5 Steps to RAISE Your Value and Your Fees-5 Steps to RAISE Your Value and Your Fees Recording

Video Transcription

Video Summary

In this online presentation, June Jewell, a leading expert in architecture and engineering (AE) business success, shares strategies from her new book "Raise Your Value" to help AE firms increase fees and profitability. She emphasizes that employees’ mindsets and behaviors significantly impact financial outcomes. June identifies common challenges such as employees' fear of discussing money, giving discounts unnecessarily, reluctance to request change orders, and difficulty articulating value.<br /><br />She outlines three major factors limiting fee maximization: staff mindset, client types, and the firm’s unique competitive advantage. June advocates reframing “sales” as serving clients by solving their problems, making the sales process collaborative rather than confrontational. She stresses the importance of differentiating AE services to avoid commoditization and price competition by clearly communicating unique value.<br /><br />June highlights the 80-20 rule—80% of profits come from 20% of clients—and advises firms to identify and focus on their best clients, aligning them with the firm’s mission and values to foster profitable relationships. She describes five ways to differentiate firms: price, brand, technology, service, and proprietary processes, encouraging firms to craft a “winning advantage” combining a unique value proposition and proprietary process.<br /><br />Regarding pricing, June promotes tiered options (good, better, best) to allow clients to select the service level that fits their needs and budget, helping firms move away from hourly billing. Finally, she presents a five-step formula for transformation: rating clients, assessing current processes, defining winning advantage, developing a strategic plan, and executing it. Additional resources, including downloadable tools and the book, are available for firms to start raising their value and fees strategically.

Keywords

architecture and engineering business

fee maximization strategies

employee mindset impact

client segmentation

competitive advantage in AE

value-based selling

differentiation methods

80-20 profit rule

tiered pricing models

strategic transformation plan