How Running A Law Firm Is Like Being A Parent, Part IV (Clients)

Last week I posted about the ways running your practice is like parenting in relationship to your employees.  This week, I’m focusing on clients.

I was recently prompted to look up the dictionary definition of client.  Merriam-Webster Online defines a client as, “one that is under the direction of another: dependent.”  The secondary definition is the one we’re most used to, “a person who engages the professional advice or services of another.”  But it’s the first definition that intrigues me and brings to mind once again the parallels between running a law office and being a parent.

Focusing on clients as people or businesses who are dependent upon you for care, protection and guidance transforms the way we think about and relate to clients. 

In my recent post, Do You Know What Your Clients Really Want?, the example of the lawyer who probed deeper with his client and found that the client didn’t really want the partner to be the only one handling his file was treating his client the way you might treat a child. Rather than blindly following the client’s initial instructions and spending the client’s money unnecessarily, the attorney was acting as what David Maister calls the ‘trusted advisor,’ challenging the client’s beliefs and providing counsel.

It’s our obligation to make sure that we’re doing what is in the best interests of the client.  We don’t feed a child only candy and ice cream, even though the child claims that’s what they want, because we know that it’s our responsibility to care for and protect our children – we need to nurture them and ensure that the actions that we take now by providing them with good eating habits will keep them healthy and help them live a better and more productive life.  Challenging our clients’ initial assumptions and processes, being helpful but firm, and keeping their best interests in mind are all ways we can be better counselors.

Marketing takes on a whole new meaning when we think about clients as individuals under our care, guidance and protection.  When we think about clients the way we think about our children – always wanting what’s best for them, giving them our best advice and the best of ourselves, even when we know it isn’t necessarily what they want to hear – marketing becomes less about ‘selling’ our services and more about helping the client be as healthy and productive as they can be.

Treating your client as someone under your care, protection and guidance means educating your clients about the ways in which you can help them.  It means protecting them from the competition when you know that no other law firm can provide those particular clients with what you provide, the way you provide it.  The more effectively you market – the more people in your target market that you reach with your message, the more people you can care for, guide and protect.

Many thanks to Sean D’Souza of Psychotactics for highlighting the definition of client for me, and for his discussion of clients as people to whom we owe care, guidance and protection.