Consulting Services – Attorney to Attorney Referrals
Building the right networks and relationships with other lawyers can turn out to be very lucrative for you regarding finding new clients and generating more revenue for you or your firm. Your referrers range from past and existing clients, former law school classmates, alumni of your firm, attorneys in the firm, and other professionals working for the firm and other businesses. It can also include family, friends, people you know from functions and social amenities and basically anyone you interact with and go deep to inform them about your profession. Thanks to some social sites such as Linkedin, the world has become a global village, and your potential client could be anywhere whether online or offline. Adopting the referral philosophy helps expand your network and business but only if done effectively.
How Do You Manage Referrals For Consulting Services?
Some may have referred a friend to you for advice before taking action on a particular case. You probably get the referral because they know you are good at the job and want to get the best services possible. However, what you need to do is find the potential client before they settle for another option. The first step is to map your existing active network of helpful contacts. Once you have them mapped down with their specialties and relationships to you, study it and take note of who may lead you to valuable introductions. Although any lawyer can give a good consultation service, not every lawyer will give you the best advice. Fix yourself into a relationship that seems hopeful with great referrals.
Motivate Others To Refer
Lawyers know their strengths and weaknesses. One would rather refer a case they are not used to, to another lawyer who in turn will refer back a client whose case they can’t handle. You could either directly ask for a referral or indirectly create an environment that will encourage referrals. This also helps create a healthy relationship between lawyers since no man is an island.
Give Referrals In Order To Receive
Referring clients requires strong interrelationships with other lawyers. You wouldn’t want to refer a client to a lawyer only for the client to get disappointed, leave unattended and not contented enough to refer anyone to you. It would spoil both your reputation and your colleagues. For this reason, you will need to know rigid professional facts about your colleagues’ practice. Ensure that you send your client to the right place. If your client is in need of consultation services about immigration processes, be sure not to send them to an employment attorney. Mostly, the reward should be handsome with your colleagues sending in their referrals to you. Moreover, you get to earn more while focusing on your specialty.
Building Attorney Referral Agreements
While relationships could be healthy between lawyers, it may not be enough to secure your boundaries while sending clients back and forth. There may be rules on how you are supposed to earn after referring business to another law firm. Formal referral agreements help clarify relationships in business to prevent payment disputes. These agreements should be on the mutual understanding that if a deal has gone through a certain percentage of the fee paid by the referred client, certain amount should go back to the referee. Both parties should take time to analyze the agreement and change where disputed.
Continue Communicating With Clients
While the case may be complex if handled by the right experts, chances are the results will be positive. A happy client will want to keep communicating with the lawyers, and for this reason, it is best to continue checking on clients who are likely to keep referring you to other clients. It is also important to keep a good relationship between the three parties via open communication.
Keeping The Referral Fee Flexible
As you may get referrals, it is easier to understand your colleagues while framing out your firm’s policies. In complex cases, however, where there may be damages or extensions, it is better to call in the referee and talk about the changes that would reflect in the referral fees. Be sure to explain every detail while trying to maintain the relationship to a stable position.
Tracking Referrals
Like any huge law firm, we at Runrex, handle hundreds of cases every year. To ensure that referral arrangements are organized, the firm should come up with a management strategy that tracks the source of every referred client and the ascertained terms of the agreement by both parties. This helps to ensure that once the client has been attended to successfully, the referral fee can be disbursed as per the agreement. This helps prevent disputes and disorganization.
In conclusion, attorney- attorney referrals have been a major boost for most firms. It gives lawyers a chance to earn money and build reputations directly and indirectly. Choose a reputable law firm to help you with your consultancy issues, and you will surely end up in the right hands.