Why should a professional refer his or her clients to you? For starters, the professional must know why and how your services will benefit his or her clients. The professional must also be confident that you will “do right” by his or her clients—basically, that you will provide effective legal representation.
Next, why should the professional refer clients to you rather than the firm down the street? How do you distinguish yourself and assure them that you will keep your promises? Perhaps it’s your process that sets you apart and addresses their initial concerns. Or the number of years you’ve focused on elder law and estate planning. Or the fact that you have plenty of recommendations from former and existing clients. Or maybe, what you have to say is something they have never heard before and they find extreme value in it.
Once you and the allied professional have agreed that there is value in your working together, you may find yourself thinking along the following lines: “This is going well, the professional really likes me, I’m going to get plenty of work from this person.”
Hold on. Remember, your goal isn’t just to have nice meetings. You want meetings that generate revenue. You need to know that this particular professional is someone you’re comfortable working with and a person who has the potential to actually deliver revenue-producing clients to you. In order to know that, you need to ask the right questions. We’ll cover the types of questions you need to ask in our next post.
