Grand Central is a cool service that I’ve previously included in the Recommended Resources section of my Profitable Pratice e-zine (sign up in the side bar if you are not already a subscriber-it’s free). One of the problems is that Grand Central is still in beta and you have to have an invitation in order to use this free service.

Well, good news - I’ve got 10 5 3 2 1 invitation to give away. (UPDATE: Sorry, guys they are all gone!) And, I’m giving them to the first ten folks that send me an e-mail requesting them. You can send the e-mail to msherman AT lawforprofit DOT com.

And, for those that aren’t familiar with Grand Central, here is a link to their site, and here is a brief exerpt that I ran about it in my weekly e-zine:

“GrandCentral does a lot of things. They describe themselves as the new way to use your phone. And, it’s definitely that. Basically it allows you to have one number that rings all of your phones. Additionally, you can manage your voice mail through it and listen in as caller leave voice mail so you screen your calls, taking the ones you want and allowing the others to leave a message.

GrandCentral is still in beta and you have to have an invitation to join.”

If you want one let me know quickly. I have a feeling they will go fast, and it is strictly first come, first serve.

UPDATE: The 10 invitations were gone in less than 24 hours.  Sorry if you wanted one and missed out.

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Chuck Newton recently posted an article title Price Competition is a Fool’s Game.  And, he is right.  Although Wal Mart may successfully compete as the low price leader, it is a losing strategy for law firms.

Subscribers to my e-zine received a an article I posted on the same subject back in early August.  For those that don’t subscribe (you can rectify that in the side bar of my blog today!), I will set out a redacted copy of the article here:

Your goal should be to charge premium fees for premium service.

As a young lawyer, I had difficulty quoting higher fees.  I was afraid that my prospective clients would not pay me unless I was right in line with what others with similar experience were charging.  As it turns out, the problem was not with my clients, it was with me.  The problem was a self image problem.

I have since learned that you will never get paid more than you think you are worth.  That may sound like psycho-babble.  Perhaps it is.  But, it is still the truth.

If you are doing the things in your practice that you should be doing (e.g. choosing a niche, being the expert in that niche, providing exceptional client service, etc.) then you’ve earned the right to charge more for your services.  But, unless you believe that, your prospective clients never will.

And, here is one more reason for you to believe it: you never want to compete on price.  There is no doubt that you can build a business entirely by offering the lowest price.  But, why would you want to?  Would you rather have 4 clients paying you $25,000 each, 100 clients paying you $1,000 each, or 1000 clients paying you $100 each?

Of course, the question is rhetorical.  But the answer is instructive.

Additionally, when you compete only on price, all someone has to do to take a client from you is to offer a lower price.  When you compete on EXCELLENCE, VALUE, GUARANTEED SERVICE, etc. it is much more difficult, if not impossible, for a competitor to steal your clients.

Of course, there is another point about price.  Your prospect believes “you get what you pay for.”  If that is the case, do you want to hold yourself out as the “low price lawyer”?  Put another way, do you want to be the Mercedes or the Hyundai of law firms?  The Nordstrom’s or the Dollar Store?

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I recently came across this list of productivity tips published at the ABA site.  Some of these are great suggestions.  But, as I look at the list I can’t help but think that, although calculated to lead to increased productivity, trying to consider all of these would be overwhelming to the point of ineffectiveness - the exact opposite of its purpose.

The article does recommend Basecamp and Jott - two tools that I highly recommend as well.

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I just finished meeting with a new client in a nasty custody case.  She is paying me $10,000 to represent her in defending the motion to modify filed by her ex-husband.  She has a good case, and the law is on her side.  The interesting thing is that she had another lawyer representing her.  I know this other lawyer - he is competent, and experienced - 30+ years in the business.  And, although he doesn’t practice family law exclusively, he has done plenty of it to know what he is doing.

So, why did she fire him and hire me (something I initially tried to talk her out of doing)?  Apparently, he told her no less than three times, “I’ve never seen anything like this in 34 years of law practice.”  He was referring to some of the underhanded tactics that the opposing party and lawyer were pulling to try to get custody and how the opposing lawyer would not return his phone calls.  I’m not sure why he told her this.  Maybe he really hadn’t seen it before (I’m not sure how that could be) or maybe it was hyperbole.  But, as she said, that is not what she wanted to hear coming from her lawyer.

Sometimes we don’t think about our language and how even the most innocuous comment might affect our client’s perception.  There is a lesson here (a $10,000 lesson).  Make sure you get it - act like you’ve been there before.

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