You know that you need to find new revenues for your firm. You know that this is an important part of the long-term sustainability of your business and is part of firm’s strategy. Why then, does something as simple as growing your fee paying work feel like such a challenge?

Most firms look at new clients, but we know the most effective way to do this by growing your fee-paying work from your existing clients.

Let’s start at the beginning, lets assume you have a range of good clients at the minute who like you and have worked with you for a little while. How can they help you grow?

Three simple things you can do to grow revenue with existing clients:

1. Ask for more business. Take a long hard look at the services you are providing and see if your clients are taking all of the services you offer in each case. It’s an easy one to miss (most accountants, bankers, lawyers or financial services professionals don’t cover everything they could with each of their clients). This is down to making assumptions and very often simply not asking, not asking enough and not asking in the right way. You need to be honest with yourself and look at each of your clients individually, list all of the services that you provide, look at what they take from you and identify the gaps. Keep servicing and supporting your clients and keep having conversations around these gaps, you never know when opportunities might arise.
2. Ask for referrals. Many professionals tell me that they want more referrals (as this is a great way to grow your client base), but they don’t have strategy, plan, or process to make this happen regularly. Here’s how your plan could look: Make sure my client is happy (we call this positive emotional state “on the green line”) as they will be more adventurous when they are in this state. Then ask, face to face as part of planned regular meeting. Be specific and ask well. “Is there anyone else you know…” isn’t asking well. It’s a closed question that allows (almost encourages!) your client to say “No, I can’t really think of anyone…” Asking well means either asking for a specific introduction “Sam, I know you have worked with Smiths LLP, who do you know there that would benefit from an initial conversation with me?” Or, asking for a general introduction in the most effective way “Who else do you know who would benefit from an initial discussion with me?” This is a subtle shift in language, and these subtle shifts will help you get that next referral in planned and professional way.
3. Increase their prices. It might seem a little extreme but charging a fee that reflects the work you do for each client can sometimes be missed. You might have the odd client who takes up a lot of your time but doesn’t actually generate many fee-paying hours for you. Perhaps now is the time to raise their fees, or charge for some of the time you aren’t currently. There are two potential upsides here. If this client accepts your fees and chargeable time, then you are making more revenue for your time. If they don’t accept this price rise, then it frees you up to find clients who fully value your work.

These three approaches can help you achieve your client growth strategy by building on the successful relationships you currently have. You no doubt work hard to create great relationships with your clients, and you have the opportunity to get even more work with them and to help and add value to their network through their referrals. This client development process isn’t complex and its one you can build into your day to day meetings.

The simplest way to grow your firm? Growing your fee-paying work from your existing clients