What do you do when a client pushes back on fees for out of scope work that they have asked for?
In this episode, I show you how to handle that awkward conversation without damaging the relationship. Or getting into trouble with your partners for writing off or discounting the extra fee due.
It’s a deeply frustrating situation that most of us face at some point, and it often happens when we’ve been too helpful without clearly defining the scope upfront.
By avoiding a small, slightly awkward conversation early on, we create a much bigger and more painful one later. This episode gives you a script to manage the situation and a clear process to stop it from happening again.
In this episode you will learn:
- A simple four-step process to handle fee pushback professionally.
- The exact words to use to get the conversation onto the phone and avoid an email argument.
- How to re-educate your client about your process so there are no surprises in the future.
- The one change to make to your engagement letters to prevent this from happening again.
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You can also listen to this episode on Substack and on Apple Podcasts
You’ve done the extra work. You stayed late to get it done because the client needed it urgently. You send the invoice, feeling good about helping them out and getting that billing in, cha-ching! And then the email lands in your inbox.
Hi, thanks for the invoice. I wasn’t expecting it to be that much. Can you explain the extra charges? And you know they asked for extra work outside of their existing scope. And now you have to explain what has happened.
Suddenly that good feeling of getting an extra bill in is replaced by a knot in your stomach.
It’s awkward, frustrating, deeply demoralizing. Or maybe you remind them that the work is out of scope and then they put pressure on you to do it for free. After all, they are a loyal client to this firm and can you just kind of, you know, ignore this for once, please?
This is the How to Make Partner podcast with me, Heather Townsend, the author of Poised for Partnership and co-author of How to Make Partner and Still Have a Life.
In this podcast episode, I’ll be highlighting some of the great stuff in our Progress to Partner Academy. New episodes are released weekly, so press subscribe so you never miss a new episode again.
Now, in this episode, we’re tackling one of the most difficult conversations you can have with a client, i.e. what to do when they push back on fees for work that you’re doing for them, that they need and have asked for, but it’s clearly out of scope.
Now this situation is so common. And in fact, it came out of a group coaching call with lawyers that were on path to partnership. And actually this conversation about, you know, clients coming back going, why have we got this bill? When you know, and you think they know that the work is out of scope and it needs an extra bill. And it’s really about the client being difficult for the sake of it.
It nearly always stems from a simple, fixable mistake we make right at start of the relationship or at the start of the engagement. We either fail to define the scope clearly enough in the engagement letter, or we’re too afraid of looking difficult to have that money conversation with a client ask for something extra.
But avoiding that brief, slightly awkward conversation upfront just leads to a much more difficult one when the bill lands, and it will land. It makes you feel undervalued, it damages your relationship with the client and it will cost you your time, which means your money.
So here is a simple four step process to handle the situation when it happens and to stop it from happening again.
First, do not react immediately. You know, your first instinct might be to fire back an email defending your position, but it’s only gonna escalate the situation. Instead, take a breath, ground yourself. First thing to do is acknowledge their email and then get them on the phone.
You could write back to them and say, thanks for raising this. I can see why the invoice was a surprise. Can we take 15 minutes to talk this through tomorrow morning? What this does is it demonstrates you’ve heard them and you’re taking their concerns seriously. And by getting on the phone, it prevents a long drawn out email argument.
Now, before you have that call, you want to prepare for it. This isn’t about preparing for a fight. It’s about gathering the facts. Go back to your original engagement letter and pinpoint exactly what was in scope.
Then look through your emails and notes to find where has the scope changed. Be clear on what the extra work was when it was requested and why it was necessary. This is why it’s so important to document all client calls talking about work, particularly what has been agreed to be done and by whom and for what fee. T
hird, when you get the call, let them speak first. Start by saying something like, thank you for making the time to talk. I appreciate it. Can you just talk me through your concerns about the invoice?
Then listen to their perspective. If you need to sit on your hands to shut up, then do so. Then what you’ve got to do is take a breath, ground yourself and calmly walk them through the facts.
Always in this situation, there are two versions of the facts, their version, your version, and then the truth.
And the truth is always somewhere in the middle between the two of you. And you could say something like, I understand. So let’s just recap. In our original agreement, which I’m showing you here, we scoped for X. Then on date, you ask for help with why, which we were happy to do, but that additional work is what the extra fee that you’ve just been invoiced covered. The key here is to be factual, not defensive.
Now, of sometimes they might go, look, I get that, but can you do this just for once for free for us? Can you just turn a blind eye and just do the work? And this is where they start putting pressure on you to do the work for free. So if that happens, be honest with them.
Explain the impact on you, the expectations partners have with you and your clients, and that if you give them this work for free, which should be billed out at, say, X, 30,000 pounds, 50,000 dollars, you’ll have a really difficult conversation with your partners about why this is being done.
And it’s not going to be easy for you. And most clients, when they realise the impact they are having on you and what they’re actually asking of you, you might find they suddenly back down and go, well, you can’t fault me for asking.
Finally, this is your chance to use the opportunity to re-educate the client on your process. This turns a negative into a positive for the future. You can say, to make sure there are no surprises for you in the future, my process is that if a request comes in that’s outside your agreement, I’ll always flag it with a cost estimate for your approval before the start of the work. How does that sound?
What this does, it shows you’re fair, transparent and professional.
It rebuilds trust and sets clear boundaries for the future. you know, the that we’re missing is as soon as we start that extra work out of scope, we need to stop, we need to say, you do realise this is out of scope, there is a fee for this, are you still happy for us to proceed? So if you remember one thing from this episode, it’s that prevention is always better than cure.
A crystal clear scope of work is your best defense against the fee pushback.
And by being crystal clear, it means setting it up from the outset. Those things that they said they needed and that said they didn’t and now they need them will mean that extra charge.
Now, if you’re thinking, I get the theory, but I need more help with winning work and difficult conversations, our Progress to Partner Academy can help you. That’s precisely why we have a suite of courses in the Progress to Partner Academy to help you with this.
For example, our course, the GoToExpert, gives you all the tools to confidently win work and always be in demand for new business and how to have that difficult conversation. We have a virtual masterclass that will give you the how-to for having those crucial conversations.
Now, I popped a link in the show notes to get 12 months of membership for our Progressive Partner Academy in the show notes. If you want access to everything, you can join our membership as a premium member and use the code PODCAST10. That’s PODCAST10 to get, and 10 is in numbers, to get 10 % of 12 months of premium annual membership.
Also in the show notes you’ll find links to my book so you can easily find them on Amazon.
Now that’s all for this episode of the How to Make Partner podcast, but before I come on to your one action for the week, I just want to say if you’ve enjoyed this episode, please leave us a review on Spotify or Apple podcasts.
This helps us get the word out to others who may need this advice too. Remember to hit subscribe so you don’t miss next week’s episode.
And what is your one action? Your action from this episode is to review what notes you’re keeping for clients. and how you handle setting up what is in scope and what is out of scope from the start of engagement or when it may need to change because they’re asking for different things or maybe they’ve been slow getting you information.
And you may find that it’s time to change how you’re having that conversation with clients.
So hopefully you’ve enjoyed. Press share if you found this useful.
I’m looking forward to speaking to you next time.
What help is out there for you to progress your career in the professions?
If you’re thinking, ‘I get the theory, but I need more help with winning work and difficult conversations’, our Progress To Partner Academy can help you.
That’s precisely why we have a suite of courses in the Progress to Partner Academy to help you with this. For example, our course ‘The Go-To Expert’ gives you all the tools to confidently win work and always be in demand for new business. And our how to have a difficult conversation virtual masterclass gives you the ‘how to’ for having these crucial conversations.
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