How to shift internal mindsets and client expectations to transition from
hourly billing to outcome pricing.
For decades, professional services firms have relied on the familiar (but flawed) currency of time. Billable hours remain the default across much of the professional services world, yet they are increasingly out of sync with the value clients actually seek. Clients rarely care how many hours something takes; they care about the outcomes achieved.
How much of your hesitation around AI is about real risk—and how much is about uncertainty?
Lately, I’ve had a lot of conversations with other founders about privacy and IP in the age of AI. Most are worried. They fear exposing client data, losing control of their IP, or stepping into a legal gray zone they don’t fully understand. Those are real concerns. But here’s the thing: every transformative technology starts this way: undefined, messy, and full of opportunity for the ones who move first.
When Greg Alexander asked me to be one of many irregular bloggers for the Collective 54 community, I embraced my role as the entrepreneur in a smaller company. Most notably, that is where I believe I fit within our community – one of the CEOs with fewer than 20 employees, knowing that the transition from CEO to Founder is necessary but not quite as easy as it seems for other C54 quarterbacks with broader and deeper benches behind them.
CEO’s are putting a lot of pressure on their organizations to “adopt artificial intelligence.” Often it stems from a board mandate. But few know what it means to “adopt” and recent data from MIT proves this point.
There’s a truism that’s never changed throughout my career–a satisfied client is the best business strategy of all. It might sound trite, but it’s true, and when you’re focused on improving client retention and lifetime value optimization, keeping client satisfaction as the goal is essential.
When a business crosses $5 million in revenue, founders often relax. Sales feel steady. The team’s expanding. The future looks predictable.But growth doesn’t create stability — it exposes fragility.At Newpoint Advisors, we’ve seen hundreds of companies scale from $5 million to $50 million. The ones that stumble rarely run out of customers. They run out of cash — or worse, visibility.
Many consulting firms depend on the founder or a few charismatic partners to bring in new business. That approach works until it doesn’t. When those rainmakers reach their capacity, get too busy, or fail to evolve their approach, the firm’s growth stalls.
Achieve Efficiency. Drive Performance. Empower People.
Operational excellence isn’t just about technology—it’s about aligning people, processes, and purpose. For banks and credit unions, maintaining discipline and agility is essential to succeed in today’s fast-changing environment.
Every professional services firm thinks it has what the market wants: expertise, experience, and a strong track record.
But in 2026, that is the baseline. Nobody pays a premium for smart people doing competent work. AI can already produce reports, frameworks, and recommendations that look as good as what your junior consultants bill for.
Data shows that slow movement in the sales process kills deals – which means saving time in your sales process is an extremely high priority.
Today we are being offered new innovative tools at a rapid rate which means that the burden of choice and then adoption can be overwhelming – so today I’m sharing a way you can accelerate your use of a templated sales proposal and use of your LLM to make proposals even faster without buying more tools.