The pipeline between an enquiry and an open file

A firm's matter list starts at engagement. Everything before that point lives in an inbox, a notepad and somebody's memory. That gap is where most of the lost work sits, and no report the firm runs can see it. Somebody who rang three weeks ago about a dispute exists nowhere in the firm's systems. A short pipeline, four stages long, makes those weeks visible without turning every caller into a file.

An enquiry is not a matter

Opening a file for every caller burns a matter number, distorts the matter count and creates files that close empty. A numbered matter is a commitment the firm has not made yet. Diract CRM keeps enquiries in their own list, which tracks them without treating each one as instructed work. The matter list then means what it says. The enquiry list answers its own two questions: who is waiting on the firm, and who has gone quiet.

Four stages cover it

1. Enquiry received, with what they want and who took the call.
2. Conflicts cleared, which gates everything after it.
3. Costs disclosure sent, because the engagement depends on it.
4. Engaged, at which point the matter opens properly.

Each of those is a fact somebody can verify, which is what makes the count worth reading. A stage meaning in progress or warm tells nobody anything, and it gets moved when somebody feels like moving it. Our guide to pipeline stages that mean something covers keeping the list short enough to trust. Four is usually the right number for a firm of three. A fifth stage earns its place only when somebody can say what moves a card into it.

Conflicts before the second conversation

A firm that hears the details before running a check has already learned something it may not be able to unlearn. The check belongs before the first real discussion, which is why it sits second and gates everything after it. Our guide to a conflict check process covers taking the names on the first call. Diract CRM records the check against the enquiry, so the file that opens later carries the evidence with it.

The disclosure is the usual bottleneck

An enquiry sitting between a conflicts clearance and a signed engagement is almost always waiting on paperwork nobody sent. Making that its own stage puts a number on it. The number is usually larger than anybody expected, and it is also the easiest one to move. Every enquiry needs an owner and a next action beside it. A lawyer who takes a call and does not own the follow-up produces an enquiry nobody chases. One name with one date turns a list of names into work.

Declined enquiries stay, with a reason

Work turned away for a conflict, a jurisdiction or a fee expectation is information. Deleting it loses the name a future conflicts search needs, which is the most expensive kind of tidiness. A Declined stage with one reason also shows a firm how much work it refuses and why. Six months of those reasons often names a service the firm should offer. Diract CRM keeps the declined enquiry, its names and its reason, and none of it counts as a matter.

Read the age, not the count

Nine open enquiries is a fact. Four of them older than three weeks is a morning's work. The count flatters a firm, because it holds steady while the same four names sit at the bottom of the list. Diract CRM sorts the board by how long a card has sat in its stage, which is the view that produces phone calls. A slow enquiry is not automatically a stalled one. Commercial work often takes months between a first conversation and an engagement, and a review date on those respects the client's timeline.

One pipeline per practice area, where the journeys differ

A conveyance and a commercial dispute reach engagement very differently, and one set of stages blurs both. Two short pipelines report separately, which is what a firm wants anyway when it decides where its marketing goes. The conversion rate then becomes a real number: enquiries in, engagements out, by practice area and by source. Most small firms have never seen that figure. It also names the referrers who send work that converts rather than work that merely arrives.

Somebody has to read it weekly

An enquiry pipeline nobody reviews becomes a list of names, and the firm goes back to relying on whoever answered the call. One named person reading it weekly, and asking about anything stalled, keeps it worth maintaining. Fifteen minutes covers a small firm's whole board. That review also decides the declines, which stops a stale enquiry sitting open because nobody wanted to make the call.

Engagement carries the record forward

Retyping the client, the parties and the notes at engagement wastes the intake and introduces errors. Diract CRM turns the enquiry's contact and details into the matter's, so the file opens with everything the intake already learned. Diract CRM shows the four stages as a board, and moving a card saves the change immediately. The count stays honest between reviews, because nobody has to remember to record the move.

What to change first

• Enquiries live outside the matter list, in their own pipeline
• Four verifiable stages cover the journey to engagement
• The conflicts check gates everything after the first call
• Costs disclosure appears as its own stage
• Every enquiry carries an owner and a next action
• Declined enquiries stay, with a reason
• Engagement carries the intake record into the matter