June 16, 2008
Law Firm Marketing Solutions
Guiding your practice to increased revenues while reducing your work hours.
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June 2008, Issue #25
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In this issue:
Law Firm Guarantees
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I was reminded of law firm guarantees this last month. I listened again to a few hours of audio training with Ron Baker who is a worldwide authority on value billing that he delivered to a large group of attorneys. You can learn more about Ron and value billing here:
Some of the attorneys I am coaching are moving over into value billing. A new book coming out in about a week on the topic via the ABA is titled Winning Alternatives To The Billable Hour, however that is not my topic for this month. Click here for the book.
I wanted to chat with you a bit on law firm guarantees so let’s get to it. I am a big fan of guarantees and it is something easy for you to implement, costs you nothing and can improve your revenue picture sometimes even dramatically. My guarantee is simple “no positive results; no fee” so you can’t get much better than that. Now, clearly that does not work in the practice of law since you can’t promise positive results. What you can do is promise specific behaviors and satisfaction. For example take a look at this firm’s guarantee:
http://www.carabinshaw.com/index.html
Now this one is not a perfect law firm guarantee. One example is the $20 for not returning phone calls in 24 hours is not very impressive. How about $100! Never the less it is way more than other attorneys are doing. A much better example is here:
http://www.uhlaw.com/about/ourquarantee/
Now this one is a more impressive law firm guarantee. Especially where they say “We will resolve the issue to your satisfaction, even if it means reducing our fees.” Now that is having some skin in the game. I can’t quite figure out why they don’t have it on the home page though. They do have it listed on the left navigation once you click deeper into the site. My guarantee makes me your virtual partner since if you don’t make more money from working with me you don’t pay a dime and this guarantee certainly comes up higher on the scale of “reducing the risk” which is what most people are looking to do when hiring a service professional of any kind. A strong law firm guarantee also communicates how extremely confident you are in your ability to deliver which makes you more attractive to hire. Here is another example of a law firm guarantee. Not sure I like the whole approach he is using on this site but it does say something about his personality to prospects I am sure.
Good videos with a nice offer. It is a bit hard for me to over look the bobble head and siren sound used since that is not my style. That said scroll down a bit and see his guarantee for DUI clients. Not bad and it could be better. Along with taking the bobble head and siren off the site I would make the guarantee more prominent if I were this attorney.
Now, what is keeping you from creating and giving a law firm guarantee? Maybe it is because other lawyers don’t do it. Well, that is the biggest reason to give a guarantee. If someone is trying to figure out which lawyer to hire you clearly have an advantage with a guarantee do you not?
Maybe you are afraid you will lose money? Well, the odds are you won’t no matter how strong the guarantee. Most people never invoke guarantees anyway so the research shows. Finally, if they do they have likely taught you a valuable lesson on how to improve or change your practice.
Maybe I should also mention here you will have more quality clients with more revenue as well once you use a law firm guarantee. The more you offer in your guarantee the more new clients you will get. A weak guarantee is pretty worthless and can even be harmful so at least put some skin in the game. Refund their money in whole or part, fine yourself and give it to them like $100 for not returning a phone call in 24 hours, or offer them something like what Bob Battle the DUI attorney noted above is offering. Lastly if you try it and don’t like it you can always stop offering the law firm guarantee so you have not lost much and much, much to gain. If you work up a guarantee and want me to review it for you just send it over and I will give you my edit - complimentary of course.
Comments, ideas, questions or topics you would like to see addressed in future newsletters? I would love to hear from you. Just reply to this newsletter and tell me what you think.
To your success,
Henry Harlow
Founder, www.Law-Firm-Marketing-Coach.com
PS: Get your #1 attorney marketing problem solved today. Spend complimentary individual quality time with me on the telephone. Dial 888-434-3006 now or get more details by clicking here right now.