Building Relationships is Not a Billing Event.

This first year of practice at my new firm certainly involved a lot of hours which were, under the old model, deemed as uncompensated.  Reaching out to all the new clients, introducing them to our new billing model, preparing project proposals, creating legal extranet projects and populating them with initial data and status phone calls are all unbilled in our office.  These are all things which build a foundation of client relationships.

Of course, once those relationships are established, the start-up cost on launching a new project for a client becomes less.  Once you train a client how to use the extranet using “ www.gotomeeting.com ” you don’t need to train them again.  The next project you bring online for them is easy and seamless.

I continue to spend a lot of time developing relationships.  What I am seeing, however, is that by putting in that time and letting the client know that they don’t have to pay for it, I’m distinguishing myself in the market and building a solid foundation for further work.  Importantly, those very clients are telling their friends and other business owners about how we do what we do. 

In many ways, we are investing in our future.  To me, it makes all the sense in the world.  It is hard for me to understand the slash and burn mentality of law firms who gobble up client pocket books like a 3 year old who finds himself alone with a bag of chocolate chip cookies.