Seth Godin on pricing

Lawyers don't tend to pay attention to other businesses when they're deciding how to manage their firms. This is part of the cultish arrogance that goes with having a "profession" instead of a business. The top law schools spend exactly zero time teaching business topics.

We like to pretend that the law is some sort of priesthood, rather than a down-and-dirty trade. Justice Blackmun, writing in Bates v. State Bar of Arizona (the Supreme Court case that made lawyer advertising legal), poured cold water on this concept that lawyering was somehow different from practicing "business":

Early lawyers in Great Britain viewed the law as a form of public service, rather than as a means of earning a living, and they looked down on "trade" as unseemly.... In this day, we do not belittle the person who earns his living by the strength of his arm or the force of his mind. Since the belief that lawyers are somehow "above" trade has become an anachronism, the historical foundation for the advertising restraint has crumbled.

Since lawyers are in fact in the business of business (which, as Calvin Coolidge said, is "the business of the American people"), they would do well to read what other business leaders have to say about business.

Here then, for all you lawyers out there, is Seth Godin on pricing. Seth writes what's been called the most popular marketing blog in the world, entitled (aptly) Seth's Blog. It should be required reading for anyone in business — and that includes all lawyers — who wants to serve clients better. Seth had a post a couple days ago called "Change your pricing." It's quick and easy, like all his posts, and yet it contains a lifetime supply of wisdom. It asks the question of why some businesses can change the way they price their products and services — like restaurants and insurance companies — and others — like (notably) law firms — seemingly can't. The money quote:

Changing your pricing changes your story.

Read the post, and add Seth's Blog to your RSS reader.