2 Questions to Ask in Your Consultations

Let’s talk consultations. In other words, what is your sales process? In this article, we’re going to cover some big mistakes that we all make, not just lawyers, but even we at Spotlight Branding make when we’re talking about our services.

We recently got some advice from an attorney regarding our own sales process. It was a really great conversation and we turned them into some notes and we looked at it and when we were done and we realized we were sitting on a gold mine. So we wanted to share it with you all as well. 

Basically, the premise is that there’s really only two questions that matter when you sit down for a consultation. At this point, for any business, but specifically for lawyers and their consultations, you need to be asking the potential client: 

  1. “What do you already know about us?” 
  2. “What do you need to know in order to make your decision?” 

That’s it. Those are the two biggest questions.

A point that our lawyer friend made that was really good was that when she sits down with somebody, her goal isn’t to tell them everything she knows about that area of law, right? If somebody comes in and says, “I need a Will,” the goal isn’t to sit down and tell them everything that you know about creating Wills and trusts and estate planning.

The goal really should be to figure out what information they need in order to make a good decision. We don’t ask that question enough. We have our process and our things that we want to talk about. But all that’s doing is making the conversation about us and not them.

It’s making the conversation about, “Hey, thanks for making time today to meet with me,” instead of vice versa. You’re the one with the need instead of making time to see if you can help the other person with their needs. That happens because we make the consultation process about us and our agenda.

Sure, you’re likely asking clients for the backstory. You’re asking them for details, but are you really just coming out and asking them, “what do you already know and what do you need to know?”

There are a lot of times you’re probably giving them information that they don’t need to know or perhaps they already know. Look at your website. Maybe they were referred by someone else and that person gave them some information on what it’s like to work with your firm. So if they already know this information, find out that they know it so you’re not wasting their time or yours.

The flip side is, well, what do they need to know? That’s really the question where you’re identifying what’s important to them. That’s what matters more than anything else. Not your approach to the law, not what makes you so great or different from another attorney. Not even necessarily your pricing structure.

If they need to know something like that, tell them and if you’re out of their price range, then you both can save time and wrap up the consultation. So whatever they need to know, whatever is important to them, find that out. And then of course you can then answer those questions properly and speak to them.

It’s really that simple. Go into your next consultation with an attitude of “What do you already know about us?” and “What do you need to know in order to make a decision?” At that point, it really is the choose-your-own-adventure story.

That’s what you have to do. It’s really a choose-your-own-adventure. Let the potential client tell you the adventure, the direction that they need to go down, and then meet them there. That’s a winning combination for a consultation.

If you reach out to us and talk to us about our services, hopefully you feel like you got to choose your adventure in the conversation with us and you weren’t just following a presentation or a process that we make everyone go through. If you haven’t gone on that adventure with us yet, book your call today and let’s get started!

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Spotlight Branding

Spotlight Branding is a content marketing and branding firm for lawyers and other professionals. Our goal is to help you create an online presence that positions you as a credible expert in your field, keeps you connected with your network in order to stay top of mind and increase referrals, and to become more visible online so prospects can find you!