Ronald J. Baker - Implementing Value Pricing: A Radical Business Model for Professional Firms (Wiley Professional Advisory Services)

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More Praise for Implementing Value Pricing: A Radical Business Model for Professional Firms

This is THE book I have been hoping Baker would write for the last 10 years. Value pricing as a concept is quite well known but not very well understood. Despite pricing being the most important determinant of enterprise profit it is given relatively little attention in the literature compared to other elements of the so-called marketing mix. At last we have a book that nicely blends elegant theory with a robust practical solution for implementing VP. I consider this book to be required reading for anyone interested in developing a business model that is based on the simple, but time-honored, idea that we should be paid what were worth. For that to happen we need to focus on creating more value AND then implementing a system for capturing our fair share of that value. This book answers both these issues.

Ric Payne, Chairman of the Principa Group of Companies, www.principa.net

Implementing Value Pricing not only produces more evidence that the historical cost-based system of pricing professional services is wrong-headed, Ron Baker shows the way to execute win/win pricing that both customers and professional firms will value.

David G. Littlefield, President and CEO, Littlefield Brand Development, www.littlefield.us

As a reader of all of Ron Bakers previous works, I can state unequivocally that this is by far his most thorough and enjoyable read to date. He not only builds upon the ideas about which he has previously written, he integrates them into a new and fully fleshed-out business model. If his Professionals Guide to Value Pricing was the Old Testament, Implementing Value Pricing would be the New.

Ed Kless, Senior Director, Partner Development and Strategy, Sage

Once again, Rons work turned an endless flight into an intense reading experience. Unease about the task of moving beyond the billable hour was mixed with excitement about the tools, experiences, and intellectual ammunition that Ron provides to make it happen. It is far from certain that effort-based pricing will disappear, but it is more likely because of this book. Ron has not just shown the way; he has paved the path. Now, we shall walk or we will failour profession, our purpose, and, ultimately, our place in society.

Friedrich Blase, Director of Strategic Initiatives, Holland & Knight

I wish I had been able to access this book five years ago when I started moving my business from the old model to pricing up front. For those accountants and lawyers out there seeking a how-to on design and implementation of value pricing, this is the bible. This book should be required reading for any person who owns, runs, manages, or works in a professional knowledge business. What they do with it then comes down to courage. Be courageous and learn from Rons experience. A brilliant read and seminal text.

Matthew Tol, FCA, Principal, mta optima, www.mtaoptima.com.au

Every professional must read this book. Be brave and trust that Ron Baker knows what hes talking about. Youll find comfort in reading the amazing real-life examples of the innovators that took the leap. Youll want to slap yourself for not believing in change sooner!

Brandy Amidon, CPA, Brains On Fire, Greenville, South Carolina

Ron Baker is already regarded by most professionals who understand the impending implosion of a time billing business model as the pricing guru. In Implementing Value Pricing , Baker manages to further cement his reputation by comprehensively answering the elephant in the room question of every professional firm looking to price on valuethat is, how it is actually done. The book is a truly compelling read for any professional wishing to implement or improve a value pricing business model based on selling intellectual capital rather than time.

Matthew Burgess, Partner, McCullough Robertson Lawyers, Brisbane, Australia

Ron Baker does it again. Just when you think you have heard all there is about value pricing, Baker produces yet more challenges as well as solutions in this informative, well-researched, and at times humorous book on the practical implementation of pricing by value. How any leader of a professional firm could lead their business in the future without both reading this book and adopting many of Rons practical concepts is beyond me.

John Chisholm, former Managing Partner and CEO of law firms, and now Principal John Chisholm Consulting, www.chisconsult.com

Implementing Value Pricing

Copyright 2011 by Ronald J. Baker. All rights reserved.

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.

Published simultaneously in Canada.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc., 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) 750-8400, fax (978) 646-8600, or on the Web at www.copyright.com. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, (201) 748-6011, fax (201) 748-6008, or online at www.wiley.com/go/permissions.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:

Baker, Ronald J.

Implementing value pricing : a radical business model for professional firms Ronald J. Baker.

p. cm. (Wiley professional advisory services ; 8)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-470-58461-3 (hardback); ISBN 978-0-470-92955-1 (ebk); ISBN 978-0-470-92956-8 (ebk); ISBN 978-0-470-92957-5 (ebk)

1. Pricing. 2. Value. 3. Fairness. 4. Professional corporationsPrices. I. Title.

HF5416.5.B34 2010

658.816dc22

2010024729

To my mother and father, for genetically encoding me to challenge the conventional wisdom, and providing the most immeasurable of all blessings: their love and unwavering support in everything I do.

At every crossway on the road that leads to the future each progressive spirit is opposed by a thousand men appointed to guard the past.

Maurice Maeterlinck (18621949), Belgian Nobel Laureate in literature, 1911