Turn Calls/Inquiries into Signed Retainer
Agreements and Cash in the Bank… Remotely
Interviewer: How do you do that then? How do you get people to take the step of literally signing your retainer agreements or giving you their credit card over the phone without getting them into the office to see you face to face?
Josh: Well, I’m a rather blunt guy. I tell people the truth. I tell people the tricks of the trade, as it were. I’m like that magician that gives away the tricks. I forget what his act is called but I know you know who I’m talking about. I tell people exactly what other attorneys are going to do. They’re going to say, “Come into the office. Let’s schedule an appointment. Can you meet me on Tuesday at 2:00 or Wednesday at 3:00?” They desperately want the client to come into the office and because I’m one of the few attorneys that don’t do that, I tell them the tricks.
I tell them exactly what the other attorney’s going to say. I give them information that allows them to feel like they got an upper-hand on the used car salesman. Basically what I’m doing is saying, “Look, every attorney that you talk to on the phone, they’re not going to give you this consultation that I’m giving you for free. They’re going to tell you to come into the office and they’re going to tell you to come into the office because they want to do one thing: they want to hold you hostage once they get you there and until you sign the contract. I’m not that attorney. If you want to work with me, I want you to work with me because you want to, not because I’ve tricked you into working with me.”
The truth is, it’s all semantics. Everybody’s trying to convert and the client knows that you’re trying to convert his business as well. It’s just a matter of, “How do we convert?” and, “What do we say to the client that makes them feel like we’ve given them information that somebody else hasn’t given them?” I hear that quite regularly from many, many people that retain me is the reason they retain me is because I have given them more information in five minutes than they’ve gotten from every other attorney in an hour of meeting them at their office.
Interviewer: What do you think the other guys are withholding if you’re able to give the missing info so fast? What is it?
Josh: I told you a phrase the other day when we were talking, something that we were talking about with somebody in your work, which is I let the client know I’m not looking at them as my next ATM withdrawal. I’m looking at them as a client with an important case. It’s sometimes the most important thing going on in their life. I treat them like everything they’re saying is important because it is important to them. Other attorneys are treating them like they’re the next client. I’m treating them like they’re an individual that has something important to say and they can hear that in your voice.
They know that if I’ve got to talk to them for two hours to make them feel comfortable I’ll do so but many times they’ve decided within the first couple of minutes whether or not they want to work with me. They’re just trying to confirm what they’ve already decided. I’m giving them the information that other attorneys tell them they’ll give them when they get into the office.
Many times, even when they get in the office, the other attorney doesn’t give them that information because, again, they’re looking at them as the next contract, the next retainer agreement. Obviously, I have to do the same. I wouldn’t be in business if I weren’t in business to make money but looking at somebody as an individual makes a big difference and people can hear that in your voice.
I think as soon as you tell somebody to come into the office, they know the game you’re playing and I’ve changed the rules of the game. I’ve differentiated myself, which is something that I’ve talked to you about many, many times. If we want to be successful in whatever we’re doing, whether that’s DUI’s, auto accidents, marketing to attorneys, which is what your forte is, we have to be different than everybody else. How many marketers are out there, people that are doing marketing full-time? Do you have any idea or are there so many that you couldn’t even guess?
Interviewer: A lot of the attorneys tell me that they get called every, single day by marketers so that’s a lot.
Josh: Yes? I get called most days at least one time. What makes an attorney go from one step to the next is you differentiate yourself. With me, when you started working with me, you said, “What can I do to earn your business?” and I told you and you probably remember what I said. I said, “Rich, I’ve been burned by a lot of marketers. They take money and they never do anything and if you want to prove to me, put your money where your mouth is and we can figure out a way to work together,” and we figured out a way to work together that’s been beneficial to us both, I think. It’s because you differentiated yourself. That differentiation is what makes any business special, whether that’s an attorney, a marketer or a used car salesman. I keep using the term “used car salesman” because that’s where I learned a lot of this.
My Dad was a used car salesman for a lot of years and he told me a lot of the things he used and a lot of those things I use to this day. Some of those things I go exactly opposite of what he says and it works for me. He liked to have people in the office sign an agreement, like right in front of him, and I agree with that if you can have that, that’s great. But when you have somebody calling 30 different attorneys, you don’t want to give them a chance to get off the phone. You want them to sign before they get off the phone because if they get off the phone they’re going to be called by somebody else.
Interviewer: That’s the paradox. I would guess the past few years, probably a lot of the people you speak to have talked to more attorneys than before. They’d probably even tell you that, “Oh, I’m calling around,” or, “I’ve called a bunch of people.” I’m sure the attorneys feel even more pressure to get the person because they know if they get off the phone with them they’re going to run.
Josh: That’s the thing, though. A lot of the attorneys think that as soon as they get somebody to schedule an appointment with them that they’ve got the client in the bag and that’s a fallacy. It’s just not right because as soon as they get off the phone with them, there’s going to be another guy on the phone with them that’s like me, that’s going to try to convert them before they get off the phone. I know I’m telling, from my office, my trade secrets but if that can help some of your clients do better in their given areas, hopefully none of them are in San Diego, so be it. Regardless, even if everybody used every secret I have, I would still find a way to differentiate myself from them and that’s the goal. Differentiation leads to conversion.