Compliance work often feels like low pay and high stress. At the recent Growth Club Summit, pricing coach Mark Wickersham offered a cleaner way forward: charge for value, not hours. His verdict was blunt—we’re all too cheap.
Watch Mark's session. Clients judge you on what they get, not how long you spend. When you price around real gains, fees rise, hours stabilize, and life gets easier.
Below is a quick tour of Mark’s three-step plan—add value, give clear choices, tell the story well—and how to try it on your very next quote.
“When we change a client’s life first, profit looks after itself.”
Your Clients Want the Best, Not the Cheapest
We’ve all met the prospect who gasps at a fee. It’s tempting to blame a price-driven market. Yet the same owners buy iPhones, £4 lattes, and coaching courses. They weigh benefit against cost and pick the best mix.
Why the “Price-Sensitive Client” Myth Lingers
• “That’s expensive” usually means I don’t see the benefit yet.
• Hourly bills hide value—clients only see a lump sum, never the upside.
• Cheap ads attract bargain hunters and feed the myth.
Look closer and you’ll spot clients happy to pay more for fewer headaches and sharper advice.
“A value-focused buyer looks at the gap between benefit and price—nothing else.”
Hourly Billing Holds You Back
Time charging is simple to track but hard to love:
- Issue
- Impact
- Surprise bills
- Trust drops, cash drags
- Bad incentives
- More hours = more £, so why be quick?
- Slow cashflow
- Up-front pay vanishes, chasing starts
Ditch the clock, price the result, and you’ll sleep better.
The Three-Step Value-Pricing Plan
1. Add Clear Value
Ask, What keeps this client up at night? For compliance, quick wins include:
• Snapshot reports—plain dashboards on profit and cash
• Debtor-day alerts—early flags when cash slips
• App reviews—find wasted spend and clunky tools
• Quarterly goal chats—link numbers to real targets
Keep a running list; you’ll use it when you build packages.
2. Offer Three Packages
Choice lets each client buy what they need:
- Package
- What’s Inside
- Starter
- Bare essentials
- Insight
- Reports + review calls
- Partner
- All the perks + direct access to a senior
Match each bundle to a client type. No padding—every add-on must earn its place.
“If they say yes to your first price, you aimed too low.”
3. Tell the Story- Live
Value is felt, not counted. Use a short script:
• Start with pain - spell out the cost of poor books or late debtors.
• Show the gain - time saved, cash found, stress cut.
• Anchor high - open with the Partner price so lower tiers look fair.
• Let them choose -“Want review calls with a partner or a manager?”
Talk it through on Zoom or in person. Email alone turns your price into a cold number.
Real Results: £4k → £18k
Canadian bookkeeper Kim Lafayette used Mark’s Effective Pricing app. By walking prospects through scope and preference questions, she lifted one deal from CAD $4.2k to CAD $18k. The client even paid $30k more than with their old bookkeeper because the top bundle fixed problems they finally understood.
Key Points:
• Show the trade-offs—clients watch the price move in real time.
• Lead with a high anchor—every number that follows feels lighter.
• Offer extras after a yes—buyers in “yes mode” often take more.
A spreadsheet works fine if you follow the same flow.
“Start high, tweak down together, and you’ll land higher than starting low and pushing up.”
Make It Real in Your Firm
• Quick audit: List each service and current fee range. Flag jobs with big write-offs or overruns. Star clients already paying for extras—they value outcomes.
• List each service and current fee range.
• Flag jobs with big write-offs or overruns.
• Star clients already paying for extras—they value outcomes.
• Add-value brainstorm: Spend an hour per service: “What would double the benefit?” Note everything—sort later.
• Build three packages: Fill Starter, Insight, and Partner. Price Insight near today’s average; let Partner stretch.
• Write and rehearse the chat: Draft a short talk: pain, gain, three options. Practice till it flows.
• Test on two prospects this quarter: Use the full method, record results, refine wording.
• Systemize: Bake the steps into your proposal tool or pricing app. Train the team.
Relive Mark's session here.
