A study on weekend leads showed that they close 20% better than leads generated on a weekday. However, companies took 33% longer to follow up on the leads because nobody in their organization is managing leads on the weekend. In this scenario, an automated response system with a personal touch is needed to start engaging with the weekend leads and ultimately close a sale.
Hey guys, Jesse here again. Yes, I’m driving, always at your service, right onto another appointment. So this morning, a Saturday, we had leads coming in for one of my clients, they are personal injury attorneys, a law firm. I was so excited to get these leads that I was looking into the backend CRM, a follow-up system to determine, how’s it going, how is this working properly? It also occurred to me how important it is to follow up on the weekend. How many attorneys or any business for that matter are losing business because they are only Monday through Friday? Nothing wrong with controlling your time and having your weekend, but just because you want to have time off doesn’t mean your prospect is taking time off. Most of the time when they’re not at work is when they start doing their searches on Google when they start ruminating over problems because they can’t enjoy their weekend because they feel like they might need an attorney or they might need your product or service.
Automated Sales and Marketing System For Your Law Firm
In this case, a gal that was in a car accident a while back thinks that it didn’t turn out the way it should have and that she needs to talk to an attorney. She wants to speak to an attorney right now. So does your system have Sales and Marketing for your law firm? Does it capture those leads? Does it talk to people when they want to be spoken to? So we have a system, and there are a lot of CRM and automation tools out there that can do this for you with a personal touch. For example, this person responded to an ad we have on Google.
The ads have been split, tested, and proven, and we know it works with excellent image, great copy, and headline. It leads them to a survey type form asking them basic questions, contact info, and do they already have an attorney or not? Also, how much do they think that they should be compensated? They are just getting that necessary information down. Instead of just going straight to their website where we hope that they find our contact us form or expect that they call. Many people aren’t going to call; they may fill out a form. In this case, the gal filled out a form, and then she’s going to hope that something happens. Now many companies, automation might have an email kick out, but the email is likely to say, “hey, we’ll call you Monday, we’re out of the office.” Well, instead what we do is we follow up with the person with a text message, email, and ringless voicemail. Now before you go, wait a minute, I don’t know about that is it’s like one of those automated robot things, and how annoying.
If you get an unsolicited phone call from your local state representative or the fire department looking to raise money, which is nothing against them, but we probably should give them more money. However, if you get one of those in the middle of dinner time, you’re pissed, but if you’re trying to get a hold of somebody or you’re trying to get some more information on something, you don’t mind knowing that they at least got your info. Moreover, these are ringless, which means they go straight to somebody’s voicemail, they don’t ring your phone. They are pre-recorded messages with the attorney, and they are personable, and they’re simple, and they’re saying, “Hey, got your info, you’re looking for help with the car accident. We definitely can help you. Let me know when’s a good time”.They are just necessary information to make sure that the person knows that you exist. So by the way, it lets them hear your voice, the human contact.
People get 120 or 150 emails a day, but they are not opening them. Email open rates are plummeting. You’re lucky if you got a big list and get a five or 10 percent open rate. If it’s a small, tiny list, you might get 20 percent, but nobody gets a 100 percent open rate anymore. That means they do not even see your email. They’re not also opening it. They might notice it came in, maybe. So this gives you another touchpoint, and we text them. So that’s not all happening at the same time, but it’s sent out in a measured way that – it’s automated, but it feels like it doesn’t feel obnoxious. Also, it’s a human voice, and it’s a personalized text and a personalized email. It is not a blanket newsletter type of email, and it’s about what they’re concerned with. So the open rates are higher, and the response rate is higher.
That morning I opened up our system, a lead that came in the previous night, we sent a voicemail already, and an email and I’m about to do text, but she responded, and we can see that in there. The attorney is out of the office for a couple of weeks. So, I answered for him, just saying, “hey, we’re out, but we’re going to get something to you soon as possible at the latest on Monday.” So she said she’s working today, but she had a lunch break. I said maybe we talk to her on her lunch break today. Then I’m able to contact my client, the attorney, and say, “Hey, do you have anybody in the office or one of you want to call her at one or if not, we’ve covered our basis.” One of the partners got back and said the other ones were out for a couple of weeks on vacation, so he’s going to have to take over. That’s easy now because we haven’t lost the lead. We have started the conversation, and we were beginning to work on developing a relationship with that lead. Also, because of that, now we have somebody who’s open to talking to us. Now if she didn’t hear anything until Monday and then it was all screwed up, and the person at the front desk has to call in and doesn’t know anything about her, and she has to start over even though she already filled in all this information.
This is what happens typically, right? The person following up asks all the same questions again, and it’s annoying. It’s better than nothing, but in the meantime, that person, the lead already called another attorney. And that attorney that picked up the phone. I already got your lead. So you just spent a bunch of money on advertising and all that and all your SEO and all of the stuff that you’re doing all the time to try to get people to your website and because you didn’t respond fast enough and smoothly enough, they already went to somebody else. It happens all the time. It frustrates the heck out of me as a marketer because I know the answer to it and I’m trying to give that answer.
You need to have systems. You need to have methods that are proven to work and follow-up. Don’t let anything slip through the cracks. That’s the money you’re throwing away. So if you don’t follow up on the weekend, you’re throwing money down the drain. Think of how many people are ready to talk on the weekend when you’re closed. Also, especially in the legal industry or professional services. I love it that you want to have, life on your terms and whatnot, but if you’re not going to be the one to pick up the phone and call those leads, those prospects – you either have to hire somebody else or create an assistant that does. My opinion is you should have both. There’s plenty of ways to do that. If you want help with that, you can contact me at Stoddard Agency and we have plenty of options that are affordable and effective that use cutting edge technology, not just to get the lead in the first place, but also to make sure they’re followed up correctly. Hey, that’s just the tip of the day. Have a wonderful time over the next few weeks, checking out more of my videos; I’m going to try to get out as many of these as I possibly can. Take care guys.
