When It Comes to Legal Leads, Time Machines Are Useless.

Just in case you missed the omnipresence of this on the internet, the world recently celebrated “Back to the Future Day” marking the day that the fictional Marty McFly jumped into the future in Back To The Future II. It was a day that signified two important things. First, it demonstrated the love people have for those films. Second, it terrified all of us who scratched our heads and wondered where the hell 30 years just went. (I suppose there’s a third subset of people who are angry that we still don’t have flying cars or the ability to “re-hydrate” a pizza.)

That silly, fun event led me to a minor epiphany about the legal sales lead business. In this industry, where time is so crucial, a time-traveling DeLorean wouldn’t help a bit. If you go back in time, a legal lead’s actual need and sense of urgency won’t exist. If you go too far into the future, the odds you’ll miss the opportunity to make the sale increase dramatically.

Now, I suppose there’s an argument to be made that one could take said time-traveling DeLorean into the future to see if another attorney is successful in representing a legal lead and, if not, one could come back to the present and offer proof that the lead needs a better lawyer. However, that seems like an awful waste of plutonium and time, so for the love of Einstein stop over-thinking this like I did and stay focused.

We make a lot of noise at 4LegalLeads about the fact that our leads are “Real-Time” for the same reason DeLoreans are useless to us. The present is everything, and legal lead response time is essential to closing the sale with a potential client.

Part of it has to do with competition and the need to be first to the finish line.

Another large part of it is an intangible, emotional issue that doesn’t always get the credit it deserves. It takes a lot for someone to reach the point where they say “I need help.” That vulnerability and openness only lasts so long before it hardens into something else.

This is all common sense stuff, but it does help provoke action when we see real numbers attached to the idea.

How far into the future is too far?

There’s a classic study by Dr. James B. Oldroyd of MIT conducted in 2007 for a company called Inside Sales still circulating the internet. It offered some powerful, statistical wake-up calls about the need to respond quickly to sales leads. Oldroyd found that from a 30 minute response time to a 5 minute response time, the odds of contacting a lead went up 100 fold.

You can imagine how drastically the odds go down past 30 minutes. I mentioned these stats to a sales professional friend of mine just yesterday, and he nearly choked to hear how fast a lead response truly needs to be.

Further study by Dr. Oldroyd published in the Harvard Business review in 2011 found 37% of companies responding to leads within an hour, 16% within 24 hours, 24% more than 24 hours, and 23% never responding at all. The average lead response time of companies who actually respond within 30 days was 42 hours.

And, lest we think we are a species who learns from its mistakes, a less optimistic article in Forbes in 2012 estimated that companies waste 71% of their leads. A follow-up study published by Inside Sales in 2014 found that 47% of companies studied did not respond to a lead at all, and the average response time was now 61 hours and 1 minute.

The same recent study drums up a few other shocking stats. 70% of companies use email as a first response to a lead instead of the phone, missing out on an infinite number of possibilities for qualifying the lead and building a real relationship with the prospect.

Furthermore, most companies only tried once to reach potential leads, while in an interview of industry leaders with Hubspot in 2014, an average number of 6-8 attempts over a variety of media were recommended.

Real-Time leads are a must. At 4LegalLeads we offer text alerts as well as email to help close the response gap.

It’s worth asking a few key questions for your organization...

How impressive is it to a legal lead to receive a rapid response?

How much care and concern does it convey?

How can your office, regardless of its size, improve its response time to legal leads?

Who can make at least an initial touch with the lead, even if professionals with answers are tied up with work?

If you can close the gap to an hour you’re already at the very top of the game, if you can go even further you place yourself in an elite class statistically and stand to see a great deal of growth in income.

Sadly, a time-traveling DeLorean is useless here. (Unless – hear me out – you travel to the future and obtain a sports almanac with which you can return to the present and clean house in sports gambling, eliminating the need for your legal practice and – again I may have strayed from the path here.) However, a few key, operational changes can help your legal firm live more in the present and make the most of the leads you’re paying for.

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(Since 2001 4LegalLeads has specialized in delivering prospective legal clients to the industry through targeted legal leads. All of our legal leads are exclusive, real-time, and are actively seeking legal help. We handle all lead tracking to final delivery, insuring the highest quality. Advanced targeting options combined with our powerful Backoffice Distribution System help grow legal businesses to the next level. Learn more at 4LegalLeads.com. (888) 444-3884 – sales@4legalleads.com)

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