Excerpted from SEAK’s course, “How to Start, Build, and Run a Successful Disability and File Review Practice”
What does work is not telling people how you can do a great job. It’s by actually doing a great job. So, each and every contact you have with the client is your best marketing. So, take some examples. You’re contacted by a file review company, okay? And either you answer the phone or somebody in your office answered the phone and they try to get in touch with you. They can’t get in touch with you for two or three days, okay? You’re gonna lose their case and you may lose their client. Our research has clearly shown that the trial review companies are under pressure to get things done. The insurance companies are under pressure to get things done.
I’ll give you an example of something I learned when I was practicing law years ago. I used to do workers compensation cases and the biggest workers compensation insurance company in the United States happened to be in Boston. I practiced in Cape Cod. So, I would go up to the Mutual Insurance Company and I’d make an appointment to see an adjuster. And I did that one day and I told them I’m bringing up, you know, a dozen files and I wanna discuss settlement of these cases. So, I get there and Liberty Mutual at that time, the floor was so large, the building was so large you couldn’t see one end of the floor to the other. That’s how many people were working there. Everybody was in a little cubby hole with a little desk working away. So, I asked the person at the desk, the receptionist, “Could you see if you can find Mr. Stevenson. I’d like to talk to him.” They go, “Who?” I go, “Stan Stevenson. He works here for, like, 12 years.” And after about 20 minutes they finally locate him because there’s so many people running around there. They couldn’t even figure out who it was.
And eventually I went over to his little cubby hole and what I saw was he had a pile of files. I had a pile of files. We we’re gonna discuss each file. And above him was this big chart and I looked at it and I couldn’t figure out what it was. And it said, “GOYA.” And underneath that it had, like, 375 cases and 275 cases settled. So, I go to him and say, “Stan, what’s the GOYA thing?” He goes, “Oh, that’s your get off your ass chart.” I go, “What does that mean?” He goes, “Well, they keep track of how many files come in and how many cases we settle.”
So, I took this opportunity to point out to him, “So let me ask you.” I asked him a leading question as lawyers sometimes do. I go, “So what happens if you keep getting more cases in and you don’t settle enough cases?” He goes, “Well, then we get in trouble.” I go, “Well, it’s good I’m here. So, let’s settle some of my cases.” Okay.
And the moral of that story is important because you need to realize that there are thousands and hundreds of thousands of claims coming in every year, okay? These claims come to the insurance company. The insurance company sends them over to the file review companies. Everybody’s under an enormous amount of pressure to get these cases resolved, okay? They need to get to the answer one way or the other.
So, when they deal with people that can do things in a timely fashion, okay, then they’re happy and then it helps moving the process along. If somebody gums up the works, that becomes a problem, okay? So, every interaction you have with the file review company or the insurance company is an opportunity to shine and show them you know what you’re doing. So, if they contact you, they call your office or send you an email and if you don’t answer for two or three days, they’re going to move on to somebody else because of the fact that they need to get this resolved. They can’t wait three days for an answer.
When they finally…let’s assume that you got the contact and they ask you for a rate sheet and you say, “What’s a rate sheet?” And they say, “Well, how much do you charge?” And you say, “Well, how much does everybody else charge?”
