How Top Law Firms Turn Calls into Clients (11-Step Guide)

EP106 - How Top Law Firms Turn Calls into Clients (11-Step Guide)

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MPS: [: 00:00:00

Richard James: We're gonna walk you through the Intakes Room 11 Step system. Step by step, what the 11 steps are.

Richard James: MPS. He is our in-house expert and coach. ~He coaches you on a weekly basis.~ If you've been around for a while, you've probably seen his face before. Welcome Michael.

MPS: Hey, super excited to be here.

MPS: So yeah, we're gonna walk through what the 11 steps look like and the importance of them to work toward mastery, the appointment setting process, which means mastering your set rate, mastering your show rate, and the reason this is important Is because you are important.

MPS: You are the connector, the first line of defense.

MPS: When a new prospect calls your law firm, you are the one that answers that phone and you've got a prospect dealing with a difficult time in their life or potential future difficult time in their life that they're trying to avoid.

MPS: And you're the first connection to make sure that they get set up for a consultation. And we can hopefully help that prospect move past that difficult time to a brighter future.

e, not only do you help that [: 00:01:00

MPS: it helps the firm. And when the firm does well, that creates good energy for the entire environment. it allows the firm to reinvest back into the client experience and the team.

MPS: All of this comes together with you and making sure you master your craft.

MPS: So that's why we're here today, rich.

Richard James: Yeah, I completely agree. We've got three basic Cs, right? We have the crew, right? The crew is you and your team. As NPS said,

Richard James: we have the company, right? I. the company is the profit center from which everything else works. So the company's gotta be profitable, so we can reinvest in you more team members, more marketing, more growth to finally help the clients.

Richard James: And so the clients have to be helped at the highest level.

Richard James: So when you do your job well, you get the three Cs knocked out.

Richard James: So Michael, we're gonna break down the steps like one through 11 and give them some examples and explain

Richard James: them correct.

MPS: let's do it,

MPS: step one of the 11 steps is smile,

MPS: there's a difference between answering the phone with. Hey, this is so and so law firm, and, hey, this is Michael from MPS Law. a prospect can hear that smile, through the phone.

remember, your prospects are [: 00:02:00

MPS: They wanna answer the phone with someone who thinks that they can actually help, right?

MPS: ~Would you agree with that? Rich?~

Richard James: ~What we want is a smile, right? If you smile.~ Now, here's a little inside pro tip. How do you make sure you smile? Put a mirror in front of you.

Richard James: ~My wife, my ECIB, Michael's mother, used to run our foam team when we had the pet supply company. she was a nurse by trade, so she never did this before, but she recognized she needed a smile, so she put up a big mirror so that she could see herself smiling.~

Richard James: ~It was a huge asset to her, and so she recommends using a mirror at all times. ~I highly recommend you do it when you smile, because smiles matter, right? NPS.

MPS: They sure do. it sets the conversation off on the right tone, which makes it easier to move into step two, which is harvesting the data.

MPS: This is really important because. Your law firm invested or maybe didn't, and it's a referral, but you've got a lead coming in and your responsibility of the appointment setter is to get~ the data from that lead.~

MPS: ~What does that mean? It's~ the contact information, ~You wanna get their name, first name, last name. You wanna get their phone number, you wanna get their email, you wanna get their address. ~this is important A, so that way we have a way to contact them.

MPS: Two, because your law firm invested in some type of marketing, whether that's time, money, resources.

MPS: To generate those leads.

MPS: ~Step two is harvest the data.~

MPS: This is a vital step, because you've got leads calling in and you've gotta have a way to actually communicate with them, right? So we've gotta collect their contact information and verify their details.

MPS: ~This is where we're getting their first name, last name, their phone number, their email, and their address. this is important, right? So we have a way to contact them, and we need to actually enter them as a lead in our system because your firm invested whether it was time, money, or resources.~

MPS: ~Into marketing to generate these leads. So anytime we don't get the contact details, that is now a lost opportunity for us because we haven't collected the contact details. And so this is an important step to be able to start into the future steps that we'll get to in just a second. But~

MPS: Rich, anything you wanna add on the importance of it?

Richard James: No, just [: 00:03:00

Richard James: And if your job is to make sure that you harvest all the data about every single lead, every single time, and you don't do that, that means that you cost the firm the ability to get all that information

Richard James: I don't know about you, but you can only cost so many a hundred dollars bills for a firm before they start to have a serious conversation with you.

Richard James: ~So this is a big deal, not only because it's good for the company so that it gets what it paid for when it paid for the lead, but it's good for you because you'll be able to follow up with that lead in case they don't connect on that first call.~

Richard James: ~and finally, it's also good for the client because they want help. the best way we can help them is by making sure we can communicate with them.~

MPS: Alright, that leads us into step three. Ask the referral question. the referral question is important for two reasons. it helps us track the lead source. Where did this lead come from? was it someone that referred them to us?

MPS: Was it Google? Was it some sort of marketing material?

MPS: And we're thanking them for the referral and making sure we make it clear that our law firm likes to treat people that refer business well, which plants the seed in their head. to refer future business and shows that we treat those referrals well, so it creates this good ecosystem of a referral culture and sets the tone right.

MPS: ~Rich, anything you wanna add?~

Richard James: ~First of all, we've now learned that Michael equates a in two together, which I love because it differentiates him from everybody else. Secondly, let's talk about what this theory is built off of. It's built off of, as Michael said, building a culture of referrals.~

Richard James: ~I used to jokingly refer this from a cradle to grave approach. Here's what I mean. yes, I own funeral homes, so maybe that's where the reference came from. but what I mean is from the very first phone call, we want to set the tone that we expect that our clients are going to refer us business.~

rough the process when we're [: 00:04:00

MPS: ~That brings us to~ step four, the introduction. Plain, simple, and clear.

MPS: How does your firm differentiate itself from other firms in the area? What is your unique competitive advantage? this is our time to let the prospect know they've called the right place.

MPS: Our firm's got experience. We've handled this before and this is why we're different than every other firm.

MPS: It needs to be straight to the point, but deliver it with authority so they're confident in that next step with your firm.

Richard James: this is your opportunity to brag.

about this. if you've served: 1100

s written in white papers or [: 00:05:00

Richard James: This would be the time to drop that bit of knowledge so it sets them up as a credibility source.

Richard James: ~As Michael would say, it should end in a simple question. always try to end it with a simple, you'd like to work with a firm like that, right? Or, it makes sense that you'd want a holistic approach to this, right?~

Richard James: ~Or that's the type of firm you'd like to work with, right? So it's just some sort of question you want to end with. ~if you get this right, it sets the rest of this up very well.

MPS: And then that brings us into ~step five.~

MPS: ~This is our real opportunity to differentiate ourself. And here's what I mean by that. Step five is the hell, and most law firms don't do this. well. We call ~both step five and six, which we'll get to in a second.

MPS: The relationship building and the hell and the heaven we're trying to identify and articulate their pain point.

MPS: What's keeping them up at night? What's their biggest fear in all of this? But more importantly, ~it's not just that question. ~So we're not just asking that question and then bouncing over to the heaven.

MPS: We're asking clarifying questions.

MPS: ~Do they have a family? If they're married, how long have they been married? Do they have kids? How old are the kids? How is this hell affecting that? what do they do for work? How long have they been doing that? How is this hell affecting that? How's the hell affecting their overall wellbeing?~

MPS: We're asking relationship building questions and getting deeper into the pain point, and this establishes trust with the prospect. It also makes it a lot easier when we go into the next step. Of, heaven. But then actually going for the appointment, we've established that trust.

MPS: They feel more bonded This step actually anchors a more successful show rate for us

established there that most [: 00:06:00

MPS: ~This is a really important point to hit. ~Anything else on that one, rich?

Richard James: Yeah, a couple of quick plus ones on this. ~at the top of the script, there is a tonality chart that helps you understand based on the type of print that's on the document, tells you the tone. ~Tonality's a big deal. When it gets to the hell and the heaven section.

Richard James: oftentimes, you're talking to people in a difficult time, oftentimes the most difficult time they've ever been through.

Richard James: You might have to soften your voice It depends on the practice area. It depends on what we're dealing with, but you have to watch your tone.

Richard James: Remember, you are a salesperson. Whether you think of yourself that way or not, you're selling the firm and convincing this person why they should retain the firm. the way that you do that is by asking questions.

Richard James: ~Salespeople ask questions, buyers answer questions. you want to make sure you're asking the right questions, and then you're just leveraging their words back. if they say something, just simply parrot a paraphrase of their word. Back to them, it reminds them that you're listening and allows you to build a really simple bridge over to that next step.~

Richard James: if you get five right with the tonality questions, and parroting correct, it leads into step six well.

MPS: ~And that brings us to step six,~ which is the heaven. ~We call it the heaven. ~The heaven is the flip side, right? ~So ~we just move from the hell and then we can even use that flip side as a transition. Tell me on the flip side, what would your ultimate goal look like in this? What would a win?

MPS: look like to you in this.

t gives us an opportunity to [: 00:07:00

MPS: Hey, perfect. So just to be clear, sounds like you're looking to accomplish X, is that right? ~Yes. And then that sets us up perfectly for the next step, which is the explore. We'll get to that in just a second. That gives ' em their chance to talk about what they really want to accomplish, what a breath of fresh air would look like for them.~

Richard James: ~Yeah, just real quick on this, First, remember that those transitions that Michael discussed between the steps, super important. Those transitions are what make you sound human. Those transitions make a script, sound like a conversation and not a script. So you wanna be really careful with learning how to use your transitions.~

Richard James: ~That's what, this whole process of training you is all about. we put those little transition statements in the script for you, finally He said, you wanna repeat back to them what they say Their goal was one little thing. I wanna make sure I say sometimes appointment setters.~

Richard James: ~We'll simply assume what the win is for the prospect and state it for them. While that's part of the story, I want them to articulate it. even if you know the answer, even if they already said the answer, Get them to say what the win is for them, because when it comes out of their mouth, they believe it.~

Richard James: ~When it comes out of your mouth, you're telling them, again, remember the Pearson doing the asking? Is the person doing the selling, the person doing the answering? Is the person doing the buying? Always articulated into a question if you can, and like Michael said, that leads us to the next step seamlessly.~

Richard James: ~on. Sorry, I thought it was on Do not disturb.~

MPS: ~To plus one on Rich's comment he's spot on. Remember, you guys are doing this lots of times in a day, so it's easy for you to start to recognize the patterns of what someone's hell looks like or what someone's heaven looks like. But it doesn't change the fact that exactly what Rich has said.~

MPS: ~You need to get them to articulate that this is the first time they're speaking with your firm.~

MPS: So although you run this structure in this script every single day, this is their very first encounter with you. So don't forget that when you're speaking to a prospect. Anyway, that does set us up for the next step, which is step seven.

MPS: ~And step seven is ~ask for the appointment. ~This is where we're actually asking for the appointment, ~Hey, it sounds like right now you're trying to move away from hell and toward heaven. Would you like to explore what that would look like in our firm

MPS: through using that approach we're clearly demonstrating that we listened, and we cared enough to know exactly what their hell was, exactly what their heaven was, and bridge over to actually setting the appointment.

MPS: And the most natural answer in that question is always a yes, which seamlessly sets you up for the next step.

MPS: Can you see a trend here? Every step sets you up for the next one, right? ~that's why this explore is so important. Rich, anything you want a plus one on?~

plorer covers a multitude of [: 00:08:00

Richard James: Transition Well, and then ask for the order. Now there's the right way to ask for the order, and we're about to talk about that in step eight.

MPS: Step eight is offer something and something, which means we should ~never say. Is that something you'd like to explore? Yes. Perfect. What day looks good for you In the calendar? You~ always move over with two options. So I'm looking at the calendar here. It looks like I've got a slot this afternoon and I've got a slot tomorrow.

AM or a: 10:00

MPS: when you get a no, it's hard to bounce off of that.

MPS: When you ask a choice of something and something, you're always gonna get an answer of something or something, and so that's why we do this. ~It creates this little capsule to make sure that we actually get the appointment set and we don't create all that space to move outside of getting the appointment set getting a bunch of nos or let me check the calendar.~

MPS: ~Let me go back and forth with you on this. Try to figure out, oh, I just don't think there's gonna be a time you create this space to do all that when you don't offer something and something ~rich. Anything you wanna add on that?

Richard James: ~Just that the warning, this is the area where salespeople can be manipulative, or sales can be seen as manipulative in a negative way. I want to be clear, we're not doing something to the prospect. We're doing something for the prospect because we believe we have the very best services to offer.~

Richard James: ~They've got a problem we can help them with. so we're gonna match these two together. we're using psychology and leverage to give the illusion that they actually have a choice, which is the psychology aspect we're taking advantage of. we're using the magician's trick of actually controlling the option so that based on what they say, we can control where we go from there.~

y to help them get what they [: 00:09:00

MPS: And then that brings us into step nine, explain the next steps. This is really important because this is now where you're bridging the gap. You've set the appointment, and now you're clearly explaining what they should expect next. no one likes when they book something and then are unaware of what happens next.

MPS: ~Where do they need to be? How do they get there? What do they need to bring? Who are they meeting with? Do they need to have anyone else with them? ~this is important for show rate because if we don't clearly explain the next steps, oftentimes the ball gets dropped and then because of those unknowns or confusion, they just don't show up.

MPS: Because they either don't know how to show up, where to show up to, and so this anchors really strongly that show rate. we need to make sure we're clearly articulating after we set the appointment, Hey, here's what's gonna happen between now and the date of your appointment.

MPS: We're gonna do X, Y, and Z. ~We're gonna send this reminder. here's where your appointment will be. Here's how you access that. Here's who you'll be meeting with potentially, here's the reminders you're gonna get. You're gonna get a phone call the day before the appointment just to make sure all is well, that's what we're doing.~ We're just clearly explaining those next steps. So there's no question marks after the appointment.

ed precisely, the reason for [: 00:10:00

Richard James: they are calling you because they're in disarray and unorganized, and they're relying on you to be organized. We need to be an example of the fact that we're going to be organized from the very first phone call forward, and we're taking control. This is important because they actually do want, in this particular case, for you to be in control.

Richard James: And you need to be professional. You need to be articulate and you need to be precise every time you do this particular section. if you do, you're gonna set up the next section for a win.

MPS: And then step 10 is ask the do you promise question. This is a really important step, now we've set the appointment, we've explained the next steps. Now we wanna get their promise.

MPS: So many appointment centers get tripped up here 'cause they think it either sounds weird. Or, they don't know how to ask it in the right way, or they don't know why they're doing it.

MPS: The reason we ask the promise question is, a promise holds weight. Most people don't wanna break a promise, and we wanna make sure they show up to their appointment It's very simple. Hey, life gets busy. So can you do me a favor and make me a quick promise?

MPS: If something [: 00:11:00

MPS: And if they can't, they're gonna communicate with you that they can't, rather than just completely ghosting you.

Richard James: A promise triggers, a emotional response and literally an automated response in a human. And it's much like the animal kingdom. There are things that happen in the animal kingdom that trigger a response.~ A real quick example of that is a Turkey in the pole cat.~

Richard James: ~The pole cat is a natural enemy of the Turkey. And so they did a research study on this to determine would a Turkey attack a stuffed pole cat? And they put a pole cat that was stuffed out in a field and the turkeys attacked the pole cat ' cause it recognized it as the e eternal enemy of them.~

Richard James: ~However, they also knew that Chick Turkeys made this specific sound when lost from the mother, and the mother would come and rescue the chick and comfort it. they took a recording of that chick Turkey and they put it inside of the stuffed polecat, put it back out in the field.~

Richard James: ~And this time because the recording was being played, it triggered that automatic response in the Turkey. And it allowed the Turkey to walk over to its enemy, the polecat, nurture it. put its wing around it and start to warm it up. And because it actually thought it was a chick ~

Richard James: ~So there is something in the animal kingdom that triggers responses in animals.~

Richard James: There is something in the human kingdom that triggers responses in humans, and the word promise is one of those triggers. Don't forget to use this. If you want to increase your show rate, use the promise said differently.

Richard James: If you wanna make sure your show rate plummets, go ahead and don't use the promise

MPS: And I'm gonna add one more. That doesn't mean, Hey, can you do me a quick favor? and just leave it with favor and avoid the word promise. ~If you say everything else, but you avoid the word promise, ~it completely defeats the purpose. ~it completely defeats the purpose.~

MPS: ~You need to use the word promise. Can you make me a quick promise? ~That's the word you need to use.

MPS: And then that sets us [: 00:12:00

MPS: So this is basically where we're reassuring them, Hey, we understand you're going through hell, ~whatever that hell was, ~and we know you really wanna be able to get to heaven. we just want you to know we're here for you. ~We hear you. We're here to walk alongside you for that. we appreciate you taking the time to have that conversation.~

MPS: Looking forward to meeting with you on blank date and time, right? We're reassuring them that we heard their hell heard their heaven. We demonstrate it back to articulate that. Rich, anything you wanna add?

Richard James: Yeah, this is where the real professionals separate themselves.

Richard James: The ones who get this right, everything about their world sores and gets better ~because it meant that they were listening all the way through. It meant that you are a good appointment setter ~You can actually start to maximize your conversions and position yourself in your firm to be raised up to the next level if that's something you desire and your firm has an opportunity to do. Because you're a professional,

Richard James: the ones who don't do this are simply not professionals. They don't get it either. A, they weren't listening or B, they don't care. ~when you reinstate what was happening in their world and wrap this whole conversation in a bow and you tack on the word, thank you for trusting us, it just makes this whole thing more professional and ensures that prospect isn't gonna pick up the phone and call the next firm because they weren't happy with the relationship you built.~

ey get on Zoom and they say, [: 00:13:00

Richard James: ~He's unnatural, boy, how good did that make me feel as a dad? But how good does that make Justin feel that he got kudos? From the person who was buying that, he did a good job.~ I'm telling you, do this right, follow these 11 steps. People will start mentioning you by name, and it's gonna put yourself on a trajectory where the company's gonna do better and make more profit where the clients are gonna do better because they're gonna retain the firm

Richard James: And you are gonna do better, both financially and in your growth path with this company. Master these 11 steps. Do what Michael and I just told you today, and I promise you're headed in the right direction.