Two calls, same day, same question. The first was a business unit being spun out of its parent company, with a hard close date about five weeks out and a Salesforce and Marketo stack it would lose on that date. The second was a regional sales team at a large company that, ten minutes in, told us there was a small budget for a partner. On both calls someone asked what was the hourly rate. On both I gave the same answer: we don't sell hours. I paused because I always love to see the look on their face...
That answer surprises people, which is interesting since they don't really want to buy hours but what the hours deliver to them but that is what consuiltants have conditioned companies to buy over the years. Once we explain that we sell outcomes and deliverables rational buyers want that along with the certanty that comes with it. Here is the reasoning behind it, written for the person buying rather than the one selling.
Most implementation quotes are an hours number with a hourly rate attached. "This will take about 50 hours." It might take 55. It might take 100. It might take 30. The partner doesn't know yet, because the estimate was written before discovery, and the honest version of that sentence is "we'll find out together, on your invoice."
To be fair to hourly, it looks transparent. You can see what you paid for, line by line. If the job is small and the scope is clear, time and materials is fine, and plenty of good partners work that way. The trouble starts when the scope isn't clear, which is every CRM project I've seen with a migration in it. Then the hours number is a floor.
And when the project runs long, you find out who carries that. A partner billing hourly gets paid for every extra week. You pay for every extra week. That tension shows up around week three as slower replies to emails, and nobody says out loud why.
On the spin-out call I didn't ask how many hours they thought it would take. I asked what had to be true by the close date. Leads from the new website landing in the CRM. Territory routing, so a lead goes to the rep who owns that state. Three pipelines: new business, renewal, expansion. A price book so two people can send quotes. The Salesforce history coming across, because this was a company with renewals and context in the old system, and that is worth more than starting clean. (That's the question I ask on every migration, and the answer decides the plan.)
That list is the scope document. Written in outcomes, it goes up the chain of command as "we're buying this list," and whoever signs can check it off on go-live day. Written in hours, it goes up as "we're buying 100 hours," and nobody can tell you afterwards whether you got them.
It also forces the uncomfortable sorting early. A lead scoring model built for the new business instead of the parent company's? Real need, phase two. Guided selling in CPQ? Great, and absolutely not inside a five-week window. Saying "not in this phase" on the first call is cheaper than saying it in week four.
Buyers hide the number because they think it anchors the quote upward. In my experience it does the opposite. When I know the number, I can design a phase one that fits it, instead of designing the full build, pricing it, and watching the conversation go quiet.
On that same call the budget turned out to be well under what the full list would cost. I said so. "That is challenging" were the exact words. But because I knew the number, the next step was a phased proposal. The go-live outcomes get built now. The rest gets a date in the new year. The buyer gets a working system on the day the lights have to be on, and a known cost for what comes after.
A partner who can't tell you plainly that your budget doesn't cover your list is a partner who will discover it for you in the hours column.
So before you sign an implementation SOW, read it once more and look for the unit. If the thing you're buying is hours, ask the partner to rewrite it as the list of what will be true on go-live day. If they can't, that tells you how well they understand your project. If they can, you've just moved the risk back to the people who are paid to manage it.
If you buy implementation services by the hour and it works for you, I'd like to hear why. Tell me what I'm missing.
This came out of a client project. The story behind it, and what to check in your own portal, goes to subscribers on Thursdays. Get Thursday's note.