[Top Agency Series] Lead Acquisition Tips for Law Firms With Lauren Von

Lauren Von is the Founder and CEO of Quintessa Marketing, a firm that delivers comprehensive marketing services for client acquisition to attorneys and law firms. Lauren has extensive experience in the legal marketing and advertising industry. She is skilled in personal injury lead generation, intake training and development, and customer relationship management. As a successful entrepreneur, Lauren is known for her passion for supporting women in business.

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

• [03:15] Lauren Von talks about Quintessa Marketing and how it helps clients
• [04:25] How Lauren got into the personal injury lead generation niche 
• [08:40] What are some tips for building a self-sustaining business that can run without you there?
• [09:58] Quintessa’s hiring process and evolution of staff
• [19:18] Lauren explains why they give half of their profits to charity 
• [27:52] What is Quintessa’s pricing model?
• [32:26] Intake process optimization and the mistakes companies make with it 
• [39:40] Quintessa’s customer success stories

In this episode…

As an attorney or law firm, do you need help with client acquisition? Where can you get marketing support to attract and retain clients?

According to Lauren Von, partnering with a marketing agency is crucial for law firms’ success. Marketing experts help those seeking legal assistance find you and, in turn, help you turn them into clients. However, it is challenging to find agencies that deliver these services exceptionally. Lauren shares her journey building an agency, cultivating a loyal client base, and establishing a reputation as a trusted and reliable marketing partner for law firms.

Listen to this episode of the Inspired Insider Podcast with Dr. Jeremy Weisz featuring Lauren Von, Founder and CEO of Quintessa Marketing, to discuss lead generation tips for law firms. Lauren explains how Quintessa helps with lead acquisition for personal injury, its hiring process, pricing model, and intake process optimization.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• Lauren Von on LinkedIn
• Quintessa Marketing

Special Mention(s):

• Lead Like A Woman
• Second Bite Podcast
• What Got You Here Won’t Get You There: How Successful People Become Even More Successful by Marshall Goldsmith and Mark Reiter
• Traction: Get a Grip on Your Business by Gino Wickman
• Rocket Fuel: The One Essential Combination That Will Get You More of What You Want from Your Business by Gino Wickman and Mark Winters
• Infant Crisis Center
• ReMerge Oklahoma
• The Craig Groeschel Leadership Podcast

Related episode(s):

• “Hacks for Virtual Event Mastery with Andrea Heuston of Artitudes Design Inc.” on the Inspired Insider Podcast
• “[Top Agency Series] Navigating a Merger and Becoming an End-to-End Digital Partner With Kevin Hourigan of Spinutech” on the Inspired Insider Podcast
• “[Top Agency Series] Most Valuable Advice When Selling Your Agency With Todd Taskey of Potomac Business Capital” on the Inspired Insider Podcast
• “Leading with Passion with Gino Wickman Founder of EOS Worldwide” on the Inspired Insider Podcast
• “[One Question] Closing A Promising Startup with Mark C. Winters of RocketFuelNow.com” on the Inspired Insider Podcast
• “Can People Change? The Miracle of The Other Side Academy with Dave Durocher” on the Inspired Insider Podcast

Episode Transcript

Intro 0:01 

You are listening to Inspired Insider with your host, Dr. Jeremy Weisz.

Jeremy Weisz 0:22 

Dr. Jeremy Weisz here founder of inspiredinsider.com where I talk with inspirational entrepreneurs and leaders. Today is no different. I’ve Lauren Von of Quintessa Marketing and Lauren I always like to mention other episodes people should check out of the podcast. And I do have a top women leaders series. Your top woman leader, woman leader and Andrea Heuston was an amazing interview. She runs Artitude Design, and she has Lead Like A Woman show actually probably be a good fit for her show. So I have to tell her shout out Andrea, to you, and also exists as an agency podcast on this couple cool ones. Kevin Horrigan start his agency back in 1995, if you can believe it, and he runs Spinutech, so hearing his evolution and journey is pretty fascinating. And I like the Todd Taskey, one to where he pairs private equity with agencies, he helps sell agencies. He’s got the Second Bite Podcast. So he finds that some of the agencies make more on the second bite than they do on the first. So it’s interesting to see his thoughts on valuation of agencies and the agency landscape. So check that out. This episode is brought to you by Rise25. At Rise25 we help businesses give to and connect to their dream 100 relationships and partnerships. And how do we do that we actually help you run your podcast, we are an easy button for a company to launch and run a podcast. We do the strategy, accountability and the full execution and production. Lauren, we call ourselves kind of the magic elves that work in the background and make sure it makes it look easy for the host and they could just run their business and have great conversations. For me, the number one thing in my life is relationships. I’m always looking at ways to give to my best relationships. And I have found no better way over the past decade to profile the people and companies I most admire and share with the world what they’re working on. So if you thought about podcasting, you should have questions, go to rise25.com. And I’m excited to introduce today’s guest Lauren Von. She’s CEO of Quintessa Marketing and Quintessa Marketing delivers marketing services for client acquisition to attorneys and law firms. Their services vary all over the board to make sure they get clients for law firms from web development, SEO to paid advertising to even intake department development and training. Because probably I imagine a law firms aren’t answering the phone, right? It doesn’t matter how good you do your job. things slip through the cracks. So she does it all. Lauren’s a successful entrepreneur, she’s grown Quintessa to a nine figure valuation, because of her unique approach that allowed her company to get a large percentage of their leads converted to retainers for lawyers that they work with. So Lauren, thanks for joining me.

Lauren Von 3:04 

Thanks for having me.

Jeremy Weisz 3:07 

We were chatting a little bit before we hit record, and we’ll get into it. But just start off with Quintessa Marketing and what you do.

Lauren Von 3:15 

So Quintessa is a tech-enabled lead generation company. So what we do is we go into the marketplace where you would see a personal injury lawyer advertise. And we go into the marketplace as well under our own brand. And we will get a person who has been injured in an accident. And instead of them getting partnered with maybe a bad attorney, our goal is to partner them with the right attorney and to maximize their compensation. So that is at a high level what we do for the potential client. And then on the flip side, lawyers call me when they need more cases more volume. So in 24 hours, we turn on the spigot and they’re able to start receiving leads overnight.

Jeremy Weisz 4:01 

I want to touch on how you got into this niche, a law firms but why don’t we start, paint the picture what’s going on? Because you started your company when you were in the middle of a divorce? Yes. So what was going on before? What were you working on and then paint the picture what was going on at that time?

Lauren Von 4:25 

So really to even talk about the start? If you would have told me when I was graduating high school that I would be running a personal injury lead generation, I’d ask what personal injury is. And so by trade, I’m a problem solver. So when people come to me with a problem, it really bothers me and I like figuring out a solution. So in 08 when the economy crashed I was a junior in college and my friends couldn’t even get hired at target that had graduated. And I had someone who came into AT&T which is the store I was working at a And they didn’t understand how to use their phone, I turned around and sold it back to them and educated them on it. And he said, hey, I want you to come in and be an executive assistant. And he worked in Dallas, which for an Oklahoma girl going down to Dallas, like you’ve made it. So that was my start. And they ran a personal injury TV commercial company. So I was the person I was the gofer. So I would go and get the attorneys pick them up from the airport. So I got to deal with the largest attorneys in their market pretty much and really got to sit and listen and hear their problems, what they were experiencing new marketing. And fast forward, I’d say six years later, I was running the company. And then I had my daughter wanted to move back to Oklahoma. And one of my old clients called and asked if I would come and help set up lead generation at his law firm in Newport Beach. So went and did that. And then I actually ended up running the firm for about a year started going through a divorce, and it was just too much with a one-year-old. And so it was hey, how can I just go ahead and start it here. And so I asked the attorney, if I can back into a per lead model, instead of you paying me a salary and for all my travel, let’s just see if we can make this work, and it just went off like gangbusters. And so he told a friend and then a friend told another friend and that was really the start of how Quintessa started.

Jeremy Weisz 6:37 

So Lauren did start off because you really needed the flexibility to take care of your daughter and your life at the time, because you were flying back and forth or running this whole company in your like, was that kind of the start? Or the thought at that time?

Lauren Von 6:55 

It was for me with my daughter’s name is Ruby. And so with Ruby, I didn’t want to be the mom that was there a week on week off. I just didn’t want to be that person. And I knew that I was really good in this space. And I wanted to see like how can I leverage because I was gonna go in and sell real estate with my mom. But it didn’t excite me. And this I knew it, I knew how to master it and how to solve the problems. And so it was how can I be able to have enough fuel to be mom, and to also put food on the table and provide for her and be present? So really, that’s what it started out of?

Jeremy Weisz 7:40 

That’s difficult. One or the other? Both of them separately are difficult. Yes. Raising kids and starting a business. Yeah. You’re basically jumping into both at the same time.

Lauren Von 7:51 

Yes, it was. My husband now says, I don’t think you would know what to do if you didn’t have a million spinning plates. So we’re pregnant right now. I’m seven months pregnant. Thank you, we have four kids combined. But this is our first together. So we’re just taking it on again. It’s a little bit different at 37 and 30, though.

Jeremy Weisz 8:12 

The Brady Bunch? Yes, yeah. Wow. Okay, so that goes to what do you have to set up in your business now? Because you’re gonna be having a baby, right? And you’ve probably prepped for this, right? So what did you have to set up? Or what do you have to set up so that when you do have to step away, things are running.

Lauren Von 8:40 

So it’s really different from a founder-CEO perspective as just a CEO. Because as a founder, I’m the subject matter expert. So because I’ve been doing it for so long. So when we bring on new VPs, it’s they tried to sometimes reinvent the wheel. And so what we’ve really gone back to is, we’re going back to the basics, so we’re gonna put Lauren’s mind on paper, you’re gonna follow the guideline, and then we want you to add things in addition to, but we can’t take away our fundamental things that made us Quintessa. So right now, that’s really what we’ve been working on is getting everyone on the same page, holding them accountable, making sure they’re doing it without me and using me more as a subject matter expert, then as a relying on me to do the job for them.

Jeremy Weisz 9:35 

Right. You don’t want to be going through childbirth, and you’re on the phone talking with someone the same time. But talk about the evolution of the staff, right. When you first started, it was you. Walk me through kind of evolution of who are important positions that you hired for and how you grew that way.

Lauren Von 9:58 

So are indexed staff is about 80% of our staff. So our sales for the people who answered the phone. And when we first started, it was really a goal to give people an opportunity because I don’t have a degree. And so I wanted, when I came to Oklahoma, I couldn’t even get hired at Paycom, because I didn’t have a degree. And I had ran a company. And that didn’t sit well with me. So I wanted to be able to give opportunities to intake people to make really good money. And so they are our most important staff, because they’re answering, they’re converting the leads. And so it started with them, we used to pay like 15 an hour. Now they’re between 18 and 20. And then they get a bonus structure. So they can make up to 100 grand a year without an education, without a formal education for signing up these leads and helping these people. So I’d say the evolution of the staff has always been in the intake, and how can we be a better employer. So we have daycare reimbursement now, we have a better health care now. Whereas when I first started, I can offer any of that. So I’d say that’s the biggest. And then when my husband came on to work with me, he came from a hospital chain, and he was an HR, and he established the leadership. Because without our C suite, if it’s just you running the company, then you don’t have company. So it needs to be able to run without you. So I’d say those two points of the company were probably the biggest whenever we established bonus structure, and then started giving more back in the daycare reimbursement and things like that. And then also bringing on from other fields and ever expertise, like our COO and our VP of Marketing and intake and things like that.

Jeremy Weisz 11:54 

At what point, Lauren, I don’t know if that was a difficult decision or not, that your husband decides to come on to the business because I could see a lot of positives, I could see tension also.

Lauren Von 12:06 

It was, he saw me working 18 hours a day. And for him, it was when I get home, you’re still not here. And he saw a lot of problems that pretty much what Quintessa does is hey, let a lawyer be a lawyer, let me get you the cases. And so his viewpoint was okay, you’re really good at the vision and the marketing, I’m gonna let you do this, you don’t need to deal with the HR the day to day out like, so he came in and said, If I can help with this, and prove it out, then it’ll free you up and you will do better. And so because I trusted him, if it was anyone else, I probably wouldn’t have let them do it. But because it was him, he was able to really show me what I needed to do. And because I had never been in corporate America, so and he had and so he was able to bring some of those systems over.

Jeremy Weisz 13:01 

Was that a slow transition where he’s helping you? Because he’s working with big hospital systems, like he’s helping you. And then like, you know what, I’m already doing this, let me join or was it just more like, quick. And let me just hop in, and I’m going to start working with you.

Lauren Von 13:18 

So he didn’t come over until we were engaged. So that was a big thing. So we met in February of 18. And then we were engaged in April of 19. So everyone knew him at the office, he would like come in as more of a consultant and talk to people. But until we got engaged, he didn’t come over. And then once he did, then it was okay, this is gonna be our family, I want to be a part of it and make, because the whole point of having your own company too, sometimes is to be able to enjoy the spoils of that. And if he wasn’t here working with, then trying to take off PTO on his end would almost be non-existent. So it was let’s work smarter and get it all done.

Jeremy Weisz 14:03 

It sounds like over the years, you’ve probably refined also, you’ve had to hire more and more people and refine the hiring process. Is there any interesting tips you can give on the hiring process?

Lauren Von 14:17 

So I would say personality tests, and the quizzes and things like that, like culture index, to me is a absolute must. Anyone can look good in an interview, anyone can look good on a piece of paper. And you know, you can pay people to say really great things on references. But to me when you’re in a fast-paced or high-growth company, the question is who’s going to be here after the honeymoon, who’s going to be here after 90 days who’s still going to be grinding? And so it was investing in people like that in programs and processes like that? Because it also gives you a look at the person like okay, well this makes sense of why they’re this way. or how to deal with them or deal with this conflict resolution? You get an inside look at the person.

Jeremy Weisz 15:07 

I think culture index doesn’t take that long also for the person to fill out.

Lauren Von 15:11 

It’s like five minutes.

Jeremy Weisz 15:13 

Yeah, we were talking before we hit record about how staff responsibilities and staff changes as the company grows, right. And I think, maybe butcher the title Lauren, but it’s like, What Got You Here Won’t Get You There. I think Marshall Goldsmith wrote a book of similar title. You were saying how, when you grow from 10 million to 20, to 30, and beyond the staff that you have, has to change or they have to change roles? How did you handle some of those? What were some of those inflection points where you saw that the staff that you had had to either change, or they had to modify what they were doing?

Lauren Von 16:00 

I think, with some of our staff, some of our leadership is really where we had to make some adjustments. And, I mean, they were hard conversations. And some leaders they didn’t end up saying, because it was hard for them. And we understood that. But the vision is, hey, listen, if Quintessa is supposed to be going here, then it’s all about how do we get Quintessa to this point. And if you buy into the vision, then you’re going to understand and shift seats and shift accountability if you need to. So if you don’t have a clear vision, and if your people aren’t on board with that vision, then you’re gonna have people who leave, or people who aren’t bought in. And so when I sat down and had those hard conversations and said, you are fantastic, but I need you in this role now, because you’re going to be I need you to not be a Swiss army knife, I need you to now excel in this one thing, because this Swiss Army Knife roll is too much. And you’re not shining in the thing that you have expertise in. And so it’s like, all these plates were dropping. And what’s funny is a lot of people, initially they took it hard, but then they’re so much happier now. Because now their responsibility is not for 10 different items. It’s one. So it makes them sets expectations, that’s very clear expectations. And it’s allowed us to scale.