Cheap conveyancing has to go.
Gavin Wall
CEO at Conveyancing Expert/Senior consultant at BBP Legal (Baines Bagguley Penhale Solicitors)/training to be a business coach.
As someone who muscled in on the conveyancing market by selling it cheap and fast, this is as much as a revelation to me as it will be to some of you.
This is a quick article with just a few points so let's get on with it:
1) From experience, there is a direct correlation between low fees and complaints. This is because people who buy really cheap conveyancing complain more - they are worried that they have underpaid and that the service must be rubbish. Indeed, it's a self fulfilling prophecy - if you have all clients ring every day for an update, your work will fall behind and the service will suffer. Moreover, a client looking for a reason to complain will nearly always find one.
2) You are financially exposed. The biggest expenditure of any firm is the salaries. if you spend ￡50,000 a month on salaries - you would need to complete on 167 files at ￡300 each just to meet that element. Here's a tip, at ￡750 per file (which is a realistic fee in the North West), then you need to do just 67 files a month to meet the salary bill.
3) People will never see your value.
Here's a true scenario. My wife has just started a new business selling curcumin (www.yellowpup.co.uk). At an event, she had sample packs on the stand and was giving them away. She gave away 12 sample packs and obtain the details of the people who took the pack for free. How many people took it? answer: none. How many people bought a subsequent pack - NONE.
Two weeks later, she attended another event and charged ￡5.00 per sample pack (but this time it was called a "trial" pack). She sold 9 packs (it was a shorter event). Of the 9 packs sold, ALL 9 took the product. Of these, 7 have gone on to order the product every month
Why? because, when you give something away, people see NO VALUE in it. This means that they actually think less of you for giving them a discount. This means that their perception is better if you charge more.
STOP GIVING AWAY YOUR TIME FOR FREE.
In essence, stop giving away your time for free. I've met hundreds if not thousands of conveyancers and I still maintain they are the true "do-ers" of the world. They have to have a huge amount of technical knowledge, excellent customer service skills and the ability to multi-task like other lawyers breathe - stop selling yourself short.
Gavin.
Providing residential conveyancing Consultant Licensed Conveyancer at Setfords Solicitors
5 年Hi Gavin this article makes interesting reading. I recently quoted on a purchase for ￡385000 and was informed we were extremely expensive. The person who had requested a quote from us then sent me the quote she had received from your firm for ￡399 plus vat and plus ￡50 admin fee and bank transfer fee and this was over the last week or so. How are we going to stamp out cheap conveyancing with such low fees being quoted by your firm on a sale and purchase on a regular basis when you quite clearly state ￡750 is a reasonable fee?
Providing residential conveyancing Consultant Licensed Conveyancer at Setfords Solicitors
5 年I totally agree. I quoted recently on a purchase of ￡308000 and was told we were very expensive as the buyer had received a quote for ￡300.00 plus vat. No add ons and they even offered no sale no fee. I can't understand why firms do such cheap conveyancing as it undervalues the whole legal process.
Security Engineering
5 年Surely there needs to be a shift into automating process? You look at what the banks are doing around lending now. You don't ?have to deal with a human (unless you want to) and mortgage lending is set to follow the same pattern. Is it not a matter of time before the entire process can be automated or is it the legalities that slow the whole process down? If you're talking commercial then I guess its different but as a consumer id imagine most people just want the process cost effective and efficient/cheap and fast.?
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5 年I love this Gavin and you’re spot on. I was just having a conversation with a client today about bulk cheaper conveyancing. I totally understand the number of files they must have to juggle to get the required income but it’s so frustrating (and stressful) for the clients. I don’t know what the answer is - except maybe the whole industry increasing prices to a proper rate rather than racing to the bottom...
Gavin, You are absolutely right. When the product is given away freely, the psychological result is simply the fact that, the product or service is cheap and not worth spending too much money on it. Equally true is the fact that those clients who indulge themselves in such products or services, tend to make unnecessary complaints. Now, anybody confronted with these scenarios, should think carefully and not jump to the first solution that comes mind - which is to reduce the price even further. Therefore, the best solution would be to :- 1. To ignore reducing the price further, because if you did that, the loss would be double. The reason for this, is that there will be more complaints and other issues from this group of clients. The second loss of course will originate from the strategy you took to reduce the price further, from original price; 2. The second solution to take, is to change your brand, improve your product or service and put your price up. This may even involve changing the venue from which you are operating from, such as moving to the posher area. By showing these changes, you are providing to your new clients that you mean business.