Why Experience Counts More Than How Long Something Takes

I listened in on a webinar yesterday hosted by the Public Relations Global Network and led by Jonathan Stark, host of the podcast series Ditching Hourly.  Jonathan is on a mission to rid the world of hourly billing.

What?? For those of us at agencies, we live our workday in 15-minute increments.

His advice for anyone that bills by the hour is to reevaluate our approach to developing a scope of work to focus on a client’s actual needs rather than what they think they need.  By placing the emphasis on the outcomes and the impact on the client’s business, puts the emphasis on the value on what we bring.

You are paying me for my years of experience not the hours I’m spending today.

When you think about it that way, it definitely makes sense.  The client wants a meeting with the Governor, you know just who to call and get the meeting on the calendar.  Sure, it might have only taken you 15 minutes, but in reality, it was the years you’ve spent cultivating those relationships that resulted in a 15-minute phone call. That is the value to the client.

You get a last-minute urgent call from the client that a television station erroneously shared information about an event taking place at their office “tomorrow” when, in fact, is next week.  A couple quick calls and a follow-up email and the station agrees to correct the information and update the online story right away.  Again, the relationships mattered more than the amount of time it took to get the result.

This idea does make sense, but will take some getting used to, both from the agency side and the client side.

If you’d like to learn more about our experience and how we can put that experience to work for you, give us call.