As a growing law firm, you’re constantly searching for new business opportunities. Like water, you can’t exist without it. But did you know that you might be missing out on as much as 90 percent of these potential opportunities? It’s true. The majority of potential clients never end up converting into actual clients. And you’re not tracking or analyzing your customer conversions, you really don’t know what you don’t know. What you can assume right now is that you are missing out on quality opportunities that could be yours with the right methods. Let’s look at how to turn adry wasteland into a watery oasis.
One of the main reasons why your law firm may be missing out on new business opportunities is because of your conversion process, or lack of one. Converting a potential client into an actual client is a delicate process that requires careful attention to detail and, for most firms, some decent people skills. If your conversion process is lacking in any way, it’s likely that potential clients will slip through the cracks.
So, how can you fix this? Here are some tips on how to improve your client conversion process and start converting more potential clients into actual clients.
1. Identify and Address Pain Points
The first step in improving your conversion process is to identify and address any pain points that potential clients may have. This means taking the time to understand their needs and concerns and addressing them in a way that resonates with them. For example, if you specialize in personal injury law, you may want to address the emotional trauma that your potential clients are likely experiencing. By acknowledging their pain and offering solutions, you can build trust and establish yourself as a compassionate and effective attorney.
2. Streamline Your Conversion Process
Another way to improve your conversion process is to streamline it as much as possible. This means making it easy for potential clients to get in touch with you and move through the conversion process quickly and easily. For example, you may want to offer online scheduling for consultations or have a chatbot available on your website to answer basic questions. The easier you make it for potential clients to work with you, the more likely they are to convert. Unfortunately, but fortunately for you reading this, many law firms make it difficult to get in touch with the principals or practice leaders, and even those who have clear lines of communication to resources within the firm aren’t typically very good at getting back to potential clients promptly or at all. Sure, you have a busy schedule, but so do your potential customers. Make it easy for potential clients to reach you. Make it known in what window they can expect to hear back from you, and make sure they do hear back from you. There are ways to automate this process to create an immediate intake process without you involved at all, so that no new potential business falls through the cracks. This can easily be done by using an intake form, which is the simplest, or creating your own custom bot for client intake. Again, yes you’re busy and perhaps you can’t take on more clients at the current moment; but wouldn’t it be a good thing to create a process by which you can keep the flow of new business coming into the firm and hire more lawyers (at a profit to you) to handle the new business. Unless you’re happy with juggling everything or not growing, there are ways to automate a customer intake process that both grows your business and keeps potential clients satisfied and with your firm instead of someone else.
3. Use Social Proof
Social proof is a powerful tool that can help you build trust and credibility with potential clients. By showcasing positive reviews, testimonials, and case studies, you can demonstrate your expertise and effectiveness as an attorney. Potential clients are more likely to convert if they see that others have had positive experiences working with you.The more the better, as an example, with Google Business; the search algorithm rewards companies who have more and more positive reviews than another, and this helps you in search ranking. The same goes for review sites like Trust Pilot. The abundance and quality of the reviews matters to the robots serving your firm up to potential clients above your competition.
4. Offer Value
Another way to improve your conversion process is to offer value to potential clients. This means going above and beyond to provide them with the information, resources, and support that they need. For example, you may want to offer free consultations, provide educational resources on your website, or offer ongoing support throughout the legal process. By offering value, you can establish yourself as a trusted advisor and increase the likelihood of converting potential clients into actual clients. Again, this value can be automated. At LFMT we like to create custom bots that can help guide your clients and keep them in the funnel, which makes your firm more ‘sticky’ for ongoing and repeat business.
5. Follow Up Consistently
It’s important to follow up consistently with potential clients. Again, this can be automated, but the old human touch also really matters. Many potential clients may be hesitant to move forward with legal services for a variety of reasons. By following up with them regularly, you can address any concerns or questions they may have and provide them with the support they need to make an informed decision. This can help you stay top-of-mind and increase the likelihood of converting potential clients into actual clients. Follow ups should also include post-engagement. A short and sweet personal letter is a nice way to convey sincerity to an important client. They will likely appreciate this more than an email. This kind of follow up should thank them for choosing your firm to represent them and assure them that you are there to help them at any time in the future.
Creating or improving your conversion process is essential if you want to convert more potential clients into actual clients. By identifying and addressing customer pain points, streamlining your conversion process, using social proof, offering unique value, and following up, you can improve your chances of keeping more of the business you’re missing. It’s important to remember that converting potential clients into actual clients is a process that requires ongoing attention, effort, and a little humanity. By taking care of the so-called ‘customer journey’, you can start to drink from the well of conversions, loyalty and growth.
