Boutique Law Firms

For Heaven’s Sake, Do NOT Ask Clients What They Want!!!

Asking clients what they want many times over the years -- with close to no exceptions -- has been a total waste of time. 

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Blue question mark background and dark space or roomI was listening to a CLE last week, and the presenter told me how important it is to ask the client representatives what they want, their needs, how we can help — and stuff like that. Let’s talk about this and see if it is a good idea.

To start — have you heard of a company called Apple?

It hasn’t done so badly, has it?

Steve Jobs was running the show during its transformational period, and you might have heard his famous saying:

Don’t ask the customer what it wants – instead, show the customer what it should want.

In a lot of ways, this insight drove Apple’s extraordinary success. Consider this:

It is 20 years ago. Computers are starting to be useful. And they are ugly looking. Steve Jobs calls you up and asks you the following question: “Hey, Toby, would you have interest in a computer that really looks cool and will cost 20% more?”

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I bet you would have said: “Not a prayer! Why would I pay more for a workhorse computer that looks good on my desk?”

But then you went to the store and saw a bunch of ugly computers next to a sleek and amazing looking Apple computer. And ooh-la-la, you would think: “I want it!!!“

Luckily for Apple, Steve Jobs didn’t ask anyone what they wanted. He just showed them what they should want.

And he did it again by not asking if anyone wanted a smartphone before anyone had heard of such a thing.

But enough about Apple — now let’s think about law firms, and the thought here is quite simple and obvious; namely, that the law firm of the future will have this concept in its DNA.

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As for me, I have asked clients what they want many times over the years, and — with close to no exceptions — it has been a total waste of time.

And I guess the reason is that if the client wanted anything from me or my firm they probably would have already asked me for it. So this asking idea usually (but admittedly not always) goes nowhere.

However, when I have shown clients what they should want, the results have been extraordinary — to wit:

  • No client ever asked for my law firm to become The Pure Play in Real Estate law.
  • No client ever asked me to help them in building their business.
  • No client ever asked me to give them a stuffed hedgehog that represented a promise to look out for them in bad times as well as good times.
  • No client ever asked me to build a power niche.
  • No recruit ever asked us to focus on ATR (i.e., attract, train, and retain talent).

Yet the foregoing has given rise to the most explosive upsides that my law firm experienced over its 25-year history.

So to conclude, I could go on, but the point is that Steve Jobs was onto something — as when I show the client what it should want, they are often very pleased about it.

The law firm of the future will have this in its DNA for sure. Does yours?

Bruce Stachenfeld is the chairman of Duval & Stachenfeld LLP, an approximately 50-lawyer law firm based in midtown Manhattan. The firm is known as “The Pure Play in Real Estate Law” because all of its practice areas are focused around real estate. With almost 50 full-time real estate lawyers, the firm is one of the largest real estate law practices in New York City. You can contact Bruce by email at bstachenfeld@dsllp.com. Bruce also writes The Real Estate Philosopher™, which contains applications of Bruce’s eclectic, insightful, and outside-the-box thinking to the real estate world. If you would like to read previous articles or subscribe, please click here.

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