The Marketing Eye: Provincial Law Firms Need to Urgently Review Their Value Propositions – or Face the Consequences
Uckfield, East Sussex (PRWEB UK) 31 October 2011
The introduction of Alternative Business Structures means that the debate about fixed fees (the closest the industry has got to innovation for many years) is now competing for attention with the prospect of solicitors and accountants joining forces to form super advisory firms and internet entrepreneurs launching low-cost, online delivery models.
The change has already started. Earlier this month saw the launch of Legal365 by Ajaz Ahmed, founder of Freeserve. Legal365 is offering a multitude of legal documents online for a fixed fee: a non-disclosure agreement, for example, can be created for £80 by answering a set of questions on the website.
There will be lawyers who will argue that the pigeons will come home to roost when the absence of £200 per hour advice will manifest itself in a contested clause. Others will be saying that a fixed fee cannot possibly be determined until the extent or direction of a piece of work is underway, or that a fixed fee will inevitably be more expensive for the client as the lawyer will play safe and ensure that there is an adequate margin for error in the quote.
Neil Edwards, a specialist professional services marketer, is not convinced: “As Legal365 proves, there is any number of letters and documents that can be created in an entirely determinable period of time – it is just a matter of process. Even non-standard pieces of work can be broken down into a series of stages that will give clients clarity about the cost and what the jump off points can be”.
Martin Pollins, MD of Bizezia, which provides web based marketing applications to the professional services industry, summarised it succinctly when he said that the infatuation with fixed fees is misplaced: “Clients don’t want a fixed fee, they want certainty.”
Neil Glover, a marketing manager at international law firm, Withers, a firm that is unlikely to be troubled by the launch of Legal365 and its compatriots, believes the effect will be dramatic on the smaller provincial firms.
“They have to get out from behind their desks and change their attitude to business development” said Neil. “If they don’t, they will see their core base of business slip away from them”.
Neil Edwards agrees: “There can be no doubt that provincial law firms need to rapidly reassess their value propositions and business models. Nobody is saying there is no longer a place for them in the market, but where they fit and, therefore, the type and extent of opportunities available to them, will fundamentally change.
“The partners in these firms must rapidly reassess what value they deliver to clients, what segments of the market they should be targeting and how clients in those segments want to engage with them. This is a question of simple competitor analysis”.
Neil Edwards points out that Legal 365 is using a platform based business model to allow it to centre its proposition on cost reduction and accessibility for the mass market. According to him, this leaves the way clear for the ‘traditional’ firm to major on tailoring services to sectors and the specific needs of individual clients. “The benefits of dedicated personal assistance and long term relationships should be highlighted over self-service and automated delivery” he said.
Traditional firms need to think about their accessibility too – how inviting and easy to do business with are they?”. “Now is the era of digital natives, community commerce, the super consumer and frictionless living. How does law delivered from labyrinth offices in the centre of town fit with the current age? he asks”
The advent of change is not all doom and gloom for firms with the right attitude. Oliver Asha of Acumen Business Law in Brighton offers a particularly enlightened point of view: “The more people that use the law the better. There will always be a point where people find themselves on the edge of their comfort level and decide that now is the time to seek face to face advice.”
Neil Edwards concludes: “The industry should welcome and embrace disruptive influences like Legal365 and use them, not as an opportunity to dismiss and criticise, but as a prompt to reassess and revise long held views of what clients really want.
“Our legal industry was designed and structured in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. We are now 11 years into the 21st”.
http://www.themarketingeye.com
Notes to Editors:
Neil Edwards is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing with many years’ experience in marketing, brand and communications. His experience includes being a Marketing Director in The Royal Bank of Scotland Group, where he was responsible for brands in the UK, Ireland and US.
The Marketing Eye is based in Uckfield and provides marketing consultancy and marketing services to professional services and financial services business in the South of England and London.
Services offered range from marketing strategy and planning to direct marketing, event management and all forms of marketing communication.
The business employs nine people, all of whom are highly experienced and well qualified in their particular area of specialism.
# # #
Attachments
©Copyright 1997-
, Vocus PRW Holdings, LLC.
Vocus, PRWeb, and Publicity Wire are trademarks or registered trademarks of Vocus, Inc. or Vocus PRW Holdings, LLC.