What is Firm Performance?

What is Firm Performance’s Approach?

Our approach grew out of decades working with consumer‑facing law firms. We focus on a handful of key factors that allow for continued growth.

1) Intake Effectiveness

• Speed-to-lead must be under 5 minutes to be competitive
• Upper 90% conversion rate for all Potential New Clients:
• Initial contact rate,
• appointment set rate,
• intake completion rate,
• signed case rate
• Source attribution rate and cost per signed case
• Standard intake playbook and client experience score

Example of ideal intake standard: Initial inquiry from PNC at 12:07 p.m. through website contact form, first call from intake specialist at 12:09 p.m., intake conducted and completed by 12:39, electronic retainer sent by 1:00pm, Client retained shortly thereafter (same day)

2) Case Economics

• Mapped out average fee per signed case by practice area
• Case‑mix quality and quantity based on internal/external resources
• Cycle time from intake to disbursement/desired case outcome
• Return on investment calculations per marketing channel
• Profit/Loss calculation to determine level of profitable growth
• Audit of case flow to determine bottlenecks and inhibitors

A firm was spending 7 figures annually through a dozen marketing sources and channels. Attribution was a nightmare, but the firm was growing and signing more and more cases. So the budget kept going up. We started tracking what was working to contribute and what was just eating at the marketing budget. We ramped up the sources that produced and signed more cases for far less. The firm’s rate of return went way up and the cost of case acquisition plummeted for an ideal outcome.

3) Marketing ROI with Fiduciary Standards

• True, honest, unbiased numbers that tie to signed matters
• Attribution that survives scrutiny – first touch, last touch, assisted contributors
• Vendor accountability and full disclosure of spend, fees, and outcomes
• Clear tests with pass‑fail thresholds before scaling and spending more

Utilizing this 3-point checklist to determine if your vendor is working for or against you:

1. Determine what you pay your vendor (review of contracts, agreements and reporting)
2. Determine the outcome (signed cases are ideal with fee values)
3. Determine if they are being active or actually producing forward motion turning into cases signed to justify the cost.

4) Client Experience

• Determine what your brand or firm’s reputation is (using a Net Promoter Score is ideal)
• Track your client communication and case update frequency
• Evaluate expectations given to clients, if they are being met, and tracked in a case management software
• Provide escalation options to clients to avoid bad reviews and harmful damaging to your reputation
• Embrace swag gifts and thank you gifts to existing or prior clients
• Engage community involvement via social media

“Firm Performance was about to rework my client experience to focus on those that matter most – my clients. I am now receiving more referrals than ever before.”

5) Team Performance and Culture

• Hiring for values, culture and ideal team player. Training for skill and standard operating procedures
• Maximize individual discretionary effort without burnout
• Focus on training when errors occur while using quality control to ensure products and services are excellent
• Be a business others want to work at for many years – personnel and leadership alike

Although it is cliché to say, it starts from the top down, but it’s true. The leader continuously sets the example with every communication and interaction. It’s a way of life, not a one-time decision.

6) Financial Health

• Operating margin and cash conversion cycle
• Practice area financial budgets-to-actuals
• Pipeline forecasting: monthly, quarterly, annually
• Dedicated reserves
• Ideal vendor grouping

“We realized our cases were going up, our income was going up, but our profitability was dipping. We found we were taking low-quality cases and filling up our dockets. We thought we were working hard and making more money, but unfortunately, we were only working hard. That was a hard realization to face” – Law Firm Client.

6 Key Aspects of Firm Performance

1. Profit and Liquidity: healthy margins, predictable cash, clean books
2. Growth: more of the right cases (quality), not just more cases of low quality
3. Market Position: reputation, reviews, referrals, and local market share
4. Client Satisfaction: clear expectations, timely updates, consistent care
5. Integrity: ethical marketing, transparent reporting, vendor accountability
6. Team Health: smart, humble people, standardized processes, correct technology stack

JERRY WIGGINTON – CEO

Why Should You Hire Firm Performance?

• Better performance means better profitability, client experience and time utilization
• Managing partners earn time back and sleep better with honest numbers and predictability
• Internal teams feel proud of the work and stay longer
• Marketing spend becomes an investment instead of a financial risk

Firm Performance’s vision is to empower every client through three essential pillars:

1. Profitability: unlock and maximize revenue.
2. Efficient Growth: intelligently scaled operations with profitable sustainability.
3. Time Optimization: safeguard and direct time where it matters most.

The 10 Point Decision Matrix – How We Choose What To Do Next

Every major decision is cross-referenced by scoring it against ten factors. If a choice only earns a few positive confirmations, we advise against it. If the majority are clearly favorable, then we green light the project while tracking success through reporting.

1. Financial impact
2. Efficiency gains
3. Personnel readiness
4. Future growth potential
5. Client experience improvement
6. Technology and systems fit
7. Reporting and visibility
8. Data sufficiency
9. Vendor politics and conflicts
10. Loyalty and history that should be honored or re negotiated

What Does Firm Performance Actually Do?

• Diagnose intake, marketing, operations, reputation, online footprint, profitability of the firm, vendors, technology stack, and reporting
• Build scripts, schedules, and follow up sequences that are humanized with empathy
• Implement dashboards with true numbers you can trust
• Train team members and hold vendors to fiduciary level of responsibilities
• Continuously evaluate the firm reputation with reviews, referrals, online citations