It’s On You

You’re the expert. Not your client or prospect.

It is always our job to do the work, not the client’s or prospect’s job, in terms of helping them understand the services we provide.

If your customer has to do work in order to understand the nuances of what you do for them because the words you use are complicated or your presentation is convoluted – you’re going to lose people — and sales!

I think it is important to help your clients and prospects know as much about aspects of their case or matter as they want to. You can help them ask the right questions and guide them when things get complicated or confusing. Clients should not have to do work to learn about terms they don’t know.  Yes, they can use the Google but they shouldn’t have to in order to understand the relationship they have with you and what you proposing doing for them.

How can we do this? Writing using simple language, not using acronyms and legalese and providing supporting materials for your clients are ways that you can do the work for your client so they are better informed. And we all know that an open and complete dialogue is important to the attorney client relationship (or any client relationship for that matter).

Some things we can do:

• Create a glossary of terms of aspects of the law appropriate for your practice so your client can understand what you are talking about. Keep it in your office and put it on your website and add to it as needed.
• When you write a letter or an email to a client, any time you use a phrase, legal term, or abbreviation, it should be accompanied by a description of what it is or spell out the acronym.  You should do the work, not the customer!
• Chances are that your clients and prospects ask you the same types of questions over time. Have a list of frequently asked questions on your website (or a list that you can email to clients) so your audience can understand.
• Create a set of resources that your clients and prospects can refer to for more information about their case or matter. It could be a white paper that you wrote or some other document that describes the transaction; the goal is to make it easier for your clients to work with you.
• Have discussions with people who know you and whom you trust to listen to your sales pitch, your service descriptions, review your resources, etc. to ensure that you’re making it easy for your prospects to hire and stay with you.

Remember, it’s always your responsibility to do the work so your clients and prospects don’t have to.