Why You Should Hire the More Expensive Manager

One of my clients always hired the managing director of the law firm, the most expensive lawyer. I challenged him: “Why do you pay the top price when you can get someone much cheaper?” His answer was that the expensive ones always pay for themselves because they provide the best service and don't go back to do things over and over again. The less-costly ones make mistakes that cost much more than what he pays to attract the best candidates. 

Quality has value. Where does the quality come from? Experience. It’s tested over time. Hire for instance the lawyers who have no time because they are so much in demand that they have no time. They’re going to handle the case fast. It’s going to be expensive, but when you look at the amount of time they spend, it’s cheaper than hiring a lower-level lawyer who has time to spend and who might therefore drag out the case for a long time.

An expression I learned in Israel is that only rich people can afford cheap cars. You may think you’ve bought yourself a cheap car because you save money up front, but it's going to break down faster than a good car. Repairs are going to cost you a fortune. At the end of the day, when you put it all together, a cheap car is quite expensive.

Many people try to hire people whose cost is not too high in order to save money. That’s a major mistake because people that are not expensive are also not that experienced. They need to be taught. They need to be supervised. And when you hire second-level people, you might have to go through several of them before somebody finally is good enough, and capable of learning and growing in the new role.

When you hire the best, they're already experienced, they have a great track record, they will pay for themselves. Their work will generate results that will pay their fee and their costs. Hiring the best is not even an investment. The payback period is very fast and, thus, they really don't cost you. On top of it, they generate revenue and profits for you. Hiring second- and third-level people becomes nothing but an ongoing expense. You have to train them and retrain them. Often you get disappointed, and the cost of replacing them is not negligible. It costs you a lot more than hiring somebody who is already experienced and the best in the industry.