Professionals are usually pretty good at telling prospective clients what they can offer them.
We know how to describe our services and explain what we can do to help.
But the part we sometimes forget is explaining the value (for our prospective clients) of our service.
By which I mean answering the two value-related question in every prospective client’s mind…
…’what’s in it for me?’ and ‘is it worth it?’.
If you can’t (or don’t) answer these questions, you won’t get as many prospective clients to say ‘yes’ to working with you, or you’ll get push-back on your level of fees.
If you want to hear more prospective clients say ‘yes’ then you need to clearly explain to them the value (for them) of what you are offering.
This might need to be done several times, in several different ways, in order to get your message across.
To give you an example, I’ve recently been promoting to my email list my next 1 day workshop Profitable Practice Secrets – it’s for lawyers and other professionals who want to get more clients and grow their practice.
Those who clicked the link to see more information about the event saw my description of the specific benefits they would get from attending.
But for some, this wasn’t enough (I know, because they didn’t register despite going to this page).
So, as another way of explaining the value, I’ve also recorded a short video answering the specific question “what’s in it for you to attend this event?” which I’ll be sending to those people.
In this video, I use a ‘backwards’ way to explain the value of attending this event. Rather than just promoting the ‘benefits’ of the workshop, I tell them what the workshop is not about (and, by extension, what it is about…).
For example:
I explain that this workshop isn’t about adding lots more strategies to your ‘to-do’ list, but rather about pinpointing the 2 or 3 strategies that will make the biggest difference to your practice growth and profitability.
I say it’s not a theoretical training or lecture, but about showing you real-life examples of what’s working, right now, for other lawyers with similar goals and challenges to yours.
And I make clear it’s not the kind of workshop where it you leave thinking “that won’t work for me” because it’s a small, hands-on workshop where you’ll work on your own practice needs – by identifying the specific challenges you need to overcome to achieve your practice growth goals.
Watch the video see what I mean (it’s only 2 minutes long):
You don’t need to use video to get your point across, but telling clients what your service if not about can be a helpful way to show your ‘value’ message in a different way.
It might seem backwards to focus on the negative, but when you explain the ‘value’ from several different angles, you increase the likelihood that one of those ways will ‘hit home’ with your ideal client.
How can you take what I’ve just shared and adapt it for your own practice? Are you being direct enough about the benefits of the services you’re offering? If not, how can you communicate the value more clearly?