When it comes to marketing and sales for your law firm, it’s easy to get caught up in the numbers and the desire to land as many clients as possible in the shortest time.

As we reminded you in tip #153, you need to target the people you most want to work with—your ideal clients—to make the best use of your resources and achieve greater success.

But a big part of your sales process is also knowing how to deal with people you DON'T want to take on. That is, those who are NOT your ideal clients.

This week’s tip is to create a screening script for politely declining all work from anyone who isn't one of your ideal clients.

In last week’s post, we highlighted the importance of having a clear and consistent sales process that anyone at your firm can follow for incoming calls. An important part of this process is having a system that screens potential clients. You need to quickly identify and deal with those who aren’t the right fit for your firm.

Take, for instance, one of our clients who identified their ideal client in employment law as being a non-unionized employee. They need to screen all incoming potential clients to ensure they are not in a union, so they have built this right into their intake call process.

The intake specialist asks every caller if the potential client is unionized. She has a script to follow, and politely tells unionized callers that the firm doesn’t work on those matters. Then she immediately provides a referral to a firm they trust to handle that matter. Because she has a script, if she’s away, anyone can step into her shoes and handle calls the same way.

Your action item this week:  Create your script for politely declining everyone who’s NOT your ideal client, and create a list of firms you’re going to refer them to. Make sure you share that list with your entire team. Ideally, aim to create a reciprocal referral arrangement with those firms.

Whether or not your firm has a receptionist or intake specialist, just as with the sales process, it’s important that everyone follows the same procedure for answering and screening calls.

This small process change ensures lawyers do not waste any time on initial consults with clients they cannot serve, and that potential clients don't waste any time telling their stories to someone who can't help them. It's a win-win.

Clients will appreciate your effort to go the extra mile by providing a referral. They may even be more likely to consider you as their first option if the time comes when they do need the services you provide, or refer a friend or family member to you because you took the time to help them.