That’s not a misprint. I’m serious when I say- “Don’t Spend Another Dime on Marketing Your Law Firm “until you do this one thing:
This one simple thing. It’s the one simple thing that 98 % of your peers completely miss. And when I started building my first law firm, I missed it, too.
Drumroll. I’ve held you in suspense long enough.
What is this one thing? This simple secret so many lawyers miss? Here it is:
Most lawyers fail to Inspect their Intake Calls. They spend hundreds of thousands or even millions in marketing to get more and more leads but don’t make sure that they are Converting all their good leads into paying clients.
There it is. I’ve said it. Plain and simple.
Some of you will roll your eyes and quit reading right now. Some of you are thinking: “That doesn’t happen in my firm. We have a great Intake staff- or an excellent receptionist answering our firm’s calls- We sign all our good leads- We just need more leads. ” But you are wrong. I’ll say it again- approximately 98 percent of all law firms are losing cases at intake. How do I know this? Because I’ve worked with lawyers all across the country- and whether it’s a solo practitioner or a 35-lawyer firm- every firm is potentially vulnerable at Intake. Most lawyers are focused on spending more to market their firm, buying leads, leveraging SEO, FB ads, TV, branding videos, and all the rest, and assuming that whoever they’ve trained to work these leads at INTAKE is converting all their good leads into cases.
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This assumption is probably costing you hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost cases and profits every year. It is quite likely that you are losing 1-3 cases every week to your competitors! Here’s the cold hard truth- You MUST INSPECT YOUR EXPECTATIONS. Discount and disregard this simple secret for law firm marketing success at your peril. Many of you will attempt to differentiate yourself from the masses here. Some of you – if not most of you will say: “This just doesn’t apply to me.” And when you do, it is quite likely that you will officially join that 98% who miss the boat and waste their marketing dollars.
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Case in point:
Just a few years ago, I flew out to consult with a successful personal injury firm. They brought me in to look closely at their operation and give them advice and strategies to help them dominate a very competitive market.
And I can assure you that they were spending bank on the latest marketing strategies. They were gaining huge Google 5-stars and moving up in their 3-pack. They had average fees of at least 25K per case – But even with their multimillion-dollar marketing budget, I was unimpressed with their conversion rate. They were getting new cases every month- but not what I thought they should be, so I asked them to let me conduct a few “ghost” calls to their firm, posing as a potential client. Initially, the lead attorney who’d brought me in balked at the idea. He told me: “Ken, I sign all the good leads I get. I just need MORE leads.” My response was, “I hear you, but let’s verify.” So that afternoon, I created some typical personal injury case scenarios and arranged for the ghost calls to be made to the firm using these scenarios. I recorded each of these calls and then convened a meeting with the partners for the following day to share these recordings. While the first call was exemplary, the second and third calls were abysmal. The Intake staff didn’t have the necessary empathy- didn’t follow up with the right questions- and failed to overcome simple objections that all trained intake staff should be able to handle. Needless to say, you can probably guess what happened next.
As the recordings played, I saw the faces of these lawyers redden- several were angry while the managing partner looked physically ill and asked to be excused for a few minutes to compose himself. The rest of the meeting was spent planning for much-needed Intake training- and more ghost calls, to be conducted systematically from then on. They learned the hard way the critical lesson that 98 % miss- the importance of Regularly Inspecting your Intake Department. You can’t assume your staff members are handling these calls the way they should. Even great employees get lax, burn out, become complacent, or just need more training. If you don’t yet have a designated intake person or staff, hire one. Period.
You can’t rely on busy paralegals, your staff attorneys, or your receptionist to handle these calls the way a designated staff person will. They just won’t.
If you don’t yet have enough calls for a designated intake employee, then equip them with a headset and give them simple filing or mail tasks to work on between calls- but keep Intake as their primary responsibility.
And keep the training, inspection, and feedback going-
Ghost Calls are the only way you can ensure that your hard-earned leads are being consistently handled in the professional and caring manner that you need them to be for Conversion.
If you are too busy or feel ill-equipped to conduct these calls in-house, then outsource them.
Whether you do them yourself or outsource them, the important takeaway is to INSPECT your INTAKE EXPECTATIONS.
And if you already know your INTAKE personnel could use some additional training or a refresher course, then take steps NOW to get them the training, support, and feedback they need to help you grow. Otherwise, you are wasting your marketing dollars and losing cases to your competitors that should be yours!
And stay tuned- I have just completed a new INTAKE TRAINING CERTIFICATION COURSE with robust video modules and a clear step-by-step guide designed specifically for your Intake Staff. Complete with a newly designed cheat sheet flipchart that your staff can keep right by their phones to ensure they cover all the bases in every call.
Don’t leave this critical part of Getting MORE CASES to chance. Don’t be part of that 98%- losing significant cases to their competition. Not when there’s a simple solution.
**If you want MORE Strategies to help you Grow your Law Firm, then make sure you attend the 2021 PILMMA Law Firm Marketing & Management Super Summit at the Grand Hyatt in Washington DC, Sept 29-Oct 2. https://learn.www.pilmma.org/events/super-summit/
***We’re offering this event both LIVE and LIVESTREAM- and it’s jam-packed with 37 Key presentations and over 50 Speakers-
I guarantee that you will leave this exciting event with a legal pad FULL of Powerful and PROVEN Strategies that you can Implement Immediately to help you grow your law firm to greater success. In fact, I’m so sure this SUMMIT will help you that we offer a full 100 % money-back guarantee: If after the first day you aren’t thrilled you attended, we will give you a full refund. No questions asked.
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