Who's Handling Your Client Intake?

One of the questions I’m asked frequently is how do you create an efficient and effective client intake system? And how do you hire someone who can handle this so that you can convert more of your client intake calls? Today we’re going to talk about client intake and what you need to do to improve your sales process.  In this episode we discuss: The three components of the ideal person to do your intake. Acknowledging the importance of the intake person’s effectiveness for the success of your business. Training the right intake person through demonstration to optimize their performance. Setting goals based on metrics to continually increase production. Using recordings (if you are allowed in your state) to provide feedback for both praise and improvement. Overcoming the discomfort of knowing you are being recorded. The influence that pace, volume, tone and the ability to listen have on your intake conversations. Balancing the conversation of scheduling a consultation with the sincere expression of empathy. Bio: Allison C. Williams, Esq., is Founder and Owner of the Williams Law Group, LLC, with offices in Short Hills and Wall Township, New Jersey.  She is a Fellow of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers, is Certified by the Supreme Court of New Jersey as a Matrimonial Law Attorney, and is the first attorney in New Jersey to become Board-Certified by the National Board of Trial Advocacy in the field of Family Law. Ms. Williams is a member of the New Jersey Board on Attorney Certification (NJBAC) – Matrimonial Committee, a New Jersey Supreme Court committee that determines eligibility of candidates to be certified as a recognized practitioner in the field of matrimonial law. Ms. Williams has been named a Rising Star Attorney by the New Jersey Super Lawyers franchise continuously from 2008 – 2013, and has been named a Super Lawyer by that organization for 2014 – 2019. In 2016, she was featured in the Super Lawyers publication (Williams v. The Rubber Stamp), she has been named one of the Top 50 Women Super Lawyers in New Jersey from 2017-2019 and in 2019, was voted in the Top 100 Super Lawyers in the State of New Jersey. Ms. Williams is an accomplished businesswoman. In 2017, the Williams Law Group won the LawFirm500 award, ranking 14th of the fastest growing law firms in the nation, as Ms. Williams grew the firm 581% in three years. Ms. Williams won the Silver Stevie Award for Female Entrepreneur of the Year in 2017.  In 2018, Ms. Williams was voted as NJBIZ’s Top 50 Women in Business and was designated one of the Top 25 Leading Women Entrepreneurs and Business Owners. In 2019, Ms. Williams won the Seminole 100 Award for founding one of the fastest growing companies among graduates of Florida State University. In 2018, Ms. Williams created Law Firm Mentor, a business coaching service for lawyers.  She helps solo and small law firm attorneys grow their business revenues, crush chaos in business and make more money.  Through multi-day intensive business retreats, group and one-to-one coaching, and strategic planning sessions, Ms. Williams advises lawyers on all aspects of creating, sustaining and scaling a law firm business – and specifically, she teaches them the core foundational principles of marketing, sales, personnel management, communications and money management in law firms.  She received her B.S., magna cum laude, and her M.S., summa cum laude, from Florida State University. She received her J.D., cum laude, from Syracuse University College of Law.  Snip-Its: 00:03:52 (35 Seconds) It is not sufficient that you get a really likable person who's kind of just going through the motions of doing whatever it is that you ask them to do. Not saying that this person has to be someone who's going to set the world on fire. But you have to expect that a person who is in this role, who's going to be front facing forward, client facing most of their time, they have to be the kind of person that enjoys talking to people. They need to have the type of personality that engages through the phone because most of our sensory information comes in through our eyes.   00:07:31 (40 Seconds) But before you even get to the point of getting them to selling, you have to have the right mindset for what they're doing on the phone. And one of the things that we found in the industry of looking at people that are successful with intake is they are naturally inquisitive people. That means they are going to naturally be oriented toward asking questions and figuring out what's going on and digging deeper beyond the surface of what they're told, because if they take at face value everything that a person says on the phone before that person gets into your office, you will oftentimes have a glut of people to meet with who are just not appropriate prospects for your office whatsoever.