When potential clients are seeking out an attorney for their legal matter, there are a lot of variables involved in determining if there is a good fit. These variables often are cost, capability, experience, and trust, just to name a few. In some situations, the prospect may not know exactly what kind of lawyer they need. Others may not even know the best way to search and evaluate candidates.
These buyer tendencies may come across as barriers, especially since there is a lot of competition from other law firms. However, savvy lawyers will see this as a strategic opportunity.
In this article we're going to discuss several ways that lawyers can do a better job of communicating their value to potential clients and prospects. Ultimately, if you can set a positive tone early and put prospects in the correct frame of mind, you can be more efficient at converting prospects to paying clients while also establishing a solid foundation for a meaningful and valuable client relationship.
When a prospect contacts you or your firm about a potential matter, you will want to efficiently and effectively communicate the value of your firm’s capabilities as early in the engagement as possible.
First, think about all the initial touchpoints that a prospect may encounter when evaluating or screening you or your firm. These touchpoints could include your intake person or secretary, your voicemail greeting, your website content, your webform confirmation emails, your phone tree, or your initial phone call or email response to the prospect.
Next, come up with a strategy for describing each of your practice areas in a value-added way. This can be in the form of a short tagline or a few sentences with descriptive language. This description should be a succinct summary of your capabilities and skills within an industry or within a practice area, and how you create value in those areas.
Then, make sure that this description can be communicated quickly and effectively. If it is a shorter tagline, wordsmith it so that you can recite it on demand. If it is a longer description, be sure you can paraphrase or describe it easily when incorporating it into conversations.
Finally, incorporate your value description or tagline into all of the touchpoints for initial clients.
For example, let's say that you are a business lawyer who primarily handles new business formations for e-commerce companies. You could create a tagline such as “I help ecommerce startups accelerate to the marketplace”. In your description, you might indicate that you are efficient at this type of work because of your experience working with e-commerce companies. You know that getting to market quickly is critical for these companies to take advantage of opportunities, capture demand, and build a key strategic advantage in a competitive marketplace.
If someone were to call you and leave a voicemail, you could have a greeting that says something along the lines of, “Thank you for calling XY Law Firm, where we help ecommerce startups accelerate to the marketplace. We know the market doesn’t slow down, so please leave a voicemail and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible”
Perhaps you have a contact form on your website and a potential contact submits a request to get in touch. You could include the tagline and value description in the confirmation page that they see after they submit the form, as well as in any e-mail confirmation that they automatically receive after their submission.
If you are a firm that has an employee for intake, a receptionist, or a secretary who screens your calls, you could train them to incorporate your value description and tagline when talking with prospective clients. You could have your staff ask specific screening questions about how quickly the prospect needs to get formed or more about their involvement in the ecommerce space, and provide possible responses that describe some of the ways you are able to effectively help them accomplish their goals better than other lawyers.
In situations where you are dealing with potential referral sources, you'll also want to interject your value description or tagline in your conversation with them. For example, share a little bit about your experiences and how you have helped accelerate e-commerce companies to the marketplace by getting them formed correctly without having to go back and correct issues later along the line when the company is trying to grow.
Being able to communicate a consistent, value-added identity to prospects will go a long way towards standing out from other lawyers. It also is a strong motivating factor for prospects to want to work with you, which helps establish a foundation of trust. When you can demonstrate, at multiple touchpoints, that you understand the prospect’s business, you recognize the pressures they face, and you know their priorities, it distinguishes you as the lawyer or firm who can help them most effectively.
At Liftsail Marketing, we help lawyers build their brands and ensure their value-added identities are reflected throughout their marketing and business processes. Whether it is building a full-loop intake process, integrating communication platforms with case management software, creating training documentation for intake professionals, or producing digital ads consistent with the firm’s brand, our team helps lawyers optimize their first impression and acquire more clients.
