I have explained in previous articles that if you want to bill (or your want your fee earner to bill) £10,000 per month, you must know how many files you need to open each month to produce this billing target in a few months time (depending on your average client matter duration).
I explained that if your average bill is £1,000, you need 10 files opening each month but realistically 12 to allow for some drop off.
However, the number required to achieve those 12 files being opened is the more important number.
This is another one of those numbers that solicitors, before they speak with me, rarely know.
If you need to open 12 files each month, how many prospective clients do you need to speak with to 
generate this number?
This is really the only number that you must know.
If you convert one in three enquiries, you now know that you need 36 enquiries a month to generate your 12 new files. You also know that your conversion percentage is one in three, or 33%.
Whilst that might scare you as it is quite a big number, isn’t it better to know it than not? Maybe you have been operating blind until now, but when you know that number doesn’t it make life much easier because you suddenly have a number to work towards? You know where to start your train journey.
Thinking about that number, the conversion percentage of 33%, I can tell you from a lot of experience, that whilst that is not the worst conversion percentage I have seen, many of my clients achieve as much as 80% conversion, even in that allegedly price sensitive area of conveyancing (I say allegedly because my clients are never cheap – I won’t let them be).
So, my question now for you now that you know all of this is:
- What is your monthly billing target for you/ each fee earner?;
- How many files do they need to open each month to consistently achieve that billing target (or ideally beat it)?; and
- How many new enquiries do you need to receive each month to open the number of files from point 2 above?
Know these numbers as your starting point!
In my next few articles I will share with you some tips on how to improve your conversions, then how to increase the number of new enquiries that you receive every month. It’s going to be fun.
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