I was at a backyard party talking with a friend who’s General Counsel at a healthcare startup.

He told me about a new law firm that had approached him with an interesting business model. Instead of billing by the hour, they use AI to handle nearly all of the research workflow and initial brief creation, with experienced attorneys reviewing the final product.

And they charge a monthly subscription based on the type of legal support a company needs.

Without getting into AI fears, I found this model insanely disruptive to the traditional law firm model.

But, because I’m me, of course I started thinking about how I would approach their messaging.

I’d start by understanding what their prospective customers are dealing with and what is going on in their world.

Situation

General Counsels and in-house law departments need reliable, high-quality legal advice, but they’re also responsible for managing outside counsel costs that can be substantial and difficult to predict.

Goal

The goal isn’t necessarily to spend less on lawyers. It’s to get the legal support their company needs while keeping costs under control.

Tension

The traditional billable-hour model can put those two objectives at odds. The more legal support you use, the more you pay. And often many of those hours are spent by junior associates when in-house lawyers really want access to the most senior attorneys and partners.

Now we have something interesting to build a story around.

What if companies could get the high-quality, fast legal support they need without having to worry about how many hours the clock is running?

Suddenly, AI and a subscription model become the answer to a problem the customer already recognizes, rather than simply an interesting new way to deliver legal services.

That’s how I approach my engagements with my own clients:

  1. Understand the customer’s world.
  2. Identify what they’re trying to accomplish.
  3. Find the tension and connect it to what your company uniquely makes possible.

Of course, this law firm has a genuinely disruptive business model. Most companies don’t.

But you don’t need to be a disruptive entrant in an industry to stand out.

You might have a better process, deeper expertise, more flexibility or a different way of approaching a familiar problem.

The challenge is finding the customer tension that makes those differences matter.

You don’t have to disrupt an industry to give customers a compelling reason to choose you.