How Many Leads Does It Take to Get a Client?

Every lawyer understands that generating leads is critical to the success of their practice. But those leads won’t do you much good if you can’t convert them into paying clients. Not every lead will be someone who is ready to sign on with your firm. So, how many leads does it take to get a new client? Here is some insight that may help. 

What is Considered a Lead?

A “lead” is a prospect or potential client for your law firm. In the simplest terms, it’s someone with a legal issue relevant to the services you provide who is interested in learning about how your firm can help solve their issue and has somehow shared their contact information with you. 

A lead isn’t just someone who shows up in your office for a meeting. Ideally, you’ll be able to convert a large percentage of those people to clients. Instead, a lead is anyone who has interacted with your firm, online or offline, who hasn’t done business with you previously. 

Law Firm Lead Generation Methods

Getting qualified leads can be a significant challenge for law firms. Fortunately, your law firm can employ several effective lead-generation methods. 

• Website: An SEO-optimized website can drive traffic to landing pages and blog content to build brand awareness and educate consumers about your firm’s services. 
• Social Media: Social media posts and regular interaction on social platforms can prompt prospective clients to make an initial contact. 
• Referrals: Networking with other professionals and delivering outstanding service to your current clients can drive valuable referral business. 
• Paid Ads: You can pay for ads on Google or social media platforms, which can be costly in competitive markets. 
• Pay Per Lead: A pay-per-lead program delivers affordable and vetted legal leads to your law firm in over 55 practice areas. 

How Many Leads Does It Take to Get a Client?

If you’re wondering how many leads it takes to close a new client, Martindale-Nolo sought to answer that very question. Using a survey of 1,557 new law firm clients, we determined that it took an average of 13.4 leads to produce a new client. 

However, not everyone’s experiences were the same. Specifically, attorneys who responded to leads faster and followed best practices retained their first client faster. 

It’s also important to understand that some practice areas will have different results. In other words, the sense of urgency may be greater for a person who needs a criminal defense attorney than for someone searching for an estate planning lawyer. 

Ways You Can Boost Your Client Conversion Rate

Lead nurturing is equal parts science and art. It’s not something most people figure out organically, but following some best practices can make your sales conversion process more efficient. 

1. Respond Immediately

Believe it or not, the attorney who responds first may be the one who wins a client’s business. When someone is struggling with a legal issue, the last thing they want is to be put off when they’ve reached out for help. 

In Martindale Avvo’s “Understanding the Legal Consumer 2023″ report, one of the top reasons respondents gave for not hiring an attorney was “[they] did not respond.” In fact, 80% of legal consumers will look elsewhere if they don’t hear back in 48 hours. The best approach is to respond to an inquiry as quickly as possible, ideally within minutes. 

2. Build a Proper Sales Funnel

Most consumers go through a process when purchasing, and legal consumers are no different. You’ll want to construct proper interactions and content for prospective clients as they pass through each stage of the legal marketing funnel or sales funnel. 

This funnel, which is wide at the top and narrow as you may your way toward conversion, nurtures people through the stages of awareness, consideration, and conversion. During each stage, you have the opportunity to build trust and demonstrate why your firm is the best choice.

3. Automate the Process

Part of guiding a prospective client through the sales funnel is consistent and persistent follow-up through a variety of methods, like phone, text, and email. Yes, this sounds tedious, but you can automate the process by setting reminders. 

A legal CRM solution allows you to keep track of the details of each lead and follow-up appropriately. For example, you can set up automated texts, auto email replies, or manual reminders to give the client another call. 

4. Outsource Lead Follow-up

It wouldn’t be shocking if legal marketing and lead nurturing weren’t your strong suit. After all, you went to school to practice law, not become a salesperson. Fortunately, you can set some of your budget aside to focus solely on nurturing leads. 

This is a task you can outsource or assign to someone on your staff. You’ll want to make sure whoever is handling your lead follow-up is doing the job efficiently, consistently, and professionally. 

5. Track Your Results

How will you know what your firm’s lead conversion rate is if you aren’t tracking your results? Lead conversion metrics help your business objectively measure the success of your marketing team’s efforts to generate leads and convert them into paying clients.  

Your firm’s lead-to-sale conversion rate measures your effectiveness in converting a lead into a client. The formula is (Converted Leads/Total Lead Volume) x 100%. So, if you generated 100 leads and converted eight to new clients, your lead conversion rate is: (8/100) x 100% = 8%. 

The number of leads it takes your firm to get a new client will depend on the quality of the leads and how you nurture them. If you’re looking to take your lead generation to the next level, Martindale-Avvo can help. 

With our industry-leading tools and experience, we can provide you with the solutions you need to connect with potential clients. Learn more about our lawyer marketing services that convert prospects into clients.