Page 37 - Law Society of Hong Kong MPMC Manual v8 - With checklists (1 March 2018)

Practice Management Course | Unit 4
Client Development

offers to participate in such activities. Other ways to demonstrate your knowledge
and experience include writing journal or magazine articles on relevant topics, and
sharing your knowledge via social media (twitter, blogging, LinkedIn). Offer your
point of view when you have a sound one and be willing to say ‘I don’t know’ when
you do not. Express passion for your subject and communicate with confidence, not
arrogance.

Building professional relationships
25. Before we can encourage repeat business, we need to build good relationships with
clients.

5-star relationship building

1. Go first – earn the relationship First, you need to give value. Your actions should
be for the client, in favour of the client, and given
without any expectation. This is the selfless
approach.
2. Do not make claims – You have to promote your abilities in the right way:
contribute from the perspective of contributions that matter to
the client, rather than emphasising what you
consider to be a challenging achievement.

Stop thinking, ‘how can I appear expert?’ and
instead focus on ‘how can I demonstrate that I
understand their business/issues/situation?’, or
‘how can I show that I can continue to be of
assistance?’
3. Understand the client’s Before you can help someone, you need to
particular circumstances understand his or her circumstances. You should
not assume that a similar fact situation means that
the new client is in the same position as the last
client with this problem. If there is any ambiguity,
do not make assumptions; keep asking questions.
4. Provide a non-threatening You want your clients to call you and get in contact
environment with you. You want to avoid engendering any
tentativeness about calling you on the part of the
client because they think that you will turn it into a
new set of instructions and that it is going to cost
them in six-minute units. A way to provide a non-
threatening environment is to explicitly offer it: at
the conclusion of a matter, a follow-up call or a
client visit, let them know that you would be happy
to hear from them even if they just want to talk
over a concern.

Even long-term clients still want you to
demonstrate that you are listening and that you
understand how they feel about the problem. They
do not always want a solution: sometimes a
sympathetic ear and some support are best for
relationship building.
5. Genuinely promote and praise You should look for opportunities to genuinely
your clients promote your clients. Share a story about their
success (but be careful about confidentiality
issues). Avoid relating it back to your product and

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