Can you compete with free?

You’ve probably been asked before to discount or justify your services. If you agree to the discount, you may gain that person as a client. If you say no, it may cost you in the short term but could lead to better opportunities in the future.

An attorney that we work with encountered this dilemma years ago. A potential client called the attorney and said, “We like what you have told us but one of our staff members have found a subscription legal service that’s free. Can you compete with that?”

Confused the attorney asked, "Are you asking if we offer any free services?" The potential client said, "Well, really inexpensive at minimum." Since part of having a firm is making money, the attorney replied, “I'm afraid not. That subscription service may be a better fit for you if you can’t afford our services right now.”

The potential client ended up going with the free option.

Recently the attorney received a phone call from the same potential client asking for some help again. Of course, the attorney was naturally skeptical given the last interaction and began asking questions to find out why this was an issue for them again. Specifically, what had happened in the past few years with the subscription option that had them reassessing what they were doing?

It turned out the subscription service was not, in fact, free. The staff member that had helped them switch to that service was no longer there and the service never suitably handled the work that the potential client needed to complete.

So because they’d had such a good impression of the attorney and the professional way his firm conducted business, they came back to him to get information.

This is obviously an extreme example as taking on non-paying clients means that a firm won't grow. However, even in more moderate situations sticking to your pricing can mean you don’t get a client right now, but it can still turn into a business in the future. And even if the potential client does not return, sticking to his guns on his prices meant avoiding a bad client relationship in the interim.