Thoughts on How We Change; My Reaction to Firm of the Future

After the most recent Firm of the Future Symposium, I have to digest what I’ve learned.  And I have to remind myself that learning doesn’t always lead to quick change.

How do we change?  We can learn a lot about how we change by noting how we DON’T change.  That is, we keep doing the same things we’ve always done because we stay comfortable.  Admit it – it is comfortable to keep doing the same things we’ve always done.  Staying comfortable holds back the wall of innovation waiting to break through and pour on our future profession.  Putting ourselves in a place of discomfort will:

1.  Prove that change does not hurt, and

2.  Prove that change is not quick.

After the Firm of the Future Symposium, some of our members are uninstalling their time and billing software in their firms, practicing value pricing and compiling knowledge about successes from others on value pricing.  But rest assured, our journeys have only just begun.  Our marketplace is not yet educated as to these methods – they are used to the way our profession has always operated.  Changing our customers is going to be a difficult task too. They will not understand our methods, even after we are done practicing.  So what does that mean?

It means we are not for every customer.  Not everyone is going to see things the way we are going to see them.  It means our sales processes will be slowed down by our intentional and strategic methods of pricing and our brand new up-front conversations.

In fact, I bet most customers will not accept your value pricing quotes until you’ve practiced a while (and you will get better each time you do it).  You are changing, but so are they.  We can’t forget the truth that pricing a customer towards their value is the best thing for them.  Having up front conversations with them so we will know how to price them is what they need (even if they don’t know they need it).  And being forced to be creative about our pricing after we uninstall our time and billing software will MAKE us focus on the customer.  You will have no other choice.

As we start on our journey, let’s encourage each other that the Firm of the Future where we are creative and price strategically up front must always take us back to our beliefs – that this is best for us, it is best for our customers and it is best for the future of our profession!

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