After several posts on proposals and some words on pricing, people have responded with all sorts of reasons on why they can’t give a fixed price.  Believe me, I understand the dilemma.  If you just don’t know what it will take, you don’t want the risk…here are the common objections:

1. Client doesn’t want to pay more than the hours they see you onsite.

2. You always lose when you fix price

3. No one knows what it will take to complete the job

4. What about scope creep

and the list goes on – feel free to add some below and I will respond with my take…so what do we do?  First let’s understand the real issues:

• When you do T&M the client sees it as T&M with a cap.  Even if you say, “there is no cap”, they expect one.  If someone quotes me $500 to fix something in my house and sends me a bill for $2000, we are going to have a problem.  Even if I pay it, it’s probably the last time I hire them.
• When there’s a cap, I take all the risk.  If we come in early, I make less just because I was efficient.  In other words, I sold the $10,000 deal, got the approval, and perhaps a PO was issued for $10,000.  And I’ve even forecasted it!  But I only bill $7000, leaving 3K on the table.  I just lost commission on 3K and my company lost the balance right off the bottom line.
• On the other side, if I go over, the PO is issued, the people I am dealing with have put the funding together, it’s all signed off and ready to go,  but three weeks later I am back in their office trying to get the PO increased.  What do we do?  Put everything on hold while we wait?  That will go over well with my clients!
• Or I decide to keep going with no further approval.  Every dollar over is a loss in profit, and if my firm charges me a burden cost on services, which they should if they are smart, I really take a loss.  Before I know it, there is no GP left in the deal and my commission in zero.

So why do people continue to justify the T&M approach?  If you find you are losing on every deal, see if there is a trend.  I had one client who was losing about 25% on every deal.  Well, that was simple, start adding that amount to every new quote and you will be right on.  If the price is too high, the T&M quote is too high – another issue solved.  If the client only wants to pay for hours you can prove you spent, the deal was sold on price, not value, if you just don’t know, break it into phases and quote what can be quoted, estimate the rest for phase 2…stop quoting T&M prices!