You have a list of prospects, don’t you? These are people who get your newsletter or ezine, who read your blog, or with whom you otherwise communicate on a regular basis.

Some will hire you. You don’t have to say or do anything special. When they are ready, they will call.

Others will never hire you. No matter what you say or do. It doesn’t matter why they won’t hire you, that’s just the way it is. They can help you in other ways: referrals, traffic to your web site, Likes and follows.

Then there are the “maybes”. They may hire you, they may not. The fence sitters represent the biggest potential for you. What you say and do can influence them to get off the fence.

How do you get more people off the fence and dialing your number?

One way is to make an offer. Something that compels them to act.

One of my subscribers sent me the ezine he sends to his list. In it is an offer he makes to the “new clients” who lurk on his list. His offer: “Mention this newsletter and we will credit one hour of billable time against your first monthly invoice.”

Simple. You have to become a new client to take advantage of the offer. From the attorney’s perspective, it’s certainly worth one hour of credit to get someone to become a first time client.

Is he giving away that one hour credit to people on the list who would hire him anyway? Yes. But it doesn’t matter. It’s small potatoes. He earns much more by getting the fence sitters as new clients.

But let’s be honest, a one hour credit is only mildly enticing to someone who might have to pony up $10,000 or $20,000 to hire you. It’s not going to get someone who isn’t ready to hire an attorney off the fence. What it might do is get someone who is ready to hire an attorney to choose you instead of any other attorney.

You must assume that yours isn’t the only newsletter your prospect reads. If you’re the only one offering a one hour credit to new clients, however, when the fence sitter is ready to hire someone, it could tip the balance in your favor.

For prospects who aren’t ready to hire an attorney, you will have to do more than offer a one hour credit. How do you convince someone who isn’t ready? I’ll cover that tomorrow.