Discipline by Design: Building the Framework for Professional Services Success

In our previous exploration of the discipline paradox in professional services, we identified three critical areas where firms are struggling:

• Value discipline: Focusing on the specific outcomes and benefits clients receive rather than your methodology

• Client discipline: Knowing which clients you serve best rather than chasing any available business

• Confidence discipline: Having the courage to price according to the client value you create rather than preemptively discounting

The paradox is clear. But the more pressing question remains: How do firms develop these essential disciplines in environments where short-term incentives consistently undermine long-term value?

Confidence vs. Strategy: A False Dichotomy

In my recent conversations with pricing expert Casey Brown, we've had a spirited debate about whether the primary challenge is confidence or strategy. Casey argues persuasively that firms must "own their value and command what they deserve" – a mindset shift that enables them to price appropriately.

There's profound truth in this perspective. Many firms have done the work to identify the specific client benefits they create, but still lack the courage to price accordingly. They clearly articulate client outcomes in sales conversations but then undermine themselves at proposal time. These firms need what Casey calls "fearless pricing" – the conviction to stand firm on pricing that reflects the client value they create.

Yet I've observed another pattern: firms that lack clear definition of client outcomes often appear to have confidence problems. When professionals can't clearly articulate what benefits clients receive, their uncertainty inevitably manifests as pricing hesitation. The problem isn't just courage but clarity about client value.

Is the core issue confidence or strategy? This question creates a false dichotomy. The reality is that these elements form a virtuous (or vicious) cycle:

• Clear strategy builds authentic confidence

• Genuine confidence enables bold strategy execution

• Bold execution creates results that refine strategy

• Refined strategy further strengthens confidence

Breaking into this cycle – whether through confidence building or strategy clarification – creates momentum that can transform a firm's approach to value and pricing.

The Role of Leadership: Providing Real "Air Cover"

Regardless of where firms begin addressing these discipline challenges, one factor consistently determines success: what I call "leadership air cover." But this goes far beyond supportive words or encouraging post-mortems.

Most firm leaders misunderstand what real air cover means. Consider these contrasting scenarios:

Scenario A: A firm announces a new value-based pricing initiative. Partners receive training and are encouraged to try new approaches. When a partner loses a deal attempting value-based pricing, leadership says all the right things: "It's a learning opportunity" and "We value the attempt." But the partner still loses the sales credit and the associated compensation. Result: Partners quickly abandon new pricing approaches regardless of what leadership says.

Scenario B: The same initiative, but with a crucial difference. The firm establishes a "qualified deal program" where partners receive full sales credit for properly structured value-based deals regardless of outcome. When a partner brings a qualified opportunity that meets specific criteria, a specialized team helps structure and negotiate the deal using new pricing approaches. Whether the deal closes or not, the partner's compensation remains protected. Result: Partners eagerly bring appropriate opportunities into the program.

The difference isn't in the words spoken but in the fundamental incentive structure. In Scenario A, despite encouraging language, partners still bear 100% of the financial risk of experimentation. In Scenario B, the firm creates genuine safety by aligning incentives with the behaviors they want to encourage.

This is real air cover – protection from the economic consequences of embracing new approaches, combined with specialized support to increase chances of success. It requires firms to invest in both the compensation structure and the expertise needed to execute new pricing models.

As one Managing Partner who implemented such a program told me, "We can talk about innovation all day, but until we're willing to put real money behind it – to literally pay people to experiment – nothing will change. Our partners aren't stupid. They'll do what we pay them to do, not what we say they should do."

The Path Forward: Discipline by Design

How do firms develop these essential disciplines? Not through grand transformation programs or simplistic motivational approaches, but through what I call "discipline by design" – creating structures that naturally reinforce disciplined behavior.

Here's what works:

1. Concrete Value Narratives: From Method-Selling to VVOS

One of the most powerful frameworks I've seen for shifting from method-selling to value-selling is what I call VVOS – Vision, Value, Obstacles, Solution. This client-centered narrative structure transforms how you communicate value:

• Vision: What future state does the client want to achieve?

• Value: What is this vision worth to the client in measurable terms?

• Obstacles: What stands in their way of achieving this vision?

• Solution: How will you help them overcome these obstacles?

This approach completely inverts the traditional consulting proposal structure. Instead of starting with "Our Understanding" (consultant-centered), you begin with the client's Vision. Instead of emphasizing "Our Approach" (methodology-focused), you highlight the Value the client will receive.

Compare these examples:

Traditional Approach (Method-Selling): "Our cybersecurity assessment provides comprehensive evaluation of your security posture through our proprietary seven-step methodology..."

VVOS Approach (Value-Selling): "Your vision is to maintain customer trust while expanding digital offerings. Preventing breaches would protect $42M in annual revenue while enabling 15% growth in digital channels. However, evolving threat vectors and legacy infrastructure create significant obstacles. Our assessment identifies specific vulnerabilities that, when addressed, reduce your breach risk by approximately [X]% based on industry benchmarks for organizations with your profile."

The first approach sells methodology. The second sells outcomes.

2. Explicit Client Discipline

Most firms already have a substantial client catalog but lack the discipline to evaluate these relationships objectively. The first step isn't creating new criteria – it's categorizing your existing portfolio.

One regional firm transformed their profitability by implementing a simple but powerful portfolio management approach: classifying every significant client relationship into one of four categories:

• Penetrate: High-potential clients worth significant investment

• Grow: Solid relationships with room for expansion

• Maintain: Stable relationships to be serviced efficiently

• Sunset: Unprofitable or misaligned relationships to transition away from

This exercise revealed something striking: nearly 30% of their clients were consuming disproportionate resources while offering limited growth potential or profitability. By deliberately sunsetting the bottom 15% of these relationships through targeted price increases, they freed up capacity to pursue clients with better alignment.

Only after categorizing their existing portfolio could they effectively define criteria for new pursuits. The profile of their most successful relationships (penetrate and grow categories) provided clear guidance on what made a "good client" for their specific firm – something that varies dramatically across different consultancies.

They formalized this learning into a one-page "client fit assessment" that teams complete before pursuing any opportunity over $50,000. If the fit score falls below a certain threshold, pursuing the opportunity requires explicit partner approval – creating a healthy friction that prevents reflexive chasing.

By examining what works in their specific context rather than applying generic standards, firms develop criteria that reflect their unique strengths and market position. This portfolio approach creates a structure that naturally reinforces client discipline by making the cost of poor client selection visible to everyone.

3. Structured Pricing Processes

As we explored earlier, even the most experienced professionals can fall victim to what business researchers call an "amygdala hijack" when presenting prices. The fear of rejection triggers unconscious defensive reactions – preemptively discounting, removing options, or otherwise negotiating with ourselves before clients have raised any price concerns. This self-sabotage costs professional services firms millions in foregone revenue each year.

Confidence discipline isn't about motivational speeches or hoping partners will somehow develop more courage. It's about creating systems that protect people from their own fear responses.

Formalize pricing decisions to reduce emotional reactions. This means creating consistent processes for developing, reviewing, and presenting prices – replacing gut feelings with clear guidelines that provide what we earlier called "the freedom of the frame." Just as artists often work best within defined boundaries, professionals make better pricing decisions when working within thoughtful structures.

The most sophisticated firms establish formal "pricing councils" that review major proposals, not to control decisions but to provide objective perspective free from the emotions that often cloud individual judgment.

Crucially, these councils aren't bureaucratic obstacles. They're rapid-response support systems designed to help partners win at higher prices. The best ones include:

• Deal coaches with specialized pricing expertise

• Pre-approved option structures for common services

• Clear value measurement methodologies

• Value-based anchoring techniques

When partners know they have immediate access to this expertise, they're much more likely to pursue value-based approaches rather than defaulting to discounts.

4. Leadership Reinforcement

Perhaps most importantly, leaders must consistently reinforce these disciplines through both words and actions. This means celebrating examples of discipline (even when they don't lead to immediate wins) and modeling disciplined behavior themselves.

One CEO made this commitment tangible by establishing a "discipline award" specifically recognizing professionals who demonstrated discipline in passing on misaligned opportunities or holding firm on pricing – making it clear that these behaviors were valued as much as landing new business.

But the most powerful reinforcement comes through compensation structures. When firms reorganize incentives to reward the behaviors they want to see – providing sales credit for qualified deals regardless of outcome, compensating for long-term client profitability rather than just annual revenue – they create alignment between individual interest and firm success.

From Theory to Practice

These approaches may sound theoretical, but they're producing remarkable results in firms willing to invest in them:

• One mid-sized firm implemented the VVOS framework across three practice areas and saw average deal size increase by 22% within six months.

• A global consulting firm that instituted formal client criteria reduced their active client base by 15% while increasing profit contribution per partner by $135K.

• A regional professional services firm that established a pricing council with dedicated deal coaches saw their average realized rate increase by 8% within the first year.

What these success stories share is a fundamental recognition: Expecting individual professionals to maintain discipline in environments designed to undermine it is futile. The answer isn't to demand more willpower from partners but to create structures that naturally reinforce disciplined behavior.

The Bottom Line

The pressing challenges facing professional services – from AI eliminating billable hours to increasing competition – make these disciplines not just desirable but essential for survival.

Firms without clear value discipline will struggle to articulate why clients should pay for results rather than effort.

Those lacking client discipline will waste resources pursuing opportunities that yield minimal returns.

And those without confidence discipline will continue leaving millions on the table through unnecessary discounts and underpriced services.

Creating these disciplines requires more than inspirational speeches or training programs. It requires fundamental changes to how firms operate – from narrative structures that focus on client outcomes rather than methodologies, to formal processes that reinforce client selection discipline, to incentive systems that reward the behaviors firms want to encourage.

It should not be lost that these disciplines ultimately create simplification and clarity – establishing a clear line-of-sight among what clients value, what the firm values, and how professionals get paid. This alignment, far from adding complexity, actually simplifies decision-making by creating consistency between all elements of the business.

As the Managing Partner who implemented the "lose on price quarterly" metric told me: "Professional services is full of smart people who somehow think they can win without strategy, discipline, or courage. That may have worked in the past when demand exceeded supply. But those days are over."

The future belongs to firms with the discipline to know exactly where they're going – and the systems to get there on their own terms.

Disclaimer: The stories and insights shared in this blog are based on my personal experiences and conversations throughout my career. While some content reflects recent events, they are drawn from a broad range of interactions with professionals across professional services, including friends and colleagues from various organizations, and do not specifically refer to or represent any single employer, past or present. Identities have been anonymized, and quotes may be paraphrased or combined for clarity and storytelling purposes. This post is a personal endeavor and does not reflect the views or proprietary information of any employer.