Probably sheer coincidence, but both Accountancy Age and The Lawyer reported recently on two different approaches to gaining referrals from professional networks and partners. See https://www.accountancyage.com/aa/news/1863593/accountancy-firm-offer-free-services-regular-referrals and also https://www.thelawyer.com/freshfields-mills-and-reeve-kick-off-network-plan/1006007.article
I wonder what the thinking is in either of these cases, but at least in part they demonstrate that the firm in question is thinking about ways to enhance its acquisition of (hopefully, quality) business through intermediaries and introducers, or “adjacent” firms.
I’d argue that the question needs to be thought about more strategically, but the fact these firms are doing this should be a gentle nudge to others. Most times, when we talk to professional services firms (and law firms in particular) they can begin to fairly easily describe their strategically important client relationships. However, often they are less able to describe their strategic introducer relationships or outline how they are managing these.
That’s slightly ironic perhaps? Building mutually beneficial strategic relationships with introducers and opening up an honest dialogue with them has the potential to create a bigger stream of revenue than managing most client relationships. So shouldn’t you be thinking about how your firm defines and then manages the relationships with key intermediaries and introducers?