rjh's blog

Reducing Lead Follow-Up Time

rjh — Wed, 02 Aug 2017 16:09:16 +0000

Reducing Lead Follow-Up Time

If you’re using lead generation to get clients, congratulations! You have mountains of people interested in your services.

Now you just have to get ahold of them.

Connecting with leads can be a time-consuming part of the client acquisition process. It’s not uncommon to have to try multiple times to get in touch with a potential client. Unfortunately, some attorneys give up long before the client is able to pick up the phone.

Following up takes effort, but it doesn’t have to become a part-time job. There are many ways to reduce follow-up time. Get ready: you have tons of leads and with some planning, you can turn them into clients quicker than you expected.

1) Have someone follow up for you

This could be an assistant, a paralegal, or even an intern. Dedicating someone’s job to client acquisition is the most straightforward way of reducing follow-up time on your end. Regardless of who you hire, the key is to make sure that they’re trained to identify a good claim. Not everyone will have the time, money, or office space to hire someone, but for those that do, this is an effective option.

2) Follow up immediately

No matter who is handling the follow-up process, they will need to follow up immediately—ideally within minutes of receiving the lead. The response rate falls substantially the longer you wait, and you may find yourself chasing someone down for weeks if you don’t get ahold of them immediately. We know this better than anyone, which is why our leads come with a live transfer feature. That way, you can respond as quickly as possible to potential claimants.

3) Create a schedule

Spending about twenty minutes at the beginning of the week to create a schedule of when you plan to call and email potential clients can substantially reduce the amount of time you end up doing it. Why? You won’t be searching for “those extra fifteen minutes” to call leads—those minutes will never materialize—because you’ll already have them scheduled in. There are ways to streamline this process; for example, our eLuminate software makes it easy to send out mass emails to leads.

4) Have a clear voicemail message

Voicemail messages can easily become awkward, in part because people forget that they can rehearse beforehand. So do that! Plan what you’ll say ahead of time so you don’t find yourself going on a tangent and then stammering out a farewell. It’s not hard to leave an effective voicemail, so spend some time crafting one before you make your calls.

5) Use multiple methods to reach leads

You must call your leads, but you should also email, and you may even want to consider texting. For example, a lead may not get your voicemail message (you can learn more about why from an interview with a lead screener). This is when texting or emailing after you leave a voicemail can be useful; it allows you to explain who you are, why you’re calling, and how a client can get ahold of you. Moreover, it has all of that information in a convenient location that the claimant can refer back to.

Lead generation will save you time on client acquisition, but only if you devote time to following up. This can seem counterintuitive, but once you compare your number of clients with the number of hours you spent acquiring them, you’ll see just how the math works out in your favor. Give us a call at 617.800.0089 to increase your caseload—and your revenue.

rjh Wed, 08/02/2017 - 12:09

3 Resources That Can Help Your Clients (and You)

rjh — Tue, 20 Jun 2017 18:25:07 +0000

3 Resources That Can Help Your Clients (and You)

Being a Social Security disability attorney puts you into contact with many clients who are struggling. Their day-to-day life can be stressful, and they may be lacking basic support and necessities because they are unable to work.

As their attorney, you work as hard as possible to get them the disability benefits that they need. But in the short term, your Social Security disability clients may require more than that. Because many claimants aren’t awarded benefits for over two years, they’ll have no way to pay for daily necessities we often take for granted.

You can’t possibly meet all of their needs, but you can lead them to organizations that can address some of them. Try telling your SSD clients about the resources listed below; you both have the chance to benefit by telling them about these organizations.

Your clients obviously benefit because they get resources they need. But you benefit because you’re fostering goodwill. This can translate into getting positive online reviews or future referrals from your happy clients.

SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program)

SNAP is a program that gives recipients a special debit card to purchase nutritious foods at grocery stores, convenience stores, and even some farmers’ markets. This program can be extremely helpful for people who experience food insecurity due to unemployment.

A person can receive an average of $125.51 in food benefits each month, which can provide enormous relief to someone living in poverty. Information on applying by state is available online, though your clients will have to contact their local SNAP office for more specific details.

Housing Choice Voucher Program

If your clients have not been able to find steady work due to their disabilities, they may also be unable to find long-term and safe housing. They may constantly be on the edge of being evicted due to their precarious financial situations. If this sounds familiar, they may be eligible for the Housing Choice Voucher Program.

The vouchers are administered by local public housing authorities, and the program allows a person to live anywhere that meets the program’s requirements.

The program guarantees housing for low-income families, people with disabilities, and veterans, which means that the program could grant your clients (and their families) stability and peace of mind.

Local Transportation Programs

If your clients live in a city, the urban transit authority will likely offer some kind of discount on tickets and passes. New York City’s MTA and Boston’s MBTA serve as examples of these types of programs.

However, if your clients live in a place that has little to no public transportation, they may be eligible for other programs, such as Wheels4Hope. These programs allow eligible people with lower incomes to obtain cars for very little to no cost.

There are many variations of this type of program across the U.S., and the requirements vary by region. This means that it would be best to look up what is available in your region of the country to give your clients the most useful information.

Give Your Clients the Help That They Need

Telling your clients about these resources takes just a few minutes out of your day, and it can pay off handsomely.

Showing care towards your clients increases the chance that they’ll tell others about their positive experiences, whether it’s in the form of online reviews or additional referrals. Those referrals and reviews can translate into more cases and higher profitability for your firm.

That quick email may be just what you client needs. And if you consider the benefits for your firm, the same could be said for you.

rjh Tue, 06/20/2017 - 14:25

The Interns Are Coming!

rjh — Wed, 29 Mar 2017 17:07:07 +0000

The Interns Are Coming!

Pre-law and law students exist in a bubble.

These greenhorns probably have no idea what working at a law firm is like. They don’t know about the drudgery, or how long the hours are, or that it’s not like an episode of Suits.

It might be time to dispel their illusions. And it also might be time for your firm to get a breath of fresh air. Interns don’t only bring Jansport backpacks to their internships—they also bring enthusiasm, new perspectives, and a lot of energy. In other words, your firm has just as much to gain from the internship as the intern does.

With that in mind, it’s high time your firm posted for this summer’s interns. Here are some places where your future intern has already started looking.

Indeed.com

This will be one of the first places that your summer talent will be looking for internships. Indeed has been around since 2004, and it’s the highest-traffic job search site out there. Since there are so many other firms posting as well, this means that it would behoove you to make sure that your posting is well-optimized for search. At the time of publication, there are currently 4,023 postings for legal internships on Indeed. To stand out, include keywords about your specific area of law in the post, and pay special attention to your post’s title.

Indeed will allow you to post free of charge, but you can also advertise your posting on the site so that it appears in a better position in search results. These “sponsored” postings (which are a minimum of $5 per day) tend to get more clicks, so if you need to hire on an accelerated timeline, sponsored postings may be the way to go.

This seasoned 14-year-old platform isn’t just for posting resumes and endorsements—it can also be for handpicking the candidates you want to interview! If someone in your office has the time, you could consider simply searching for your ideal legal intern candidates and reaching out to them. Although this isn’t the most common tactic, it would allow you to only target candidates you are truly interested in. The upfront time cost is high, but your search may end sooner as a result of that initial investment. Best of all? It’s free.

College job boards

There’s a good chance that there’s a college or university with dozens of students thinking about becoming lawyers. So go ahead and court them directly on their university’s job board.

Current college students are more likely to adhere to application requirements than the general pool of applicants on job board sites, which could save you time when going through applications. This is because college job board sites often have document requirements that an applicant must adhere to before submitting their application, so applicants are less likely to forget to attach a cover letter or writing samples. Additionally, it could be a wonderful opportunity to connect with a current student if you’re an alumna/us of a particular school and you want to give back. Yale, Stanford, Harvard, U.Chicago, NYU, and Columbia are all great places to find your next legal intern.

WayUp

This is an up-and-coming platform that is specifically targeted to current college students, recent graduates, and millennials in general. The user base is smaller, but if your summer interns are coming from any of the aforementioned groups, WayUp could be an effective way of finding your next candidate.

At $75 a month, WayUp’s price is steeper than the other options listed, but it also offers the employer some additional features. WayUp offers advanced screening for all candidates, so you won’t have to slog through irrelevant resumes. For example, if you only want third-year law students from Seattle, you will only receive applications from third-year law students from Seattle. However, keep in mind that with advanced screening, you may lose out on candidates who don’t “fit the bill” but might be better candidates for the role.

These platforms are all fairly different from one another, so don’t hesitate to use more than one. It might be especially productive to use a free platform and a paid one to review specific candidates that you want while maintaining a large pool of backup candidates. There’s someone on those platforms that’s perfect for your firm; be sure not to miss out on them.

rjh Wed, 03/29/2017 - 13:07

rjh's blog

Reducing Lead Follow-Up Time

1) Have someone follow up for you

2) Follow up immediately

3) Create a schedule

4) Have a clear voicemail message

5) Use multiple methods to reach leads

3 Resources That Can Help Your Clients (and You)

SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program)

Housing Choice Voucher Program

Local Transportation Programs

Give Your Clients the Help That They Need

The Interns Are Coming!

Indeed.com

LinkedIn

College job boards

WayUp