🌌 Subject Line: Crafting Your Trilogy: Propel Clients to Their Galactic Choice! 🌌

Hello (First Name),

Last Sunday I had to pick my wife up from the airport.  Scratch that…last Sunday I GOT to pick my wife up from the airport (more of this mindset shift next week…)

And because it’s 2023…her flight ended up getting delayed, which then caused them to have to wait on the tarmac for a gate…which led to her being picked up later than expected.

However, this gave my son and I a GREAT opportunity to check out the toy section at Ross to kill the time.

I assume you all have been to Ross, but if not…everything has a “comparable price” on it and then Ross’ price.  So basically everything is on sale.  Or maybe they’re just tricking all of us.

Which got me thinking about how we could use some of these tactics for our law firms!!!

(Title) A Price By Any Other Name Would Still Be A Price

Did you know that price tags (really any fixed price) only started in the late 19th Century because the Quakers (John Wanamaker specifically) thought that it was dishonest to always haggle the price?

Whether you want to thank them or get an apology we aren’t even at 200 years of things having a fixed price.  Which might be why there is SO much research put into buying habits and how price can affect it.

So let me start here - I think EVERY law firm that charges a client money should have 3 price points (PI lawyers…we might be off the hook…but still stay with me here because maybe not).

For the sake of future reference, let’s call them Small, Medium and Large.  I like those because I didn’t want to make it clear which option was the one you ideally want people to go with.  I hope you’re okay with that and do not demand a liter of cola a la Supertroopers.

For the rest of this newsletter we will flush those 3 options out with what they are, how to frame them, and ways to psychologically push people to the “right option”

(Title) Why 3 Options?

Because this gives people a choice (or the illusion of one).

Because it’s not an overwhelming amount of options to drive someone away (like we found in the famous Jam experiment) (MARIA, LINK TO THIS VIDEO OR THIS EXPERIMENT I KNOW I HAVE WRITTEN ABOUT IT ALREADY)

Because it forces you to create a scalable option.

Because it helps you flush out what the minimum a client would want, what they need, and what’s the maximum they could want from you.

Because it forces you to figure out how to actually price your services.

Or at least because it allows you to use anchors, Goldilocks and framing to better show your value to clients.

(Title) The Small Option

Your small option should be scalable. It’s like the first peek into your services—a starter adventure.

This could be free videos on youtube designed to help a client DIY (until they mess something up and call you).

It could be selling access to a course or doing their own trademark.  Or a form bank for family law clients.

It could be advice without representation (not taxation, just advice).  Where they might be able to pay a lower hourly rate to speak with you, but you aren’t officially their lawyer with the court (yes this can raise some ethical issues…so look into it if you do ANY of these).

But ultimately this is a way to push price sensitive clients who want to hire you to something you can afford to sell them, and remove your guilt about losing the sale in a better way than just having to discount your normal offering (which you are free to do if you want).

Ideally your small option is designed also like a lead magnet.  You provide enough to convince someone to hire for you a larger package after they go through that option and realize how much value they got for the money (or for free).

(Title) The Medium Option: Baby Bear, Easy Compromise or the Decoy

Quick, let’s take a page out of Dan Ariely’s book Predictably Irrational.

Let’s say you’re given three subscription choices for The Economist:

Online subscription

Print subscription

Print and Online subscription

Which one would you pick?

The answer…as in all good lawyer stories is - IT DEPENDS!!!!

In this case, it depends upon the price.  The option they gave were as follows:

Online subscription ($59)

Print subscription ($125)

Print and Online subscription ($125)

And behold, we have a decoy.  Why would ANYONE buy the just print subscription?  You could have the online version TOO for the exact same price.

But let’s say you were initially interested in just the online option.  Now that you know the print one is worth $125, but you could add it for only $66 (that’s almost 50% off)...maybe you are inclined to spend more.

But what if your middle option is more like the Williams and Sonoma bread maker?

In this case, once they released a crazy high end bread maker it did NOT sell a ton.  BUT it did drastically increase the sales of the old (but now) middle tier option.

This backs some research by Itamar Simonson and Amos Tversky that shows that a trio of choices can lead clients to the middle, the balanced beacon of hope. It’s the well meaning smuggler Han Solo balanced between poster child perfect farmboy Luke Skywalker and the evil Emperor Palpatine.

Because let’s face it…I didn’t JUST buy the $1,000 breadmaker.  But I also didn’t buy the $20 one.  I picked the middle one.  The Goldilocks option (not too cheap and not too expensive).  Even if 5 minutes ago I had no idea there were even 3 different kinds of bread makers.

(TITLE) The Large

This is your top level offering.

Higher price often makes people think of higher perceived quality.  This is why you can buy a Toyota or a Lexus, a Hyundai or a Genesis, a Fiat or an Alfa Romeo or a Maserati.

And here’s the thing about having 3 options…your client might have NO idea they are getting the Acura, Cadillac, Audi option if you never offer them Honda, Chevy or Volkswagen too.

There’s probably an entire newsletter about Tesla and how they started as super high end, and built an incredible brand…and then kept offering cheaper and cheaper options once they were there.

I think you’d be hard pressed to pay $150,000 for a Tesla with Plaid mode if the first one was only $5,000.  But without that knowledge and word of mouth…offering the $5,000 option might show them how much better the Self Driving Twin Motors version is.

(Title) So Medium or Large

This is really what it boils down to.

Middle Focus Strategy:

Pros:

Effective for acquiring a diverse client base.

Balances value perception and revenue.

Close more leads

Cons:

Risks overshadowing the premium services.

Less profit per case

Large Focus Strategy:

Pros:

Maximizes revenue and value perception.

Elevates brand prestige.

Allows you to invest more (time, money, energy) into each client

Cons:

Might alienate clients with limited budgets.

Close fewer leads

How do you know which option is right?

Try both and see, or

KNOW YOUR IDEAL CLIENT

The more you know your ideal client and who you REALLY want to work with, the easier it is to determine which option they will (most likely) prefer.

If you’re appealing to ultra-high net work individuals, they probably want the high end more hands on large option.  Think VIP room.  For this price, they must have very few clients and be able to knock it out of the park for us.

If you’re working with hard working blue collar types, they probably want the medium option.  Think safety in numbers.  If the firm has 1,000 clients and does a good enough job, what are the odds they mess up my case?

(Title) What Order to Present Them?

So you have 3 offers, and you decided if you WANT people to pick the medium or the large.  So now…what order do you offer the options?

For that we need to talk about the Anchoring Effect.

Basically what you think about before seeing the real thing (or the first of the options) sets the ANCHOR for you to decide whether or not something is worth it.

For example, what are the last 2 digits of your social security number (DO NOT ACTUALLY TELL ME).

Now, on a scale of 1-100 how would you rate the last meal you had?

In theory, anchoring tells us that if the last two digits of your SSN were high, the meal would be rated higher.  Whereas a low number would make you rate the meal lower.

Think I’m crazy?  This is almost exactly what one study found out (only instead of rating the meal, they bid on bottles of wine.  Higher SSN = higher bids.

So what does this look like in practice?

(title) Let’s See it in Action

Here are 3 potential offerings from me that I can give to you.

The full experience - I fly out to you.  Follow you around for a week.  Then we do a deep dive into what you want and how you can get there for a full day.  This currently does NOT exist, but let’s say it would be $10,000.

1 on 1 monthly coaching - you pay me an amount for us to meet twice a month for 50 minutes 1 on 1 over google meet.  I go through where you are currently, where you want to be, and then we create a roadmap for you to get there.  You get homework between each meeting and we go through it together for me to help you with it and hold you accountable and such.  This currently DOES exist, and is $750 a month ($1000 start in 2024)

Paid for access to a group - you pay a lower amount to get access to a group.  We put a ton of materials and info for you.  You have a community of like minded law firm owners.  I show up a few times a month for anyone to join and dive deeper into stuff.  This option does not currently exist, but let’s say it would be $250 a month.

Let’s say I want to sell the full experience.

Be honest with me, did you get sticker shock when you saw the $10,000?  

What if I had a $25,000 package?  That could make the $10,000 seem easier to swallow.  

Or I could tell you how a year of coaching is $9,000 and for $1,000 more you get me with you in person for 40 hours (instead of 24 hours over a year for $9,000).

But what if I WANT to sell the 1 on 1?

Now, I could throw in the group access with the coaching.  So it’s only $500 a month more for that customized plan and my time with you.  

And $750 a month sounds a LOT cheaper than $10,000 for only 1 meeting, right?

And I could let you know that at the 1 on 1 coaching level you get all the other packages I sell (not real YET, but my assistant’s SOPs, my social media SOPs, my 24 year emails about referrals, my Personal Branding course where 10 minutes get you 150 piece of content, etc).

Now I can tell you that you are getting $22,000 in value for only $750 a month.

Seems like a much better deal right?

And my point is not to sell you on anything tangible, my point is that hopefully I changed your mind about something in 30-45 seconds and you could do the same for your future clients.  And therefore I SOLD you on having 3 offerings.

Next week I am going to write about (WHAT…AND WHAT WEEK ARE THESE?  WE NEED TO FIGURE OUT WHEN WE ARE GETTING INTO THANKSGIVING AND HALLOWEEN SO I CAN WORK THAT INTO SOME OF THIS)

Until then, have a wonderful weekend and May the Force of Wise Choices about your 3 offerings be with you.

Sincerely, [Your Name]

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