When I started practicing law 23 years ago, I spent considerable time contemplating the intangible nature of the service I delivered. For whatever reason, I came to appreciate the need to make the intangible real. I knew I needed to build a physical reality around our service. I knew that clients valued the tangible more than the intangible.
We did things like giving clients beautiful leather notebooks to hold their paperwork. We printed our letterhead on the finest paper. We created a lobby that provided a very specific experience involving lighting, music, and flowing water. We had lots of leather, wood, and art. We leased Class A office space and made sure the building was kept in perfect condition.
All of that was required in a world where the tangible made a difference. It was especially important given that our work involved an intangible service.
Things have changed.
Today, we value different things. Suddenly the value of the tangible and the intangible have swapped places.
People are buying virtual gifts online. Seriously, they’re buying pictures of things rather than things. They’re paying real money to send someone a picture of something on Facebook and other sites. The recipients are thrilled to receive the gift. Companies are making money—lots of money—on virtual gifts.
It goes way beyond gifts. It extends to software, games, and a world of other online intangible products and services. Oil and consumer goods companies are still the biggest companies in the world, but companies selling intangibles are hot on their heels. Software, telecom, and banking providers are growing in value, and their revenues are increasing fast. For example, Fortune ranks Salesforce.com as the fourth fastest-growing company in the world.
We’re living in a world where intangibles are frequently perceived as more valuable than tangible items.
That’s a good thing for those selling intangibles. That’s a good thing for us.
However, many of us haven’t taken advantage of the trend. We’re still up-fitting offices with marble, wood, glass, and leather. We’ve done such a good job of creating the perception of a tangible existence for our intangible service that we’re perceived as old-fashioned and stodgy. We haven’t pivoted now that our time has come. It’s time to change.
This is our time. We need to take advantage of the shift. We can’t be tied down by our old ideas and our old ways of presenting ourselves. It’s time to strip away the tangible and go with the flow. Start thinking about how you can better explain your offering in light of current attitudes. Family law in the cloud—that just might be the ticket. It’s certainly working for LegalZoom. It’s time to reevaluate old thinking. It’s time to embrace our intangible nature: let family law be family law.
