Professional services
Law Practice Client Acquisition Cost Calculator
Works what a client costs a small practice, where the owner's time is the scarce input.
Result
Sales time is included because it is a real cost of winning work even though it never appears on an advertising invoice. Recovering under 100% on the first job is normal in the trades, provided customers come back.
Get a Free Business AuditHow the calculation works
Marketing spend plus intake and consultation time divided by clients retained. In a small practice the time element is the owner's, which is simultaneously the most expensive hour in the practice and the only one that can do the billable work, so a low retention rate from consultations costs capacity as well as money.
What moves the number
- Consultation time and retention rate from consultation.
- Whether screening happens before the owner's time is committed.
- Marketing spend and its channel mix.
- Referral share.
Where this one goes wrong
Screening before the consultation is the highest-return change available, because an unqualified matter that reaches an hour-long meeting has consumed the practice's scarcest resource for nothing. A short structured intake conversation, handled by staff or a form, filters most of it. The other point is that a practice chasing every enquiry to stay busy accumulates low-value matters that crowd out the capacity for better ones, which is a slower and more expensive failure than an idle week.
Before you quote
- Screen before committing the owner's consultation time.
- Count unretained consultations as acquisition cost.
- Decline matters that crowd out better capacity.
Questions
About this calculator
How do I stop wasting consultation time?
Screen before the meeting with a short structured intake conversation or a form. An unqualified matter that reaches an hour-long consultation has consumed the practice's scarcest resource for nothing, and most of them are identifiable in a few minutes.
Should a small practice take every matter?
No. Low-value matters taken to stay busy crowd out the capacity for better ones, and the cost appears as an inability to accept good work rather than as an obvious loss. It is a slower failure than an idle week and a more expensive one.
What is the cheapest source of clients?
Referrals, from past clients and from other lawyers whose areas differ from yours. They cost almost nothing to acquire and retain at a far higher rate, which makes cultivating referral relationships the highest-return marketing a small practice can do.
The formula
acquisition cost = (marketing + sales cost) / clients won
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How to use this calculator
- Marketing spend per month ($). Enter your own figure; the page starts at $3,200.
- Sales time and tools ($). Quoting time, CRM, call answering.
- Leads per month. Enter your own figure; the page starts at 70.
- Share that become clients (%). Enter your own figure; the page starts at 32%.
- First matter fee ($). Enter your own figure; the page starts at $2,600.
- Gross margin (%). Enter your own figure; the page starts at 58%.
The result updates as you type, so you can try a figure, see what it does to cost to win one client, and change it back. Nothing you enter is sent anywhere or saved.
A worked example
These are the figures the calculator opens with. Every number in the results column below is produced by the same calculation the page runs, so you can follow it through before putting your own figures in.
What goes in
| Input | Value |
|---|---|
| Marketing spend per month | $3,200 |
| Sales time and tools | $900 |
| Leads per month | 70 |
| Share that become clients | 32% |
| First matter fee | $2,600 |
| Gross margin | 58% |
What comes out
| Result | Value |
|---|---|
| Cost to win one client main result | $183.04 |
| Cost per lead | $58.57 |
| Clients per month | 22 |
| Gross profit on the first matter | $1,508 |
| Recovered on the first matter | 824% |
Each customer costs $183.04 to win, and the first job returns $1,508 of gross profit, 824% of the acquisition cost. The rest has to come from repeat work.
How sensitive the answer is
Holding everything else steady and changing only marketing spend per month, this is what happens to cost to win one client. It is worth knowing which of your inputs the answer actually hinges on, and which barely move it.
| Marketing spend per month ($) | Cost to win one client |
|---|---|
| $1,600 | $111.61 |
| $2,400 | $147.32 |
| $3,200 example above | $183.04 |
| $4,800 | $254.46 |
| $6,400 | $325.89 |
Every other input is held at the example value while this one changes, which is not how a real job behaves. Treat it as a guide to which number matters most, not as five separate quotes.
What each figure means
- Marketing spend per month ($)
- A money amount, starting at $3,200.
- Sales time and tools ($)
- Quoting time, CRM, call answering.
- Leads per month
- A number, between 0 and 20000, starting at 70.
- Share that become clients (%)
- A percentage, between 0 and 100, starting at 32%.
- First matter fee ($)
- A money amount, starting at $2,600.
- Gross margin (%)
- A percentage, between 0 and 95, starting at 58%.
What the results tell you
| Result | What it is |
|---|---|
| Cost to win one client | The headline result. A money figure. |
| Cost per lead | A money figure. |
| Clients per month | A number. |
| Gross profit on the first matter | A money figure. |
| Recovered on the first matter | A percentage. |
Estimating is the easy part
The jobs you never hear about cost more than the ones you mis-measure. BDEVY builds the marketing, systems and automation that bring them in.