You remember the saying about asking for permission or forgiveness? Turns out it applies just as well to how firms handle pricing.
Most firms don't have a pricing problem. They have a timing problem.
The price itself is rarely the issue. What creates friction — with clients and internally — is when the conversation happens too late. After the work is done. After the value has already been delivered. At the point when the client has moved on mentally and the firm is left trying to justify a number after the fact.
That's not a pricing problem. That's a positioning problem.
One of the core principles we work with at Renew is this: the firm has to make itself its own #1 client. That means the firm's interests — its profitability, its standards, its terms — are not negotiable afterthoughts. They are built into every engagement from day one.
Pricing in arrears is the opposite of that. It hands the power dynamic to the client at exactly the wrong moment. The work is done. The leverage is gone. And you're left hoping the client is reasonable rather than knowing they've already agreed.
At scale, this pattern is corrosive. When partners routinely soften their fees after the fact, it signals internally that the firm doesn't fully believe in its own value. That signal compounds — across engagements, across teams, across the culture of the entire practice.
The firms that have made this shift don't wait for the pricing conversation to happen to them. They lead it. Upfront. Before the work starts.
That conversation, done well, sounds something like this: "We don't price by the hour. We can't tell you how many hours we'll have in this engagement. What we can tell you is that we've invested thousands of hours in training and experience to be in a position to do this kind of work — and to create real value for you. As your Trusted Advisor, we're proactive, we're accountable, and we have your back."
That's not a defensive response. It's a positioning statement. It reframes the entire relationship — from vendor-client to Trusted Advisor — before a single billable hour has been logged.
Get the price out of the way early. Then focus entirely on doing great work.
The math of billing in arrears almost never works in the firm's favor. The client anchors a number in their head. The firm anchors low out of discomfort. And everyone leaves the conversation having undervalued what actually happened.
Upfront pricing doesn't just protect the firm financially. It builds goodwill. The client knows exactly what they're paying for and why. There are no surprises. The engagement ends cleanly, with both parties focused on the outcome, not on negotiating a bill.
Firms that want to operate at the top of the market, attract the right clients, and build practices that don't depend on volume to survive have to price like it. Upfront. Confidently. On their terms.
We live and learn — but the best time to learn this one is before the next engagement starts.
