I’ve read a number of articles lately, written by lawyers, explaining why buying forms from LegalZoom is a bad idea. It may well, in some cases, be a very bad idea to use the forms from LegalZoom. I’m not going to get into that debate.

Unfortunately we aren’t going to win that argument with the people who are going to use LegalZoom. They aren’t going to believe us. They assume we have a financial stake in the outcome of the argument and that we’re only saying what we need to say to bring the revenues to us rather than to LegalZoom.

We instinctively know, most of us anyway, not to trash the lawyer down the block when we’re competing for business. We’ve seen that behavior backfire. We know better than to do it. The same holds true with LegalZoom. To the LegalZoom target demographic, LegalZoom is just like that lawyer down the street. Keep that in mind.

The people interested in using LegalZoom aren’t going to be easily convinced that LegalZoom is a bad idea. In fact, many of them have a strong preference for getting their work done without the involvement of a lawyer. The prospective LegalZoom clients that want the involvement of a lawyer take note of the fact that LegalZoom was founded by two big firm lawyers and that a member of the O.J. “Dream Team” is a founder and spokesperson for the company.

What you need to do with a prospective LegalZoom client is give them a reason to hire you – not an argument against using LegalZoom. If you’re lucky enough to have attracted them to your office or website, give them a reason to stay. Give them a dose of your personality, your wisdom, your value. Give them a dose of you.

Go further and offer them something special, offer them something they can’t buy on LegalZoom. Make sure it’s something they want and need at a price they think is reasonable. If you put together a big dose of you with a great offer, you’re going to get a client. That’s a formula that works, I guarantee it.

Maybe you should tell some stories on your website about people you’ve helped and the things you care about. Maybe you should explain your passion for your clients, your family and your community. Maybe you should tell them how you’ve made mistakes in the past and learned from them and grown to better serve everyone in your life. Those stories will get you further than a straight up attack on LegalZoom.

Besides, the flaws in LegalZoom, that get pointed out in these articles, are fixable. LegalZoom has resources and they’ve got time. They’re going to fix every issue they identify and, eventually, they’re going to have an excellent product. They’ll build greater and greater intelligence into the service and they’ll, one day, get it right for every client.

Once they get it right, you’re still going to need to make a living. It’s time to start telling the stories of how you add value and give people a reason to come to you.