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

3.6. THE SUBTLE TRANSFORMATION: CONSULTANT PAST TO CLIENT FUTURE

The final major consideration to think about—or perhaps internalize—is that we, as consultants, are engaged in a rather grand venture. We are not worth our on-site visits, we are not worth our technology, and we are not worth our tactical advice. Of course, you can charge for all that, but your fees will be delimited by the very nature of the limitations of those components.

Figure 3.2. Transforming Consultant Past to Client Future.

We are actually worth the transformation that we achieve in turning our history into the client's future. Figure 3.2 shows the actual process flow that all of us should bear in mind with every project.

Each of us possesses a unique background that we should accentuate, not blend into a homogeneous "consultant hash." The longer we work and the more diverse our projects, the richer that background. (This is also why I preach that academic degrees are only a small part of one's armamentarium.) We transfer that past to the client through a series of interventions, which might include major interactive devices (training, focus groups), personalized interaction (coaching, interviews), proprietary approaches (books, models), and individual work (observations, advice).

The mistake is to attach a value and a fee to either of the first two columns in the figure. The only column that matters is ...