Nearly every business owner thinks about how to bring in more clients. It’s always a bummer when we spend marketing time, energy, and money only to find out the prospective client ghosted us (i.e. – stopped responding to our calls and emails) or went with somone else. Why does this happen? More importantly, how can this be prevented in the future? Are there ways to bring in a higher number of prospects and convert them to clients at a higher rate? We hope to shed light on these questions in this article.

Sometimes we probate attorneys will communicate with prospects and offer wills/trust and estate planning services with the simple hope that the administration will consider us for their probate needs when the time arises. However, it can be frustrating when we schedule multiple meetings with prospects and many of them either fall through altogether or never move forward after the presentation. Yet, even though there is no guarantee our prospects will choose our firm there are things we can do to provide greater value and therefore increase our odds of success.

Mourning Services, LLC not only provides services to probate clients, in order to make the probate process smoother, but we also provide greater value to your firm by helping grow your business through referrals. Often, we receive inquiries from prospective clients who are in need of our services due to their needs surrounding the death of a loved one. Sometimes the prospective clients will request a referral for a good probate attorney, and we will be able to provide them with a referral from our network. By using our services, your firm can be included in our network and become a potential referral source we can provide to prospective clients.

Since our services reach many different areas, we will promote your business to a wide range of people simply through our contacts and by providing our services that relate to probate work.

In addition, here is an overview of how our services can help you reach new prospective clients:

1. Real Estate Agents and Brokers
When a person passes away, it is sometimes preferred that the properties are sold, and the assets are to become a part of the estate to divide among the beneficiaries. However, often people are not aware that their property needs to be probated before it can be sold and will try to sell the property and handle the division of assets on their own. The family will first try to sell the house by finding a real estate agent or broker who will list the house on an MLS or other real estate finder and will be notified at closing the deed to the property cannot transfer without probate.

We provide virtual property showings at Mourning Services, LLC and work in conjunction with real estate agents and brokers to help list the property for sale. This process helps to assist out of state beneficiaries get a better sense of the property’s condition. If we notice the prospective clients are not represented by an attorney, we are able to provide a referral and save them the time of waiting to find out the property title cannot be transferred until closing. This saves both the prospective clients time and money and can help you build your business with a new networking source.

2. General Contractors and Subcontractors
Similar to real estate agents and brokers, general contractors and subcontractors are often hired after a person has died in order to provide rehab estimates and make improvements to the property to increase the value or prepare to sell. These general contractors and subcontractors may be hired directly by the beneficiaries or we may help connect the beneficiaries as part of the many services we offer. Due to the services we have provided to our former clients we have an extensive network of skilled contractors and subcontractors who can help. If the beneficiaries decide to hire the general contractors and subcontractors to begin renovations on a deceased’s property, the general contractors and subcontractors we work with will know to mention the services we can provide them during their mourning process. Once we receive a referral from the contractors, we can then refer them to an appropriate probate attorney in our referral bank if we deem it will be a good fit.

3. Storage
There are two ways we work closely with storage companies: 1) we secure the storage company to move the deceased’s belongings to a secure location, and 2) the storage company has a storage unit which was rented by the estate and for which we were hired to assist with moving and organizing the belongings. Typically, we will find potential probate clients when we are hired to assist with the latter.

By marketing our services to storage companies, we are opening up our business to people who may have never thought to contact a probate attorney or us directly. The storage company will then facilitate connecting the prospective clients with us in order for us to assist them with moving their loved one’s belongings to or from the storage unit. When we do an intake of this prospective client, we are able to determine whether the person is represented by an attorney and if it would be the right referral to send to a firm within our preferred attorney list.

4. Appraisers
As all probate attorneys are aware, property appraisers are one of the most commonly utilized services during the probate process. Appraisers are available to evaluate a deceased person’s real estate or other valuables. These appraisers are relied upon by probate attorneys to provide the court with accurate property valuation data when disclosing the value of the estate.

Part of the value we offer at Mourning Services, LLC is in securing appraisals of real property (and valuables) and disclosing this information to the probate attorney for use by the court. Additionally, appraisers may be contacted directly by the beneficiaries before a probate attorney is hired. If we receive referrals for additional services from our network of appraisers, we can send the unrepresented clients to our approved network probate attorneys.

There are of course many other non-legal services that are often needed by estate planning and probate attorneys. If you or your firm have become overwhelmed with these kinds of tasks to effectuate the probate of a deceased’s estate, it may be time to consider delegating those non-legal tasks to a professional and trust-worthy company. Our employees at Mourning Services, LLC are here to help you and your clients while ensuring the probate process is a stress-free and efficient process. Contact us today to learn more about how we can help you build your book of business. We are here to serve your clients with compassion and integrity.