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It’s important because, if linkedin has done its job properly, there’s a high probability of you being the sort of unusual individual or firm that I’m talking about.

Some people, some firms, are capable of producing results an order of magnitude greater than the norm. They can do this without apparently making any greater effort. It could be:

• The copywriter who writes an ad that produces a response 19 ½ times greater than another apparently similar ad;
• The psychoanalyst who resolves a client’s problem in a few sessions, after that client has spent several hundred sessions with another analyst who only managed to make things worse;
• The mediator who, in a few hours, breaks a deadlock between two founders which has paralysed their company for years;
• The engineer who sees a way of building the Sydney Opera House when the top people in the leading firm of consulting engineers in the world have decided it’s impossible.

These people might call their ability “creativity”. Or they might call it “ingenuity”, or “insight”. Or they may not call it anything at all, because they don’t realise how remarkable the ability is.

If you recognise yourself in this picture, then you will probably recognise some of these frustrations.

• Being price-shopped against other firms who only produce average work;
• Losing out to other firms who do solid but uninspired work but who charge more thanks to their reputation;
• Having clients interfere in how you do the work when, frankly, they don’t have a clue;
• Losing out to the “shiny object merchants” – the ones who are all glitz and no substance;
• Getting trapped in a time-based billing scheme which means that the more efficient you are, the less you get paid and the bigger the gap between your fee and the value you produce.

In short, the more creative, ingenious or insightful you are, the harder it is to get paid properly.

I developed Intelligent Pricing Architecture as a solution to this problem. It was born out of my own frustrations as commercial director of a marketing consultancy and independent consultant.

I’ll be sending you more about Intelligent Pricing Architecture over the next weeks.