8 Figure Intake Process For Family Lawyers (+FREE Intake Form)
A step-by-step intake process for family law firms, emphasizing the use of paid consultations to attract high-value clients, qualifying leads, and implementing CRM systems. You will get phone scripts, strategies for selling consultations, and the importance of consistent follow-up.
Before we dive into the process, let’s settle a debate – should you be offering free or paid consultations?
TL;DR – you need to be doing paid consultations only.
While offering a free consultation can help you book more appointments, you’ll likely waste time with many tire kickers or low-value prospects.
By offering a paid consult, you can instantly weed out the people who:
Are not a good fit for your services
Will waste your time
Are unlikely to afford your rates
You’ll attract much higher-quality clients and free up your time to focus on their needs instead of wasting time with tire kickers.
So, your intake process will need to focus on selling the initial consult with a lawyer. Following that consult, the lawyer will be responsible for selling the retainer after building a relationship with the prospect.
If you want to scale your family law firm, you need a CRM
To scale your family law practice, you need to be able to generate and handle hundreds of calls. Without a tool to help you manage your customer details, it will be difficult to keep track of who’s who.
That’s what a CRM solves.
When your marketing is firing on all cylinders, you will get leads from many different sources (social media, DMs, search marketing, or word-of-mouth referrals).
Regardless of how a prospect found you, your CRM should become the central repository with information about each prospect and client.
If you already use a legal practice management software, it’s likely already got CRM capabilities built-in.
Otherwise, you can look into tools like Clio or LeadDocket, which specialize in helping law firms manage their client intake and cases.
Once you’ve set up your CRM, make it a habit to collect the phone number of everyone who calls you, then add them as a contact.
The image below is a process diagram outlining a proven intake system for family lawyers. This process is the basis for what we will discuss in this post.
Click to enlarge the image
Part 1: Handling the lead, qualifying the prospect
No matter whether someone has called you or if you’re calling them to follow up on an inquiry from a form or online chat, you need to qualify them.
In marketing, qualifying a prospect involves determining whether you’re a good fit to help solve their problem and whether they’re a good fit for the services you offer.
It goes both ways.
Here are some example scripts you can try out.
Call script for inbound calls (someone has called you)…
Start by grabbing their contact information (in case the call disconnects), and then about how you can help.
Once you get an idea of the services or practice areas they’re interested in, you can launch into a customized script that addresses the pain points they’re experiencing.
For example, here’s a script you can use for someone going through a divorce:
Let’s break it down.
Start by addressing the pain point in a positive light “…we remove the fear of…” and follow it up with the benefit you’ll deliver “…protect you by helping you…”.
Then list out two or three ideal outcomes. In this example, that’s things like:
Maximizing time with your kids
Maximizing your money
Reaching a settlement in a short time frame (3–6 months)
For each practice area and type of matter you can work with, you’ll want to customize the script. For example, people will be worried about different things if they approach you for a child custody matter.
Make sure to address those concerns and ask for more details about their situation.
Follow this up with targeted questions that will help you decide if this prospect is a good fit for your firm to work with.
Call script for inbound leads (that you are calling)
For all non phone call leads (forms, social media, etc), you need to call them back as soon as possible. Aim to call them back within the hour if you have the opportunity, otherwise within the same business day.
After initiating the call, here’s a slightly different script you can start with.
If you’ve called them at a bad time, make sure you lock in an exact time you can call them back, like so:
Don’t leave it as an ambiguous time in the future, as you risk going in circles and wasting time.
If it is a good time to chat with them, or if you’re making the follow-up call at the time they asked, continue with the same script to qualify them as when someone calls you.
Start by asking how you can help and then move into removing obstacles and sharing the benefits your services can deliver. The rest of the call will flow the same from there.
Qualifying each lead
After you’ve learned more about the matter and asked some qualifying questions, you’ll need to decide if the lead is a good fit for your services.
Qualified leads are the ones who:
Can afford your services
Are serious about working with a lawyer
Have a case you can help them with
Met your criteria from the discovery questions
No matter whether they are a good lead or not, tag them accordingly in your CRM.
Tire kickers and people who are not a good fit for your service should be tagged as “not qualified”. This means you won’t proceed with them and you’ll end the call since it is unlikely you will be able to help them.
Everyone else will be marked as “qualified”, even if they’re not ready to work with you right now. Here’s how to continue the call with these prospects.
Part 2: Pitch the consultation, close the consultation
Once you identify someone as a qualified lead, the next step is to pitch a paid consultation with them.
Here’s an example script you can use to do that:
This is the part where you need to sell the consultation. Instead of using language like “we, us, or our”, make it all about the prospect by using “you and your”.
Focus on the value they’ll get and end with a simple yes or no question that gently nudges them to a clear decision.
This is where you (or your team) needs to learn how to sell.
Sell, sell, sell (handle objections)
The more calls you take, the better understanding you’ll have of common objections to booking the initial paid consultation.
For each objection, you can add scripts and responses to your intake process so you are well prepared anytime future prospects ask the same thing.
This is important, especially if you’re not the one handling all intakes.
It’s how your firm can convert people who are not interested into customers. Anyone who handles intake on your behalf needs to be prepared with responses to these common objections.
If they’re on board, take payment information on the phone
Once someone decides that yes they’re happy to pay your consultation fee and they want to speak to a lawyer, make the booking, pronto.
Focus on ensuring they can get the earliest available appointment so you create a sense or urgency.
Here’s an example script you can use:
It’s also a good habit to have your payment processing facility open before you start any call so you can accept payment as soon as they pull out their credit card.
Since you’re just selling the consultation, you don’t need to worry about signing a contract and can proceed with accepting their payment over the phone.
Schedule consultation with the attorney
Once the payment has been made, you can transition the call into booking a specific slot with the right attorney and explaining what the prospect needs to do to prepare.
Make sure you also update your CRM to indicate this person has made a booking.
Part 3: Follow up until they tell you not to
For any qualified leads who have not yet made a booking for, wait one day and follow up with them again. This process should repeat itself until your intake teams gets a “not interested” from the prospect.
This might seem aggressive and annoying, but it’s not – they reached out to you. You have every right to follow up until they tell you they are not interested.
The same applies for any leads who had the initial consult but have not signed your retainer yet.
Make sure you take the time to overcome their objections and to clarify the value they’ll receive by working with you. For instance, divorce is an anxiety-inducing situation due to all the unknowns that surround it.
You can sell the clarity and peace of mind your firm will offer:
You’ll have all your questions answered
You’ll have the exact roadmap for how this process works
You’ll know exactly what your divorce will cost you
You’ll know what assets you’ll be able to keep and protect
You’ll know what options are available to you for child custody
You’ll be able to remove the fear and anxiety and move on with your life
Sell, sell, sell. Sell their desired outcome and show them how you will take them to their desired state.
Do this every day until you either get a clear rejection or a confirmed booking or signature.
However, also be mindful that some prospects aren’t ready to work with a lawyer immediately. In this case, you can add a notification reminder in your CRM to follow up on a specific date when they determine they’re ready to continue the process with your firm.
We can fix your intake issues
Getting bookings for the initial consult may be where your intake process ends, but you’ll need to keep selling in order to get the prospect onto a retainer. Without a clear system to do this, you’ll struggle to grow your firm.
If you want to improve your processes, you can work with an experienced marketing firm that can implement all of this for you, we’re happy to chat over a consultation anytime.
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