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

4.3. CREATING THE "GOOD DEAL" DYNAMIC

Customers buy cheap pens and expensive cars for the same reason: the purchase makes sense in terms of what they care to invest at that moment. The pen may be easily lost on the job and is used only for internal sign-offs on inventory, so the quality doesn't matter as long as the loss isn't too great when the pen inevitably disappears. In that case, 19 cents makes sense.

The car may cost $75,000, but there are few like it, you feel good in it, and you've always wanted one. You can now afford it. The emotional gratification more than compensates for the difference in the basic cost of transportation that could be saved with a less expensive vehicle.

In either case, it's a "good deal" for the customer. You have to make a "good deal" for the buyer. Note that this is more than merely a return on investment. That's because good deals are based on visceral and subjective needs as much as on analytical and objective needs (which is why you always want to stay away from the obsessively detailed denizens of the purchasing department). Focus on these "good deal" factors while building your relationship and establishing conceptual agreement (and find out which are most crucial to your buyer):

• Responsiveness (a plus for solo practitioners)

• Referral source (the transferred trust from the person referring you)

• Speed of completion

• Transfer of skills so that the client can replicate

• Using an "authority" or acknowledged "expert"

• Documentation

• Involvement of client ...