New ways to use retainers for legal services
Using a retainer as part of your added value marketing strategy can give your cashflow a super-boost. It is traditionally thought of by clients as a form of pre-payment for legal services that the client intends to use in the future and if it is linked to a fixed fee, it can be a great tool when niche marketing for lawyers because it offers the client certainty in an uncertain world.
The retainer may also be paid in exchange for a discount or for the inclusion of additional services not usually available to non retainer paying clients.
However, I have noticed a new phenomenon emerging where law firms are using the retainer creatively to tempt their clients to forward buy access to added value services which they would not ordinarily buy. In other words, they are up-selling them to other services using cash back payment plans.
These law firms offer to credit a proportion of the down payment back to the client's account if the client does not in fact use these services during a given period.
'Why is this smart marketing for lawyers'? I hear you say. 'Giving cash back to our clients is not the idea!' Well, think about it from this angle. If you have £2,000 of your client's cash in the bank and they only spend half of it, you can use niche marketing for lawyers tactics and suggest other ways for them to spend the balance... so you may get to keep it all in any event.
But, even if you have to credit £1,000 back to the client, you have still earned £1,000 more than you would have done if you had not tempted them with the cash back guarantee in the first place.
So it is a 'win win' situation. You gain a client by offering them innovative legal services and payment plans. You gain a proportion of their budget, with a chance of retaining the full investment and the only downside from a marketing for lawyers perspective is that you may have to give them some of their unused budget back. Hardly a tragedy is it!
Tags: Niche Marketing, Up selling exsiting clients, Added Value, Payment plans
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I recently spoke with Lara King of BBC Radio Humberside on the subject of Employment Law. Click on the Play button, above, to hear the interview.