The first time I heard Richard Susskind speak was at a Canadian Bar Association conference in Montreal in 2007. That was also the first time I heard one of the best parables about professional services ever told. I’ll try to paraphrase Richard’s delivery from memory:
Black & Decker, the power tool company, had just hired a new CEO. He walked into his first meeting with his board of directors, held up a power drill, and asked, “Is this what we sell?” The directors looked at each other and looked at the drill and said, “Yes, that’s one of ours; that’s what we sell.” “No, it isn’t,” replied the CEO, and he put down the drill and picked up a board with a hole in it. “This is what we sell,” he said. “This is why the customer comes to us. This is what he wants.”
That’s a magnificent illustration of the best way, the only correct way, to look at the process of buying and selling anything – that is to say, from the buyer’s perspective. Given the legal profession’s struggles to cope with a newly evolving market, as exemplified by the shocking cuts and wholesale retrenchment of many large law firms recently, it seems like a good time to apply that question to lawyers.
What do lawyers sell? Ask 100 lawyers that question and you’ll get, not 100 different answers, but a very narrow range of familiar answers. “I sell my time,” some lawyers will respond. “I sell my expertise,” others will reply. The MBA types: “I sell solutions.” The ones who’ve been paying attention: “I sell value.” The ones who haven’t been paying attention: “I sell excellence.”
None of these, however, is a good answer, because these are not things that clients specifically need and that can be identifiably described.
- Time – No one in history has ever bought or sold one second of time. It’s not a commodity in any sense of the word.
- Expertise – No client needs legal expertise for its own sake. Specialized knowledge has only applied, not intrinsic, value.
- Solutions – This is getting closer. But it’s a buzzword that is meaningless without context. And not every legal matter is a “problem.”
- Value – This is closer again. But really, “value” isn’t much better than “solution”; it’s another way of saying, “I sell you what you want.” It’s circular.
- Excellence – We must try harder than this.
There is a better answer to that question, I think, one that unites the many incredibly disparate strands of legal services. There is one response that can legitimately cover all the myriad needs of diverse legal clients, from getting a will made out to clearing up a tax issue, from overseeing a bankruptcy to managing a high-stakes acquisition, from defending an assault charge to gaining a permanent work visa, from enforcing a child support order to appealing the loss of a business licence.
That one answer is this: lawyers sell peace of mind. This is what clients seek when they turn to a lawyer. This is their “hole in the board.”
“Peace of mind” is what you get when you find someone with expertise, someone who is excellent at what they do, someone who comes up with solutions to problems and avenues for opportunities. You find them, and you speak with them, and over the course of time, you come to trust them. You trust that they will help you, that they will use their skills to remove a worry, to manage a process, or to come up with an answer that has eluded you. That trust delivers peace of mind.
Almost every client, when he first contacts a lawyer, is legitimately anxious about something important. He’s worried, he’s not sleeping well, his emotional well-being is compromised. “Peace of mind” is what that client gets in that blessed moment when he can say to himself, “It’s alright. I’ve talked to a lawyer, and she’s given me options, and she’s working on the matter, and she’ll take care of it. Someone is looking after it, or will help me through it. I can start to relax now.” And he does.
Look at your own client relationships. Think about the most rewarding engagements, the most satisfied clients. Maybe they won their case, maybe not. Maybe the deal closed, maybe not. But in most cases, the clients who speak most highly of their lawyers are the ones to whom the lawyers gave the gift of peace of mind – the trustworthy assurance that someone is sharing their burden and helping get them to a place where the burden will be lifted.
Clients buy peace of mind. That is what they want when they hire a lawyer. Gear everything about your practice – your first consultation, your personal manner, your client communications, your dependable prices, your transparent activities – towards increasing your trustworthiness and reliability and relieving your client’s worries and burdens. You will be a happy, successful lawyer with happy, satisfied clients.
Jordan Furlong is a lawyer and a strategic consultant and analyst who forecasts the impact of the changing legal market on lawyers, law firms and legal organizations. Based in Ottawa, Jordan is a partner with the global consulting firm Edge International. Contact Jordan at jordan@edge-international.com, or by phone at 613-729-7171, or visit his blog at www.Law21.ca.