April 2007
The Power of Questions to Attract Perfect Clients
What kind of conversation do you have with a prospect before you use the closing statements I wrote about in Parker's Points this month? I recently had my own experience with an attorney that will give you some ideas.
My mother wanted to be sure that her condo in Florida was in my name. When she checked with the condo administrator she found there was a Quit Claim Deed dated 1990 on file that said just the opposite. The condo was taken out of my name and put in the name of both my parents.
The advice from the condo administrator was to get another Quit Claim Deed to make it in my name again. How could we do that? She directed us to the self help desk in the court house.
My mother is 93 and court houses are usually big and require lots of walking. She uses a walker so that didn't seem like something she could do. Besides I wanted it done correctly and we really didn't know what we were doing. I suggested we call a lawyer.
Reluctantly ("It will cost too much!") she agreed that I could make the call as long as I found out how much the fee would be first.
I called an attorney and asked him his hourly rate and an estimate of how much it would cost to file a new Quit Claim Deed. He asked these questions:
- Had I considered the impact of this change on my estate?
- Had my mother ever gifted me anything before?
- What affect would this have on my mother's taxes?
- What affect would this have on my taxes?
He added that he would tell me his hourly rate but he couldn't tell me how long it would take him. His questions showed me that this was more complex than we had originally thought. His final comment really resonated with me. He said he would only do the work if he was allowed to do it correctly. He wasn't interested in doing just the Quit Claim Deed unless he was satisfied that that was all we needed.
I was impressed with his questions all of which led me to the conclusion that if I wanted to get this taken care of I needed an attorney to do it. Since my parents and I have been pretty thorough about estate planning together, I decided to wait to look in my home file that contained both my mother's plan and mine.
It turned out that I had a deed done in 1990 with a date a month later than the Quit Claim Deed giving me the property. It seems my parents had originally done something by themselves (Sometimes "It will cost too much!" makes it cost more.) and then had a lawyer look at it. Whatever they had done, was not what they had intended to do. The attorney fixed what they did with the Quit Claim Deed and then created a deed in which the property was in my name. The problem was resolved then and we didn't need to do anything now.
If however there had been a problem, I definitely would have gone back to that attorney. The questions he asked made me see first that I had a complex problem and that he was someone who could handle this complexity. Second, I now realized that there were a lot of considerations for me and for my mother. What I needed was someone who could help us see the implications of making this change to other parts of our lives. Finally his closing statement told me the terms that he would accept my case. He left the ball in my court to call him.
Take Action
- Think about your discussions with a potential client. Clients don't always know what they need. Ask questions that help you to see the scope of the work and let the clients feel the complexity. Make a list of those kinds of questions now to get a sense of what they would be for your type of work.
- Clients don't think about the impact one change can have on other aspects of their lives or their businesses. Make a list of questions from your type of work that will help them to see this.
- Make sure you know who the decision maker is and find the influencers too. Ask questions that allow you to build a relationship with both the influencers and the decision maker. Make a list of these types of questions.
- What are your standards? How do you let clients know how to do business with you? Write a list of questions and statements to let clients know what it takes to work with you and helps you determine if the client is right for you. This helps you attract only those clients who are perfect for you and those who will respect you.
- Practice Advisors help attorneys to get clear on their standards, identify the critical questions to ask potential clients, and develop systems to support their client intake process. I have room in my practice for 2 more attorneys. Call me at 781-598-0388 to see if we are a match.