I spend a lot of time with my clients on the subject of pricing. Most of them underprice their services. The reasons for this are many, but are mostly psychological. They have less to do with geography or experience or competition than with the attorney's own inner belief about what he or she is worth. However, when a product is invisible (like legal services) then value is conveyed only by packaging and price. From reading an article in yesterday's New York Times, it seems that the legal profession could learn something from the world's oldest profession. Here is the key quote:
And when it comes to price, Ms. Xi’an [a high-priced call girl] shared a secret. When someone pays her $1,250 an hour, he gets exactly what he would for $200, her rate when she started out. The difference is psychological, she explained: “The more somebody pays for you, the more they’ll respect you.”
“Tell a guy you’re $100 and they’ll treat you one way — tell them you’re $1,500 and they’ll treat you better,” Ms. Xi’an said in a telephone interview from her home on Long Island. “I’ve heard a lot of girls saying, ‘Is this girl getting $5,500 an hour because she’s more beautiful? Is she doing something I don’t?’ The answer is no. But that girl is able to look a guy in the eye and say, ‘This is what I’m worth, and this is what you have to pay if you want me.’ And you have to be able to do that, and believe it.”
(Tip of the cap to Lisa Solomon for alerting me to the article.)
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