"We shouldn't be charging by hours, we should be charging by value; Product X is very useful and brings value to your company" It's usually really hard for mos

"We shouldn't be charging by hours, we should be charging by value; Product X is very useful and brings value to your company" It's usually really hard for most people to be able to assign value to discrete pieces of work from a vendor. For those who can do it, they're usually... sharp enough to drive a harder bargain. I had a client project a few years back, and after working there for a bit, I discovered an area of their operations that was very ... bad. They knew it. Fixing and streamlining it would be worth at least $50k per year in reduced losses. When we got to the point about discussing that area of the business, I'd brought up attacking this. When we finally got to the point about pricing, I'd offered a couple options, but they quickly realized they'd be able to get someone to do the work for half of what I was proposing. For example (made up numbers), my 'cost' would have been, say, $25k over a few months, to net them an ongoing minimum $50k positive benefit. Once they realized the extent of the problem, they knew it needed to be addressed, but also knew they could get it done for half of my proposal terms. They knew the 'value' all too well.