Most law and accounting firms aren’t just struggling with talent, clients, or quality of work. They’re struggling with time, specifically, thinking about it the wrong way.
Business strategist Simon Sinek popularized the idea of a finite versus infinite mindset: a finite mindset treats business like a game with a fixed endpoint; win the quarter, hit the number, close the deal. An infinite mindset treats it as an ongoing game with no finish line, where the goal is staying in the game and adapting as the rules change. A common thread I see in many law and accounting firms is a finite mindset dressed up as tradition: “This is how we’ve always done it.”
This isn’t unique to professional services. I saw the same pattern in government, non-profit, and corporate settings. It shows up most when leadership keeps doing what worked 10, 15, or 20 years ago without asking whether it still works.
Now when I hear “20 years ago,” I picture the 1990s. It was actually 2006. Think back to then: social media was brand new, smartphones didn’t exist, and politicians were reality TV hosts. Clients, technology, and the way people choose whom to hire have all changed since then. Firms that haven’t adjusted are navigating 2026 with a 2006 map.
Here’s what that means for marketing and business development.
Why Generic Content Gets Ignored
Email newsletters still work, but only if they’re specific. Regardless of design, your content needs to teach the reader something or offer a genuinely useful tip. If you’re including firm news or promotions, put them at the bottom, not the top. Too many newsletters lead with accolades or new-hire announcements. That’s fine to include; it just shouldn’t be the headline.
Ask yourself before you hit send: if I were the client, would I open this and feel like I learned something? If the answer is no, rework it.
The same principle applies to blogging, vlogging, and podcasting. Don’t chase keywords for SEO’s sake. Think of a question clients often ask you, and walk through how you’d handle it without giving away the whole strategy. Write about legislative or regulatory changes in real time so clients hear about them from you first, not from another firm.
Specificity builds trust. A generic article that could apply to any firm in any city doesn’t move anyone. An article that clearly addresses the exact situation a reader is living through right now tells them you understand their world. That’s the difference between content that gets skimmed and content that gets forwarded to a colleague with “you need to read this.”
Why Imperfect Beats Polished
A human touch to your thought leadership will help you stand out in the flood of AI-generated content. AI is genuinely useful for ideation, workflows, and editing. I used it to help edit this piece. But AI didn’t write it, which is part of why it doesn’t read like everything else you’re scrolling past right now.
Short, unpolished videos are one of the best ways to market today. They’re not new, but the rougher edges are the point: they let clients see your personality, not a script. The less produced the video, the less it looks like AI, and the more relatable you become.
A colleague of mine recently posted a LinkedIn caption with a purposeful typo, a deliberate test, because we’re letting the overuse of AI take away our ability to make an honest mistake. The typo worked. It drove more engagement and kept the post from being flagged as AI-generated.
This isn’t an argument for sloppiness. It’s an argument for authenticity. Clients don’t hire polished robots; they hire people.
A slightly imperfect video of you explaining a concept in your own words will outperform a heavily produced, scripted piece nine times out of ten because people can tell the difference between real and rehearsed.
What Business Development Looks Like Now
I hear from attorneys and accountants constantly that business development was easier 10 years ago. More people said yes to lunches and happy hours. More people were in the office, so you could drop by or send a gift. There’s truth to that: remote work changed the landscape. But that doesn’t mean business development got harder. It means the type of business development that works has changed.
Outreach today needs more intention behind it, not less. Instead of dropping by someone’s office, send an email that actually helps: “I saw this article in Bloomberg today that reminded me of the issue you had with XX. Jump to the fourth paragraph.”
That’s it. It shows you’re thinking of them, offering something useful, and respecting their time by letting them read it when they can. It’s low-pressure but not passive, and it requires you to actually pay attention to what’s happening in a client’s world. Anyone can send a form email. Fewer people take the time to connect a real headline to a real client problem.
This isn’t just a feel-good theory as it shows up in the data. Martal Group found that B2B outreach with genuine personalization sees reply rates as high as 18%, compared to roughly 9% for generic, templated emails. That’s nearly double the response, simply because the message was clearly written for one specific person and their situation
I’ve seen this play out directly with clients. One small law firm shifted from a generic quarterly newsletter to short, personalized emails flagging specific articles or regulatory changes relevant to individual clients’ situations. Within two quarters, partners were fielding more inbound replies and referral conversations that referenced those emails directly. Client outreach that used to go unanswered was suddenly starting conversations.
Three Things to Try This Week
- Rework the lead of your next newsletter so it teaches something before it promotes anything.
- Send one client an article with a specific reason it applies to them, not a generic “thought you’d find this interesting.”
- Record one unscripted, 60-second video explaining a concept you’re often asked about. Don’t edit out the imperfections.
The firms that thrive going forward will be the ones willing to question their assumptions about what marketing and BD are supposed to look like. An infinite mindset makes you more adaptable. It turns “we’ve never done it that way” into “let’s try it.” That shift gets easier when you tie it back to your values: does the old way actually align with how you want to serve clients? Does it align with why you chose this work in the first place?
If the answer is no, it’s time to try something new.
Schedule a strategy conversation with Lotus Business Growth, and let’s build a marketing and business development approach that fits how clients actually work today, not how they worked twenty years ago.