What Happens When Attorneys Commoditize Themselves

When you look and sound exactly like everyone else who provides the same services you provide, acquiring clients becomes a game of pure numbers. That is a game that you don’t want to play because both you and your clients will lose. Potential clients who use lawyer comparison shopping websites choose an attorney from the equivalent of a fast food dollar menu.

Even if the client chooses you, you won’t be able to command appropriately high fees and you likely will have to offer steeply discounted services or accept a payment plan. Otherwise, they will simply move on to the next attorney on the list. This results in you working for less money, being forced into taking on a higher workload, and providing lower quality services.

What is the Solution to Commoditization?

The solution to the commoditization of legal services is authority. You must become the most authoritative attorney in your practice area. What does an authoritative attorney look like from the point of view of a client?

David, our hypothetical potential client, has been arrested for DUI in California. He is a mid-level manager for a Fortune 100 company. If he is convicted of DUI, he will lose his job. His wife might divorce him and he might not get to live with his children anymore. His upstanding family and community will probably all but disown him. His friends and colleagues will no longer respect him. Everything is on the line for David at this point in time.

If you found yourself in David’s shoes, which of the attorneys below would you choose to save your marriage, your relationship with your children, your reputation, and your career? The first attorney on the list? The third one? What would it take to convince you that one of these attorneys is the right one to trust to keep you from losing all that you hold dear?

About Richard Jacobs

My name is Richard Jacobs, and I’ve discovered quite a bit about the plight of solo practitioners and small, 2-5 attorney firms like yours these past 11 years.

I’ve come to understand the unique challenges in marketing ethically and effectively that attorneys face because I have:

• Helped over 180 attorneys author their own practice area book and become the ‘implied expert’ in their practice area
• Helped hundreds of attorneys successfully navigate Google’s search algorithm changes, growing their websites from 2 potential clients calling a month to 4+ calls per DAY for some clients.
• Interviewed and promoted over 507 attorneys nationwide, in practice areas such as:

• DUI / DWI
• Family Law
• Criminal Defense
• Bankruptcy
• Auto Accidents
• Social Security Disability
• Slip & Falls (Premises Liability)
• Real Estate
• Estate Planning / Probate
• Wage and Hour Claims
• Expungements / Post Conviction Relief

Before you decide to invest in your marketing, it makes sense to first request your complimentary, custom, no obligation video website review.

Email me my video website review

Richard is the author of 6 books published on Amazon, Kindle and Audible.com

• Lawyer's Guide To (Virtual) Initial Consults And E-Signed Retainers
• 12 Powerful Principles of Prosperous Law Firms
• Secrets of Attorney Marketing Law School Dares Not Teach - 1st, 2nd Edition and 3rd Edition
• "But I Only Had 2 Beers!": Truth Talk from over 25 DUI Lawyers
• Ultimate Guide to Local Business Marketing (Ultimate Series) (co-author)
• The Attorney Authority Reboot: (How, in 6 months, Attorney Geller added $74k in new clients, and boosted his AVVO rating to 10.0, using one simple strategy)

Richard is available for speaking engagements on direct marketing for attorneys and has recently spoken at the following legal conferences:

• PILMMA (Personal Injury Lawyers Marketing & Management Association)
• Las Vegas DUI Summit – Private event for DUI attorneys
• New York Boutique Lawyers Association
• Perry Marshall & Associates Marketing Academy (Marina Del Rey, CA)
• National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL)