Lawyers think a bunch of inconsistent things.

You’d think, given that we believe we’re so rational and logical, that our thought processes would be consistent.

Not so much.

How Are We Inconsistent?

“I’d like to grow my practice” is something I hear nearly every single day.

That’s often the opening line of many conversations with me. I’ve become known for helping in that arena, and that’s what people tell me when we meet.

We talk and talk and talk and talk. You know we love to talk.

An hour later, as we ramble along, I hear this:

“No, I don’t give clients my cell phone number because I don’t want them calling me at all hours or when I’m busy.”

Then they explain their elaborate scheme to control client calls. It usually involves an office number, voicemail, and maybe a fancy Google Voice implementation.

Okay, so what’s inconsistent about lawyer thinking?

Here’s what I hear:

“I want the phone to ring.” That’s basically what they’re saying in the first moment after we meet, although that’s not always how they say it.

Then they say, “I don’t want the phone to ring.”

You can’t have both. If you want clients, the phone is going to ring. If you want a busy, lucrative, thriving practice, it’s going to ring often and sometimes at odd hours.

Keep in Mind What a Ringing Phone Means

Let it ring. Don’t figure out ways to hide from clients. If you’re good at hiding, the phone won’t ring. Don’t hide.

Sure, you’ve got lots of reasons for hiding. You don’t want them calling while you’re in church or at a kid event or trying to score with your internet date.

Look, it’s not entirely about the ringing. It’s about you. The lawyers who create these barriers to client communication often don’t have enough clients. It’s a mind-set. It’s an attitude. And the mind-set and the lack of clients go together. They’re connected.

The lawyers who have more business than they can handle love to have the phone ring. They want it to ring any time a client wants to call.

• The ringing phone means money.
• The ringing phone means another chance to connect.
• The ringing phone means another good reason for a client to tell his or her friends about how helpful you are.

Stop worrying about stopping the phone from ringing and start focusing on making it ring 24/7.

It’s much easier to stop it from ringing than it is to get it started.

Welcome the calls. Wrap your brain around encouraging communication from clients old and new. Shift your mind-set and welcome the new business.