One or two of the activities listed deserve some elaboration. “Volunteering to attend client’s internal meetings” is a particularly powerful tactic. As an illustration, suppose that a client service team learns that its client is holding a national meeting of, say, all of its branch managers, on a topic that is not covered by the team’s current engagement. The team leader could approach the client and say “Would you like me (or one of my partners) to attend the meeting, free of charge, to be a resource to you?” Many, if not most, clients would accept such an offer, and the firm is then in the position to accomplish two important marketing tasks: first, attend a client meeting where the client’s problems, issues and needs are being discussed, and second, have the opportunity to demonstrate expertise and be helpful on a new issue. In terms of getting new business, there is per-haps no other tactic that has as great a return on time invested.

Excerpted from ‘Managing the Professional Service Firm’ by David Maister, page 105