Buying fractional legal services and SaaS… it’s the same thing.

Having sat through my fair share of QBRs over the years, I’ve gained a solid understanding of sales frameworks and associated notions of economic buyers, pain identification, decision criteria, and objection handling.

These concepts came to mind when I shared my plans to launch my consultancy and people advised me to target companies already familiar with buying legal services on a fractional or retainer basis. Sound advice, undoubtedly, but it got me thinking: how different is the fractional model, really?

If a CFO is comfortable buying SaaS, why wouldn’t they feel just as comfortable paying for fractional legal services?

If you compare the two:

Service – Access to a software solution -vs- access to legal expertise

Access – Remote via an internet connection -vs- provided remotely by various means

Unit of service – Number of users -vs- number of hours

Pricing model – Fixed price per unit  x  fixed number of units -vs- fixed rate per hour  x  fixed number of hours

Flexibility for scaling – Additional units charged at the same unit price -vs- additional hours charged at the same agreed hourly rate

Payment cadence – Monthly, quarterly, or annually -vs- typically (though not necessarily) monthly 

In short: If your company needs quality legal support, consuming it via a fractional model is no different to how you already buy cloud services. Why not see how it can work for you?