The information contained in this article about increasing solicitors legal fees is easy for you to implement and, if you implement it properly, it shouldn’t damage your conversion rate. The end result is that you’ll be charging higher rates while still maintaining the same level of people instructing you. Think about how much more money you could be making in that situation.
Why You Should Charge More for your solicitors legal fees
The first step is to answer the question of if you believe you’re providing people with a good service. If you can’t say yes to that question then it’s time for you to make some changes; either change the way you handle business or change your profession. Many people will likely be as confident as I am that they provide a great service. I am confident that I can help any solicitor that asks me for help increasing their profits. I am also sure that you would feel confident you could do the best possible job for any client that asks you for help. The fact that you do a good job is why people come to you in the first place.
So if you accept that you do provide an excellent service; isn’t it only fair that you get reimbursed properly? The answer should, once again, be “yes”.
How Can You Charge More?
1. Start by Selling Your Services to Existing Clients
When you sell your services to clients that are loyal to you you’re able to charge them more. These clients will come to you because they feel that you are their solicitor. This means that they won’t be trying to give you the run around. They shouldn’t be scared off as long as the price increase isn’t too high. Later on we’ll tell you how to get even more value out of your services.
Building Client Loyalty
To build up client loyalty it is vital that you communicate with them clearly and regularly. You should contact them at least once a month but you should aim for more. If you’re not in regular contact with your clients then it’s time you started. There are plenty of software tools out there that can help you do this so there’s no excuse anymore to not be in regular contact with your clients.
While you’re working for your client you should always give them the best service possible. If you’re going to give your clients a great service then they’ll never even consider going to someone else for legal help if you raise your prices. They’ll even recommend you to their friends and families to increase your business. If you ever think about the times you had to choose a professional service yourself you’ll realise how many times you’ve stuck with a company or a person because of the convenience of staying with them. Even if you feel someone is cheaper or could do a better job you stick with what you know. Your clients will think the same thing. If you do the bare minimum for someone they’ll probably stay with you, but if you give them an exceptional service they’ll be yours for years.
2. Selling Yourself to Prospective New Clients
If you’re great at handling prospective new clients you’ll have no problem increasing the cost of your services. You might need to take a little time reviewing and improving your current process but it’s not like it will cost you anything to improve your practices. Here’s how to better sell yourself to prospective clients.
Listen to Their Needs
Everyone has two ears and a mouth but when solicitors call people on the phone to attempt to sell their services they are focused only on the mouth. They are all about talking and never about listening. You need to stop thinking of your price and start thinking of the client’s needs.
Just making the effort to really listen to your clients and their needs will put you ahead of the competition. Almost every solicitor starts talking about the price almost instantly without even finding out why someone needs to move home, make a will, or how much pain the client is in if they are considering a personal injury claim.
If you take a few minutes to find out why a client needs to do something then you’re pretty much two thirds of the way to closing the deal. If you don’t listen to their needs then you’ll never be able to match your services with their needs, which brings us to step two;
Match your Services to The Client’s Needs
Knowing why the client needs to do something makes it much easier for you to explain to them how your services are perfect for them. I remember a time I sat in on an interview with a sales manager interviewing a potential employee. It was the worst interview I’d ever seen because the interviewer was telling the interviewee exactly what he wanted. All the interviewee had to do was repeat back what he was told, and he got the job. It didn’t matter if it was true or a lie. What mattered is that he told the sales manager exactly what he needed to hear and convinced him that he was right for the job.
What you need to do is take your client’s needs and explain how your services are a perfect match. If you can convince the client they are you’re much closer to making the deal.
Follow Up
It’s important that you take the time to follow up the call. You can do it by sending an email but sending an email and a letter is the better option. It’s important that you follow up with your call because, if your client has called more than one firm, they might forget which one you were representing
Finally
If you don’t hear back from the client and get their business you should give them a call. During the call find out if you answered all of their questions or if they had any more information they needed to make a choice.
How Much You Should Charge
The answer to how much more you should charge depends on how much your services are worth to your clients. These days solicitors have been reducing their conveyance costs so much it’s surprising that they are still in business. Remember that your services are worth as much as the client is willing to pay for them. Many solicitors will charge just £250 for their conveyance services while others will charge as much as £1250. Remember that this a £1000 difference for the same service. Of course you need to be providing a stellar service to be charging £1250 but if you charge that much you have the financial freedom to spend more time with the client, more time with the file, and more time ensuring that everything goes through properly.
A good way to get started is to increase your fee by £25 and see if it affects your conversion rate. If so then you can increase the price a little bit more. Keep on going until you find that you’re charging the maximum price that clients are willing to pay for your services.
When to Start Charging More
Right now of course! Give the next person who calls you your new rate. There’s no reason to wait.
Summary
To summarise; you simply aren’t charging how much you should be for your professional services. If you go through with the process properly you can begin charging more in a way that allows you to make your services even better.