The $25,000 case of amnesia
Check this out:
A friend once told me about one of his clients — let’s call him “Alan.”
Alan had a SERIOUS problem.
He owned a large and successful personal injury law firm.
And since personal injury cases are a huge cash cow for attorneys, the competition for advertising is a knifefight.
In some cities, lawyers fork over $50, $80 or even $100 just to get someone to CLICK on their Google ad. That means it they’re paying hundreds of dollars get an appointment with a potential client.
What Alan really wanted was referrals. They’re the highest quality leads any business can get, and best of all they’re FREE.
Sadly, he didn’t get many referrals.
The number approached 0, in fact. Even though his clients were THRILLED with their settlements.
So Alan decided to figure out why.
He started calling his past clients personally to check in on them and ask if they’d consider referring him to their friends.
And he couldn’t believe what happened:
He’d introduce himself with “Hi, this is Alan from Alan Drayton and Associates, and…”
Click.
They HUNG UP on him.
Or started right in with “No, no thank you, we’re not interested.”
After a few of these, Alan wanted to grab them through the phone and scream —
“WAIT!!! don’t your remember me? I won you that $25,000 settlement a few months ago!”
That’s right: After just 6 months, 90% of his clients didn’t even remember his name.
The #1 reason that businesses lose customers and referrals is INDIFFERENCE.
It’s a cold reality that your customers just don’t think that much about you and your services. They’re too busy.
Then someone else comes along with an offer at the right time, and whoosh, “your” customer is gone.
That’s exactly what was happening to Alan.
He realized that there’s a fix for this, though:
Consistent follow-up.
He started sending out a regular newsletter.
The constant drip of useful and engaging content meant he was always top of mind when his past clients heard of someone needing a personal injury lawyer.
Today, he gets the majority of his business from referrals.
That’s the power of follow up.
What happens if your email list is long-forgotten and dead? Here’s a short guide to waking up old subscribers.
