Charles Green, whose writes about trust, posed a provocative post about what to do when a potential client tells you that your price is too high. His assumption is that the statement will be met with confusion:
When you hear those words—“your prices are too high”—you probably have one reaction in your mind. “What? How can (s)he possibly think our prices are too high? What are they talking about? We’ve trimmed them already; I know they’re not too high, other firms have got to be that high, and our costs are barely covered here, we’re absorbing a lot—how can they say our prices are too high?”
In other words—you really do not understand what they mean.
If you are a lawyer of any worth at all, you’ve experienced the client who tells you this. But as a criminal defense lawyer, this should never be your reaction. I don’t address other fields of law, which may not have the same concerns, but this is remarkably common for criminal defense lawyers.
Green explains the various scenarios that drive the client to make the statement, and seeks to offer a way to turn an uncomfortable situation for both lawyer and client into a more positive experience, one that creates greater trust between the two.
Green explains the various scenarios that drive the client to make the statement, and seeks to offer a way to turn an uncomfortable situation for both lawyer and client into a more positive experience, one that creates greater trust between the two.
And if you can be the one that turns a difficult one into a pleasant, curious, customer-focused question, then you are the one that gets credit for transforming the conversation into greater trust.While the creation of deeper trust, better understanding, has much to commend it, this is a pivotal moment for a criminal defense lawyer. Unlike a manufacturer of goods, we have no cost of production and distribution against which to weigh the customer’s concern. We have only time. Like it or not, time has no intrinsic value. An hour without work is lost forever, but costs us nothing.
Your intent, as always, is to develop a deeper relationship with the customer, and to do the right thing for that customer. You can never control the outcome of a price conversation; but being curious and honest about it increases the odds, and pays relationship dividends in future.
The question for the criminal defense lawyer faced with the potential client who says your price is too high is very simple. If you’ve valued your time well, the only response is to say, “thank you for coming in and I wish you the best of luck with your case.” Or as Bennett more succinctly put it, “okay”. Accept the fact that your fees will be too high for some potential clients. In fact, expect that some can’t afford any fee, but that doesn’t stop them from wanting your services. It happens regularly. It’s part of the deal.
I’ve known many lawyers who won’t let a person with cash in their pocket walk out the door. Some of these lawyers have made a fortune this way, as even pennies add up when you put enough of them together. If you’re hungry enough, you may chose this path. It’s not the path of good lawyering, as it leads to the quick plea and abdication of anything resembling integrity, but that’s why you get on the cheap.
My view is that lawyers who strive for excellence should never compete on price, but on quality. It’s a corollary to the notion that lawyers should never lie to clients in order to get the case, even though they would be happy to pay if only you will tell them what they want to hear. Get used to the fact that you will not score every client who calls or walks through the door. Unless you are willing to sell your integrity for whatever jingles in their pocket.
You can have a nice, trust-inducing conversation with clients to learn why they tell you that your price is too high. It only costs you time. While the talk may be interesting, and the client may trust you far more after the conversation is over, they still won’t be able to pay your fee. Unless you plan to take them on anyway, at whatever price they can afford, get used to it. It’s the nature of our work.
Discover more from Simple Justice
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
I think you may have missed some of Green’s point when you say, “While the talk may be interesting, and the client may trust you far more after the conversation is over, they still won’t be able to pay your fee.”
That’s true if the price is too high, but sometimes it isn’t too high and the client says that anyway because they are shocked or they assume you’re trying to reach into their wallet. If you find out why they said your fee was high, you may find out they’re willing to pay the fee after all.
I think the whole post has to be read in light of the line “If you’ve valued your time well,” which would suggest it’s a reasonable fee.
The point is that it’s different for criminal defense lawyers. Trust is foundational when someone puts their life in your hands; everything after that is just haggling over the numbers. Don’t haggle. There’s nothing to convince; whether they want it cheaper, are fishing for a guarantee or can’t afford it, it’s a game we shouldn’t play. It always ends up badly. And if they don’t trust us to represent them, the amount of money involved is irrelevant.
Scott,
I’m suspect we’re in violent agreement on this one.
Having discussions about price, and various other issues, are only relevant in non-purely transactional interactions. I have no desire to have a relationship with the kid that mans the counter at 7/11, and I have no expectation of a price discount at Macy’s, so it’s not something we tend to engage in.
To the extent that a business’s clientele isn’t going to be repeat client, doesn’t know others who will be, can find dozens of other fungible substitutes, price points are low, and a few other criteria–then there is no point in engaging in discussions about the client’s motives.
I don’t know what it’s like for a CDL; you make it sound a bit like off-the-street retail buying where price is a good indication of quality, there’s not much to be had by either party by way of understanding motives and background; in which case I certainly agree with you.
Most of my work, inculuding this piece, are aimed generally at B2B, complex sale, intangible, repeat-business situations. In many of those, including corporate law for example, establishing a relationship with a client is not only per se important, but it ends up being a critical factor in marketing; how you say ‘no’ to people in this day and age ends up quickly on bulletin boards, affecting how potential clients choose to interact with you, including whether or not they do in the first place.
For what it’s worth…
I agree trust is foundational. I’d also suggest that the decision to put one’s life into another’s hands can be profoundly affected by how you treat a client’s first question, whether it’s about price or anything else. If your simple answer is ‘no,’ that’s all about you. And an ‘all about you’ answer, in that situation, is not likely to increase someone’s comfort in placing their life in your hands.
I hope that I’ve made clear that I’m speaking only to criminal defense lawyers, whereas your post was obviously a general view. When CDLs get a call, there tend to be one of two opening lines. Most of the time, it begins with “I’been arrested,” and the discussion is about the charges. Very few quality CDLs will have any discussion of price on the phone; it’s essentially impossible to have a meaningful discussion until after one has a firm grasp on the situation. But sometimes, the first words out of a callers mouth are “how much do you charge,” As a matter of experience, these calls reflect someone price shopping a lawyer, caring little about trust or quality. These callers never get a meeting. They aren’t the type of clients we would be interested in representing.
And from my personal perspective, I am far less interested in whether a client wants to retain me than whether I want to represent the client. I turn away far more than I take.
Please remember that sticker shock is a real thing. In the time that it takes to briefly explain how you have valued your services, the client can be thinking about ways he/she may be able to come up with additional resources. This happened to me recently (non-criminal case, though). The attorneys were great in explaining what was involved in their work, and I was able to find additional ways to come up with the money. I think an honest conversation can help a lot. But I don’t have experience with criminal cases, so maybe they are different.
Whoosh
Your statements are on the money. We can only value our experience. In CDL, it is not about time and billables. It is about our ability to judge the risk and convey that risk to our clients. We are able to be an effective odds maker because of our experience and courthouse relationships. I try never to quote over the phone. It can put you in a bad spot later, but also I do not want to compete on price. If I value my work, so do others. A prolonged discussion of their inability to pay will be repeated throughout the representation if that client is taken.