Become the best option for your client!
Summary
Clients choose the least risky option, not the best one—and hourly billing amplifies buyer anxiety by introducing cost uncertainty. Switch to flat project fees to reduce risk perception and build credibility through professional optics like starting invoice numbering at 00201.
Key Takeaways
- Hourly billing punishes efficiency and discourages investment in tools, automation, and processes that speed up your work.
- Flat project fees eliminate buyer anxiety by removing the unknown cost variable—clients want predictability, not surprises.
- Start invoice numbering at 00201 (not 001) on your first invoice to signal business maturity and build client confidence.
- Pricing strategy directly impacts sales skills development—project-based pricing forces you to master bidding, estimating, and invoicing.
- Perception shapes buyer decisions more than actual capability—professional optics and confidence-building details directly influence deal closure.
Related topics
Transcript Excerpt
Just remember this one idea. Clients do not choose the best option. They choose the least risky one. Your job is to bring them the least amount of risk. So the problem with hourly base building or day rates is that it punishes you for being efficient. It disincentivizes you to invest in equipment and processes, plugins, and everything else that you need to make your work work faster. Now, at the end of the day, you need to know this. When you price based on hour, you create a lot of anxiety in the buyer's mind. And you've all been here before. How long will this take? What will this cost? And the answer is, I don't know. So, what we do is we remove the anxiety about the unknown by giving them a flat project fee. This is where you start to develop real skills around sales, bidding, and esti…