Escape The Hourly Billing Trap

My favorite story in Susan Trivers’ STOP Leaving Money on the Table unfolds in the opening pages.

A VP at an aerospace firm looks at Susan and asks the question she has never liked answering: “What do you charge?”

For years, Susan has answered that the way she always has… with an hourly rate.

Not today.

“I charge an all-inclusive fixed fee based on the outcomes you need,” she says. “I’ll send a proposal in the morning.”

Then she stops talking.

Her heart is pounding. This is the first time she’s ever quoted a flat fee instead of billing by the hour. The silence stretches.

Finally, he speaks: “That will be great. I’m looking forward to working with you, Susan.”

Eight weeks later, the project wraps. He thanks her, not for hours logged, but for a promise kept: “You were here for us whenever we needed you.”

Six months after that, the phone rings. It’s him. Two words:

“We won!”

His 30-person firm has just landed a $1.1 billion contract.

Talk about IMPACT.

That word, IMPACT, is the heart of Susan’s book. She spent more than 25 years going against “we’ve always done it this way,” ditched hourly billing for good in 2010, and named her IMPACT Based Pricing system in 2018. Her consulting firm has helped roughly 500 companies add more than $2 billion in revenue.

With Susan’s system, you no longer dread the “What do you charge?” question. You ditch hourly billing. You get paid upfront. And you get paid more because the price is based on the outcomes.

STOP Leaving Money on the Table is the August pick for The Mastermind Book Club. Ted Prodromou and I have been running it for years. Every month we hand-pick one great business book, then meet on Zoom to dig in, usually the fourth Thursday, often with the author in the room so you can ask the questions that matter to your situation. No lecture. No fluff. Just a live conversation with the person who built the system.

When she joins us live, Susan will cover:

1. Why time has no intrinsic value… and your outcomes do.

2. The one question that changes a discovery call.

3. How to offer three options that make it easy for a client to say yes.

4. How to get paid before you start, instead of financing the work for 90 days.

No “charge your worth” pep talk. A system you can run on your very next proposal.

It’s free to attend. You don’t need to be a Club member to join us live on August 27. Register, show up, and hear Susan walk through her system. Then decide if you want in on the community and the replays.

Thursday, August 27, 2:30 p.m. ET

Register here