Respect the Process: Clients Desire to Know How It All Works

Law firms have a particularly hard time with lead intake.  It costs time and money to acquire leads in the first place, to the point where it’s devastating to whiff on those leads, once you have a chance to convert them.  Even when law firms effectively engage leads and are responsive in contacting them back, oftentimes they don’t say the right thing, and therefore fail in transitioning the lead to a client. 


One of the chief reasons for that is that lawyers are unwilling to respond to what clients most want to know.  Because clients choose lawyers based not only on their general expertise, but also based on their specific expertise in particular niche practice areas, they want to know more about the legal process that effects their claim. 

Only, lawyers are reticent to talk with leads about the legal process for a couple of reasons: (1) they’re worried about overstepping ethical bounds; and, (2) they’ve been taught not to ‘give away the farm’, and to make clients pay for it instead.  As to (1), utilizing a disclaimer, including clickthrough web disclaimers, and sending nonengagement letters to leads who do not become clients, solves for keeping the lead apprised of her status, and making certain that an attorney-client relationship doesn’t attach.  With respect to (2), you’re not giving specific advice; you’re laying out further information about the legal process, just as you would on your website.  If you’re holding back from telling your potential client exactly how you will manage the type of claim they will bring, don’t do it any longer.  It’s not like they’re going to get a law degree, and do it themselves.  And, if you’re worried about that: make what you do sound really, really complex -- which it is. 

After all, it’s what modern law firm clients most want to hear. 

. . . 


If you need to convert more leads, call us first. 

 Through a unique partnership between the bar association and Jared Correia's Red Cave Law Firm Consulting, National Creditors' Bar Association members now have access to experienced law practice management consultants at a special discount rate.  To get started, visit Red Cave's NCBA landing page, and start running your law practice like a business.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Top Shelf: How to Maximize Lawyer Staff in a Modern Law Firm

Image
Broadly speaking, lawyers take on too much.  You know: at work, emotionally.  They’re probably also trying to carry too many grocery bags into the house at one time.  You know how it is.     This, of course, leads to a whole host of problems, including that attorneys have higher incidences of alcohol and drug dependence, as well as depression, than does the general population .  Maybe you already knew that.  But, the fact is that this also has a direct effect on how much a lawyer can make. Hear me out: Because lawyers try to do everything, and to do everything perfectly, they’re also more prone than the general population to take on more work than they need to.  For example, they’re unwilling to delegate, including to paralegal and administrative staff, but also to other attorneys.  That means that lawyers end up being chief cook and bottlewasher, rather than focusing on the high-end work (strategy , client engagement), that they get paid the most for.     That’s why developing proces
Read more

Hiring Percentage: What is the Law Firm Hit Rate for Bringing on Staff?

Image
Some lawyer s get burned hiring staff, whether it’s legal assistant s , paralegals or other attorneys .  But, just because you miss out once, in trying to hire somebody, doesn’t mean you should give up forever .  There are distinct advantages to bring ing on employees, including increased control over work product + improved revenue generation models.   In my experience, I’ve found that law firms connect on a successful hire (across all employee categories) about 40% of the time .  That may seem like a low number , but it represents about a 50% hit rate, meaning that every other hire should yield a viable staffperson , who’ll stay on between 3-5 years – which is not too bad, in the modern economy.     Putting that into baseball terms, which folks often do when trying to rationalize failure : your hiring batting average as a law firm, is about equivalent to Ted Williams’ 1941 season , when he was the last baseball player to hit .400 over a full seasons . . . over 80 years ago.
Read more

New or Noob: How Law Firms Tend to Hire

Image
Every lawyer I’ve ever met wants to do everything on their own.  In other words, every lawyer secretly desires to be a solo attorney.  Of course, there comes a time when your business grow s  to the point that you need some real help; and, since you can’t clone yourself, it’s necessary to hire.   Many attorneys who start to hire want to do so as cheaply as possible; and, that often means, in addition to  probably not offering substantial benefits (or, maybe opting for a contractor), that lawyer will hire another attorney or paralegal or legal assistant with little to no experience.  The low salary is appealing, as is the presumed clean slate being offered: you can train someone up now, exactly the way you want to.   But, that line of thinking can be replete with holes.  In the first instance, this notion of law firm training is more theory than practice -- as this purported intensive training for attorneys and paralegals and legal assistants doesn’t really ever materialize
Read more