When to Say Yes - The Ultimate Decision Matrix
When you are being marketed to, it can be quite convincing to get that product/solution. How do you know if it’s something that is worth your time and money? You can’t say yes to it all, so how do you make sure you are saying yes to the right things, the things that will improve your business while costing less money and being less time-consuming?
First, you have to understand the different types of marketing and how they affect you. There are two types of marketing:
-
Response Marketing is when you are looking for a certain product or solution to a problem you know you have. So, you give over your information and in return you are now marketed to. You look for response marketing and are happy when you are given materials and offers on what you were looking for.
2. Interruption Based Marketing is when you are unaware of a problem matrix or that this particular solution existed and you are interrupted and made aware of a problem you have or given a solution you were unaware of.
When you’re dealing with interruption-based marketing, how do you know when you should say yes to give over your information to be marketed to or to accept an offer that’s being made?
The first thing you should be asking yourself is whether to say yes to this response or interruption-based marketing. Without being marketed to, were you actually looking for a solution to this problem?
If the answer is no, then you need to evaluate what the risk would be in accepting this first offer or not and how much money you would be willing to spend at this point. Whatever it is that’s being offered to you, will that matter and make a difference in your life? If it’s something that will require time to see what they will offer, you have to think about whether it’s worth it to spend your time on this or not.
If you decide to move ahead or answered yes to the first question then you have to ask yourself the following question:
“What is my affordable budget to spend on a solution to this problem?”
This does not include future-based budgeting, where you base the budget on expected outcomes. You have no control over the actual results, so you can get yourself into a lot of trouble that way.
Right now you want to ask yourself, “What can I afford today?”
Although you should be positive, you also have to keep in mind the worst-case scenario and base your budget on that.
Now that you figured out what your budget is, you have to ask yourself “Is this the best way to spend my limited resources (time and money) or is there a better way?”
You can use the matrix below to figure out whether something is a good use of your time and money or if you should use something else first.
There are examples of where some things would fit into the matrix.
The graph is split into four quadrants:
Bottom left - quadrant one
Bottom right - quadrant two
Top left - quadrant three
Top right - quadrant four
Quadrant one is the one that will cost the least and take the least amount of time, so you want to exhaust the options in that quadrant first. Once you do that you can move one to quadrants two and three. You can choose between two and three which you want to do first because it depends on whether you have more money or time. Quadrant four will be your last resort as that takes the most time and money.
None of these are bad solutions, you just have to discern which one will work best for you and your law firm now.
Resources on the Decision Matrix:
Stay connected with news and updates!
Author
Moshe Amsel
Author
Moshe Amsel the host of the Profit with Law podcast is not an attorney. As the owner of a successful accounting firm DreamBuilder Financial and Law Firm Growth coaching organization Profit with Law, Moshe has proven that there are better and different ways for a law firm to do business and be successful.
