Turn Calls/Inquiries into Signed Retainer
Agreements and Cash in the Bank… Remotely
Interviewer: Let’s talk about cold leads. You get reviews, that’s wonderful, but what about ice cold ones? What do you do with them and what do you suggest to other people?
Josh: I think on cold leads you’re still doing a lot of the same things. You’re still telling them what other attorneys are going to do as far as the conversations. You’re still telling them how you’re different. You’re still differentiating yourself from other attorneys. You’re still giving them an excuse to work with you. A lot of times on a cold lead, if they’re getting it from a service provider that provides all leads, you know the lead providers better than I do, but if they’re getting a bunch of leads from provider “X” and that provider is sending those leads to 37 attorneys who practice the same area in the same geographic area, all they’re getting is 37 phone calls of attorneys saying the same thing.
Interviewer: That’s true.
Josh: Again, it goes back to the same thing over and over and over. This is what every attorney, every marketer, every salesperson needs to take out of this phone call: if you’re not differentiating yourself, then get out of the business because you’re not going to make a living doing it.
Interviewer: A lot of people would listen and say, “Yes, that’s wonderful,” and I know you told me 100 times so give me some more specifics.” Are there any other specifics, and if you don’t have any right now or you don’t want to disclose them, that’s fine, but are any other specifics that you can come up with, especially for cold leads, that you can speak to that would help people?
Josh: I ask people if they’ve talked to other attorneys.
Interviewer: Okay.
Josh: That’s a big one. It sounds simple and it is simple but it changes the tone of the entire conversation. “Have you talked to other attorneys about this? What have they told you? What information do you still need? You’re still wanting to talk to me, obviously, somebody hasn’t given you enough information. How can I complete the questions you have?” Because when you complete the questions you have, that’s when you’re going to hire the attorney.
Interviewer: Oh, very good. Okay. Yes, you can use that as that one question could open up a whole world of ammunition, maybe that’s the wrong word, but a whole world of talking points that you can use to get them closed.
Josh: Okay.
Interviewer: That’s very good, very, very useful.
Josh: If they haven’t talked to any other attorneys, then they haven’t gotten the information, obviously, at all and what you need to do is, first, find out what they do know. A lot of people have done research as to their particular type of case. Some people have done nothing. Some people will say, “I have no idea. This is all new to me.” You say, “Look, do you want me to explain the process? Would you like me to tell you ‘A’ to ‘Z’ what generally happens in these cases?” and a lot of people say, “Oh, yes, that’d be great.” You just kind of give them an overview of what the case is. A DUI, you have DMV, then you have court, court can give you fines, court can give you classes, court can give you jail. They haven’t heard this from anybody sometimes and sometimes, if you do it correctly, by the time you get off the phone, you’re their attorney.
You want to give them a lot of information because you don’t want them to have an excuse to go to somebody else because they feel they haven’t gotten enough. It really depends on if they have talked to somebody or not before they talk to you. If they have, then what you’re trying to do is complete the puzzle for them.
What have they missed out on? “What questions do you have, because you obviously have questions or you wouldn’t still be calling attorneys? How can I get you to work with me because nobody else is answering the questions that you have? Obviously you want your questions answered. Let me do that for you.” That’s a cold lead for somebody who is calling in and they’ve talked to other attorneys.
A cold lead for somebody who’s calling in and hasn’t talked to anybody, you’re simply saying, “Hey, we have this puzzle to work out. Let’s do it from beginning to end together.” I know I’m using really simple terms but making someone feel comfortable to work with you is not rocket science. It’s showing them that you do want to work with them and you’re willing to do what I asked you to do all those couple years ago, I guess it’s been about three years is, put your money where your mouth is.
An attorney’s money is his information. Our information and our time, that’s what we get paid for. If I’m putting information on the table, you’re going to do one of two things with it: you’re going to hire me before the end of the phone call or I didn’t do my job or I guess there’s always the third person, who, they weren’t going to hire me regardless of what I tell them. By the end of the phone call, if they still decide not to hire me, maybe I’ve given them enough information that they can have their case worked on in the way they want that worked on. I don’t feel bad about that either.
I look at that as my pro bono. I give somebody the ability to find what they need and if they don’t want to work with me . . . I learned the first year I got out of law school, if somebody doesn’t want to work with you, you do not want to work with them. It doesn’t matter how much money they’re going to give you.