The Client Revolution

11 innings vs. 11 years

Longtime readers know that I'm a big Boston Red Sox fan. So whenever I can use the Sox to make a point here, I will. Whatever works.

The Red Sox were supposed to be the team to beat this season. Almost all the pundits predicted them to win the American League pennant this year, given their impressive offseason performance in rebuilding the bullpen and acquiring superstars Adrian Gonzalez and Carl Crawford.

But things didn't start out so well. The team stumbled out of the gate, beginning the campaign 0–6 and 2–11. No team that has started out so poorly has ever even made the playoffs.

But over the past month, the Sox have turned it around. They've won 11 of their last 13, including the last two where they scored 14 runs in each game. They're now in a virtual tie for first place in the AL East (with the hated Yankees).

The Boston Globe's excellent beat reporter Peter Abraham called attention to starter Alfredo Aceves, who replaced injured Daisuke Matsuzaka in the rotation. In his last two games (11 innings), he's only given up two earned runs:

To some, Aceves may seem like an overnight sensation given that this is first season in Boston.

But Aceves, 28, has been around. He first signed with the Blue Jays when he was 19 then spent five seasons in the Mexican League before being signed by the Yankees. After three seasons in New York, he landed in Boston.

“It’s a lot of work, it’s not only two starts. I’ve been working in baseball for 11 years,” he said. “It’s not only two starts. You can see it like that; I don’t see it like that.”

Aceves makes an excellent point. He's saying that it's a mistake to just look at his last two outings and value him on the basis of those 11 innings, instead of on the 11 years of work that got him to this point.

And this is exactly the mistake that lawyers and other professionals make when they bill their work by the hour. In doing so, they're asking their clients to value you only them for the work they just did, rather than for the years of experience and knowledge that enabled them to do that work. If you're only charging for the past few hours, you're leaving money on the table because you can't charge for the value of your accumulated knowledge — your true value.

Quantum leap: How you will practice law in 2019

Here's the video from my IgniteLaw 2011 presentation at last month's ABA TechShow in Chicago. Thanks again to everyone who voted for the proposal.

The event was fantastic, with a terrific lineup of boldfaced names from the blawgosphere. The rules were simple: 20 slides, 18 seconds a slide, and no way to control their relentless advance. It was terrifying and exhilarating. As someone who does a lot of public speaking, I found it far more difficult than preparing for a 90-minute speech. Most of the other speakers had the same reaction.

Here's the summary:

In 2019, your law practice will use cloud computing, a paperless office, and the iPad 10. But those won't be the biggest changes to how you practice law. Instead, the biggest difference will be in the way you value and price what you sell. And before you can make that change, you have to understand what it is you sell. Spoiler alert: It ain't "legal services," and it sure as hell ain't "hours" or "time." Instead, lawyers sell knowledge. How you value and price that knowledge will be the greatest change in your 2019 practice (before you hop in your flying car and head to court).

Here's the video. It's just six minutes, although it felt like 60 seconds at the time. Enjoy!

The other 11 talks can be found here on YouTube.