1. 2 pm | October 2015
leader
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T
he great thing about running my
own business is that I get to do
things my way – I’m The Boss!
About 20 years ago, I went to a
full David Maister conference on
marketing for professional services. He
was probably at the top of his game then
and was working for many of the leading
firms on both sides of the Atlantic. He
gleefully explained how it was all about
being a trusted adviser. He demonstrated
this by charging himself out at thousands
of pounds a day but telling his clients
“you pay whatever you think I’m worth”.
Now the real Boss has a line in one of
his songs “We learned more from a three
minute record than we ever learned in
school”. And one thing I’ve learned, espe-
cially over the last couple of years is how
much we can learn from music and
artists. I dismissed David Maister’s
concept because although it seemed
attractive he was fabulously positioned in
his market. A few years ago I went to see
a band called Hope and Social and was
blown away by their music and exuberant
performance. I went to buy some of their
CDs after the gig and was taken aback to
be asked just to pay what I wanted. I was
hooked, I have become a big fan of their
music and the way they work. When I
quit the chambers I used to run, the staff
very kindly got me a signed band T-shirt.
What surprised my colleagues was that
the band had immediately said, “yes we’ll
do that, just buy a CD or two and pay
whatever you want”.
When I set up my consultancy a
couple of years ago I had to think about
my pricing and positioning. As the title of
the book implores, like most of us, I
wanted to be ‘The Trusted Adviser’. So
this same pricing concept coming from
two radically different sources resonated
with me. So I developed ‘Pay Fair’. I agree
Pay fair?!
Tim Collins, Regional Director,
PM Forum North West
Referrals and word of
mouth are vital
marketing streams
but sometimes you see
the integrity of
referrals being
undermined.
an hourly rate with my client but ulti-
mately they pay the amount they judge
my work to have been worth to them.
We also know that referrals and word
of mouth are vital marketing streams but
sometimes you see the integrity of refer-
rals being undermined. Is the person
recommending you being paid a fee or in
a particular network or club? So I decided
to tell my clients that I’d love them to
refer me to others and if they did I’d
donate 10% of whatever fee I earned from
their referrals to Simon on the Streets.
I hope you agree that it is an attrac-
tive proposition – but does it work?
Yes! And I’ve also been having a
whale of a time with Hope and Social
helping out with some of their projects.
Managing editor
Nadia Cristina
pmmagazine@pmint.co.uk
Publisher
Richard Chaplin
Editorial consultant in chief
Kim Tasso
Regional editorial consultants
Asia – Robert Sawhney
Australia – Dianne Davis
Canada – Larry Stroud
USA – Larry Bodine
Commercial &
membership enquiries
Maggie O’Neill
maggie@pmint.co.uk
Cover design
Mytton Williams
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