Get Out of Other People's Head

• Author: David V. Lorenzo
• Pages: 37-38

Get Out of Other People’s Head §20.

37

§20.

GET OUT OF OT HE R PEO PL E’S HEA D

Being successful often means making people angry. Let’s face it, there are a lot of people out

there who are miserable and they are content to live with their misery. Trying to help them is not

only futile; it is exasperating. I am sure you have come across some of these people as you work

to build your law firm.

Clients who arrive in my office seeking assistance have two specific issues. In some cases

they are earning less money than they would like. In other cases, the money is fine but they

are not happy with the way they are earning the money. (They are working too hard. They

are dealing with difficult clients. They practice in an area of the law they hate…the list is varied).

When I prescribe a remedy I am always met with resistance. I have been doing this long

enough to know that I need to sell my solutions to my clients. For as much as they want to get

better, the things I ask them to do are so different, so out of the norm, so disruptive to the status

quo, that I am immediately met with shock and resistance.

Most of this resistance is set in the mind of OTHER PEOPLE.

It seems these attorneys, most of who went to school to learn how to be advocates in an adver-

sarial process, are suddenly concerned about what OTHER PEOPLE think. Shocking, I know.

Here are the three objections I hear most often when I introduce my solutions to a new client.

Other People Will Reject Me

This refers to your peers. Most attorneys are very concerned with what their peers will think.

That is why hourly billing is so pervasive. At some point, maybe one hundred years ago, a group

of attorneys decided they wanted to get paid they way plumbers, car mechanics, and factory work-

ers are compensated.

And you go right along with it. Why? Because if you do not, you will not look like OTHER

PEOPLE.

I also see this in your decisions about strategy. I introduce a new concept. Something that posi-

tions you as different compared to everyone else. And you resist it specifically because nobody

else is doing it….

That is the point!

You need to be different. Being different gives people an opportunity to make a decision based

upon something other than price. Being different helps set you apart.