Using Competitive Advantages to Market Your Practice

The contrast principle says: You can change how a person perceives something by changing the event that precedes it.



Since prospects’ perceptions are their reality, when you change their perception, you change what they believe is true.



Here is how the contrast principle works. (Yes, you can try this at home): Prepare three buckets of water. One with cold water. One with water at room temperature. One with hot water. Place one hand in the cold water and your other hand in the hot water. Then at the same time, place both hands into the room temperature water.



Your surprise illustrates the contrast principle. The hand that was first in cold water now feels like it is in hot water. And the hand that was in hot water now feels like it is in cold water. Yet, you can plainly see both hands are in the same water.



How each hand perceives the room-temperature water depends on the event that preceded it, namely whether the hand was first placed into water that was cold or hot.



Another example: A man goes into a fashionable clothing store and tells the clerk he wants to buy a three-piece suit and a sweater. If you were the clerk, which would you show him first?



The contrast principle says always sell the more costly item first. Because after the man buys the suit, the cost of a sweater – even an expensive sweater – will seem small by comparison.



If the clerk first showed the man a $200 sweater, the man might hesitate because that sounds expensive for a sweater. But if the man had just purchased a $1200 custom-tailored suit, $200 for a sweater does not seem out of line.



How the man perceives the price of the sweater changes depending on whether it is the first item he considers, or whether he first buys the expensive suit.

In Your Practice

Now, to your law practice: Identify something you believe prospects perceive negatively about you or your services. To make it easy, let’s use your fee. If you want your prospect to perceive your fee as fair and reasonable, before you state your fee, quote something much higher. Then, when your prospect hears your fee, he will perceive it as lower than he would have had you not quoted the higher number.



Wrong: “Mr. Jones, I can prepare your estate plan for $12,000.” Mr. Jones, in shock, thinks, “$12,000! That’s more than I paid for my first house!”



Right: “Mr. Jones, this estate plan will save your family over $200,000 in federal estate taxes. I can prepare this estate plan for you and your family for just $12,000.” Now Mr. Jones thinks, “Not much at all compared with the amount of taxes my family will save. What a bargain!”



Wrong: “Ms. Smith, I can represent you in your injury claim, and my fee will be one third of the recovery.” Ms. Smith thinks, “This lawyer gets one third of my money!”



Right: “Ms. Smith, to handle an injury claim like yours, some lawyers charge as much as 40 percent of the recovery, and even 50 percent if the case goes to trial. But, Ms. Smith, I’ll be pleased to represent you – and aggressively protect your interests – for just one third of the amount we collect.” Ms. Jones thinks, “This lawyer is much more generous than those other greedy lawyers.”



The contrast principle holds true for any information you need to disclose, whether it is your fee, turnaround time for projects, even the number of years your client might spend in jail.



“Mr. Criminal, most people who commit armed robbery get 10 to 15 years in state prison. The district attorney has offered us a plea bargain that will make you eligible for parole in just five years. I recommend that you accept this plea bargain.”



Five years sounds short after you quote 10 to 15 years. But five years could have sounded like a long time to your client if you had not quoted the other numbers first.



“Ms. Client, under normal circumstances I would need three to four weeks to complete this project for you. But I understand this matter is a priority for you, so I promise to complete it and have it on your desk within ten days.” By itself, ten days might seem like a long time, but not when first compared with three to four weeks.

Conclusion