If you are aren’t connecting with potential claimants at each interaction then you are wasting your valuable resources. You could have the best lead, for the greatest case, but without that personal connection, you will lose it. The firm that connects – wins. In this series we examine ways that YOU can start winning more clients.
Reason #1: You Aren’t Building Empathy & Rapport
As with any type of profession, establishing a relationship with a potential client should always be the first goal of any business, including personal injury attorneys. In a world that is becoming ever more personalized and bespoke, every prospective client wants to be taken care of, personally. They want their needs addressed, and they want you to personally cater to them to ensure complete satisfaction. And frankly, why shouldn’t they want this? After all, when you’re looking for legal counsel, you want someone who is going to represent you and protect your best interests at all times. So, when it comes to converting new leads into clients, it is crucial that you follow these simple steps, now let’s analyze the first 2 steps.
Step 1: Showing Empathy
Above all else, empathy is the most important emotion that you could possibly show when communicating with a new lead, primarily ones that suffered an injury from an accident. We have to remember that you’re in the people business, and the people who are seeking your services have experienced injuries and in some cases- tremendous trauma. They deserve respect, and above all else, empathy.
They’ll come prepared with a plethora of questions, and it’s your job to put yourself in their shoes, understand the problems that they face, and provide them with the solution that they’re seeking. You need to empathize with your potential claimants, express to them that you care about what’s happened to them, and clearly communicate that you’ll be willing to do whatever you can to help them get back their life back to normal.
Step 2: Building Rapport
Remember, personal injury cases can take months or years to settle, in fact, any form of jurisprudence or litigation seems to drag on much longer than anticipated. This means that when you take on a new client, you’re in it for the long haul. This multi-month process should consist of several updates along the way, which consist of great opportunities to get to know your client.
That means you’ll want to find commonalities with your potential client, this should be done prior to and during the litigation of a case. You’ll want to begin building rapport right from the start and the best way to do it is to ask questions and find commonality. Listen to the client, hear them out, get to know them – and in turn, let them get to know you. Draw parallels to your own life or your own experiences and show your client that you’re a person too – just like them.
That wraps up part 1 of this 3-part series. We hope you begin to practice empathy with your leads each and continue to build rapport so that you can lay the foundation for a relationship that will last.
Stay tuned for reasons #2 and #3 in the coming weeks.
