Recently I posted: Most Important Client Development Tip for Litigators and suggested one of the best ways for litigators to market is to write and speak on how to avoid the very litigation they want clients to hire them to do.

Even if litigators write and speak on ways to avoid the litigation, very few clients hire them to avoid the problems. Have you ever wondered why?

I recently found the answer to your question in a Fast Company article by Dan and Chip Heath titled: Turning Vitamins Into Aspirin: Consumers and the “Felt Need”  As the Heaths point out:

If entrepreneurs want to succeed, as venture capitalists like to say, they’d better be selling aspirin rather than vitamins. Vitamins are nice; they’re healthy. But aspirin cures your pain; it’s not a nice-to-have, it’s a must-have.

Your clients are far more willing to pay for the “must haves’ than they are to pay for the “nice-to-haves.” That is increasingly true in the tough economy. Think creatively how you can price your work so clients will want to have you help them with the “nice to have” preventative legal work. I found one of the best ways was to offer day-to-day telephone advice at a flat monthly fee. If the client was in my community, I also offered to meet once a quarter for lunch just to catch up on what is going on in their business.

One irony in all this: My very best clients hired me to do “nice-to-have” legal work. Your best clients will choose you for “nice to have” legal work also when you are able to demonstrate its value.