Legal Marketing & PR

Put your best billing foot forward first

By Edward Poll, J.D., M.B.A., CMC

Put a 'positive spin' on the description of your services. I have been saying this for many years in the context of preparing your billing statements for work done for clients. 

I used the newspaper metaphor to elaborate on my point. Most newspaper readers skim the paper's columns. They will read the first few sentences, and then skip down through the article. 

So, too, does a client in reading your billing. If you can put a positive spin on what you did and highlight the benefits received by the client, even though there may be and usually are some negatives in every matter, the client will ignore those (especially in the billing statement).

We tend to focus on the first portion of the billing.  This, if positive, will put the client in a better frame of mind and much more willing to pay your fee.

To further substantiate my point, The Wall Street Journal in its March 4th edition, said '...The president emphasizes the aspects of his program that are easiest to support. On energy, he focuses on the upsides of alternative energy and the need for efficiency, glossing over the impact of punishing polluters. On health care, he focuses on the need to reduce costs, with helping the uninsured always mentioned second.....'

In other words, President Obama puts his best foot forward first. I wonder how many monthly billing statements he's reviewed...

Full post as published by Law Biz Blog on March 04, 2009 (boomark / email).