Clients also have a tendency to reach deeper into their pockets when the risk of failure is lower Yep. Basically, it's an expected value calculation: your pro

Clients also have a tendency to reach deeper into their pockets when the risk of failure is lower Yep. Basically, it's an expected value calculation: your project actually costs the sticker price divided by chance of success. (If you quote $20k and the customer's experience is that 20% of projects fail the "true cost" is $25k after they self-insure for risk of project failure.) Decreasing their estimate of project risk thus lets you justify higher rates. Also, as your client has lower perception of project risk and execution risk, their perception of the probable magnitude of the success for your engagement will likely increase. (The logic of that goes something like "He's clearly a pro at this, as demonstrated by his execution ability, therefore if this were not likely to be a major win he'd already know that and we wouldn't be having this conversation.")