Five Easy Steps To Get Clients To Respond To Funding Requests

Strategic Outsource Services, LLC provides estate planning and elder law practices with an alternative to the costs of full-time employees. Outsourcing gives you the opportunity to cut costs and free up more time.  Founder, Susan Dachs, has years of professional experience supporting law firms with trust funding. 

Today Susan joins our blog and provides "Five Easy Tips to Get Clients to Respond to Funding Requests:"

During my many years working with clients to get their trusts funded, I have learned a lot about getting them to respond to my funding requests. Here five easy tips that will help:

1.     PICK UP THE PHONE!  I can’t say this enough.  You have a much better chance of getting the information from your clients over the phone than you do if you expect them to open your letter or email, go find the info you asked for and then reply to you.  Life will get in the way every time, and your request will get lost in the shuffle.  If you need an account number or a value of an account, pick up the phone, call them and ask them to set the phone down and go get you the info.  Your client will be happier because you made it easier for them, and you will save time, frustration, letterhead, envelopes and postage!

2.     Get all the info together ahead of time.  Put in the extra time and effort to get all company-specific forms together in ONE package for the client.  Many law firms, because they are pressed for time, simply prepare law firm instruction letters for the client to sign and then wait for the companies to reply with a request for their specific form.  This creates a constant stream of additional paperwork for the client to sign and return to you.  Not only does it slow down the process, it frustrates the client.  Start a file of company-specific forms.  Put in the extra time and effort to call in advance and obtain any forms you do not have so you can then have the client sign everything in one shot. 

3.     If you mail something to a client to sign, put a sticky note OVER the signature line if a notary or any other signing method is required.  I can’t tell you the number of times a client sees a Sign Here tab and signs away, without reading your note to have the signature notarized.  If you place your note OVER the signing line, it forces the client to read it before signing.  Simple, but effective.

4.     Be specific!  If you send a request to a client, be very specific about what you need.  For example, rather than sending a reminder letter to a client saying “please forward us any mail you have received from your financial companies,” ask them to “please forward to us any mail you have received from Fidelity, Charles Schwab or Smith Barney – we are waiting for information from them.”  Specific company names stick and resonate with a client when a general request doesn’t.  A client is more apt to think “Aha! I DID get something from Fidelity the other day” rather than setting your letter to the side to “check into it later.”

5.     Always use a local contact.  If your client has a local contact or advisor, that is who you should go through for the funding request.  The local advisor is often listed on the financial statements, or you can directly ask your client.  Even if the advisor instructs you to mail items to the regional office, you can always contact them again if you are not getting a response.  Advisors want to look good and provide good service to their clients.  Helping you is a great way for them to show their clients their value, and it makes your law firm look great too.  So, you are subtly marketing at the same time. 

Strategic Outsource Services uses a specific funding process called The Pit Bull Funding Follow Up System™ that produces quick funding results; however, these five tips alone will help you get clients to respond to your requests even within your current funding process. 

If you simply don’t have time to properly handle your firm’s funding, contact us to discuss outsourcing your funding to Strategic Outsource Services.  We typically complete funding within 45 days for a pre-determined price, so no matter how much follow-up is required to complete a file, your cost stays the same!  Get more information about our services at www.outsourcesolution.net.

Blog post contributed by Susan L. Dachs, Director of Operations of Strategic Outsource Services LLC.