This article was originally published in our LinkedIn Newsletter “RainMasters Unfiltered“

You just heard that a longtime contact has introduced a company to another lawyer for work you would have loved to do. You’ve known this contact for years, had multiple conversations about your practice, and generally have a good, friendly rapport.

So why didn’t they think of you?

That can sting, especially when you’ve made a point of staying in touch and nurturing your relationship with this contact. And now you are wondering whether the relationship is as strong as you thought.

But before you decide that your contact doesn’t like or care about you, consider a different question: Would your contact have recognized that client’s particular situation as a reason to call you?

Someone can know you’re an employment lawyer without realizing that a client’s expansion plans would be a good reason to introduce you. A contact can remember that you’re a litigator yet have no idea what developments in a business should make them think of you.

First, Identify Your Trigger Events

In our BD training workshops, I often ask lawyers to identify what I call their trigger events: business events or situations that can give rise to a legal issue, immediately or further down the road. For many of our clients, it’s an exercise they haven’t done before.

Take the employment example: A company being sued over its employment policies that failed to comply with another state’s requirements is already facing a legal issue. The trigger event for that legal issue came earlier: when the company expanded its operation into that state without reviewing whether its existing employment policies needed to change.

How Do You Identify Your Trigger Events? 

Start with the matters you want more of. Before the client called you, what was happening in the business? What changed, what decision was being made, or what problem was being left unaddressed? Then ask what someone outside your practice could have noticed at that point.

Write down the trigger events you identify in ordinary business language. “Expanding into a new state” or “opening a new factory location” is something concrete your referral source might hear in a client conversation and can act on. 

Share the Trigger Events with Your Referral Sources

Your practice may span several industries, disputes, transactions, and stages. You don’t have to explain all of it every time.

Think about the person across from you. What changes or decisions do their clients or colleagues talk to them about? Which of your trigger events might they hear about before a client thinks to call a lawyer?

An accountant may hear about plans to expand into a new state. 

A corporate partner may learn about an acquisition that brings unfamiliar workforce issues. 

An executive may be trying to make a difficult staffing decision.

Helping your referral sources see a clear picture of situations or events that would potentially trigger legal issues down the road is key to helping them refer you more effectively. 

This builds on the idea in my earlier article “Exactly What to Say When People Ask, ‘What Do You Do?’”: start with whom you help and what you help them accomplish. With a referral contact, go a little further by painting the exact scenarios when your involvement might be useful to their clients.

And this doesn’t just help you! When your referral sources know what to look for, they can ask better questions and help their clients think through changes in the business. They may spot a concern the client hasn’t considered and connect them with legal help before it becomes a bigger, more expensive problem. That gives them another way to be a thoughtful, trusted adviser to their clients.

No, Doing This Won’t Make Your Practice Sound Too Narrow

Some of my clients worry that giving specific examples will make their practice sound too narrow. 

The reality is that someone outside your practice shouldn’t have to understand the full range of what you do to refer you. They have their own work to focus on, and a long list of services gives them more than they’re likely to remember. 

So if you try to cover every part of your practice, your potential referral source may leave knowing more about your services without being any clearer about when to actually call you! Two or three relevant trigger events give them something they can connect to a client’s conversation.

Choosing those examples is also a chance to decide what you want more of in your practice. Some matters may be profitable at your full rates; others may involve fee concessions or consume time you’d rather spend elsewhere. Which work do you find most interesting, want to grow, or want to become known for? Use those choices to select the trigger events you actually share.