The phone rings and a prospective client is on the line. His first question is, “How much do you charge for [a service]?” Is this a danger sign? Should you avoid price shoppers like him?
Yes, it is a danger sign. This is someone who is no doubt calling several attorneys and comparing fees. We can assume he intends to choose the lowest priced attorney and I will assume that this is not you.
But that doesn’t mean you should automatically reject him.
Just because someone is shopping price doesn’t mean he is incapable of understanding and appreciating value. Once he sees that you offer so much more than other attorneys, even though your “price” is higher, he may persuade himself that you are the better choice.
The trick is in how you handle his question.
If the initial question is, “How much do you charge for a Living Trust?” most attorneys would answer with a dollar amount. If you do that, then what you offer is a commodity and commodities are bought and sold based on price.
Let other attorneys compete on price. You don’t sell a commodity like they do, you offer professional services and your services are unique.
The better answer is something like this: “We offer a variety of estate planning and protection packages; the attorney needs to speak to you to determine which one is best for your situation.”
You want to be different from other attorneys. You don’t want people comparing the price of your apples to the price of their apples. Get prospects into the office where you can do a complete job of diagnosing their needs and showing them benefits they won’t get from other attorneys.
You should be prepared to give callers a broad idea of what they can expect if they hire you, however. If your least expensive package is $15,000, and they have a $1,000 budget, you’ll be doing both of you a favor by letting them know.
When someone asks, “How much?” answer with a lawyer-like, “It depends.” Because if it doesn’t depend, you are selling a commodity and there will always be someone else with a lower price.
Want to know how to ask for (and get) higher fees than other attorneys? This has the answer.
It is very interesting and may be very hard question. Nowadays it is not so straight forward, and definitely, outdated expression as “you get what you pay for” does not apply in relation to provision of a legal service.
If client asks just how much without asking second, third etc questions, what is actually included into your fees? and how are you going to charge your fees in relation to every small email and phone call which has no value for the client and “ping pong” only with no substance in it? Or a client at least will have some objective benefit of the legal service? How much is totally irrelevant question( unless we are talking about some fixed fee deals or similar) for a smart client,because it “all depends” on how lawyer is going to apply his fees on particular file.