Lawyers: How to Make An Offer They Can’t Refuse
An Offer They Can’t Refuse
I haven’t seen the epic 1972 movie, The Godfather, but even I’m familiar with the iconic line, make him an offer he can’t refuse,” casually uttered by Marlon Brando’s character, Vito Corleone.
Of course, Corleone’s offers couldn’t be refused because doing so would invite death.
But there are less threatening ways to make an offer irresistible — so compelling that the recipient “feels stupid for turning it down.” And that in a nutshell, is the premise of Alex Homozi’s book, $100 Million Dollar Offers.
Homozi describes the concept of a “grand slam offer” as:
An offer you present to the marketplace that cannot be compared to any other product or service available, combining an attractive promotion, an unmatchable value proposition, a premium price, and an unbeatable guarantee with a payment term that allows you to get paid to get new customers…
Why Offers Matter to Selling Legal Services
Now, you’re probably wondering how all of this applies to law firm owners who sell legal services. After all, if you visit any lawyer website, you’d be hard-pressed to find an offer at all. Instead, you’ll see passive descriptions of the lawyer’s expertise and skills, and maybe some discussion of the types of cases handled. But it’s rare to come across lawyer websites that make a specific offer, let alone one that would qualify as a grand slam.
Contracts 101: Offer + Acceptance + Consideration = Contract
Which is unfortunate. Because as most lawyers recall from first-year contracts class, an offer stands as the first step in contract formation — or getting paid.
A few years back, I gave this presentation, Client Triage Clinic that included a discussion of how to build an effective offer (Slides 14-22). But let’s face it, I’m an amateur compared to an entrepreneur like Homozi. So here’s some advice from his book on how to create a grand slam offer that clients can’t resist.
The Grand Slam Offer for Legal Services: Foundational
Before building an offer, Homozi advises that you lock down on two matters: a “starving market” and a niche. An example of a starving market for food products might be a captive stadium audience, or a bunch of drunk college students after the bars close for the night. You can offer the lousiest food to these audiences, and it will still effectively sell itself. Unfortunately, demand for legal services will never be as acute as a drunk or high student’s appetite for food. But the idea of a starving market should remind lawyers to focus on groups that need and value legal services, instead of trying to persuade an ardent DIY’r to make a purchase.
The niche, however, is highly relevant for lawyers. Homozi explains that a niche helps target your marketing and enables you to sell at a higher price point because you have a solution others don’t. Here’s an illustration from the book .
The same concept lends itself to legal services. For example, as a family law attorney, it’s easier to justify premium prices for divorces by start-up owners or empty-nesters since you have specific experience with the unique issues those cases raise.
Build the Grand Slam Offer for Legal Services
Once you’ve identified a niche market with a need for your legal services, it’s time to build the Grand Slam Offer. The best offers identify and solve all of your target audience’s problems.
As a first step, you should brainstorm all the problems your target audience experiences. Let’s use estate planning as an example:
Trouble is, your website’s offer to draft an estate plan doesn’t address any of these problems. So consider how much more powerful you could make your offer by including solutions. For example, here are some of the typical problems that an estate planning client experiences:
Problem: Can’t agree on a guardian for our kids;
Problem: No time to compile all our financial account;
Problem: Can’t afford the rates we’ve been quoted for estate plan;
Problem: Estate planning is just too complicated;
Problem: I don’t want to think about death
Yet a generic estate planning website doesn’t explain how a lawyer can solve those problems. Sure, you’ll find references to “peace of mind” and “urgency,” but little that speaks directly to those problems.
By contrast, consider this estate planning offer:
I can’t wait to draft an estate plan.
Said no one ever!
After all, who wants to think about death? Or fight with your spouse over whether his aged Aunt Agnes or your 25-year-old musician brother would make a better guardian for your kids.’
So you put it off, and take your chances, even though that causes tremendous anxiety.’
Our firm gets it. We’ve seen all the excuses, and that’s why we devised an estate planning process to surmount the obstacles that get in the way of getting it done.
Here’s what you’ll get with our $5000 Family Estate Planning Process:
Two wills/trusts for two partners;
A one-year deferral to name guardians using (insert any special tools)
Access to software to enable us to identify your financial accounts and spare you the hassle;
A two-week guarantee (subject to conditions) to complete your planning documents so you can stop thinking about them!
Get the idea? If you can’t do it on your own, try using ChatGPT which did a decent job with a quick prompt:
Next Steps to a Grand Slam Offer for Legal Services
This post only scratches the surface of Homozi’s advice. Consider purchasing his book for more details. Or start working on your Grand Slam offer now.
Let me know if you come up with an offer that knocks it out of the park.