Do clients really care what it costs you to produce your service?

This week has been a bit slow for me on posts, but that doesn’t mean I’ve been slacking off. I’ve been participating in an online discussion over at f/k/a that has to do with clients, cost of production, associate bonuses and value pricing – sort of.

David Giacalone at f/k/a penned (can we still say ‘penned’ even though it’s electronic?) a post entitled, “smart clients care about bonuses and marketplace ‘value.’” My comments to the post were extensive, so I won’t reiterate them here, but I hope you’ll read them at f/k/a. Suffice it to say that my comments focused on whether clients really care about your costs (i.e. what salaries or bonuses you pay to staff or how many hours you expend working on their matter), or whether those things become client concerns only when and if the client perceives them to be directly tied to the fee the client pays for your service.

As usual, I’d like to thank all of those involved in these discussions – not just about value pricing, but about what clients want, need and expect. I firmly believe that the more dialog on these issues, the better our solutions will be – for lawyers and for clients. Join the conversation!