Pricing & Rate Strategy
- 1
Push 2027 rate increases now, framed around keeping pace with inflation.
- 2
Customize the rationale per client (what the team delivered, how staffing costs rose) rather than sending a blanket notice.
- 3
Open negotiations at your highest price — it’s easier to negotiate down from a strong baseline than up from a weak one.
- 4
If the budget stays flat, tie any incremental work to new rates rather than absorbing it into the existing scope.
- 5
Where you can, shift toward value- or deliverables-based pricing. It caps scope creep by defining the deliverable upfront and removes the need to track and reconcile hours.
- 6
Reconsider the retainer as a financing mechanism rather than a default: build a full project/AOR scope of work, then divide it into monthly payments across the engagement.