Alan Weiss vs Blair Enns: Value-Based Fees or Pricing Creativity?
Comparing Alan Weiss's value-based fees for independent consultants with Blair Enns's pricing and positioning for creative and professional firms: shared ground, differences, and fit.
Consultants and agency owners who try to move away from hourly billing meet two names fast: Alan Weiss, whose Million Dollar Consulting and Value-Based Fees became standard reading for independent consultants, and Blair Enns, whose Win Without Pitching and Pricing Creativity address creative and professional firms. People compare them because both argue for pricing on value, and both sell training built on their books.
What is the core difference?
Weiss's focus is the independent consultant's whole practice: how to find buyers, reach the economic buyer, agree on outcomes, and charge for value. The tone is direct and confident, with a lot of advice on mindset and growth.
Enns's focus is the commercial stance of a creative or professional firm: how to position, how to lead the buying process, how to avoid free pitching, and how to price creative work that clients struggle to value. His examples come from agencies.
So both attack the hourly rate. They differ in who they are talking to and which obstacles they dwell on.
What does Weiss say?
Alan Weiss is a consultant and author. In Million Dollar Consulting (1992), he describes how independent consultants can build high-fee practices. Value-Based Fees (2002) sets out how to move from billing for time to pricing on the value of outcomes to the buyer.
Recurring ideas include working with the economic buyer, reaching a conceptual agreement on objectives and value before writing a proposal, and presenting options. He is a prolific author who also runs coaching and mentoring programs, so his books are an entry to paid offerings.
What does Enns say?
Blair Enns advises creative and professional firms. The Win Without Pitching Manifesto (2010) argues against giving away speculative work and for positioning as an expert who diagnoses before proposing. Pricing Creativity (2017) argues that price should reflect the value of the outcome and discusses how to talk about price with buyers.
He also runs training for agencies, and his writing reflects that context. His examples show creative firms facing procurement, pitches, and clients who compare them to cheaper options.
How do they compare?
| Dimension | Weiss | Enns |
|---|---|---|
| Main audience | Independent consultants and small advisory practices | Agencies, designers, creative and professional firms |
| Pricing stance | Fees based on value to the buyer | Price related to the value of the outcome |
| Sales stance | Work with the economic buyer, reach a conceptual agreement | Position narrowly, diagnose, avoid free speculative work |
| Style | Direct, confident, broad advice on building a practice | Focused on the buying process and the pricing conversation |
| Business model | Books plus coaching and mentoring | Books plus training for firms |
| Main risk | Applying a consultant's approach where procurement controls buying | Applying agency examples to a different kind of practice |
| Best known for | Million Dollar Consulting (1992), Value-Based Fees (2002) | Win Without Pitching (2010), Pricing Creativity (2017) |
When does each one fit?
Weiss fits when you are a solo or small-firm consultant selling advice or projects to executives who can approve the work. His emphasis on reaching the buyer and agreeing outcomes before the proposal speaks to that situation.
Enns fits when you sell creative or professional work into environments where pitching, procurement, and competitive bids are the norm. His advice on declining free pitches and leading the process addresses those pressures directly.
Where your buyers are procurement departments with fixed processes, both will need adapting. The books assume you have some freedom to choose how you sell.
What does this look like in practice?
A consultant is asked for a quote for a leadership program and the client wants a daily rate. Weiss's approach would go back to the buyer: what outcome do they want, how will they measure it, and what is it worth to them? The fee follows from the answer, and the proposal confirms the agreement.
Enns's approach would also resist the daily rate, and add a view on how to run the conversation: diagnose first, avoid giving away the thinking for free, and present price as an expression of value. The two overlap closely. What differs is the emphasis on the buyer's authority in one and on the firm's stance in the other.
"A client has asked for my daily rate for [project]. Draft five questions I could ask to understand the outcome they want, how they will measure it, and what it is worth to them. Then draft a short, plain response that moves the conversation from a day rate to a discussion of outcomes, without sounding evasive."
Why it works: the questions bring value into the conversation before price is anchored to time.
Can you use both together?
Yes. They are close enough that most practitioners can use both without conflict. Weiss's focus on the economic buyer and conceptual agreement complements Enns's emphasis on diagnosis and refusing free work.
Both need evidence. Value-based pricing depends on credible estimates of value, and neither author's confidence replaces your own check.
"For [engagement], help me build a conservative estimate of the value to the client: revenue gained, costs avoided, risks reduced, time saved. List the assumptions behind each number, which the client would need to confirm, and three fee options at different scopes that I could present without exceeding a sensible share of that value."
Why it works: a stated, checkable value estimate gives a price something to stand on.
For related situations, see Client Scope Creep: Before, During, and After It Happens.
Where to go next
Alan Weiss and Blair Enns both sit in the Consultant & Advisor category. For the originals, read Million Dollar Consulting and Value-Based Fees by Weiss, and Win Without Pitching and Pricing Creativity by Enns. Both authors sell training, so use the books to judge whether more is worth buying. To structure a pricing choice, Pricing Decision is a $99 tool built for it.
Frequently asked questions
Do Weiss and Enns agree that hourly billing is a mistake?
Broadly yes. Weiss's Value-Based Fees argues that fees should reflect the value delivered to the client rather than the consultant's time. Enns's Pricing Creativity makes a similar case for creative and professional work, arguing that price should relate to the value of the outcome. They reach this view from different industries, which is part of why their examples differ. Both reach this view from different industries, and neither treats hours as a fair measure of what a client gets.
Who are they each writing for?
Weiss writes mainly for independent consultants and small advisory practices, in Million Dollar Consulting (1992) and later books. Enns writes for agencies, designers, and similar professional firms, in Win Without Pitching and Pricing Creativity. Overlap is large, but the examples, sales cycles, and typical buyers differ, so check which description fits your practice. A good test is to ask which description of the buyer matches your own clients, since that tells you whose examples will transfer.
Do they sell training, and does that matter?
Yes. Both authors run commercial training, coaching, or membership businesses built around their methods. That does not make the ideas wrong, but readers should know the books also serve as an entry to paid offerings. Read them as practitioners' accounts and test the advice in your own practice before paying for more. Check what the books cost against what the training costs, and decide whether the books already give you what you need to test the approach.
What is a conceptual agreement in Weiss's approach?
In Weiss's writing, it is an agreement with the economic buyer about the objectives, the measures of success, and the value of achieving them, reached before a detailed proposal. The proposal then confirms what was agreed. The idea is to establish value and fit in conversation, so the written proposal is not where selling happens. Weiss's emphasis is that the economic buyer, the person who can approve the spend, should be the one you talk to about value and results.
Is Enns against proposals altogether?
Not in the sense of refusing to write them. His position is against giving away free speculative work and against pitching against rivals on a thin brief. He argues for leading the process, diagnosing the problem, and being paid for that thinking. How a firm handles written proposals within that stance depends on its situation. Both authors expect you to know the client's problem before naming a price, so the order of work matters more than the proposal template. Whatever the style of the proposal, it should be consistent with what you told the client in the diagnostic conversation.
Can AI help me set a fee?
It can help you list the outcomes a client values, estimate ranges of value, and draft options to present. It cannot know the buyer's budget or politics. Treat its numbers as prompts for a conversation with the client, and test any price structure against real buyers. Show your assumptions plainly in any pricing paper you share, and ask the client to correct them.
Written by Gareth Hoyle. Last updated 8 October 2026. Part of the authority.md guides library.
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