I ask every managing partner the same five questions about the top of their book. They are plain questions, and they are rarely comfortable. That is the point of them: each one points at growth the firm already holds and has never had the time to go and get.
What would it cost the firm to lose one of your top fifty clients, and how long would it be before anyone noticed it drifting?
How many of them buy one service from a firm that offers six, and who is selling them the other five?
What would it be worth if half of them bought a little more from you next year?
When did a partner last sit down with each of them to talk about them, rather than about the work in hand?
Who is courting them right now, and would you know?
The first question is about attention. Clients at the top of the book took years to win and are the costliest to replace, and in most firms the first sign of one drifting is a smaller invoice a year later. By then the conversation has been had with someone else. Knowing how long it would take to notice is the honest measure of how closely the book is being minded.
The second is about the services the client doesn't know you offer. It is remarkable how often a long-standing client has no idea the firm does the thing they are buying elsewhere, because no one ever told them plainly. The growth here needs no new client and no new service, only a conversation led by the partner they already trust.
The third is about scale. Half of your top fifty buying a little more is usually a larger number than a year of new business development brings in, and it arrives at a far better margin, because the trust is already paid for.
The fourth is the one that makes people wince. Partners see their best clients often, and nearly always about the matter in hand. A conversation about the client, where they are going and what they'll need, is a different thing, and it is where the next piece of work usually comes from.
The fifth is about competition. Your best clients are on someone else's list. The question is whether you'd hear about it before or after.
Here's how I take that off your plate
A read of your book answers all five for the top fifty, account by account, in a few weeks and with nothing from you beyond an export and an hour. What comes back is who to call this month, why now, and the note drafted for whoever owns the relationship, walked through with the partners. Then the book is minded properly: the quiet ones caught while there is still time, the second service introduced by the right partner, and the news that someone else is circling reaching you the week it happens.
Picture a partner writing to a client of nine years whose business has just taken on a large new contract: "I saw the news about the contract, congratulations. That kind of step usually brings a few questions about structure and cash, and I'd like to make sure we're ahead of them with you rather than behind. Half an hour next week?" The fourth question, answered.
Five questions. I'd gladly ask them of your book, and tell you what I find.