You create the value. Your pricing should capture it.
The better you get at hourly work, the less you earn.
Price on the value you deliver, and earn more without adding hours. That’s the shift this book, and this practice, exist to make.
I help consultants, coaches, and fractional executives move off hourly billing and price for the outcomes they create. I spent 15 years pricing airline seats. The same logic works for your expertise.
Featured in
Financial Times · Fortune · Reuters · BBC · CBC News
Coverage of my aviation and transport revenue work.
Looking for a keynote rather than one-to-one work? See Speaking.
The Efficiency Paradox
Get faster at your work and an hourly invoice shrinks. Get sharper and a project that once took 40 hours now takes 20, so you bill half as much for the same result. Expertise should raise your income. Priced by the hour, it does the opposite.
If you’ve finished a project early and watched the invoice shrink, you know the feeling. Most of the experts I work with describe exactly that.
The ceiling is simple math. Your income = your rate × your hours, and you only have so many hours. Raising your rate buys a little room. It doesn’t remove the ceiling.
AI makes this worse. The work that used to fill a billable day now takes an afternoon, and clients know it.
The Efficiency Paradox, explained in one short read
A free breakdown of why getting better at your job can cost you money, and what to do about it. No course, no upsell.
Airlines solved this decades ago
An airline doesn’t charge you for time in the air. A headwind adds 40 minutes to your flight and the fare doesn’t change, because you bought a destination, not flight time.
Professional services should be sold the same way. The question a client cares about isn’t how many hours the work takes. It’s what the result is worth. Price relative to that answer and the ceiling disappears.
The VALUE framework
Sell Destinations, Not Journeys lays out a five-stage method for making the change in 90 days.
V
Verify: position yourself so the right clients understand why they should talk to you.
A
Ask: the questions that reveal what solving the problem is worth.
L
Layer: your offer into three options instead of one take-it-or-leave-it price.
U
Upsell: the strategic additions that raise the value of the engagement.
E
Evolve: project work into recurring revenue.
How it works
- Book a 20-minute call. We look at how you price now and what it’s costing you.
- Get a straight read. If the fit is wrong, I’ll say so and point you to the book or the free tools.
- Price the outcome. The diagnostic, the Sprint, or the cohort, whichever fits your practice.
166%
Harry Thorn’s first-year revenue growth after repricing his coaching practice. His full verdict is on the Consulting page.
“I’ve become much more comfortable holding the line on price when it reflects the work involved.”
Emma Clarke PhD, Co-Founder, Helder Insight
Ready to look at your pricing?
Not ready for a call? Start with the book.