The Firm Playbook: These numbers don’t lie: What’s lost when lawyers let marketing slide

By Nermin Jasani

One of my clients said this recently about the effects of her “pausing” business development activities at her law firm for roughly three months each year: “I didn’t think it was that bad.”

We had worked together for only a few weeks and I had analyzed current revenue vs. goal annual revenue numbers for the boutique firm she began in 2019.

Her first year, she made just over $1 million in revenue. In Year 5 (2024), her firm made $4 million and she expanded her team to two mid-level associates and three junior associates. Her ultimate goal is to get to $10 million-plus in annual revenue and she’s realistic about when and how it will happen. She knows it won’t happen in 2026, but she also knows that she can’t keep going the way she has been for the last five years.

Before I walked her through the numbers, she thought her lack of business development for a few months each year was isolated. But I showed her how it was impacting at least two other parts of her firm: Her team’s billables and her finances.

Doing the math

Most weeks, she spends half of her week doing billable work and the other half building and managing relationships with people in her industry. Because of her deep network of contacts and expertise, the firm’s revenue is driven by her relationships. She’s responsible for roughly 80 percent of the billable work that comes in.

Her driving four-fifths of revenue isn’t inherently a problem until the firm’s entire pipeline rises and falls with her availability. When client demands get overwhelming, her week goes to 100 percent billable work and 0 percent business development.

Here’s the pattern: When client work demands increase, she cancels conferences, stops posting on LinkedIn, the newsletter doesn’t go out, and business development is basically non-existent for three to four months each year.

When the workload eases, she ramps relationship-building back up.

She knew it wasn’t ideal. She just didn’t see the real cost. Until I showed her the financial toll it was taking on her and her firm.

It was a seven-figure cost.

Crunching more numbers

Two things happen every time she goes heads-down on client work. What’s usually a six-month new client timeline stretched to nine months. And during that gap, her team had inconsistent work flow and underbilled by about 20 percent each month.

The firm averages approximately $330,000 each month in revenue (equaling about $4 million a year). Underbilling for three months is approximately $200,000 lost. Add the delayed start of new matters from a three-month sales slippage and you’re in the $600,000-to-$1.2 million range, depending on matter size.

You can have the best associates on staff. But if the majority of business development sits on the firm owner’s shoulders, putting marketing on the back burner affects so much more.

Spelling it out

Firm founders don’t see how bad it is until I draw it out and show them the domino effect. And it’s usually easy to see the last domino that fell, not the first one. The first domino is always not having a system or a process for business development.

Here’s the domino effect.

No system or process for business development leads to no business development for months during busy season. This delays the sales cycle to nine months, which results in a billable hour reduction by 20 percent. That reduction means a decrease in firm revenue, which delays new billable hires and operations hires. The end result of that one decision is a 30 percent reduction in revenue for your firm.

Because the firm’s pipeline depends on the owner’s relationships, pauses in business development mean fewer matters entering the sales cycle. That shows up six-to-nine months later as emptier associate calendars and lower monthly revenue, which then limits the budget for billable new hires, a compounding loop.

What seems like, “I only didn’t do business development for three months” is actually a bottom-line impact of hundreds of thousands of dollars (on the conservative side) and up to $1 million in annual revenue.

When coaches and consultants say, “Always be marketing” this is why. When you stop marketing (going to networking events, posting on social media, attending conferences) it impacts your entire firm.

It cannot be as simple as “I just won’t attend this conference,” because what you’re really saying is, “I’m OK with taking a six-figure hit.”

The solution isn’t “try harder.” Or to only do business development in your slow season, or when you are motivated. And it’s definitely not “hire someone.” Rather it’s to create the process and the system now, so that you stay committed, no matter what work lands on your desk.

Some solutions

Take the time now to figure out your marketing strategy. Take the time now (before your calendar fills up for 2026) to commit to at least two marketing events each month. Take the time now to lay the foundation for the future of your firm, because if you don’t market, you not only underbill, you impact the quality of the future hires you have (because you didn’t sign on enough new clients).

Here are some other ideas for 2026:

– Every other Friday, plan to have breakfast or lunch with someone in your industry.  Yes, the scheduling can be a nightmare, but use Calendly and your admin team for this.

– Block off Thursday mornings to work on your content (newsletter, social media). No law firm owner ever says, “Oh look, it’s Friday and I have no work, let me write my newsletter.” You’re deceiving yourself if you think you’ll magically find the time. Carve out the time now.

– Sit down on the first of each month to figure out where your leads are coming from, and what would it look like if you 10x’d your efforts on the channel that is working.

I’m a big believer in controlling what you can control. As a law firm owner and business owner, you can’t control interest rates, the time of the year, or government policies. You can control how frequently you market, the type of marketing and business development you do, and the kinds of people who are in your circle of influence.

Make sure you take full advantage of that in 2026.

 

 

Nermin Jasani, Esq. is the founder of Wildly Successful Law Firm, a consulting firm that helps law firm owners scale from 7 to 8 figures with strategy, structure, and smarter decision-making. After starting her career as a lawyer on Wall Street advising hedge funds, Nermin transitioned into consulting in 2017 to help lawyers solve the business problems law school never prepared them for. Today, she’s known for her direct, data-driven approach that turns ambitious firms into predictable, profitable, and well run businesses. She can be reached at [email protected].