Today I finished a book called Implementing Value Pricing, by Ron Baker. I have been very carefully reading since the end of June. I had started implementing the idea of fixed prices several years ago when I noticed the problems I was having with hourly billing. I spent several hours every month justifying my fee and trying to explain why the bill was higher than the client expected. I always justified the time as needed but there was always a conflict between expected time spent and what we really needed to do. So although it’s taken at least 2 years to throw out the timesheet we have finally done it.
This is a radical idea! I am not sure why? You wouldn’t normally ask anyone to remodel your house without a price, fix your toilet without a quote or take your car to a mechanic without a quoted price, right? Well, that’s what this is all about. The hourly billing was a theory that Karl Marx came up with a long time ago! It’s an old idea but supported because of tradition.
As I explored these new ideas on pricing, I started to notice that my profession is not the only one that was seemingly stuck and limited to an hourly pricing. I started discussing value that my customers were offering comparing my business to theirs. Once we started down the road of value we discussed road bumps, bruises and the trapped feeling of knowing what the customer needed but didn’t know how to get to the value conversation. How to match needs and wants to a price?
When you care about your customers, you instinctively know what is working and not working. They depend on hearing the truth and want options. What are the options? Well it depends on what your customer’s values. It’s unique to them and it begins with the conversation!
If you’re stuck in hourly billing I would love to discuss how we can help you provide better value that will affect the bottom line and increase customer relationships….
Let’s have a conversation…….
