I was reading a recent post at the always-excellent My Shingle about competing with Axiom Legal (a new kind of law firm/service in the business arena). It became apparent in the post and the comments that lots of solos see price as their primary competitive advantage. That’s how they beat the larger firm competition.

For most of us, price is not the answer.

Competing on price is a horrible, awful, no-good race to the bottom.

A quick example: there is a county adjacent to the county in which I live where lawyers routinely write letters to anyone who gets a traffic ticket. These lawyers will handle your case and negotiate a deal for you. There are about ten of these lawyers in that county, all writing nearly identical letters (we don’t have to get into how I know about these letters—I’ll save that VERY FAST story for another day).

They compete on—you guessed it—price.

How much does it cost to have your traffic ticket handled there? Can you say $35? Ouch! That’s bad news for lawyers. What part of a student loan payment will $35 pay?

Anyway, there are lots of ways to compete beyond price. You can compete on quality by offering the very best representation in the practice area. Many of us don’t want an “adequate” lawyer at a low price. Many of us perceive our problem as the most important problem in the world. We want the best, and we’re willing to pay for it. We don’t want a discount lawyer.

You can compete on speed and responsiveness. This advantage is especially helpful when you’re competing for business with sophisticated consumers of legal services. Those folks know the pain of an unresponsive lawyer.

Price is my least favorite way to compete. There is a downward spiral that businesses competing on price often face. First, they cut wages, eating into their ability to attract excellence. Then they cut marketing expenditures, which is counterproductive when you’re competing on price since you don’t have a quality service to attract referrals. Finally, you’re attracting clients who will quickly move on to the next low-price provider. Those clients are tough to replace when you’ve already cut the marketing budget.

Competing on quality and responsiveness is the preferred approach for building a long-term, lucrative practice.

Do you really want to be the lawyer known for being cheaper than the rest? Wouldn’t you rather be the lawyer with a reputation for excellence, quality, responsiveness, and results?