As the legal market hits the skids, and the marketers who couldn’t cut it as lawyers ramp-up their hype to suck in the unwary young lawyers who have bills to pay and mouths to feed, the stench of desperation floats around the blawgosphere.  But I read Seth Godin every day, and learn what distinguishes higher order thinking from the crass, demeaning, worthless baloney that threatens to suck the last breath from the desperate. 

Godin is a marketing philosopher, rather than shill, and to the extent your practice isn’t what you want it to be, your failure to read his work is a disgrace, and you have no one to blame but yourself.  Forget the magic bullet scammers who pervade the blawgosphere, and spend some time doing something completely different:  Thinking.

Seth’s post today is typical: clear and simple, yet brilliant.  He debunks the obvious reaction to a bad economy, which is to reduce price when business is down, by offering an equation.

Value = benefit/price

One way to alter the equation is to reduce price.  But that’s not the only, or best way.  He explains:

The thing is, there’s another way to make the value go up. Increase what you give. Increase quality and quantity and the unmeasurable pieces that bring confidence and joy to an interaction.

The law is a service profession.  We sell our time and effort to clients who require them.  Here’s a radical notion:  make the effort to be a better lawyer, provide better client service, fulfill your clients needs.  Do so at a cost commensurate with your benefit.

Being a cheap lawyer makes you, well, cheap.  Providing value makes you valuable to your clients.  Give your clients everything you’ve got.  Whether it’s a big case or a really itty-bitty case, treat every client as if he’s your only client.  All aspects of excellent client service must be part of the experience that you provide every client.

No, every client will not be thrilled, no matter what you do.  Outcomes remain problematic, since they are outside your control.  But your clients will know that you’ve done both everything you can, and that your work was superlative, even if the outcome is ugly.  It’s all we can do, but it’s what we must do.

Notice how I haven’t mentioned anything about how your can make millions with self-promotional blawgs or twitter your way to riches?  Notice how all the talk that demeaning yourself by acting like a shoe salesman hasn’t produced success.  And it costs nothing to read Seth Godin.  Think about it over the weekend, and on Monday, call all your clients and let them know that when they retained you, they obtained value.  Then give them value, and you will be appreciated.