Money is one of the rewards you get for
adding value to the lives of others.
—Paul McKenna
You build a successful law firm by adding value to your clients. You get rich by adding exceptional value to your clients. By innovating your business and going the extra mile, you can position yourself in such a way that they’d be fools to take their business anywhere else.
That doesn’t necessarily mean you give them more for less, or that you compete on price. In fact, you should never compete on price. Value isn’t about dollars and cents, and your clients are looking for more than the lowest rates. They’re looking for the most value for what they spend.
I’ve known lawyers who have doubled their fees without any complaints from their clients. How? Simple: A client will gladly pay twice the price if he feels he’s getting more than twice the value.
All you need to do to add value is to exceed your clients’ expectations, over and over again. Do this enough times, in enough ways, and your clients will become your fans for life—and they’ll pay whatever you ask.
How Do You Build Value?
You can bring unexpected value to your clients in infinite ways, but for now, let’s look at three examples:
- Lightning-fast response times. One of the biggest complaints people have about lawyers is that it takes too long to return a call, if at all. By automating your office workflow, you can make sure no client waits for a meaningful response from your office.
- Free proactive reviews. Schedule periodic in-house reviews of your client accounts to make sure they are reaping the full benefit of applicable laws. (For example, if you’re an estate planning attorney, the recent tax overhaul is a perfect reason to audit clients’ estate plans.) Reach out and recommend changes that might improve your clients’ standing or situation. Even if they don’t take you up on the offer, they’ll notice that you are looking out for their interests.
- Offer free seminars. Invite clients to a free session as you discuss a particular point of law. It will give your clients a new appreciation for a topic, and it’ll give you an opportunity to demonstrate your mastery of an area of law they hadn’t previously considered. For larger business clients, add additional value by offering to conduct the seminar at their locations.
Adding extraordinary value for your clients usually doesn’t cost much money—sometimes it only costs a bit of time—but the dividends add up exponentially. For more value-adding tips, give us a call at (888) 207-2869.
