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How solicitors get clients: a 90-day plan

How your buyer buys: Nobody is searching for you. You go and find them.

People find a solicitor at a moment they would rather avoid: an offer accepted on a house, a death in the family, a marriage ending, a letter from an employer. They search for the work type and the town, read the first page, and ring or fill in a form at two or three firms. Most then instruct the firm that called back first and quoted the same day on one page.

A second group is sent. Estate agents and mortgage brokers hand conveyancing to a firm they trust to keep them updated; accountants and financial advisers pass on wills, probate and business matters. They check the Find a Solicitor entry and the reviews before they refer, and they keep referring to the firm that reports back at each milestone.

The SRA Code rules out unsolicited approaches to members of the public and asks that publicity is accurate. So there is no cold email or cold calling in this plan, and the COLP signs off every page. The order is: a named person on the phone and a callback inside the hour in week one. Then the one-page quote with follow-up on days 2, 5 and 10, the pricing page and a profile for each office. Then the service and town pages, the review link at completion, and the ten introducers.

Step zero

The free checklist, before the plan.

The checklist repairs what you already have: the phone, the profile, the booking path. This page is the plan for new work on top of it, and the two are different jobs.

The Solicitor's DIY Growth Checklist

The free checklist for solicitors and law firms: every repair to the phone, the profile and the booking path, as step-by-step actions. Sent by email.

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Where they look

Where your customers actually look.

  • Law Society Find a Solicitor(opens in a new tab)

    The search the public and the introducers are told to use. Areas of practice, offices, phone numbers and named fee earners have to be current, and each fee earner's page on your site links to their entry.

  • SRA register

    Where a client confirms the firm and the individual are regulated. The firm's SRA number and the regulatory statement in the footer, linked to the register, let the check take a minute.

  • ReviewSolicitors(opens in a new tab)

    The review site specific to law firms, which outranks most firm websites for the firm's own name. Claim the profile, send the link at completion, and reply to every review.

  • Lexcel and the Conveyancing Quality Scheme

    Law Society accreditations rather than directories. Lenders and estate agents look for CQS before they place conveyancing, so show both badges on the service pages and the quote.

  • Google Business Profile(opens in a new tab)

    Conveyancing solicitor or probate solicitor with the town ends on the map. One profile per office, category Law firm, secondary categories for the work you want, and the review link at completion lands here.

  • Estate agents, brokers and IFAs

    The introducers for conveyancing, wills and probate, with no website between you. One named person at ten local firms, an agreed way to introduce a client, and a progress note at every milestone so they keep sending.

Your year

Steady all year, so start now.

Conveyancing follows the spring housing market and family enquiries rise in January, while wills and probate run all year.

  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug: quiet
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec: quiet

Amber months are the peak, grey months are quiet, and "start" marks the month the visibility work has to begin in.

A law firm's year has no single peak, so there is no start-by month and the plan runs in its written order. Each department has its own rhythm. Conveyancing follows the housing market, with instructions rising from March as spring listings complete and a rush before the summer holidays. Family enquiries rise in January after the Christmas break. Wills and probate run all year. August and the Christmas fortnight are quiet across the board, with courts, agents and clients away. Use those weeks for the pricing page, the service and town pages waiting for COLP sign-off, and the coffees with estate agents and brokers who will be busy again by February.

The 90-day plan

Four phases, in the order that pays back fastest.

Each step names its channel, its cost band from the technique register, the effort it takes, and how long until the first enquiry or booking.

Week 0

  1. Answer the phone, text back missed calls

    Have a named person answer the main line in office hours, and text missed calls a callback time and a link to book a first call

    • Cost: £
    • Low effort
    • First result within a week
    In the bundle

  2. Reply inside five minutes

    Send forms, callback requests and emails to the one person who owns enquiries that day, and call back inside the hour

    • Cost: Free
    • Low effort
    • First result within a week
    In the bundle

  3. Sharpen the offer

    Lead with the work you want more of, in the client's words, and name the fee earner for each

    • Cost: Free
    • Low effort
    • First result in 4 to 12 weeks

Month 1

  1. Same-day quote, then follow up

    Send a one-page quote the same day, then follow up on days 2, 5 and 10

    • Cost: Free
    • Low effort
    • First result in 1 to 3 weeks
    In the kit and the bundle

  2. Published prices or bands

    Write the pricing page with a typical total first, then inclusions, exclusions, likely disbursements and VAT

    • Cost: Free
    • Medium effort
    • First result in 1 to 4 weeks

  3. Google Business Profile, complete

    Claim a profile for every office: Law firm as the primary category, secondaries for the work you want, each service and town listed

    • Cost: Free
    • Low effort
    • First result in 4 to 12 weeks

Months 2 to 3

  1. A page per service and per town

    A page for each service and main town, ending in a short callback form, after COLP sign-off

    • Cost: ££
    • Medium effort
    • First result in 8 to 16 weeks
    In the bundle

  2. Ask every client for a review

    Ask at completion with a direct link sent that day, and reply to every review

    • Cost: Free
    • Low effort
    • First result in 4 to 12 weeks
    In the kit and the bundle

  3. Trade and sector directories

    Check your Find a Solicitor entry and claim your ReviewSolicitors profile, keeping offices and fee earners current

    • Cost: £
    • Low effort
    • First result in 2 to 8 weeks

Month 3 onward

  1. Gatekeeper partnerships

    List ten local estate agents, brokers, advisers and accountants, and agree with one named person at each how they introduce a client

    • Cost: Free
    • Medium effort
    • First result in 8 to 16 weeks
    In the kit

  2. Ask for the referral at the high point

    In the completion message, say what else the firm does and who to ring if a friend or relative needs help

    • Cost: Free
    • Low effort
    • First result in 2 to 8 weeks
    In the kit

  3. Google Search ads

    Bid on the work type and town in office hours only, sending clicks to that service page

    • Cost: £££
    • Medium effort
    • About 1 hour a week
    • First result in 0 to 2 weeks
The cost of waiting

What doing nothing costs solicitors and law firms.

The leaks below are the ones the solicitors and law firms page already names. Put a figure on each, see what the fix gets back a month, and how many weeks the kit or the bundle takes to pay for itself.

Industry estimates, not client results

Industry-typical ranges for a small high street firm: conveyancing and private client matters in the low thousands blended with wills in the hundreds, about a third of enquiries instructing, and a minority returning with another matter inside the year.

Every number below is prefilled from that estimate and editable. Put your own figures in and the leaks, gains and payback recalculate as you type.

Your numbers

Further purchases per won customer in a year

Baseline revenue on these figures: £10,762 a month, counting this month's new customers and a twelfth of their repeat business.

Where it leaks

  • Drains enquiries

    Web enquiries sit in an inbox until someone has a gap

    Leaking now
    £2,691 a month
    Gain from the fix
    £1,614 a month
    The fix
    Missed-call text-back (about £325 one-off)
    Pays back in
    under a week

  • Drains close rate

    Quotes go out days later, as paragraphs instead of a page

    Leaking now
    £2,691 a month
    Gain from the fix
    £1,345 a month
    The fix
    Quote follow-up automation (about £700 one-off)
    Pays back in
    2.3 weeks

  • Drains close rate

    Nobody follows up a quote once it has been sent

    Leaking now
    £2,691 a month
    Gain from the fix
    £1,076 a month
    The fix
    Quote follow-up automation (about £700 one-off)
    Pays back in
    2.8 weeks

  • Drains enquiries

    Completed matters end in silence, not a review

    Leaking now
    £1,899 a month
    Gain from the fix
    £760 a month
    The fix
    Review engine (about £475 one-off)
    Pays back in
    2.7 weeks

On these figures

£9,971 a month leaking

Fixing every leak above gets back about £4,796 a month, with each leak counted on its own against the same baseline.

The Enquiry-to-Instruction System (£1,995)
Pays back in 1.8 weeks
The Solicitor Growth Kit (£49)
Pays back in under a week

Inside the 90-day window on these figures. Change any field above to test it against your own numbers for solicitors and law firms.

What matters most

The levers that carry the most weight here.

For a small firm four steps decide how many enquiries become instructions. Answering the phone, with a named person on the main line in office hours and a text on every missed call saying who will ring back and when. The first firm to call back is usually the one instructed. The same-day quote on one page, fixed fee or range with inclusions, exclusions and likely disbursements, followed up on days 2, 5 and 10 and then stopped. Published prices written for a worried reader, with a typical total first, because the firm that states the number gets the call from the person comparing three. And gatekeeper partnerships with ten local estate agents, brokers, advisers and accountants, each with a named person and an agreed way to introduce a client. Google Search ads on the work type and town, in office hours only, come after the service pages exist.

See every lever for solicitors and law firms in the register

Reading for solicitors and law firms

All insights
  • Read How small law firms win more instructions with same-day quotes
    Operations

    How small law firms win more instructions with same-day quotes

    Most enquiries to a small law firm wait hours for a call and days for a quote. A callback inside the hour, a one-page quote the same day, and a four-step follow-up turn more of them into instructions.

    18 September 20269 min readRead
  • Read The order to do things in: a client acquisition sequence for small UK businesses
    Marketing

    The order to do things in: a client acquisition sequence for small UK businesses

    Most small businesses try marketing in the order they hear about it. The order that pays back fastest is fixed: plug the leaks, sharpen the offer, get found, get known, go and ask, get referred. Here is what each step involves and how to tell which one you are on.

    10 October 20268 min readRead

If you would rather we did this for you

The same plan, built and run for solicitors and law firms: the phone, the profile, the pages and the follow-up, priced up front.

See what we build for solicitors and law firms

Not sure which step comes first for your business?

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