Comes this question: What do you do when a prospective client  (who found you through the Internet) tells you they probably won’t hire you because they’ve had free consultations with several of your competitors, suggesting that one of them will get the nod?
If most of your competition offers free consultations, and you don’t, should you change course to stay competitive?
Maybe.Â
If you get (or want to get) most of your clients via an Internet search, where prospective clients are given to shopping and comparing fees, you probably need to offer free consultations just to stay in the running.Â
On the other hand, if you get (or want to get) most of your clients through referrals, and prospects talk to you because they trust the client or professional who referred them and/or they don’t want to bother shopping around, then maybe not.Â
But there is one more option. Â
If you do something or offer something most other lawyers don’t do, and you can “sell” that difference to prospective clients, you may not have to make any compromises.Â
Do you specialize in a particular area of the law that most lawyers don’t handle, or focus on representing a certain type of client?Â
Do you have a better track record you can quantify and point to? Â
Do you offer benefits that no one else offers (or no one else promotes?)Â
Failing these, if you what you offer is pretty much what everyone else offers, there’s only one other way to beat them–with better marketing.Â
You need a stronger on-boarding process, better marketing documents, better follow-up, and better salesmanship.Â
When someone takes a look at you, you need to do a better job of selling them on hiring you.Â
Start by answering this question: “Why should anyone hire you instead of any other attorney in your field and market?”
If you have a good answer to that question, you’ll know what to do. If you can’t, you’ll know you have some work to do.
Check out my free referral courseÂ
