Base Strategy of Speed, Cost, and Quality
Services can be the fastest, the cheapest, or the highest in a measure of quality. It is not possible to be all of them. You can be world-class at one and might be able to do a combination of two. You cannot do them three. This choice is interrelated with the rest of your business model.
Determine your base strategy. If your base strategy is selling a commodity, you need a high volume and a low price. Think Walmart or Costco. No one said cheap or inferior.
The approach to pursuing the base strategy of cost is to be the lowest cost. You must be at the lowest cost providing a competent service. To do this, you must also have low overhead, and efficiently perform the service. In a race to the bottom, the worst is to be in second place. Law firms that pursue this strategy include insurance defense for lower-end carriers and litigators that take undesirable clients. However, there are successful approaches for other firms to pursue this strategy.
If your base strategy is speed, you must have automation and lightning-fast service. Law firms that pursue this strategy might include litigation using pre-trial emergency relief, such as a collections firm or an early injunction to enforce a non-compete agreement. Other applications of this strategy could be lawyers on call to answer questions as they arise or getting a contract put together quickly.
If your base strategy is quality, you must deliver world-class solutions to the client’s perceived needs. Think Mercedes or Coach.
Think of “quality base strategy” as a term of art. No one is advocating that you serve clients with low quality. Instead, quality, in this setting, means being the best in class. Again, it helps to be specific and not jump to immediate conclusions about what best in class means.
The base strategy of quality should be specific in the context of the problem you are solving for the client. Again, try to think of this with an open mind. Instead of thinking “best attorney,” think about how a subject matter expert might be subtly different from an industry expert, who is different from a high-stakes attorney who can get up to speed in many contexts. Find a superlative: best, most, only, first.
If your base strategy is quality or customer service, you will need a white-gloved customer experience. Think Ritz Carlson. Most approaches to customer service strategy are selling the best experience at a high cost. In fact, most approaches to quality-based strategy sell the best results at a high price.
Do not try to combine all three of these. It has been said, “Speed, cost, or quality: pick two,” to say you cannot be the best in all of them. Be the most in one thing, not pretty good in several categories. Do not sell average services to average people. That doesn’t work anymore. Be remarkable. Pick one (possibly two) and double down on your investment to be the most in that strategy.
Integrate your base strategy into your business. Do not just say it in answer to this week’s question and forget about it when we address other issues. Your base strategy informs how you manage everything in your business.