Selling legal services online is not a new concept, but many law firm owners struggle with doing it.
I’ve been thinking a lot about why that is, and this is what I’ve discovered.
Most law firm owners who want to sell a legal service online get very bogged down in the detail of how they’re going to deliver it.
They focus on the software they’re going to use, the technology and automation choices they need to make, the processes and systems that they need to get in place.
I know a lawyer who spent more than $900k building out the technology and systems he needed to sell a legal service online.
Unfortunately for him, he never got any clients through this online legal service, despite all that money he spent on it.
By comparison, there are a lot of lawyers successfully selling online legal solutions now.
The reason why they’re successful is they start out by focusing on the What and the Who.
They focus on What the online legal solution is, to ensure that it really meets a need…
And then they focus on Who they’re going to sell it to.
The benefit of doing it that way is, when they go out to the market with this concept, they’re able to get traction.
Traction builds momentum, which helps them to scale their law firms quickly.
That’s what I’m going to share with you today – a process you can use to create a legal product that you can use to grow and scale your law firm.
This is my five step framework for designing an online legal solution that actually sells.
Step 1: Set a Target
Before we even think about what it is you’re going to sell online, I want you to set some targets.
Think about why you want to create an online legal solution.
It’s not just ‘because’. You probably want to sell a legal service online because you want to grow your revenue, or free up your time, or help more people.
Whatever your reason is, let’s set some targets around that.
For example, what do you want your monthly revenue to be?
To work that out, you really need to think about your lifestyle and how much money you want to make, or how many hours you want to work each week, and things like that.
Think about those things and actually set some targets for yourself.
Like I said, the end goal is not to sell an online legal solution.
The end goal is to grow your revenue, create more impact for yourself, or to free up your time. Maybe even all three.
Step 2: Identify your ideal client’s problems
This is all about really getting to know your ideal client.
What you’re aiming for here is being able to articulate their problems better than they could themselves.
That’s when you become the expert in their eyes, and it’ll mean you’re able to create a really valuable online legal solution.
Because you’ll really understand what their pain points are, and you’ll have a solution for being able to help them.
So have a good think about your ideal clients’ frustrations and their fears and note those down, and think about how you can frame them to really resonate with that client.
Step 3: Look at the results your ideal client wants
So your client comes to you with a problem, and they want you to solve it.
They want you to get a result for them. What is that result?
Being able to articulate and understand that really, really well is really important.
If you’re not 100% sure, don’t feel silly about that.
A lot of lawyers feel like they should know exactly what their ideal clients want, but they’ve never really had to think about it before.
If that’s you, just accept that you need to do a bit more investigation there. That’s OK.
The best way to find that out is to just ask them.
Take a few ideal clients out for a coffee, pick their brains, talk to them about their fears and frustrations. Their wants and aspirations. What it is that they want.
For example, when you’re talking about conveyancing, clients don’t want to settle their conveyancing matter. That’s not the result that they want.
That’s legal speak for what you do for them.
What they really want is to purchase their dream home and move in as quickly as possible.
When a person is separating from their partner, what is it they really want?
They probably want a separation agreement signed, but they don’t think about it that way.
What they think about is probably something like being able to separate with as much dignity as possible, so they can move on and enjoy their new life.
Being able to explain that result in a similar way to how your clients would is really, really important.
If you can do that, they’ll look at your online legal solution and say, “Yes, this is for me, this is what I want.”
Step 4: Bridge the Gap
Now you know what your ideal clients’ problems are and what results they want.
Your online legal solution is the middle bit that takes them from that problem to the result they want.
When it comes to what your online legal solution is, usually it’s some sort of legal service you already offer.
There just may be an opportunity to package it with a few other things that are a part of bridging that gap from problem to result.
For example, when I had my online conveyancing solution for first home buyers, our solution was the conveyancing service.
But something we added in as part of the solution that our clients absolutely loved was what we called Claudia’s Rolodex.
We gave them names and contact details of mortgage brokers, building inspectors, valuers, bankers…all sorts of people in all sorts of areas they might need.
We knew that one of the big problems our clients had was they didn’t know who to call for the various services they needed, so we gave them that information.
We knew they didn’t always know how to communicate their needs to those people, so we also gave them email templates and things to say to those people when they contacted them.
That was just something we packaged in as part of the whole online legal service.
It’s not a legal service per se, but it was so popular because it really helped to take our ideal clients from their problem to the result they wanted.
Creating or designing an online legal solution is really all about bridging the gap between your client’s problem and the result they want, so it may not always be a legal service.
Step 5: Pick a Price
At this stage, all you’ve done is jotted down some bullet points about what your online legal solution is. OK? We haven’t built anything out yet.
One feature of an online legal solution is it does have a set price.
There’s no hourly billing here, the price is fixed.
You can do some tiered pricing if you want to, but that’s probably something for further down the track.
In terms of pricing and how you figure out what yours is worth, there is quite a bit of thought you have to put into that.
I’ve got another video called how to nail your law firm’s pricing that will help you.
So those are the five steps you need to design a scalable online legal solution that actually sells.
But remember, that is just the What.
Once you’ve done those things, it’s all about taking the What and pitching it to the Who.
You’re not building your solution yet. This is the $900k mistake that I mentioned hearing about before.
This is about pitching your solution to some of your ideal clients.
So once you’ve got the bones of this online legal solution, the best thing you can do is go out to 10 ideal clients and ask them if they want to buy it.
You’re aiming to get five people who want it, and five people who don’t.
If you can have five people want it, that’s a good sign that people will pay for your online legal solution.
You can feel validated and know that it’s worth putting your time and energy and money into building this online legal solution, and getting the technology and systems and processes in place to actually deliver it online.
If you don’t get five people to say yes, they would buy your online legal solution, then that’s not a definite indication that your solution is bad.
But you may need to refine or tweak the solution and go back and pitch it again.
You might be asking why you want to have five people say no.
The thing is with sales, there will always be people who say no. The quicker you can get used to that, the better.
But also, you can learn some really powerful information when people say no.
You can ask those people why they don’t want your online legal solution, and use that information to refine it.
Once you’ve asked those 10 people and you know there is definite interest in your online legal solution, then you can start to think about how you would deliver it online.
So there you go. Focus on the what, not the how.
And that will help you to create an online legal solution that sells.
Thanks for reading all the way to the end. For more tips and ideas on growing and scaling a modern, successful, seven figure law firm, sign up to my Savvy Lawyers Facebook group.
