Conversion is About Math, and That’s About Competing

To Help You Win…

My client is a DUI/DWI attorney in Illinois. And last year, when we started working together, she was grinding to grow her firm. She’d been building it for 7 years, on her own.

She was doing it all. Filing. Drafting. Meeting with clients. Going to court. Working with the ad agencies to drive leads. Taking consults at nights and on weekends.

She was tired.

It wasn’t paying off.

She was converting those leads she was buying at 23%. Of everyone who raised their hand – who clicked an ad for the type of case she specialized in – only 2.3 out of 10 signed up.

Despite being discouraged and tired, she leaned in. She hired me (brilliant move, right?). And got to work.

Now? She’s in a very different place. It’s still hard, but the game’s changing.
Want to know how the game is changing? Read on..

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First, where we are now.

My client has tripled her run rate in under a year. She did two things at a macro level.

She took her conversion rate from 23% to 40+%. We’re moving toward 50%, and tracking all of it. The leads themselves haven’t changed – same demographic, same problems, same pricing.

Know what that ALSO did? It cut her cost of acquisition by 40%. It costs her LESS to win a client now.

That’s the result of her running a better process – one tailored to how people buy and what works in a consult. We’ve also made minor adjustments to her intake process (inbound leads for some of you) that have led to higher conversions, too. We’re finding people are more willing and ready to pay right away because of this.

The other thing she did was invest in more marketing. Normally, I’m opposed to this because it gums up your process. You’re too busy with more leads you can’t close, and the operations aren’t’ ready for more customers if you do close them. But she had built some process, and she had some capacity. Her lead flow didn’t double, but it was close.

The result of that math? She’ll soon be on pace to quadruple her run rate in a year.

And she’s now added an additional assistant and another attorney to her team.

Guess what she can do soon? Bring on more clients…

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Second, and it’s not yet the “big idea.” We’re getting to that.

It’s about getting there. A few things helped.

She wasn’t tracking leads, conversions, etc… But someone was. And someone else (this guy) was looking at those numbers. You need to track so you can measure.
She was willing to say “No” to certain types of cases. Most people lack this discipline for fear of “missing out.” She got clear on her customer and focused big time on that.
She put into practice what we talked about: adjusting the consult, improving how intake was handled, letting go of how she’d talked about money, and even how she thought.
She “did the work.” Some people want to hire help but they want a savior. They’re not really willing to go through the muck to get where they want to go. She was. That’s priceless.

Sometimes you need this guy’s intensity to get through a business’ (or firm’s) no-man’s land.

———–

Finally, what’s possible NOW….

Yes, she’s now in a spot to think about the future. She can’t abandon what she’s building. She’s still got to:

• Run and convert consults
• Keep her eye on her marketing so that her spend is as efficient as possible
• Coach her people
• Hold her people accountable
• Hire her people
• Make payroll
• Go to court
• Work some weekends

And that’s hard.

But there’s a vision of where she can go, and it’s becoming real.

She’s dialing in a position in her market.

She can start thinking about….

Hiring paralegals and attorneys to do more work
Which makes more money
And enables her to build a firm that runs without her

But at a strategic level, if she can consistently convert better than others….

She can pay more leads than other people. Because effectively, those leads cost her less.

Think about that.

If you and a competitor both charge the same amount – let’s say $5,000 – for a service, you’re on even footing (sort of.) Now, if you convert at 60% where they convert at 30%…. You double your run rate…

Now you have more money. After a while, you decide you can pay $200 for a lead they paid $100 for.

What happens if you are willing to pay more for leads?

You get more of them. More than your competition, too.

If you’re converting at the same rate…you can buy even more leads.

And then, after a while, you decide, “Let’s bump our price. We can tolerate a small drop in conversions.” You might even get someone who isn’t as good as you (i.e. costs less) to close the leads.

So… what’s next? A few months later, you may decide, “I can spend MORE on leads to get more leads and better leads.”

That would result in more lead flow…and if they’re better, MAYBE the ability to raise prices.

You could even sacrifice some conversion ratios.

You might even get better at having less senior people close them.

Now, we haven’t gotten into what happens when you have buying power on the ads/leads side, but I’m guessing it plays in your favor… driving down your costs.

Allowing you to buy up even more.
Or simply invest in a new channel so you’re not dependent on one platform (i.e. Google, Facebook, Insta, Twitter, Linkedin, Reddit?).

And if you win more of them…you start to buy up the blue side of the Monopoly board.

See where this is going?

It starts with some combination of traffic and conversion. You need both.

If you don’t have traffic right now, that’s not a bad place to start.

If it’s not converting, and you’re selling services, you need to ask, “Why?” It may be how you’re selling it.

 

 

adam@thenorthwoodgrp.com