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Could pricing with options increase your practice revenues?

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Ok, enough about schedules and scheduling. Though I intend to revisit the topic one more time in a future post. Labor Day weekend is coming up, and I thought discussing how we price our services – specifically pricing with options – would be interesting as we ease into the holiday.

And if you’re new here, welcome aboard. This is what we do!

About a week ago, I received an accumulation of mail from my mail forwarding service. One piece was the July 2015 issue of the Journal of Accountancy. Starting on page 37, there is a Q&A with Ron Baker, THE spokesman for value pricing. The article is a good review of the pricing principles Ron espouses. I recommend you give it a read.

The power of options

One of Ron’s principles is giving our clients options … a menu of service and fee choices that s/he can select from. The purpose of the menu is to remove (or mitigate) price as an objection to hiring us.

When possible, all of my clients get options. Giving my client options about how we might work together changes the client question/objection from Do I want to work with Rod?  (which only allows for a yes or no answer) to How do I want to work with Rod? (because now there are choices).

Pricing options won’t work for me

You may think pricing options would only work for appraisers who offer consulting services like exit planning … where pricing options are common, if not expected.

Compare that to engagements like fair value/ESOP/tax-purpose valuations … where we proffer our service for one fee that our client accepts or rejects, or accepts only if we lower our price.

So what

Walk with me. Imagine proposing on an engagement for $X. If the client objects, ask them what they would be willing to spend. Clients will say they are willing to spend $Y. Fine, I say. Here is what I can do with that … here are my options.

  • Accept the $Y fee if it is paid upfront.
  • Deliver the report in 6-7 weeks instead of 4-5 weeks.
  • Provide a lesser service (e.g., summary report vs. detailed).

[Note: Clients do not pay for your valuation services. They pay to have their problems solved. So when clients object to your price, they are not saying you’re too expensive; they might be saying their problems are not worth that much to fix.]

In real life

It’s a negotiation. When we put forth a service/fee option and the client counters with a lower price, a negotiation has begun. It’s not Game Over. We can counter again with options like the ones I suggested.

Thus, offering options can save us from walking away with our tails between our legs because either (a) we didn’t get the engagement or (b) we took it for a lower price without getting anything in return.

[Note: Accepting an engagement for a lower price than what you wanted may sound ok at first. Bills have to be paid, right? But any euphoria will give way to misery once the engagement starts, knowing that you are working for less than you’re worth. Or imagine the low level of motivation when explaining to staff that you didn’t get the fee you wanted so, you know, go easy on the charge hours.]

What are your thoughts on pricing options?

Cheers!

 

 

 

Action Items:

– If you like what I write about, tell a colleague.

– If something resonates and you want to reach out directly, email me.

– If you think we share common interests, connect with me on LinkedIn.

– If you want a sense of how well your practice is working for you, take this Practice Self Assessment.

We can talk any day you want, as long as it’s Friday

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I hope you got something out of last week’s conversation about calendars and scheduling. Has anyone tried Calendly, TimeTrade, or Vcita? Continuing this theme, here is another time management piece I think you will find useful.

And if you’re new here, welcome aboard. This is what we do!

I’ve been putting together my ideal schedule (more on that in a future post). Part of that involved scheduling a time when I talk to people on the phone. I decided on Fridays.

Most people use their schedules to plan the interruptions that interfere with getting their work done … these meetings today, these phone calls tomorrow, emails as soon as they hit the inbox, etc.

Very few people schedule their work under the assumption that it will somehow get done amongst and between all the scheduled interruptions. If you’re part of that group, how’s it working for you? It wasn’t working for me.

So I’m experimenting with “Calls Only On Fridays.” And if you’re reading this aghast, I’m not talking about the phone calls that, of course, you take from clients and attorneys who are getting back to you with the information you need to complete the assignments you are actually working on. I’m talking about calls from people who want to “circle back with you,” “catch up with you,” or “pick your brain.”

And I’m also doing it for those committee conference calls that someone schedules during prime working hours. (By the way, who does that? Excuse me, I would like to schedule a monthly call with you and eight other people during your most productive time of the day because, you know, you’ll probably be in the office and available.) Unless I really need to be on the call, I’m happy to find out what happened from someone else on a Friday.

I’m a few months into this experiment, and it’s working well. If I get a call and don’t recognize the phone number as being connected to an assignment I’m working on, I don’t pick up and it goes to voicemail. As part of my shutting-down-for-the-day process, I listen to voicemails and schedule times for returning those calls – on Fridays if possible. If I have no scheduled calls on Fridays (rare, but it happens), I can work on other stuff.

So what

I imagine some of you are saying, “That just won’t work for me!” Ask yourself why. Your time is valuable, and you need to protect it. If you pick up and respond to every call, you actually end up training everyone that you are always available and interruptible. Yeah, like THAT’S the reputation you want to have.

You say, “But it could be a prospective client!” They’ll leave a message just like everyone else in the world has learned to do, and you can get back to them on your time. If the call comes in on Monday, of course, you will return the call before Friday. Just realize that the call doesn’t have to be handled THAT second.

In real life

What goes around comes around. When YOU need to talk to someone, ask them FIRST (via email or voicemail) if they have a time/day set aside just for calls. They’ll love you for not putting them on the spot to talk now.

Cheers!

 

 

 

Action Items:

– If you like what I write about, tell a colleague.

– If something resonates and you want to reach out directly, email me.

– If you think we share common interests, connect with me on LinkedIn.

– If you want a sense of how well your practice is working for you, take this Practice Self Assessment.

The chokehold of calendars

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So from our last week conversation, I hope you are earnestly preparing for a Labor Day sabbatical. Here’s something I think you will find useful related to scheduling your time … as opposed to letting other people schedule your time.

And if you’re new here, welcome aboard. This is what we do.

How do you manage your calendar? It’s an interesting question in a time when we need to more productive in all aspects of our lives. Here’s an interesting thought from the author of the blog post whose title I “borrowed” for the subject line of this email. You can read the original post here.

[M]ost people don’t schedule their work. They schedule the interruptions that prevent their work from happening.

Does that describe the function of your scheduling application? Do you have a scheduling app?

Are you trying to get your work done between the cracks of meetings and phone calls? That’s certainly one problem. And a nasty, related problem is the tedious scheduling of those meetings and calls … usually involving many back-and-forth emails figuring out who is available and when.

Well, when it comes to scheduling meetings and calls with clients, I’ve found three tools you might find useful. Note: none of the companies give me any kind of referral/affiliate commission.

Calendly (calendly.com)
TimeTrade (timetrade.com)
Vcita (vcita.com)

Which one is right for you? Generally, all three programs support Outlook and Google Calendar. I know that Calendly currently does not support iCal. But after that consideration, I recommend picking the program you will be most likely to train your clients to use. Using that criteria, I am using Calendly for scheduling calls (given my RV life, I generally don’t “do” meetings).

Calendly had a relatively easy quick start process that allowed me to set up different call lengths on days and blocks of times of my choosing. I added a “Schedule a Call” hot link to my email trailer, and I’m telling new clients to click on that link when they want/need to schedule a call with me. Calendly interfaces with my Google calendar so my already-scheduled events don’t show up as available times.

When the client schedules a call, I get an email and my calendar gets updated. Calendly is actually quite slick. And if you are only looking to schedule one-on-one calls, the free version is all you’ll need (the ability to do group scheduling requires the paid version). Check it out.

UPDATE: After this post was published, I saw that my business coach was using AccuityScheduling. So there is a fourth option to look at.

So what

This bears repeating: Most people don’t schedule their work. They schedule the interruptions that prevent their work from happening.

In real life

We all want to get more done. We need to be more productive and less busy. Re-thinking how you schedule your work is the best way I know how to do that.

Cheers!

 

 

 

Action Items:

– If you like what I write about, tell a colleague.

– If something resonates and you want to reach out directly, email me.

– If you think we share common interests, connect with me on LinkedIn.

– If you want a sense of how well your practice is working for you, take this Practice Self Assessment.

Yes, you can take a sabbatical: here’s how to do it

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I hope our last conversation about how to be seen as an expert can put you on the path to specialization. And with Labor Day weekend coming up in about a month, don’t just take a vacation … take a sabbatical!

And if you’re new here, welcome aboard. This is what we do!

A vacation is something you take, but likely still make yourself available via email and cell phone for clients. and office matters. Maybe even read your LinkedIn and other social media updates.

A sabbatical is a place you go, but with no connectivity to the Matrix that makes any of the above possible. Thus, likely causing heroin-like withdrawal symptoms at just the thought of being disconnected.

I took a one-week sabbatical during the 4th of July holiday week. I was in northern Wisconsin, just south of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. The friends we stayed with told us, in advance, that their lake home was remote enough not to have any phone/internet service (they were correct), but near enough to the Snowmobile Hall of Fame (seriously) if we ran out of things to do.

The memory is still fresh in my mind, and I wanted to pass along what I did so you might consider a sabbatical for the soon-to-be-upon-us Labor Day week.

It was my first time unplugged in, like, ever. I purposely chose that week because of the July 4th holiday, which gave me 24-36 hours of time that I would have been offline anyway. And it was over my birthday and that gave me another 24 hours that I would have taken off. So I only had to occupy 132-144 hours that week. Still … holy crap, right?!

If you got this far and are unlikely to read to the end, I have two cut-to-the-chase questions:

  • What would have to happen for you to be able to take a sabbatical?
  • Do you find the idea compelling?

If you’re still reading, here is how I prepped for my sabbatical:

1 – Embraced the idea that it was even a possibility.
2 – Identified my timetable for taking off.
3 – Developed a plan to get my work done in advance.
4 – Notified my clients with work-in-process that I would not be available.
5 – Set up an email autoresponder and a new voice mail.
6 – Created a re-entry plan for when I got back.

Here’s what I did on each day of my sabbatical:

Rested, relaxed, read, recharged, and refocused on my relationship with Amy.
(There were some great meals, much drinking, and more than a few fireworks thrown in there as well.)

So what

Surprise, surprise. The world kept turning even though I was not talking to clients or connecting to the internet! As Michael Hyatt wrote about the need for sabbaticals:

God made us human beings, not human doings. You would never know it, looking at modern man. So much of our life is defined by our activities.

In real life

I gave myself permission not to be productive for seven days.
I will do the same for you. Can you do it for you?

There’s still plenty of time to prepare for your Labor Day-based sabbatical.

Cheers!

 

 

 

Action Items:

– If you like what I write about, tell a colleague.

– If something resonates and you want to reach out directly, email me.

– If you think we share common interests, connect with me on LinkedIn.

– If you want a sense of how well your practice is working for you, take this Practice Self Assessment.

How to be seen as an expert when you’re not (yet)

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I hope you got something from our last conversation about performing file autopsies – it really can help you build a better, more profitable practice. Here is a piece about becoming an expert in your field that I think you will find useful.

And if you’re new here, welcome aboard. This is what we do!

We are living on the edge of uncertainty. Why? Because our clients can come from anywhere in the country, or the world for that matter. The same with our competition. How do we adapt?

I think y’all know one of the things I believe in is the need to specialize in our profession … specialization that draws on the training and common sense we accumulated when we practiced as generalists.

But how do we get there from here? How do we get clients in the niche we want to specialize in while we are learning the specialty? How do we get to be seen as an expert when we’re not (yet)?

A recent (and short) HBR article by Dorie Clark provides some answers. Here is my summary of what she said.

#1 – Borrow other’s expertise. “If you’re a thoughtful curator of the best ideas in your field, even if you’re not developing them yourself, others will start turning to you for guidance.” Note: the example given about Malcolm Gladwell is interesting – he’s not breaking new ground, per se, he’s synthesizing the original research of others … and look where that’s gotten him!

#2 – Be strategic about how and where you’re applying your persuasion techniques. If you can’t reach particular clients directly, influence the people who influence your prospects. Note: participating in LinkedIn groups relevant to your niche could be extremely helpful here.

#3 – Start becoming the expert you want to be now. Dorie says “[c]reating original content is the single most effective way to develop an expert reputation” and that “blogging is a good bet for most professionals.” Note: content marketing is one of the key modules I discuss in my coaching programs.

What do you think? Got any ideas to add? Let me know!

So what

Becoming an expert isn’t easy. If it were, everyone else would be doing it. But becoming an expert helps your prospects separate the wheat from the chaff … and allows you to charge higher fees (because you’re the expert). Isn’t that worth the effort?

In real life

There is an interesting backstory to Dorie Clark. She and her new book, Reinventing You: Define Your Brand, Imagine Your Future has been featured on many podcasts in the past few months.

Click this link to get the book’s accompanying free 42-page “Stand Out” workbook and this link to listen to one of Dorie’s better interviews.

Cheers!

 

 

 

Action Items:

– If you like what I write about, tell a colleague.

– If something resonates and you want to reach out directly, email me.

– If you think we share common interests, connect with me on LinkedIn.

– If you want a sense of how well your practice is working for you, take this Practice Self Assessment.