>"Clients–the good ones, at least–don’t CARE how many hours you’re spending to do X and Y, as long as you’re doing a damn good job at X and Y and adding significant value to their company."
this resonates with me; In software we so often think in "hours" as value when we should be thinking in "what value does the product I am creating bring to my client"
We shouldn't be charging by hours, we should be charging by value; Product X is very useful and brings value to your company.
However, there is also the question of quality. If you charge the market rate of a product and the quality of the delivered product is poor, I suppose the customer can return it.
"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.
You may have lost that one, but I've picked up enough contracts where I had to clean up a cheaper developer's half-finished project. Eventually, companies who go searching for cheaper labor will get what they pay for. There are exceptions, but that's the norm.
this resonates with me; In software we so often think in "hours" as value when we should be thinking in "what value does the product I am creating bring to my client"
We shouldn't be charging by hours, we should be charging by value; Product X is very useful and brings value to your company.
However, there is also the question of quality. If you charge the market rate of a product and the quality of the delivered product is poor, I suppose the customer can return it.