Make Money Mondays: It’s All in the Follow Up
Every so often, I’ll get an email or call from a relatively new solo asking whether to follow up with a prospective client who they spoke with by phone or had a consult. These lawyers expressed discomfort not so much because of fear of rejection, but rather, they did not wish to appear overbearing or desperate. And one lawyer even thought that a follow up call could pose an ethics violation.
So here’s a news flash. None of these excuses are valid reasons for failing to follow up with a client at least once. As you’re probably aware from your own experience, people get busy and a follow up call would simply remind them to follow up. A follow up also shows that you’re interested in taking on the case – and for that reason, I actually prefer receiving a follow up from a service provider.
A follow up needn’t take more than a few minutes, and can be accomplished by phone or email. You could either write or say something along the lines of:
I enjoyed meeting/speaking with you last week about potentially representing you in a [MATTER]. I shared some of my ideas about the case, and provided you with a representation agreement that I haven’t yet received back. I was just following up to see whether you have any questions for me or concerns that I might address.
Your follow up communication should take place three to four days after your meeting. If you follow up once, and either radio silence or stalling continue, you could try another round of follow-up. Any follow up after that point can become intrusive or stalkeri-sh.
In my case, I’ve picked up at least a half dozen clients over the years simply as a result of following up. Give it a try, and share your results in the comments section.
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Great points Carolyn. It can be really hard to overcome the mindset that you might be intruding on their day. I find it helpful to think about it from this perspective. This person has a problem that you can help solve. They’ve taken time out of their day to discuss it with you. As such the bar for irritation is much much higher than most attorneys think, and it’s probably more likely that they’re just normal busy people that haven’t had a chance to get back to you yet.
The number of times I’ve followed up with a potential client for the 4th of 5th time and received a “Thank you so much for following up, things have been so busy…” never fails to surprise me. And once it happens a few times, it makes that mindset shift so much easier.
One additional suggestion is to send a break up email to add some consequence to not getting back to you so that the prospective client doesn’t go on using your followups as reminders to get in touch, assuming you’re just going to keep sending them and that they’ll deal with it when the time is right.
Basically, on that last email, where you’re pretty sure things aren’t going in your direction, just send a quick email along the lines of
“Hi Bryan, I really enjoyed talking to you about and was really excited to get started. Since I haven’t heard back I’m going to take that to mean that your priorities have changed so I’ll update my records and stop filling your inbox.
If that’s not the case, send me a quick note and I’d be happy to pick up where we left off, but otherwise, I wish you the absolute best as you .
-Jane”
I completely agree. I’ve been both a client and the attorney, and I’ve worked outside of law for many years as well, which has given me a deep appreciation for business development skills (and the professionals who have them).
A couple of thoughts. Clients often get “stuck” after speaking with prospective counsel. They can’t decide what to do. So, they procrastinate. Following up with them can be a VERY helpful part of your service. They often appreciate it.
As a client, I typically use the question of follow ups part of the audition. If the attorney does not follow up with me, I will ding them, since it is a sign of generally poor customer service (and perhaps organizational) skills. There is nothing worse than hiring and getting embedded with an attorney and then finding out that they are deficient in these skills, which puts so much more burden on me as the client in trying to get the work accomplished on time and on budget.