Does Your INTAKE Have This Fatal Flaw?

Intake is how you catch a case.?

We all know this. We also all know that a high volume firm turns down a lot of matters and has operators on the phone separating the wheat from the chaff all day long. And all night too.

Firms without such high volume also have procedures in place to catch a case.

“Small tissue cases” are relatively easy to catch. The reason is that the subconscious criteria for selecting a law firm for a soft tissue case are less rigorous than for a big case.

With smaller cases the clients want someone to listen, be kind, talk straight, be knowledgeable and organized, get them a decent settlement, keep them in the loup. Doing that will make them happy with the transaction.

Did you hear that? It’s a transaction. That’s how you have set it up. You injured? We got you! Come on in, we’ll fix you up.

What is different with a big case? When it’s major trauma, serious catastrophe, the calculation is different. The number one criterion is credibility, the expectation of outstanding results.

Can this guy get me a million more than the other guy? Which one shall I go with?

But we’re talking about intake today. And I want to get a powerful distinction across to you.?

First of all, let’s talk about the great tragedy that is so common with personal injury law firms. You get a client, you take great care of them, get them a nice settlement. Your staff are kind and efficient. The client was more than happy with you. Now a year has gone by and they or their loved one is involved in a terrible wreck.

Long story short they go to another law firm. Catastrophe!

How does this happen? Why does this happen? It makes no sense. It’s so unfair! Are they unappreciative jerks our clients? Where did we go wrong?

This is a major problem facing a lot of law firms and let’s fix it right here once and for all, what say?

A simple way to say it is that you are playing in the wrong ball park, the smaller ball park.

Let’s talk objective. What's your objective for your intake? Be honest. Say it out loud in your head.

Now take a step back. When I first discovered how lovely personal injury lawyers are as business people open to great ideas and distinctions that will make them money it was in the 90s and I was a renegade advertising expert specializing in Yellow Pages.

All attorney Yellow Pages ads were virtually identical and all equally terrible. After an effort I acquired a client and demonstrated an entirely different kind of Yellow Pages ad which made my client a million dollars and opened the door to licensing it to law firms in other cities.

When I met lawyers to talk about optimizing their directory ad I would ask, “What is your objective for your Yellow Pages ad?”

To a man—and they were all men—they answered, “To make the phone ring.”

I answered that I can suggest a strategic objective that you might prefer, and they’d say shoot.

I would say your strategic objective for your Yellow Pages ad could be that the wrong prospect is repelled and the right prospect is compelled. The right prospect concludes that you are the only firm they want to work with, take down your number, close the book and call to see if you will be willing to take their case.

They all liked that objective better, especially the bit about the prospective client hoping that you will be willing to take their case.

So we can all recognize having a better objective is worthwhile.

So here we are at the moment of truth:

What is your strategic objective for intake?

It’s probably to efficiently exclude the non cases and to sign the cases you want, right? Can you see how maybe you are falling short? Aiming too low?

It’s a variant on “make the phone ring”, which my Yellow Pages lawyers used to say.

What Should Our Strategic Objective for Intake Be?

So glad you asked. Right now you are catching a case. You are catching a matter. There’s a person at the heart of the matter so you are catching the person insofar as you want to handle their matter for them.

Do you see that? You are catching them from now until disbursal. And if it’s a lame disbursal the air is already seeping out of the balloon by then. It’s not a long term bond. It’s a transaction.

If it’s a relationship, and not just a transaction, would it be less forgettable? What if it's a transformational relationship? Would that make a difference? (Go back and read Grassroots Marketing about Disbursal August 3.)

What else could you possibly do?

First off you could catch the person, and not just the case. Catch them not just for this, but for all manner of legal protection for injured people.. You could strongly establish Authority at intake, which I vigorously recommend.

You could catch the person forever and catch their social circle as well.

Putting aside for a moment that what I’m saying may seem impossible, can we first agree that it’s desirable?

Yes it would be great if we could catch the person and not just the matter and catch them in such a way that two years from now they would come back if involved in something much more serious. And furthermore, it would be better if we would catch their social circle so they are on the road to becoming a multi case referrer…and the relationship does not end at Disbursal because we learned that Intake and Disbursal are your two magic opportunities to create a lifetime client and referral generator.

So, how do you catch a client for life at intake including their social circle?

It’s such a good question. Next week we will dive into specifics of how to catch clients for life along with their social circle. I will be going a bit deeper into the use of the Authority Frame and the Referral Contract?allowing you to launch a relationship with a person.

A relationship and not just a transaction based on the size of the matter.