Many agency practitioners still price their products and services on labor plus expenses, a throwback to the Industrial Age that frankly puts most of the risk on the client.
To be honest, we sometimes price based on labor because that's what many of our clients expect – but we believe there's a better way that we'd like to explore with all of our client partners.
Costing services and expertise like ours requires a different perspective. We believe that as proactive, trusted advisors for our clients, we owe them more – and that more should be reflected in our proposals and thinking. We should provide options for solutions. We shouldn't shy away from projecting success measures. We should price based on the true value to the client in helping them achieve their business goals, not the labor we put into it.
When we price based on value linked to a client's desired future state and/or business objectives and are accountable with outcome-based solutions, we share the risk because that's what partners do. Ultimately, our clients should value our partnership and deliverables and feel like they can't get what we offer anywhere else.
And it's why many of our partnerships last decades, not years.
What to Expect From DeanHouston In Pricing
Pricing a project correctly is a lot of work.
It takes a lot of experience and even more client and industry knowledge. But it also takes a different perspective. It takes a long-term business focus versus a task list. If we didn't go deep, we wouldn't be DeanHouston.
Our approach to pricing.
- Customized, business-driven solutions (no cookie cutters in sight)
- Options and the rationale behind them
- Brevity – nobody likes to read or write long proposals
- Our best thinking and expertise
- Full transparency
- Partnership
- The double thank you (both parties feel good)