Customer Reviews

Value-Based Fees: How to Charge--and Get--What You're Worth (Ultimate Consultant Series)

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

While Alan Weiss's eternal best-seller "Million Dollar Consulting" remains the most valuable book overviewing consulting practices, this book takes the reader into the actual mechanics and philosophy of value based fees. The transition will be worth six figures annually, because it's been worth it to me. The single negative review claiming this book repeats "Million Dollar" is far off base as far as I'm concerned (or the reviewer didn't read this book). For example, Value Based Fees deals with converting hourly clients, setting up retainers, combatting the competition's lower fees and a wealth of detail that the more primary book doesn't touch. Get this book today, because you're leaving money on the table every day it's unread.

This book is a MUST read not only for those consultants who have to submit proposals but should be required reading for all professions who charge by the hour - YES doctors, opticians, dentists, accountants and lawyers as well!!

This book gives a sound theoretical basis for charging value based fees instead of hourly fees (everyone in the world ONLY has 24 hours in a day so this approach makes absolute sense).

BUT the Coup de Grace is the fourth chapter "If you only read one chapter....." which sets out exactly how to structure value based fee proposals and gives a live example.

I have long been charging value based rather than time based fees but this chapter raised my fees to a new level.

I enjoy Mr. Weiss' books and presentations, which I find engaging and entertaining. With this book he has given me reasons to confirm my belief that charging a client based on my time and materials used in a project is a problem for both myself AND my client. First I am not true to the client when I bill time just for showing up but not providing any value. Then, how do you compare the value of one who charges $150 for one hour versus the consultant who charges $150 for 2 hours (at $75/hour)? Is one better than the other? Why put the client in a position to make that decision. Basing charges on value (either real or perceived) to the client removes hourly rates from the equation.

Yes, all this is based on having true relationships with your clients and Mr. Weiss goes through many different iterations of working with your clients on finding value, education them on value and providing value. There are lots of quick stories and references to his own consulting engagements, many of which are the same ones used as examples in many of his other books, which he not so subtley sells in this one. But then again it is one of the "Ultimate Consultant" series of books he has recently published.

Enjoyable and educational reading which has brought about many heated conversations with my peer group about rates and charging clients. It should provoke you also.

Alan Weiss is taking advantage of his readers by essentially taking a pamphlet worth of information and stretching it into a hard back book. Most the the essential information was imparted in one of his first consulting books (Million Dollar Consulting) which had value. Read that book and you are set with much of what he has to offer.

A discussion of fees is something with which many consultants are somewhat uncomfortable, and hourly billings may be an attempt to show we are not ripping the client off. Alan Weiss shows the absurdity and conflict of interest inherent in time based fees - to make more money you are tempted to stretch out your assignments. The buyer on the other hand while watching the meter run, is motivated in the opposite direction. Value is the victim here. The book places the responsibility for educating the buyer about value, squarely on the consultant.

The proper basis for fees, according to Alan Weiss, are client results rather than time or material inputs. Prior conceptual agreement, your belief in the unique contribution you bring to the assignment, and your ability to create a win/win dynamic by providing a choice of yeses all through will enhance your ability to charge based on value.

For existing clients, you are advised to gradually transit them to your new fee strucure, while offering even greater value.

Also treated in the book are how to manage retainers, sixty suggestions for raising your fees, methods for handling the four basic types of objection, and non-consulting opportunities.

All consultants who want to escape having their services treated like a commodity should read this book.

This review may sound like one from the author or other paid representative -- but it isn't. Nonetheless, this tome provided so much insight and structure as to successfully charging value-based fees that in a sense I have "been paid" by the author many times over. I have read other reviews posted about this book that criticize Alan Weiss for merely regurgitating in extended form his shorter booklet on maximizing fees. However, those reviews miss the point that this book is a greatly expanded analysis of the methods and challenges (and how to surmount them) of high-end value-based fee structuring. When I entered private practice a decade ago I was entirely hourly / standard-rate structured. Now, greater than 90% of my work is value-based according the impact on the client's business. And, the AMOUNT I KEEP (Weiss consistently states: "It's not what you make, it's what you KEEP") has skyrocketed and enabled me to become financially independent. In short, I highly recommend this book -- and feel no "conflict of interest" in saying that I am "being paid by the author" -- in a round about manner! Best of success to you!

Tom Fuller, MIM, MBA
[...]

Alan Weiss has done it again. So many consultants are charging hourly rates for their services that they never benefit from the value they create for their clients. Alan's book describes numerous ways for consultants to change their fee structures and earn higher fees based on value-added work instead of hourly (clerical-type, my term) work. Plus, the book shares several different ways to develop multiple streams of income from consulting and related activities. I recommend this book to everyone. Even as an experienced consultant, I learned some things that will benefit my practice from Alan's book.

You aren't charging enough for your expertise, if you are a professional service provider. Why? Because you see your work from your perspective, not your client's. You see your work in terms of hours and effort. You should see it from the perspective of the value you deliver as a result of your knowledge, insight, and expereince.

Alan Weiss explains, with wit and in great detail, how and why your professional fees should be based on your client's view of value delivered. Buy, read, and use the ideas presented in this book. The Appendix questions alone are worth the price!

Not only does every consultant and hourly contractor need to read this book--but, so does every business executive and purchaser of consulting services. Alan Weiss presents a clear business case for the evolution of compensation in the consulting industry. He walks the reader through an elegant model and gives the logic and the examples to support what is a radical divergence from the "hourly or daily fee" mentality that pervades the market. This is a must read for any consultant who wants to be paid what they are worth and for any company that wants to get what they pay for when using consulting services!

Contrary to another review that says this is a re-hash of old material is absolutely wrong! This book is the best book he has written yet on Mr Weiss's thinking of not only what value based pricing is, but how you figure it out and implement it in your own practice. This is considerably expanded from his book on Million Dollar Consulting. I thought value based pricing was rather simple in that book, but this book expands on and answers all the questions that book created. Well worth the investment and read.