Calls for stamp duty reform reflect a familiar concern across conveyancing practices: what will encourage buyers and sellers to move?
Recent reporting of the Council for Licensed Conveyancers’ sentiment tracker points to weak market confidence, with tax reform, mortgage affordability and greater certainty among respondents’ priorities.
Those questions matter to future transaction volumes. For an individual firm, however, there is another question worth examining now: what happens to the prospective clients who already make contact?
A practice can invest in visibility, receive suitable enquiries and still lose instructions because its response leaves the buyer uncertain about the price, the service or the next step.
Separate attracting enquiries from converting them
Our earlier article on conveyancing marketing as mortgage approvals fall examined the importance of developing additional routes to prospective clients.
This is the next stage of that process. Once someone has found the firm, can they establish whether it is suitable for their transaction and understand how to instruct it?
Review the journey from the client’s perspective. They may have contacted several firms, received differently structured quotations and heard conflicting accounts of how long the transaction will take.
Another email describing the firm as friendly, efficient and competitive may add little. A clear explanation of their particular transaction can be more useful.
Find out what is preventing the instruction
An unanswered quotation does not necessarily mean that another firm was cheaper.
The prospective client may still be choosing a mortgage lender, waiting for an offer to be accepted or deciding whether moving is affordable. They may also be unclear about what your quotation includes.
Where appropriate, ask a straightforward question: “Is there anything about the quotation or the next steps that you would like us to explain?”
Record the answer. Over time, distinguish enquiries that were unsuitable, transactions that did not proceed and clients who selected another provider. Those outcomes suggest different responses.
Make the quotation easy to understand
A prospective client should be able to identify the legal fee, VAT, anticipated third-party payments and the assumptions underlying the estimate.
Explain which circumstances could generate additional work and charges. Where an important detail remains unknown, identify it rather than allowing an apparently complete total to conceal the uncertainty.
A useful quotation also answers practical questions:
- Does the firm undertake this type of transaction?
- Can it act for the proposed mortgage lender, subject to confirmation?
- Who will handle the matter and how will communication work?
- What information is needed before the firm can accept instructions?
- What should the prospective client do next?
A transparent explanation helps clients compare the service. It also reduces the risk of an instruction beginning with different expectations about what has been agreed.
Explain the service through specific commitments
Our earlier article, Marketing Conveyancing: Saying It Backwards, challenged the familiar language that makes one firm sound much like another.
The useful lesson is to explain what your service actually involves.
If clients receive scheduled updates, describe the arrangement accurately. If complex leasehold matters receive a particular level of supervision, explain that process. If a named person handles enquiries before instruction, make that contact easy to find.
Use commitments the practice can deliver consistently. Claims about speed, availability or specialist experience should reflect the team and capacity behind the quotation.
Respond to uncertainty without promising certainty
A hesitant buyer may want reassurance about tax, mortgage availability, a chain or the likely completion date.
Explain what can be established now, what depends on other participants and what requires further advice. Do not present a proposed reform as an existing entitlement or suggest that a transaction can meet a deadline before the necessary investigation has been completed.
Where property tax is relevant, identify the jurisdiction. Stamp Duty Land Tax, Welsh Land Transaction Tax and Scottish Land and Buildings Transaction Tax are separate regimes.
Marketing content should help people understand the next decision. It should not encourage them to commit on the strength of speculative savings or an unsupported completion promise.
Make lender panel coverage useful at the enquiry stage
For a buyer using mortgage finance, the ability to act for the lender is a practical selection question.
Ask about the proposed lender early and confirm the firm’s position for the relevant office and transaction. If the lender is not yet known, explain that it needs checking once the choice is made.
LENDERpanel.com enables prospective clients to search for conveyancing firms by lender and location. That gives firms an opportunity to be discovered by people with a particular requirement.
The subsequent response should address that requirement. A relevant enquiry deserves more than a generic quotation that leaves the panel question unanswered.
Follow up with a purpose
A useful follow-up adds something to the client’s decision rather than repeatedly asking whether they are ready to instruct.
For example, the firm might clarify a leasehold charge, answer a question about lender representation or explain what documents are needed to open the matter.
Agree appropriate contact preferences and follow the applicable rules on marketing communications. Avoid continuing to chase someone who has declined further contact.
Give responsibility for follow-up to an identified person, with cover for absence. A quotation should not disappear into an unattended inbox because its usual handler is away.
Measure the stage at which opportunities are lost
Partners need more than a count of website visits or quotations issued.
A simple monthly review can examine:
- Enquiries received and their sources.
- Enquiries suitable for the firm’s services and capacity.
- Time taken to provide a substantive response.
- Quotations issued and instructions accepted.
- Reasons given for declining or postponing.
- Matters subsequently completed or discontinued.
Compare similar transaction types and allow for the time between enquiry and instruction. A quotation sent yesterday should not be assessed as though the prospective client has already made a final decision.
These records can help distinguish a visibility problem from a response problem, a pricing question or a change in the type of work being requested.
Review the next ten enquiries
A practical starting point is to review the next ten suitable enquiries from first contact to outcome.
Was the client’s actual question answered? Was the quotation understandable? Was lender representation checked? Did the firm explain the next step? Was any agreed follow-up completed?
This will not establish the cause of every lost instruction. It can reveal avoidable gaps that a larger marketing budget would otherwise send more prospective clients into.
A stronger enquiry process gives the firm a clearer basis for deciding where to invest in attracting additional work.
Help buyers find a firm that can act for their lender
Make your lender panel coverage part of your business development. Explore LENDERpanel.com’s listing options and give prospective clients another route to contact your firm.
Explore LENDERpanel listing options →
Assess listing coverage and subscription terms for your practice. A listing does not guarantee enquiries or instructions.