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?

Comments(0)

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.

Comments(0)

The most recent edition of Law Practice magazine contains an article entitled “Hours Expectations for New Partners.”  That article contains this quote, “Available information indicates that an average partner in an average firm should plan to log at least 2,500 hours per year (or 50 to 60 hours per week) in pursuit of the aims of his or her firm.”  Are you kidding me?  And, if that is the average, presumably there are firms that require more than that.  So, the average lawyer is working 50-60 hours per week?  No wonder they are so unhappy.

And, of course the most telling part of the quote is the last phrase which points out that these hours are logged “in pursuit of the aims of his or her firm.”  In other words, it’s not about the client.  Those hours need to be logged for the firm.  What if you removed any billable hour requirement?  What if the focus was on getting the job done for the client as efficiently and effectively as possible and doing so at a profit to the firm?

There’s a novel idea.

Comments(0)

I recently came across this article at lawyer, Patrick Lamb’s blog, In Search of Perfect Client Service.  In it, Patrick discusses  a Harry Beckwith interview that reviewed some of the nomenclature used to describe customer satisfaction (such as “customer loyalty” and “customer evangelists”).  Patrick settles on the term “raving fans” as the target at which we should be aiming.

I like that term (popularized by the Ken Blanchard book of the same name) as well.  But, I tend to have this discussion in terms of Client Delight (which is the subject of the recent series of Articles I have written to my e-zine subscribers - you can sign up for free in the sidebar!).  What are you doing to make sure your clients are delighted with your service?

The money quote from Patrick’s post: “resist the temptation to set the ‘client happiness’ meter low.  Instead, challenge yourself to find ways to raise the bar higher each day.”

Comments(0)

The title of this post is the lesson in Seth Godin’s recent post titled Expectations.  You should check it out.  Good stuff.

And, it’s directly applicable to solo and small firm lawyers.  Customary marketing advice informs us to exceed expectations.  Identifying and managing the expectations of your clients and prospects should be a normal part of your client intake systems.  Is it?

Comments(0)

The Perfect Practice is focused on extraordinary client service.

Every point of contact with prospects and clients is reviewed and determinations are made as to how to WOW the client at each such point.

Value added service is not just a catch phrase in the Perfect Practice. It is the modus operandi.

Client expectations (related to service, if not results) are exceeded. This, of course, requires that client expectations be documented at the beginning of each engagement.

Client feedback is regularly gathered. There is a client complaint recovery system in place. This is one of the areas where the systems approach referenced in this earlier post comes into play.

The cornerstone to growing any practice must be clients that are willing to tell others how happy they were with the service they received from their lawyer. The fact that so few clients are will make it that much easier to differentiate from your competitors on this point.

Comments(0)