Continuing on in my Where’s the Real [Blank]? series, I wanted to talk about some of the internal issues young professionals deal with. See the first part of this series: Where’s the Real [Blank]? The first is a lack of confidence. This was a problem that I faced right after I took over the firm because I kept saying to myself, “why would anyone pay me money to handle their legal matters?” The truth is, I am much more qualified to handle than they are. As I wrote in an earlier post, you and I have the knowledge, we just lack the experience. So how to get over this lack of confidence?
As the great Nike slogan simply puts it: just do it. You have no choice but to get over it and be confident in yourself. You have to be confident! People you are dealing with can sniff it out. It’s like you’re wearing a sign on your forehead that says “Don’t Trust Me! I DON’T KNOW WHAT I’M DOING!” One of the biggest things I worried about was not having all of the answers and I would dig myself into a hole while meeting with a prospective client by letting them get into all kinds of side issues that didn’t need to be answered right then. Keep this in mind: you don’t have to have all of the answers – just act like you do. There will be plenty of time in your representation to do the research you need to do or to call a more experienced attorney to ask how something is supposed to be done.
The next thing you have to be confident about is your purpose or cause. If you do not passionately and confidently present yourself as a solution to the issue your prospect is dealing with, then you can bet they won’t take you seriously. This especially becomes more important when you begin to discuss fees with a client. You definitely need to convey your fees with confidence – like you’re proud of them, not like you’re ashamed of them. Remember all of the crap you had to do to earn your degrees, licenses, position, etc. You deserve it and you’re worth it! If you stumble through what you are charging people are either going to believe they can talk you down or they will believe they can get it done much cheaper by someone else because you are acting like your fees are out of line.
Work on pumping yourself up before your next client meeting so you can be confident when you begin to discuss their issues and your fees.