Sponsored content by: SmartPath
You work hard, you’re a professional, you deserve to get paid for your services, right? You may assume it’s your job to convince a client to give you money for something they may not want.
That never feels good.
But you can feel great about your fee discussions if you know how to structure the conversation.
When you have the right structure for discussing fees you can:
So what’s the structure?
It’s calledThe Perfect Pricing Script.
Why this script?
We’ve been working with small firm owners for over 14 years helping them increase their margins and get back to focusing on work they enjoy.
We’ve studied pricing patterns inside thousands of firms across all 50 states.
Any firm, regardless of size, can follow this script.
It’s the best framework we’ve found to completely eliminate anxiety when it comes to discussing fees and at the same time have more clients say “yes” to working with you.
How to use this script
ThePerfect Pricing Scriptfollows a proven structure that keeps you and the client on the same side of the table and ensures they always feel like they have a choice in the process.
1. Start with WHY
People will pay for the things they want if two criteria are met:
A. Payment will lead to some type of tangible progress they want to make in their life.
B. They have context as to how exchanging money will create that progress.
Clients pay for tax & accounting services following the same principle. So the first step in the Perfect Pricing Script is to say out loud WHY someone would want to pay your fees and give them the context around why you have structured your fees the way you have.
This seems like a simple step, but it is often missed.
When this first step is missed, the rest of the conversation feels awkward because you and the client aren’t starting the conversation from the same side.
How to do this in your practice
Start every “money” conversation by answering one simple question the client is always thinking, but rarely says out loud: “Why should I be paying you?”
Example:
The easiest way to answer this unspoken question is to highlight the current environment and position your firm as the best way to make progress.
“[Client Name], obviously, a lot has changed in the world recently…”
Here you can list any number or difficult challenges around business and finances:
Regardless of what you highlight as the change, any rational client will agree the environment right now is different than it was in the past. The world naturally changes over time. That one simple agreement gives you the opening you need to create context and easily begin a conversation around fees: If things are different today than they were in the past, you are a valuable person that can help them navigate these changes to make the progress they want to make.
That puts you both on the same side of the table and gives you the big WHY so you can move forward to the next part of the conversation.
2. Create contrast
Once you established why you’re talking about fees, you need to create contrast between your different levels of engagement.
What usually works best is having two primary levels:
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Level 1 engagements:
Level 2 engagements:
When you don’t create this contrast, the client may need Level 2 service, but expect a Level 1 fee. Or worse, they may want to pay for a higher-level engagement, but don’t think you offer that service, so they spend their money elsewhere.
How to do this in your practice
Describe, out loud, two different levels of services. Most firms today offer “strategic” level services where you’re planning throughout the year to help get the client the best possible results. Some also offer traditional “historic” level services where you’re simply compiling historical data and reporting that data.
Clients don’t automatically understand the difference between these two levels of service, so they often default to wanting low-margin compliance work because they believe that’s the only option.
You can start by following this script.
Example:
“We now have two ways we can work with clients…”
After you make that statement, you describe your different levels of service. That one sentence immediately puts the clients at ease because you’re now giving them options. You can recommend an option based on your knowledge of the progress the client wants to make, but you’re letting the client choose.
This eliminates any feelings of being sold to on the client’s side. It brings anxiety for you down to zero because you never have to force or convenience a client to do anything.
You’re simply creating contrast so the client can understand, then giving them a choice.
3. Describe your pricing process
At this point of the conversation, you haven’t quoted the client a direct fee.
Now, you can tell the client how to move forward and discover the right price for them based on their unique goals.
How to do this in your practice
You simply want to describe your discovery process.
Example:
*“We started putting aside some time outside of tax season where we can chat about anything you want to make progress on this year and see if we can help.” *
You can let them know if there’s a fee for this initial meeting or if you provide this time for free. Let them know during the call you’ll discuss their top 2 or 3 priorities this year so the meeting itself will be valuable no matter what.
Finally, you can let them any details needed to schedule the meeting.
4. Make it personal
Every person you talk to about your pricing is a human being who wants to make progress in their life somehow:
Whatever it is they want to make progress on, the odds are you have some way you could help. An effective conversation about pricing defines what they want and what your help would look like.
Because of the high-technical difficulty of your job, it’s so easy to drown in the details. Focus on the human element - helping one person make progress.
Next steps
You don’t have to implement this on your own, there are two ways we can help.
