Building Better Attorney-Client Relationships through Your Firm’s Sales Process - Matt Spiegel of Lawmatics

law firm lawmatics podcast sales process May 27, 2021

Many lawyers are stuck in the mindset that legal outcome is all there is to fostering client relationships. However, being a competent, reliable, and trustworthy lawyer also means providing a good client experience, which can make or break your firm's success. Thus, you have to see the whole process of engaging clients from a business and sales standpoint. More than anything, you have to be there for them at every step of the sales process.

In this episode, Lawmatics founder and CEO Matt Spiegel join us in a conversation about engaging clients in the entire sales process. He shares the journey behind building Lawmatics and his transition toward legal tech. Matt outlines the three phases clients go through in a law firm and the role automated marketing plays throughout this sales process. He also offers excellent points on KPIs and the importance of understanding metrics for law firms.

If you want to know how to improve your sales through Lawmatics process and boost your customer relationship management, then this episode is for you.

Here are three reasons why you should listen to this episode:

Learn the differences between CRM and practice management systems.
Discover the most critical KPIs and metrics for lawmatics in the sales process.
Find out why it’s crucial to provide a great client experience no matter the legal outcome.

Resources

This episode is sponsored by Smith.ai. Curious how you can use a receptionist service at your law firm? Download the Smith.ai free eBook: Are you Lawyering or Laboring? 7 Steps for Running a Highly Productive Law Firm with Virtual Receptionists.
This episode is sponsored by Get Staffed Up. Learn more at profitwithlaw.com/getstaffedup
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Episode Highlights

Matt’s Legal and Tech Journey

Matt is one of the lawyers who figured out how to get out of law, but it was accidental.
He practiced law for 4 to 5 years, first at a big firm and eventually his own practice.
After starting his practice, a client filed a bar complaint because he was not returning calls quickly enough.

Matt: “It was a complaint from a client who got me ultimately out of law.”

From that experience, he had the idea of building a system for better attorney-client communication.
This idea birthed MyCase, a full practice management system.

Building Lawmatics

After leaving MyCase in 2015, he delved into non-legal tech software.

In 2017, they saw an opportunity for Lawmatics. The idea around Lawmatics was something the market wasn't quite ready for from 2014 to 2015.

Lawmatics is one of the biggest legal CRM and marketing automation platforms that helps law firms’ sales process and marketing efforts.

CRM vs. Practice Management Software

CRM is a customer relationship management tool.

Matt prefers calling Lawmatics an intake management or marketing automation platform.

Practice management systems revolve around money, time, and billing.
CRM is about engagement, nurturing, and building relationships with existing and potential clients during the entire sales process — before and after the case.
Tasks centered around the actual case are more transactional rather than relationship building.

Three Phases Clients Go Through with a Law Firm

Phase 1: Intake phase
Phase 2: Active case
Phase 3: Case is over
CRM focuses on phases 1 and 3, while phase 2 is where practice management comes in.

Matt: “There'll be some components of CRM sprinkled throughout all systems like that, that maintain a contact, data, record. But really, CRM is so much more.”

Many law firms disregard the final phase. However, it is crucial for getting referrals and making sales.

The Need for Legal-Specific CRMs

Some of the critical reasons are cost, thought, and functionality.

Matt: “It's being complex, but not complicated, right? Lawyers require a system that is pretty easy to use.”

Having a team focused on building solutions for lawyers results in a unique product.
The specific functionalities that a legal-specific CRM has are not traditionally in a CRM. Listen to the full episode to learn more about these functionalities!
The legal market doesn't want to use different tools for different functions. It's better to have an all-in-one platform where they can accomplish everything.
The legal tech world is a small community; legal CRMs must be able to integrate other legal tools.

Lawmatics as a Law Firm Marketing Automation

Lawmatics has custom forms and a robust text messaging platform built upon the request of both clients and law firms.

From a marketing automation standpoint, Lawmatics focuses on direct engagement.

Lawmatics also has an internal custom reporting and scheduling platform built-in for a smooth intake flow and engagement.

Matt: “Using all these different automations and methods of communication to kind of facilitate the different mechanics that go into an intake process is just insanely valuable to your business.”

Bridging the Gap Between Automation and Human Interaction with Lawmatics

Messages can look highly automated from a client’s perspective.

Lawmatics worked hard on giving lawyers a tool to make automated messages not look automated.

Matt: “When you're building automation, it doesn't have to be an automated action; it can be automating a task for yourself.”

Lawmatics employ sequences in the intake process as a standard sales process strategy. Tune in to the full podcast to know more about these sequences in Lawmatics!

Moshe: “Sales is something also that you're not taught in law school. You're not even taught that in a law firm unless you're on the track for partner, and they're pushing you to be a rainmaker. But otherwise, you're not even involved in the sales process. So understanding what other businesses have to figure out early on when it comes to sales, it sometimes is very hard for our law firm owners to navigate.”

Lawmatics has a “salespeople” feature that growing law firms can enable to track how their salespeople are performing.

It's critical to frame everything through the lens of metrics that the business world has been functioning on for years.

The Biggest KPIs for Law Firms in the Sales Process

The most critical thing is to determine your conversion rates. You should have one for each step of the sales process.

Lawmatics provides predictive analytics on the estimated value of your cases and the expected revenue based on your close rate.

The two most critical metrics for law firms: cost per lead and cost per client.
If your cost per lead is more than the average revenue you make per client, you are a failing business.

When looking at these metrics, you have to break them down by marketing source. It’s the only way to find out what is working for you.

Matt: “The best funnel is actually a cylinder and not a funnel at all. But that's something for everybody to strive to get to, right? It’s to get to a cylinder instead of a funnel.”

Focusing on Client Experience

NPS or net promoter score allows you to figure out if customers are happy with your service.
All big companies in the world use NPS to take customers' temperature and evaluate their products and customer service.
Lawyers have a “You need me more than I need you” mentality.
Regardless of the legal outcome, the customer experience you provide during the entire sales process determines whether the client will refer business to you or not.

Matt: “It's not the result that they remember; it's the experience that they remember.”

You have to deliver delight to clients every step of the journey, from phase 1 to phase 3. Think about it in terms of NPS; scoring a 9 or 10 is the goal.

Piece of Advice for Law Firm Owners

Take a minute to not think about your law firm as a business.

About Matt, founder of Lawmatics

Matt Spiegel is the founder and CEO of Lawmatics, the leading attorney-client relationship management platform. Lawmatics provides law firms with client intake, marketing automation, and CRM to impress clients and make the sales process more efficient. He is an attorney who practiced criminal defense for five years and a serial entrepreneur with a proven track record.

Prior to Lawmatcis, he was co-founder and CEO of MyCase, a legal practice management software company acquired by AppFolio in 2012.

If you wish to get in touch with Matt, you may send him an email at [email protected]. You may also reach out to him on Twitter and LinkedIn.

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