publication of the International Legal Technology Association
Issue link: https://epubs.iltanet.org/i/1333327
I L T A W H I T E P A P E R | K N O W L E D G E M A N A G E M E N T & M A R K E T I N G T E C H N O L O G Y 72 who call firms or complete web forms received no response within 2 days. 42% went unanswered after 3 days. Many never received a response. They also found that 30% of all law firm callers never speak to a person, but instead are sent to voicemail. The authors highlighted one firm that was paying a high fee for google adwords to get potential clients to call. But callers were greeted by a voicemail message that played on a loop, never allowing them to leave a message. When callers did manage to talk with a person, the results were still troubling. The majority of callers said the call answerer didn't express empathy. Most also lacked sufficient follow-up. In 86% of calls, callers weren't asked for an email address. In 45% they weren't even asked for their phone number, and 70% of the time there was no time and date set for next steps. The study concluded: "Across the board, firms failed to deliver an outstanding first impression to potential clients." And it led one of the authors to assert that "the single most impactful thing most law firms can do is improve their intake process." I've never worked with a firm with a looping voicemail message, but still these conclusions resonate with me. Before I came to the personal injury firm Colombo Law as COO, they filled out new leads on sheets of paper and put them on the lawyers' desks. The result? Stacks of papers on the lawyers' desks. They tried to draw more attention to the leads by making them pink. But the result was then simply stacks of pink paper on the lawyers' desks. Meanwhile, most leads went elsewhere. I helped Colombo Law revolutionize how they treat leads, resulting in 30% increased client retains on the same marketing budget, for 2 years in a row. I've since helped hundreds of other law firms do the same. Any law firm receiving more than a dozen leads a month needs a system to help them track and properly handle leads. Here's why: Lead tracking converts more leads into clients When you buy a car, you typically don't make the decision immediately. You research, weigh the options, take a few test drives. And while you do that, any salesperson you interact with typically keeps tabs on you, following up to see if there are any questions or concerns they can address as you move through your process. Although many lawyers don't like to think of legal services as something that is 'bought and sold,' clients move through an analogous process when they're deciding on a lawyer. What kind of result does lead follow-up bring? The sales automation company Velocify analyzed 3.5 million sales to leads across all industries. They tracked the number of times leads were called before the sale went through. Only 48% were completed with one call, meaning the vast majority needed additional calls. And yet half of the time, salespeople give up after one attempt. Velocify concluded that leads should be called 6 times (or until they say yes or no to the sale). Fewer than that, and you'll miss out on many successful conversions. More than that, and you'll waste too much time tracking down leads that are unlikely to pan out. Without a clear system, lawyers and staff will not follow up 6 times on leads. I've seen many lawyers call a lead, get no answer, and then respond "I didn't want that case anyway." But they did want it—just not enough to interrupt their daily routine 6 times in order to get it. Many firms—even large ones—still funnel all leads into the lawyer's email inbox. This is a