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

3.2. THE FALLACY AND SUBVERSIVE NATURE OF "DELIVERABLES"

Because consultants tend to place little value on their advice and counsel (which is a low-self-esteem issue), they have to find some device or technique in which to vest their value. That alternative is usually the dreaded D-word: deliverables.

I've seen proposals that feature deliverables as the key aspect of the entire consulting engagement.^[] Imagine this: a report, manual, class, set of recommendations, or presentation to management becomes the signal aspect of the consultant's contribution to results. There's a reason why a schoolteacher makes $40,000 for a year's work and General Colin Powell makes $100,000 for a forty-five-minute keynote speech. Teachers are not evaluated on results (student admission to college, acquisition of good jobs, scores on standardized tests, and so on) and in fact have fought against just that. Former Defense Secretary Powell was evaluated on the results of his appearance at the event for employees, customers, management, leadership, morale, and so on. As long as both are positioned as they are, both deserve what they get. (No one would pay $100,000 for forty-five minutes of speaking, and no one would pay only $40,000 for his or her child's future. This is why so few of us stand out in a crowd.)

^[] A deliverable is a means to an end. It is a progress point or stop along the way to client results. But deliverables themselves are not client results, and they should never be emphasized or confused ...