate or trust administration work, which leads to estate plans for beneficiaries.
In other words, your current clients can become a source of both new business and repeat business.
A Different Way to Think About Growth
The next time you’re considering how to grow your practice, take a moment to look backward before looking forward.
You may discover that one of the most valuable—and most underutilized—assets in your firm is the group of people you’ve already helped.
Because sometimes the fastest way to find your next client isn’t by marketing to or meeting someone new.
It’s by doing a better job of nurturing the relationships you already have.
And because so many attorneys overlook this opportunity, I’ve put together a program called Generate More Clients From Your Existing Clients — A Tested and Proven System That Actually Works! It shares practical strategies and simple systems for staying connected with clients, generating more referrals, and creating more opportunities from the relationships you’ve already built. CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Attorney Philip J. Kavesh is the principal of one of the largest estate planning and administration firms in California—Kavesh, Minor and Otis—which has been in business since 1981. He is also the President of The Ultimate Estate Planner, Inc., which provides a variety of training, marketing, and practice-building products and services for estate planning professionals.