Featured · Personal Brand
Small craft improvements that change the result
Most marketing advice for attorneys is about what to do. This is about how — the wording, the timing and the small mechanics that make an identical action work or not work.
None of it is strategy. All of it is the difference between an attorney who does these things and gets results and one who does them and does not.
Asking, and the words that matter
Requests fail on phrasing and timing far more often than on the relationship.
Ask for a review within a day of the moment the client was most relieved, not at the final invoice. The feeling is the thing you are asking them to write down.
Ask for a specific one: would you mention that we got the deadline moved. A general request produces a general review, which persuades nobody.
Send the link, not the instruction. Every additional step loses a share of the people who intended to.
When asking for a referral, name the situation rather than the service: if you come across somebody whose landlord is doing this, rather than anyone who needs property advice.
Ask once, plainly, and never follow up on a review request. The awkwardness of chasing costs more than the review is worth.
The common thread is specificity. A specific request is easier to say yes to because the person does not have to work out what you meant, and it produces something usable rather than something generic.
The second thread is timing. The same words at the wrong moment do nothing, and the right moment is almost always earlier than firms choose.
Small things that quietly cost you
Each of these is a five-minute fix that is left undone for years.
A profile photograph taken more than three years ago, which every prospect compares against the person who walks in.
An email signature with no direct line, which sends a warm prospect to a switchboard.
Voicemail that does not say when you will call back, so the caller has no reason to wait rather than dial the next firm.
A bio written in the third person, on a page whose entire purpose is to make you seem like a person.
Replying to referrals with thanks and nothing else, rather than telling the referrer what happened — which is what earns the second one.
And out-of-office messages with no alternative contact, which turn a fortnight's leave into a fortnight of lost enquiries.
Habits at the level of the day
These are small enough to survive a bad week, which is the only test that matters.
Keep a note of every question a client asks you twice. It is the raw material for everything you will ever write.
Answer new enquiries within the hour when you can, and say when you cannot. Speed is felt far more than eloquence.
Send the follow-up email the same day as the meeting, with the next step and a date in it.
When you decline work, refer it somewhere good and tell the person you did. Declines produce more goodwill than acceptances when handled well.
Add one person a month to your contacts from a matter that ended well — the other side's solicitor, the accountant, the surveyor.
Write the thing you just explained twice. If two clients needed it, it is worth a page.
Put your direct number where a client can find it without asking.
And re-read your own bio once a year, out loud. Most attorneys have not read theirs since it was written.
None of this is a campaign and all of it compounds. The attorneys with the strongest practices are usually not doing anything different in kind — they are doing these small things consistently while everybody else does them occasionally.
FAQs
When should we ask a client for a review?
Within a day of the moment they were most relieved, not at the final invoice. You are asking them to write down a feeling, and by the time the bill arrives the feeling has been replaced by the bill.
How should we phrase a referral request?
Name the situation rather than the service. If you come across somebody whose landlord is doing this works; anyone who needs property advice does not, because it asks the other person to do the translation.
What small things cost attorneys the most?
A photograph more than three years old, an email signature with no direct line, voicemail that does not say when you will call back, and replying to referrals with thanks rather than with what happened.
Should we chase a review request?
No. Ask once, plainly, and let it go. The awkwardness of chasing costs more in the relationship than the review is worth, and it makes the next request harder.
What is the single highest-return daily habit?
Keeping a note of every question a client asks you twice. It supplies the material for everything you will write, say or be asked to speak about, and it costs nothing but noticing.
End Note
The gap between attorneys who do these things and attorneys who benefit from them is almost entirely craft — the wording, the moment, and whether it happened at all on an ordinary Tuesday.
Ask specifically and early, tell referrers what happened, keep the question list, and answer faster than feels necessary.
Key Takeaways
Specificity and timing decide whether a request works.
Ask for the review the day they were relieved, not when the invoice lands.
Name the situation when asking for referrals, never the service.
Tell referrers what happened — that is what earns the second referral.
Write down every question asked twice; it fuels everything else.
