Your firm pays to make the phone ring. What happens in the first conversation decides whether the caller books a consultation or calls the next firm. I score the calls you already have, find the moment each person loses the caller, and train it, with every legal question left to the attorney.
Most intake desks are trained to collect information. The caller is deciding whether to hire. Someone with a real problem, often under a deadline, calls three firms in an afternoon. The firm that makes the next step clear, in the caller's own words and without giving legal advice, books the consultation.
The caller says: "Before I book anything, can you just tell me what this is going to cost?"
"It really depends on the case. The attorney will go over all of that. Let us know if you would like to set something up."
The fee is dodged, nothing is asked for, and the caller is already dialing the next firm.
"Fair question. The consultation is [the firm's fee] and it covers an hour with the attorney, who will explain what the work itself would cost after hearing your situation. You said the hearing is on the 14th, so I would suggest Thursday or Friday morning. Which is easier for you?"
The fee is stated plainly, the caller's own deadline is used, the next step is a two-option question, and the case is never evaluated.
That gap is trainable. The words for every stage of the call are on the legal intake pages at jeffreyscottstanton.com, and this site is for firms that want it done on their own desk.
The words for each stage, whole calls, the nine most common concerns and the fee conversation by fee model are on the legal intake pages at jeffreyscottstanton.com.
Most firms already own a script and an objection document. They go unused at the moment they were written for, because a pressure moment on a call is not an information problem. Five patterns recur on intake desks: the Price Softener discounts the fee before the caller reacts, the Conflict Avoider ends with "let us know," the Planner prepares and never asks, the Back-Seat Specialist waits for the attorney to close, and the Reluctant Advocate feels pushy for suggesting anyone pay anything.
The R2R Assessment names which pattern each person runs, so coaching goes to the person and the moment instead of the whole desk.
Intake explains the process. Intake never evaluates the case. Every script is written inside four rules:
Read more on the line between intake and the attorney. Scope, plainly: everything on this site concerns the conversation that turns an inquiry into an engagement. Nothing here is legal advice, nothing touches the legal work or the attorney's judgment, and any wording a firm adopts is reviewed by the firm against its jurisdiction's rules on attorney advertising, solicitation and fee communication before it is used.
The sequence is on how it works. Hiring for the desk? See training for intake teams.
Intake coordinators, legal assistants and receptionists who take first calls, and the attorneys and managing partners who own the result. The attorney-led consultation ask is covered on the main site's lawyer intake sales training page.
No. The method asks for a clear next step, not a decision under pressure. Every call is scored on whether the caller was heard first, whether the fee was stated plainly, and whether the next step was asked for in the caller's own terms. The scorecard has no item for talking someone into a decision.
No. The boundary framework sets what intake always does, always uses and never touches, plus the exact hand-off line. Every script a firm adopts is reviewed by the attorney and against the jurisdiction's rules on advertising, solicitation and fee communication.
With the calls the firm already has. The call audit reviews recordings, transcripts and existing scripts, scores them on a 14-item scorecard and shows which of the five moments is losing consultations and which person on the team retreats at which moment.
By the same scorecard, applied to new recorded calls by person, and by consultations booked per intake person where the firm has reliable records. No result is promised in advance; what is claimed is what is measured.
It depends on the number of intake people, the number of calls reviewed and whether the work is an audit, a full program or ongoing scored review. The scope is agreed in writing before any work starts. Book a conversation to get a number for your firm.
Dr. Jeffrey Scott Stanton, DCH is a behavioral strategist and the founder and Chief Learning Officer of R2R Diagnostic Group. He is the former EVP of Learning & Development at Douglas Elliman Real Estate, where he trained sales professionals on the conversations that turn an inquiry into a commitment. He applies the same method, the R2R Assessment and a 14-item call-review scorecard, to law firm intake teams. The work is the conversation only; legal questions and judgment stay with the attorney.
More on the method, the scripts, the dialogues and the scorecard is on the legal intake pages at jeffreyscottstanton.com.
Send a handful of recordings or transcripts. You get a scored review of where consultations are being lost and which pattern is behind it, before anything else is built.