PIPELINE · ANALYSIS
The three weeks after the consult are a pipeline of their own
Every intake system has a board for new inquiries. Almost none has one for the people who consulted, heard the fee, and are still deciding. Those people are not leads and not clients. They are a stage with its own duration, its own follow-up, and its own number, and the firm that gives them a board is the one they come back to.
This is analysis, not data. How long people take to decide after a consultation is different by practice area and by firm, and we publish no figure for it. The point is to make the stage visible so your firm can see its own.
The board most firms are missing
The main pipeline runs from new inquiry to signed retainer, and a person who consulted and did not sign that week falls off the end of it. They are marked "unresponsive" or "lost," or they sit in Consult Done until the board is cleaned up. Meanwhile they are at home with a document, deciding. Some of them will decide yes in three weeks. Nobody is talking to them.
THE SECOND PIPELINE
What the check-in says
"Hi [name], this is [firm]. Still weighing your options? We are here if you have questions." That is the whole message. No deadline, no offer, no "we would hate to see you miss out," which is a Rule 4-7.15 problem addressed to someone deciding under stress. In Spanish: "Hola [nombre], le escribe [bufete]. ¿Sigue pensando en sus opciones? Aquí estamos si tiene preguntas." Once a month, until they answer or ask to stop.
By practice area
- Family law: the longest stage on the site. The threshold is three weeks, the check-in monthly, and the tone written for a person deciding about a marriage.
- Personal injury: the shortest. A retainer out more than three days is a human call, not a check-in, because the person is signing with someone this week.
- Immigration: often the person is ready and the documents are not. The card waits in the documents stage instead, with its own reminders.
- Criminal defense: rarely used. The decision is made in a day. When it is not, one check-in, then the card closes.
What the stage makes visible
How many people are deciding right now, how long they have been deciding, and which attorney’s consults produce the most of them. When a firm sees that one attorney’s retainers sit for three weeks and another’s sign in three days, the difference is usually the fee conversation, and it is fixable in an afternoon.
When they come back
A reply to a check-in, a click on the retainer link, or a call moves the card to Ready to Move and alerts the intake specialist, who calls that day. The retainer that signs after three weeks of silence is worth exactly as much as one that signed the same afternoon, and it cost one template a month.
Questions we get asked about this
Is the monthly check-in a solicitation?
The person consulted the firm and has its agreement; the check-in is a response to that open engagement process, and it asks nothing beyond whether they have questions. It stops the moment they reply, sign, or ask it to.
How long does a card stay on the second board?
Until the person signs, says no, or the firm closes it. There is no fixed cutoff, because a family law client who signs after a season is worth as much as one who signed the same day.
Related
See the second board
A 30-minute demo, with a card moving from Consulted, Not Signed to Converted to Retainer.