You do have a matter intake form, don’t you? If not, shame on you. It is a valuable tool in legal marketing, simply because it will tell you where your law firm’s business is coming from….and from where future business will likely come. Further, it will tell you where you should focus your lawyer marketing efforts, if you want to grow that type of business.
Bruce Allen at Marketing Catalyst has a great post on matter intake forms for a couple of reasons. Not only does he share questions that need to be asked so you know where your legal business is coming from, but also to gain intelligence relating to his desirability. That is, by talking to the lawyer about the new matter, management or the marketing partner will gain valuable information about whether the lawyer is interested in just this one matter or would like to pursue more of this type work. If the former is the case, then he or she is not likely to want to market to that sector…..and won’t. Important information to know.
Bruce’s questions are:
- How did you get this work?
- What was the referral source (if there was one)?
- What is the business of the client?
- What is the scope of their operations within California?(or wherever)
- How comfortable are you to work with this client or on this matter?
- Do you feel comfortable that this client/matter fits into your overall practice?
- Would you feel comfortable talking with partners in other practice groups about exploring additional business issues the client might be facing?
- Would you like to land more clients like this? Why?
Good stuff to include on the intake form itself, or in a conversation with the lawyer involved.