Clients Who Retain You vs. Clients Who Request Your Representation

Do potential clients retain you?

Or, do they request your representation?

This might sound like mere semantics. But there’s a world of difference between these two possible ways of “closing” a potential client.

When a potential retains you, the power is in their hands.

More often than not, they’ll try to use this power to hammer down your fees, extract concessions from you, and, generally, try to “get a deal”.

Why?

Because, in their minds, retaining you is their choice to make. Not yours. And, if you don’t want to play ball, they’ll just take their case to a competitor.

However, when a potential requests your representation…

They understand that you can’t, and don’t, take on just any case that falls out the sky and lands on your desk. You only take on cases that are viable.

(What does “viable” mean? Whatever you want it to mean.)

And they’re afraid you’ll pass them over.

These two different dynamics are the product of two different types of positioning. When you’re “a” attorney, potentials choose (or not) to retain you. There’s no fear of loss, or fear of being passed over, because from their point of view you’re just one of a dozen or so attorneys they could choose to retain. But when you’re “the” attorney for cases like theirs, you now have power over them. Because you offer something intangible that other attorneys can’t.

How do you become “the” attorney?

First, you’ve got to find a hill worth conquering. A certain type of person, with a certain type of case, who has to navigate your particular state’s laws.

Want some examples?

• “College students in Michigan charged with a sex crime”
• “Truck drivers involved in a collision in Texas”
• “Cyclists in Colorado who have been injured on the road”

Then, you need to build a castle on that hill.

How? By publishing an authority book.

I can help you with both of these things. I can help you find a hill to conquer, and then build a castle on it by authoring and publishing your own book.

A book that’s accurate, ethical, and valuable, since it’s your own words.

And a book that takes just 2-3 hours of your time to author.

This is what our Speak-a-Book service is about.

Tracy Merda

Tracy Merda is the Senior Project Manager of Jacobs & Whitehall Publishing, a publishing house that helps respected professionals who are too busy to write a book the “traditional” way author their own book, ethically, in just 2-3 hours using a proprietary interview method. Since 2018, Tracy has helped 70+ attorneys, dentists, physicians, consultants, engineers, and other professionals become published authors.