Value-Based Fees: How to Charge—and Get—What You're Worth: A Guide for Consultants, Second Edition

5.4. FINDING NEW CIRCUMSTANCES

The final tactic for converting clients to value-based pricing is to find some new client, market, or environmental circumstance that supports the reasoning for such a change at this particular juncture.

Some new circumstances will be obvious, but others are more subtle. Yet all can serve as your "transfer mechanism." Here are some examples:

The Great Year. The client has had an outstanding year, not least in part thanks to your assistance. Suggest to the buyer that this is a time to consider a more comprehensive and more flexible relationship. Also, never neglect the fact that at the end of any budget year, there are funds often crying to be used or lost. It's tough to put those funds against hourly billing that is not based on any specific amount of hours, but it's relatively easy to put those funds against a clear-cut $100,000 project.

The Horrible Year. Your client might have had a disaster, not due to anything you did, of course. There might have been some client defections, unexpected costs, loss of technology, whatever. If the client is happy with your help, however, suggest an easier and less burdensome way to work with you next year, since the fees will be capped, fixed, and otherwise locked in cement. That way, you can't be part of an escalating cost problem, and you can't be cut in a client's effort to address a cost problem. That's win-win.

The New Buyer. Most consultants search for arsenic when their buyer is promoted, fired, replaced, ...