The most successful lawyers are the ones who know how to effectively generate interest from potential clients and convince them to hire you. This means selling them on your services.
Although most lawyers don’t think of themselves as salespeople, being a lawyer is no longer just about going to the best law school or winning the most cases. There are too many great lawyers out there and too many platforms from which legal consumers can choose a lawyer.
Consequently, law firms should be treated like businesses, and businesses require a proper sales process with schedules and organization.
Here are four points from Entrepreneur.com (applied to lawyers) about mistakes made during the sales process that can alienate prospects and hurt your chances of getting a contract signed.
You Aren’t Flexible with Meeting Options
After a potential client calls or reaches out to your law firm via email or web form, you might decide they are a good fit for you.
Next you have to get them to meet up with you. Today’s millennial era poses a unique challenge—meetings can essentially be anywhere. Not everyone is going to want to meet at your office.
Don’t turn potential clients off by not being flexible with meeting options.
Try offering to meet at a coffee shop to change things up from your (probably boring) office. If they can’t find time in their busy schedule to meet in person, offer to set up a FaceTime or Skype meeting. Ultimately, you want to make them feel comfortable.
To improve your sales process and adapt to the times, make yourself free and willing to meet anywhere. Your clients will be receptive and more likely to choose you as their lawyer at the end of the day.
You Don’t Listen First & You Talk Too Much
We believe that in order to truly listen, you have to stop talking.
When a client calls into your office, or you meet them outside of the office, the conversation should always revolve around them—their situation, their needs, and all of the talk should revolve around how you plan to resolve it for them.
Don’t try to sell them on you or your law firm’s services. Stop talking and listen. Be empathetic. Connect with them. Support them.
Make it about them and your services will sell themselves.
You will ultimately build trust with the potential client. This will help them feel more comfortable putting their situation in your hands.
They will be more likely to sign a contract and become a loyal client. Maybe even one who refers you to friends and family in the future or writes sparkling online reviews?
You Don’t Utilize a Scheduling Tool
Today, technology makes scheduling easier than ever before. It would be silly not to use it!
Calendar tools allow you to avoid “back-and-forth scheduling.”
Sharing your calendar availability via email or with an embedded link lets the client pick the time that works best for them. It will save you (and the potential client) the hassle of a string of emails trying to figure out when to meet.
Once a date is decided on, poof! The meeting is scheduled instantly to everyone’s calendar.
Another option to help improve your scheduling is to hire a legal call answering service that will do the aforementioned for you. And you thought it couldn’t get any easier…
Overall, utilizing an online calendar as a scheduling tool can help streamline your sales process. And it can prevent you from alienating those potential clients with crazy schedules, just like you.
Make Sure You Can Actually Help Them
Just because a potential legal client called your firm and you have a meeting set up doesn’t mean they will become a paying client. There’s still a chance they might not be the right fit.
For example, if you are a personal injury lawyer, you don’t want to schedule an appointment for someone dealing with divorce. This would be counterproductive, since the person could have easily been referred to someone else.
During the intake process, this is the kind of thing that should be determined right away. But if your firm’s intake system doesn’t catch it, there is another way to weed out clients quickly and easily: web forms.
With web forms, you can capture the leads information: name, contact info, and what they are in search of. You can determine if they are a match to your firm, if they need a personal injury lawyer, and so on.
If you are the lawyer they are looking for, you can respond to schedule a meeting. If not, you can call or send an email referring them to another lawyer.
This is just another way to streamline your sales process and focus on only those clients who are a good fit for your services. Don’t forget to politely refer others elsewhere.
Alert Can Help Your Sales Process Flourish
Alert can help you schedule meetings, using your calendar, to make your life easy as well as your potential clients and clients. We also respond to web leads for you, sorting out those who won’t benefit from your services.
Our intake system overall makes sure the people reaching out to your law firm are a perfect fit for you. We do the sorting for you so you can save time and stick to doing what you do best.
Additionally, our intake specialists are expert listeners. They’ll listen to your potential clients for you, show empathy, and build trust.
Don’t let your current sales process turn clients off. Alert can help you capture every lead and turn them into loyal, paying clients each and every time. For more information, visit https://www.alertcommunications.com or call 844-694-6825.
