You’ve seen the articles. Many knowledgeable observers believe a recession is inevitable; some are predicting a severe slow-down as early as spring 2020, based on certain indicators.

I do my best to avoid trafficking in fear and doom, but it is difficult to find a serious economic observer that doesn’t believe a downturn is coming.

If it occurs, law firms (and other professional service providers) that are not doing the strategic planning today to prepare for whatever happens in the market over the next six to twelve to twenty-four months are likely to find themselves reliving the dark days of 2008, and following.

Roger Hayse, a colleague and consultant to law firms in transition — particularly those dealing with crisis — just authored a terrific piece on this topic.

With his article as a jumping-off point, here are two ways firms can become proactive with business development efforts today, and be better prepared for whatever the market at large has in store.

Talk To Your Clients

Your best clients are constantly looking at projections for the coming months. If you don’t know what their concerns are — first, why not? And second, you should assume someone is having this conversation with them. If it’s a relationship you value, that someone should be you.

There are a number of outstanding professionals who can help you construct a client feedback program that will do 3 things:

    • Let you know what your client’s most significant business concerns are — for the near-and-long term. Your job, should you choose to engage in the proactive pursuit of trusted advisor status, is to become valuable to your client in this specific area. (SIDEBAR: you’re going to have to resist the temptation to disregard something just because it doesn’t appear connected to the service you provide.)
    • Shine some light on just how loyal your best clients might actually be. Regular, strategic conversations is the key to improving your score here.
    • And as a bonus, you should uncover
      • any existing immediate opportunities
      • threats to the relationship that you’re unaware of.

Build Allied Relationships

Unless you are a unicorn, the core of your practice lands on your desk either by virtue of a direct or indirect relationship — those who know and trust you, or those connected to those who know you. We refer to these as allied professionals.

One of the most valuable assets for business development professionals is a robust pipeline of these allies.

Consider the example of an estate planning consultant who, rather than waiting for families in need of his specific brand of counsel, proactively built relationships with CPAs, bank trust officers and others directly connected to those who would benefit from his practice.

By becoming a valued and indispensable resource to the professionals serving his target market in related ways, the estate planning advisor built a pipeline of relationships that, overtime, delivered a steady flow of the work he sought.

The key is to become Proactive.

We’ve made just two suggested here. There are certainly other important and productive ways in which your business development efforts should be intentional, and proactive.

The firms and service providers that elect to count on the flow of work historically enjoyed from sources that have been there for years will find themselves making decisions about who and where to cut, when and how to maintain stability, and how to survive what appears inevitable.

Firms who muster what it takes to become proactive in a strategic way have a much better shot at being prepared for recession when it rears its head.