When a business client needs an estate plan, or an estate-planning client is getting ready to sell a company, that work should come back to your firm. We measure how your clients move between your practices today, then build the steps that bring them back when the next matter comes up.
I'm Joshua David Little. I've run my own consulting firm since 2004, I've helped attorneys prepare complex cases for trial, and I ran the first family-law ad on ChatGPT, before the platform allowed legal-services ads. For a firm with more than one practice, the flywheel is where I start.
I've worked with a business-law firm that priced its formation work to break even, so it could become each company's long-term counsel. Nothing measured whether the next matters followed.
The same firm had a field for who referred each client, and almost nobody filled it in. Nobody at the firm could say how many clients moved from one practice to another.
Some of your corporate clients will need a divorce lawyer, and many of your estate-planning clients own businesses that need counsel. The firm that raises the next need keeps the client. When nobody raises it, the client finds someone else.
If you only look at what a client is worth on the first matter, you can make the wrong call about what you can afford to spend to win them. Follow that client further, into the contracts work, the estate plan, and the people they send you, and a client who barely paid back on the first matter can turn out to be one of your most valuable. You only find that out by tracking it.
The demand is already there. In the Census Bureau's survey, more than half of the owners of businesses with employees were 55 or older.¹ Each month, people search "business succession planning" about 1,600 times and "business succession planning attorney" about 320 times.² Far more people search for the plan than for the lawyer, and the firm that already represents them is the natural one to raise it.
You can't run a flywheel you can't see, so the work starts by measuring it.
Where did each client first come in: a formation, a contract, trademark work, an estate plan, a family matter? How many went on to a second practice, how many referred someone, and what has each client been worth beyond the first matter? If your records are thin, we start with what you have and set up the referral field so it gets filled in from now on.
The next matter usually arrives with an event in the client's life or business: a sale, a first hire, a new partner, or the point where an owner has built enough to start thinking about what happens to it. There's a right time to raise each one, and we find those times for your clients.
What gets built depends on the firm. Consultation talking points that raise the next matter, a check-up for past estate-planning clients, a first-year legal calendar for new companies, and a page on updating a will after divorce can be where it starts.
When a client needs work your firm doesn't handle, such as an injury case or a plan more complex than you take on, you send it to a firm you choose and trust, and the client remembers who looked after them.
Then we adjust: more of what brings clients back, and less of what doesn't.
The Client Magnet System's follow-up and tracking usually work on people who haven't hired you yet. The flywheel puts them to work on the people who already have. As your Fractional CMO, I own the measurement and decide which moves are worth building first. Your own staff can run much of it day to day, and I'll train them on the referral field, the check-ups, and the talking points. → The Client Magnet System · → Fractional CMO · → Building and leading your in-house marketing team
Access to your client and matter data, from your practice-management and intake records. Time with the lawyer who leads each practice. And one person at the firm who fills in the referral field on every new matter.
The core of the flywheel. Business clients reach the point where they need an estate plan, and many estate-planning clients own businesses that need counsel. Owners planning an exit often work alongside exit planners and CPAs, who can be part of the circle. → Business law marketing · → Sell-side boutiques
An estate-planning firm's files are often full of plans nobody has reviewed in years. A check-up program brings those clients back for the update they need.
For a family firm, a new will is an easy next step for a client whose divorce is final. At a multi-practice firm, the corporate and estate-planning clients are often the ones who will need a divorce lawyer someday.
A business or general firm whose clients bring it injury cases has two good paths: send them to a personal-injury firm it trusts, or build a separate plan for that work.
The flywheel runs on the same follow-up and tracking as these campaigns for new clients.
New clients at about $200 each, leads at about $21, and about $135,000 in estimated case value.³
Leads at about $44, booked consultations at $234 each, and about $75,000 in estimated case value from $6,547 in ads, from a campaign built on the Client Magnet System, tracked to the booked consultation.³
Access to your client and matter records, or exports from your practice-management and intake systems, and time with the lawyer who leads each practice.
Yes. Matter records alone can often show which clients came back for a second kind of work. We start there and set up tracking so the picture gets clearer every month.
Not when it's tied to something happening in the client's life. A business owner hiring a first employee needs employment advice, and hearing from their own lawyer at that moment feels like good service.
Refer it to a firm you choose. The client is served, and the relationship stays with you.
Mostly one habit: someone fills in the referral field on every new matter. The check-ups and talking points are built for your team, and I train them on each.
¹ US Census Bureau, Annual Business Survey (2018 data): 51% of owners of employer businesses were 55 or older.
² Google Ads Keyword Planner, US, average monthly searches.
³ Case value estimated from average case value.
A 45-minute to one-hour video call with me. We map your firm's marketing together on a whiteboard, including how clients move between your practices today, and you keep the map whether or not we work together.
Currently accepting a limited number of Fractional CMO relationships.