July 15, 2017

Success story from Robert Friberg

Reader Robert Friberg wrote in to let me know about his wonderful success story (shared with permission, bold mine):

Hi Jonathan, I discovered your podcast a about six months ago and it has really transformed my consulting business. I’ve been very successful at estimating and delivering on time and within budget. I usually give a range estimate and a guarantee to not exceed the upper limit.

But one thing that is very annoying is customers irrational focus on the actual hourly rate. It is very difficult to land projects with a significantly above average rate. There is a risk that they will find someone to match all the details of the bid but with a lower rate. Of course, with value-based pricing there is no discussion whatsoever about the hourly rate. So far we have done 4 fixed price projects, all successful, both in terms of customer satisfaction and profit. Much thanks to the concrete advice from your podcast episodes. The mere fact that we are offering fixed prices differentiates us from most other consulting firms. We are getting more opportunities than ever before and also attracting high quality developers, letting them in on the profit.

— Robert

(NOTE: The podcast that Robert referred to above is my show Ditching Hourly.)

Do you have a success story or a lightbulb moment that I could share with the list? If so, please hit reply and let me know.

Ditching hourly is a tough transition to make. Your inspiration can be very helpful to others. TIA!

Yours,

—J