Hold the pickles, your clients want to have it their way

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McDonalds shares fell today as their latest financial report disappointed investors. One reason for their lackluster sales is that their new healthier menu items aren’t catching on with customers.

Customers may need healthier food but if they don’t want it, they won’t buy it. (Someone please remind Mayor Bloomberg).

Are you giving your clients what they want or insisting they buy what they need? Yes, you owe them a duty to present and recommend what they need, but you’ll have a much easier time (and earn more) offering them services they want.

But I don’t want to dive into that topic right now. Instead, I want to remind you that you also prefer to buy what you want, not necessarily what you need. But are you?

I’m talking about your law practice and career. Are you doing what you want or have you bought into doing what you need?

Many lawyers go to law school for the wrong reasons. Did you?

Maybe you really wanted to do something else but convinced yourself that a legal career was a better choice.

You may have chosen your practice area for similar reasons. It was what you knew or what seemed like the most lucrative field. It’s what you thought you needed to do, not what you really wanted to do.

How about the way(s) you market your practice. Are you doing things you really don’t enjoy but feel you need to do?

Stop for a minute and think about your practice or career. Are you doing what you need to do or what you want to do? More importantly, are you happy?

You may successful. Don’t let that cloud your thinking. You can be successful and unhappy. You may have been even more successful doing something else that made you happy.

You still can. You have a choice. You can change what you’re doing. You can do what you want and you can find a way to make it deliver what you need.

Burger King, one of McDonald’s biggest competitors, used to advertise that “you can have it your way”. I still recall the jingle: “Hold the pickles, hold the lettuce, special orders don’t upset us, have it your way, at Burger King.”

I hope McDonalds (and you) are listening.

Do you want to Make the Phone Ring? Here’s how I do it.

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