This got me thinking as usually when it comes to lawyers every firm seems to have different business styles when it comes to customer acquisition. Some offer free initial consultation such as a quick 15 to 30 minute session in order to determine if there is a good case for the potential client and then using that as an opportunity to outline what they can offer. Then there are others who insist you must pay them an hourly rate that is often $200 to $400 an hour to sort of go through the same thing in order to determine if you wish to go ahead with a case while hiring the firm.
I always thought it would be friendlier and potentially more profitable to at least discuss to people briefly about their issue versus just demanding payment to even find if one can help. For example, if someone had computer problems imagine one store where they will take five minutes or so for you to explain or show them the problem to which then they can explain how t hey can fix it if you hire them. Now imagine if someone says they don’t even want to hear it unless you pay them an initial diagnostic fee. Like there, I would imagine mot people would likely go with the person who took the time to analyze the problem.
Of course, if you are a large company that deals with big contracts I can see having a fee only approach can help them make more as they don’t need to spend time with those who may not even bring them any business. But you do have to wonder if a company is losing more business overall with that approach too. I can see for lawyers though it may not be as detrimental as if you were say a retail store. Imagine like there no employees would speak to you about your needs unless you pay them first huh? Highly doubt that most people would make a purchase with them using that approach.
In my mind, the balance should be to offer just basic time to assess the situation as I can’t imagine that being an extremely time-consuming manner where at the same time it probably helps to actually attract more potential clients.