The latest edition of the leading guide to consulting engagement pricing, from the “Rock Star of Consulting” Alan Weiss
In the newly revised Third Edition of Value-Based Fees: How to Charge – and Get – What You’re Worth, best-selling author, speaker and renowned consultant Dr. Alan Weiss delivers a thoroughly updated guide to proposing, and receiving, consistently high fees that are based on the value you deliver to each client you serve.
The author walks you through the many reasons that time-and-materials pricing models are outdated and inadequate and how to convert existing clients to your new value-based fee model. He also discusses fundamental new developments in consulting, including the remote delivery of services, the waning market power of the consulting giants, economic globalization, and the shift from project work to advisory work.
Among the step-by-step techniques and strategies provided in the book, you’ll find:
- How to establish value-based fees, including determining your unique value and creating a “good deal” dynamic
- How to create, capitalize on, and market to trusted advisor relationships
- How to implement fee increases immediately, prevent and rebut fee objections, create consulting products, and explore lucrative new fields
Perfect for newcomers to the consulting field as well as time-tested veterans, Value-Based Fees is an indispensable guide for every solo consultant, entrepreneur, and small consulting firm.
Table of Contents:
Introduction
Acknowledgments
About the Author
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CHAPTER 1 The Origins of Value
What People Want Is Not as Important as What They Need
Abundance Agriculture and the Arts
The Abundance Mind-Set
Why Your Presence Isn’t Required
The Importance of Buyer Commitment, Not Compliance
Critical Steps for Buyer Commitment
The Buoyancy of Brands: How Brands Help Fees
Creating Shared Success
Chapter ROI
CHAPTER 2 The Lunacy of Time-and-Materials Models
Who Wants to Be as Dumb as a Lawyer?
Supply-and-Demand Illogic
Ethical Conflicts of Interest and Other Minor Matters
Limiting Profits, or Why Not Just Forget Domani?
Why Lawyers and CPAs Do So Poorly
Educating the Buyer Incorrectly
The Mercedes-Benz Syndrome
Chapter ROI
CHAPTER 3 The Basics of Value-Based Fees
It’s Better to Be an Artist Than to Be an Engineer
Focusing on Outcomes, Not Inputs
The Fallacy and Subversive Nature of “Deliverables”
Quantitative and Qualitative Measures and Criteria
Measuring the Unmeasurable
Serving the Client’s Self-Interest
The Subtle Transformation: Consultant Past to Client Future
Perpetual Motion, Perpetual Progress
Chapter ROI
CHAPTER 4 How to Establish Value-Based Fees
If You Read Only One Chapter . . .
Conceptual Agreement: The Foundation of Value
Establishing Your Unique Value
Creating the “Good Deal” Dynamic
The Incredibly Powerful “Choice of Yeses”
Some Formulas for the Faint of Heart
Chapter ROI
CHAPTER 5 How to Convert Existing Clients
Be Passionate, Not Zealous
The Litmus Test—Setting Priorities
Offering New Value
Finding New Buyers Within Existing Clients
Finding New Circumstances
The Resistance
Abandoning Business
Chapter ROI
Interlude: The Case of the Loaded Loading Dock
CHAPTER 6 The Sublime Nature of Trusted Advisor Relationships
It’s Just the Smarts, Stupid
Optimal Conditions for Trusted Advisor Relationships
Choosing Time Frames and Creating Realistic Expectations
Organizing the Scope and Managing Projects Concurrent with the Retainer
Capitalizing on Trusted Advisor Relationships
Aggressively Marketing trusted advisor Relationships
Chapter ROI
Ethics and Fees, Fees and Ethics: A Mid-Book Practicum
CHAPTER 7 Seventy Ways to Raise Fees and/or Increase Profits Immediately
Act Today and Receive a Second Bass-o-Matic Free of Charge!
Chapter ROI
CHAPTER 8 How to Prevent and Rebut Fee Objections
Since You’ve Heard Them All Before, How Can You Not Know All the Answers?
The Four Fundamental Areas of Resistance
Maintaining the Focus on Value
Boring In on the Subject
Offering Discounts
Full Payment in Advance
Using “Smack to the Head” Comparisons
Chapter ROI
CHAPTER 9 Setting Fees for Everything Else
How to Make Money While You Sleep, Eat, Play, and Make Money Elsewhere
Keynote Speaking: Don’t Charge for Your Spoken Words
Products
Exploring New, Lucrative Fields
And Now for Some Perspective
Chapter ROI
CHAPTER 10 Fee Progression Strategies
Why You Fall Behind When You Stand Still
Entry-Level Fees
Transition to a “Going Concern”
Transition to Peer-Level Referral
Transition to the Brand Phase
Transition to Thought Leader and Icon
Alan’s Axioms for the “Good Deal”
CHAPTER 11 Volatility Opportunity
Value-Based Fees in Times of Turmoil and Crisis
Value Doesn’t Dissipate Due to Distance
We Don’t Have Time, We Don’t Have Money
How Can I Help You?
I Need Your Guidance
APPENDIX A: Questions for Qualifying the Economic Buyer
APPENDIX B: Questions for Establishing Business Objectives
APPENDIX C: Questions for Establishing Measures of Success
APPENDIX D: Questions for Establishing Value
APPENDIX E: Questions for Assessing Personal Value Contribution
APPENDIX F: The Difference Between Inputs and Business Outputs
Index
About the Author :
ALAN WEISS, PHD, the “Rock Star of Consulting,” is one of the world’s most successful solo consultants. A bestselling author and speaker, he runs Summit Consulting Group, Inc., which serves some of the most recognizable brands in the world, including Merck, Hewlett-Packard, GE, and Mercedes-Benz.
