A key frustration many lawyers have is the fact that they don't manage to grow their practices as much as they want or hit any revenue targets they set themselves.

And for many lawyers, this boils down to one key point…

Lawyers that don't know their sales funnel will always find it hard to win new clients or hit their sales targets!

With the latest legal services regulations and increasing competition kicking in, it is not enough to simply be a great lawyer and hope people will find you.

You now have to think more about creating seamless marketing and sales processes and know how to create sales funnels that combine offline, online and social media marketing in order to get new clients.

So, what problems do lawyers typically face if they don't know their sales funnels, or the marketing they need to do to get leads into the top of their sales funnels?

Here are just a few:

• Setting revenue targets for themselves that are unrealistic and which might be based on looking at historical trends instead of thoroughly analysing what is actually happening in their law firm;
• Inconsistent marketing activities that are not really coordinated or that are simply created to ‘raise awareness' – by the way, raising awareness is normally a result of failed lead generation activities;
• Not setting enough time or money aside to invest in marketing or sales;
• Almost total reliance on networking events or referrals (which is good by the way) to get new business. The problem here is that this is reactive, whereas lawyers should have something in place that is more proactive and which they can control more effectively;
• Not mapping out the experience prospects have for each contact made once they make initial enquiries;
• Not making it easy for prospects to create connections with lawyers via social media, thus missing the opportunities that result from searches made via social media channels.

I could go on – but the main point is this…

Lawyers need to create and know their sales funnels, map out each stage within these and be clear about the desired actions they want prospects to take at each stage using effective offers or calls to action.

When I talk about knowing your sales funnel, this is what I am referring to:

1. What are your lead legal services, and what information do you have about their margins, cost per lead, cost per sale?
2. What upsell or cross opportunities do you have from your lead legal services? What is the current margin, cost per lead or cost per sale for the new products you want to upsell or cross sell?
3. What legal services do your key customers tend to buy first?
4. What legal services are they interested in once they buy your lead services?
5. What steps do you and your colleagues take prospects through before they finally become customers?

If you want to stop living in hope and not rely on what happened last year to determine what your legal services practice might actually look like, then you need answers to all these questions.

You also need to have your sales funnel mapped out (check out future blog post on this) so you know what activities take place from one step to the next – from lead generation right through to the final sale.

So, here are a few tips to get you started on creating your ideal sales funnel for you legal services practice:

1. Who are your ideal customers? What is their profile? Do you know where they look for information? Do you know how they make purchase decision?
2. What do you want your customers to buy first? Why? What value are you giving that will compel them to buy what you want them to buy?
3. What do you then want them to buy as an upsell or cross-sell opportunity?
4. What offers will you run to generate interest in your legal services, followed by the upsell and cross-sell services?
5. What boundaries / limits do you have for any offers? Once you are clear about this, you can then run your offers.

Most successful law firms that generates leads effortlessly have gone through these steps in one way or another.

Those that then use social media channels to support the creation of their ideal sales funnels and build positions of authority within target niches are more likely to be happier with the results they get than those that simply jump on the social media circus.

Social media only works if the fundamentals regarding lead generation, prospect nurturing and client experience are well thought-out. You need a system in place to succeed, so that you can replicate what works well, automate certain steps and, more importantly, measure what you are doing.

Having 1,000 followers on Twitter is not the end game. Knowing that 100 prospects have signed up to a key step within your sales funnel (e.g. a seminar that upsells them to your legal services) as a result of your social media communications or newsletter is much more useful.

So, whether you like it or not, you need to know your sales funnel if you want to know what to improve in the first place as you build your ideal legal services practice.