By: Stephen Fairley
I have found there are really three major areas that tell most of the story about how you generate business for your law firm:
1. Lead Generation – This is the system of attracting new potential clients to your law firm.
2. Lead Conversion – This is your ability to turn leads into paying clients and is what I will focus on in this article.
3. Client Retention – How to keep your paying clients coming back for more and/or referring your firm to everyone they know with a similar problem to theirs.
The first step in lead conversion is to develop a “universal lead definition” (ULD)- what precisely is counted as a lead, who counts the leads, how you track the leads, and what does not constitute a legitimate lead. We teach our clients that a lead must meet all three of these criteria:
1. Someone who has never done business with you before (versus a repeat client).
2. Everyone who contacts the firm via email, phone, social media, personal referral, Internet, networking event, seminar, etc.
3. They express an interest in your services.
In order to build a financially successful law firm you must be committed to tracking every single lead and following up with them religiously!
Here are the Five Stages of Lead Conversion for Law Firms:
1. Number of Leads into the top of the funnel
2. Number of Leads that turn into Appointments
3. Number of Appointments who Show Up
4. Number of Appointments who Sign Up at the Initial Consultation
5. Number of Appointments who Sign Up Later
No lead conversion system is complete without tracking all five stages. Each of these numbers are critical because if you know what your conversion rates are at each stage then you can determine where your biggest challenges are and develop a plan to improve.
The greatest value of a true lead conversion system is that it gives you direct insight into the actual state of your company and allows you to efficiently automate the follow up process with dozens and even hundreds of leads.
Lead generation too often comes down to a firm’s financial ability to “throw money at the problem,” but a lead conversion system can level the playing field and give small firms a true unique competitive advantage.