You’ve Got A Prospect! Now What?
This lesson seems to be very difficult for most of our clients and prospects. We are going to talk about systems and automation. Systems like a CRM (Client Relationship Manager). Not the type of CRM that is a glorified email platform for newsletters, but a real system of tracking all of the touchpoints you have with a prospect. We will also be discussing something making most attorneys even less comfortable, but getting out of your comfort zone is what it takes to be in the top 20% of your market. Marketing Automation. What happens when a mother calls just after-hours that her daughter is in jail on a theft charge, and you don’t get the message until Monday? Isn’t 2 to 3 days too long? Automated Follow up can help that.
I was speaking to one of my local clients. They are a reasonably sized firm, with a half dozen attorneys, including partners and associates, and approximately 50 employees altogether.
I was speaking to one of the Sr. Partners. He expressed his intense frustration that with the pandemic, the staff had been working from home, and just managing the paperwork behind all the cases (he is in a highly regulated niche) was “killing us.” “Balls are getting dropped.” “We are going to end up in real legal trouble if we don’t get it under control.”
So, if balls get dropped due to inadequate systems, or more likely poor adoptions of sound systems, then how can new prospects be expected to be welcomed and matriculated into your ecosystem so that you can help them solve their pain?
I have another client that speaks to me every week about how they have no business coming in. We inevitably discuss building a strategy that increases their profitability while reducing their overall effort. Just as inevitably as me picking up the check for lunch, they automatically say, “sorry, no money to pay for that. Will you coach me so that I can do it myself.”
THEN, they discover that it’s not magic that creates law office prospects from the internet; it’s work, structured, time-consuming, and disciplined work. Of course, you know what’s next. “I don’t have time to do this on my own.” It’s as if that single statement should cause me to jump up and volunteer to do it for their budget, nothing.
My answer back to them is, “If you don’t have the time now, when there is <supposedly> no business, how do you hope to do it, once there are clients knocking at the digital door, needing your help?”
The truth is, all those client statements, are a dodge. They are not real objections. The reality is no one likes to talk about deploying systems. I have been a part of teams that deployed 7 figure systems in corporate America. Tens of Millions of dollars, and I have helped solo law practitioners deploy systems for a couple thousand. BOTH hate deploying new systems!
The truth is when you have a sound operating system to make sure you keep track not only of the work you have but also the inquiries, you will not be able to gain the momentum that your top competitors have in the new client intake process.
