If you didn’t love law, you wouldn’t run a law firm and yet let’s be honest: you won’t put in long hours every day for the love of the game; you do it to make money. Profit is the whole point of running a business, after all. It’s the raison d’être of every enterprise and so it always shocks me when entrepreneurial attorneys don’t understand incremental revenue.
When a business calculates profit, it does so by considering the number of units sold at a set price. The profit your firm generates is a function of the number of clients you serve. Incremental revenue refers to the increase in profit you would see by adding more clients. It is calculated by taking the value added by a new client and subtracting the cost of recruitment. Maximizing incremental revenue, then, is a matter of upping your ability to convert prospective clients into paying ones without upping the cost of doing so.
Who’s responsible for making this happen? Let me give you a hint: it’s not you.
Yes, you play a key role in client recruitment and retention but if you think you’re the main player in this game, you’re shooting yourself in the foot. Your team (of which you form a part) is your firm’s main driver of incremental revenue and so if you want to see your profit increase, you need to increase the investment you make in your team’s ability to do their job.
Let me illustrate this with a story.
A client of mine named Cristine recently came to me at her wit’s end. Her client service coordinator simply didn’t understand her role of “owning the calendar.” Cristina wanted solutions but, as it turned out, what she needed was a better understanding of the problem.
After much digging, we came to realize that the real issue was that Cristina didn’t grasp her client service coordinator’s value. She had boxed her in as a “non-revenue producing employee” when, in reality, this couldn’t be further from the truth.
Like all client service coordinators, Cristina’s CSC was responsible for booking calls with prospective clients. Each prospective client turned paying client meant an average fee of $5,000 for the firm. Hence, if Cristina’s CSC booked twenty calls in a month and eight of these translated into a new client, Cristina’s CSC would have generated $40,000 in increased revenue.
Does that sound like a “non-revenue producing employee”? No, I didn’t think so.
Great, you say, but how do I get my client service coordinator to bring in twenty prospective clients every month?
You teach them to, of course.
You can’t get the most out of your team without first investing in their success. While you might not have the time or expertise required to convert a mediocre employee into a rockstar, there are professionals out there who do (hint: you’re looking at one).
Law Firm Admin Bootcamp is a program designed specifically to transform employees into leaders and empower them to take control of their productivity. It is the only nationally recognized legal admin assistant 12-week live weekly intensive program and if more than 25 years of experience have proven one thing, it’s that it works.
To learn more, don’t hesitate to call me today!
