Most law firms lose 3-6 months of revenue while a new intake rep figures it out. Here is a week-by-week framework.
Every week a new intake rep spends below proficiency, your firm is paying full salary for partial performance. At a firm handling 100 leads per month with a 20% conversion rate and $15,000 average case value, a rep converting at 10% instead of 20% costs roughly $15,000 per month in lost revenue. Over a typical 3-month ramp, that is $45,000 in unrealized value.
New reps should not handle live calls in week one. Instead, they listen to 15-20 recorded calls covering successful bookings, failed bookings, and objection-heavy calls. After each call, the rep answers three questions: What did the caller actually want? When did the rep gain or lose trust? What was the booking moment? Pair this with a script read-through focused on understanding why each section exists, not memorization. Run the firm's script through the before handing it to the new rep.
The rep takes calls with a senior rep listening. After each call, do a 3-minute debrief: one thing that worked, one thing to change, one phrase to practice. Introduce the at Beginner difficulty with 5 rounds per day for objective feedback when the manager is not available.
The rep handles calls independently, but every call is recorded and the manager reviews 3-5 per day. Run every call that did not book through the to identify root causes. This builds the rep's diagnostic ability rather than just tracking outcomes.
Now the rep tracks their own numbers: conversion rate, call duration, booking rate by practice area. Compare to their own Week 3, not the team average. Set a 30-day checkpoint: 15%+ conversion on a 20% team target means on track. Below 12% needs diagnosis using the to identify whether the gap is language confidence, product knowledge, or objection handling.
Run the Objection Trainer at Intermediate difficulty 2-3 times per week. Weekly 1:1 coaching reviews the 2-3 calls with the biggest gap between qualification strength and booking outcome. By day 60, most reps reach 80% of team average. By day 90, the gap should close to within 5 points. If not, check urgency language with the, hedging with the Confidence Scorer, or objection consistency.