Why We Publish Our Fees: The Commercial Application of The One Rule

The irritation

Over the years, I’ve bought a great many professional services, either for myself or for the business: lawyers, consultants, accountants, software providers…

I have a bugbear: gated selling.

If you don’t know the term, it’s this: withholding basic information, insistence on unnecessary meetings, obscuring pricing, and creating artificial scarcity.

I’ve seen it again and again: companies unwilling to provide even a rough indication of price without first scheduling a sales call. When your project is still at concept stage, this can be a significant drain on time and, often, a frustrating one.

I understand why it happens. But that doesn’t make it any less frustrating from the client side.

At its worst, it can feel intrusive, unnecessarily complicated and, at times, a little one-sided.

For us, it doesn’t sit comfortably with The One Rule: don’t be an arsehole.

The industry norm

Before we demonise anyone, it’s worth understanding why this behaviour exists. It’s rarely malicious, it’s just the way many professional services companies have been taught to sell.

The traditional thinking goes something like this: if you give too much information too early, the client might take it away and shop around.

Pricing, scope and even rough guidance become closely guarded. The safest way to manage the conversation, therefore, is to require a meeting before anything meaningful is shared.

From the seller’s perspective, this makes a certain kind of sense.

Pricing in professional services can be complicated. The honest answer to many questions genuinely is “it depends”. Projects vary widely in scope, complexity and risk, and no one wants to give a number that later proves inaccurate. Holding back information can feel safer than saying something that might need to be revised.

There is also the fact that many businesses are trained in sales processes designed for high-value consulting work. Those processes are built around discovery calls, qualification stages and relationship-building meetings before any commercial detail is discussed. In theory, this ensures both parties understand the problem before talking about money.

There is also a commercial reality: meetings create commitment. Once a client has invested time in a conversation, they are more likely to continue the process.

None of this is inherently unreasonable. In many organisations, it is simply standard practice. The difficulty is that, from the client’s perspective, the experience can feel quite different.

When basic information is withheld, the process becomes opaque and time-consuming. What might have been a quick exchange of information turns into a calendar negotiation, followed by a call, followed by another call, followed by a proposal that may or may not have been broadly suitable in the first place.

For busy clients exploring early-stage ideas, this isn’t just inefficient. It’s exhausting. That’s where we return to The One Rule.

The Iconic response

At Iconic, we decided to take a different approach.

We take pride in transparent project management: sharing information openly, having difficult conversations early so issues can be addressed before they become problems, and treating every person involved in a project as a reasonable human being rather than a role to be managed.

Above all, we try to be helpful.

We couldn’t see any reason why the same ethos shouldn’t apply to our pricing.

Being upfront about how we charge is genuinely useful to clients, particularly when their project is still at the concept stage and they are trying to establish whether an idea is viable.

To support early-stage budgeting, we publish our day rates, fee structures, and explanations of how our fees are calculated.

When we procure professional services ourselves, this is exactly the information we want. It seems reasonable to assume it’s what our potential clients want too.

The principle behind it

Our company has only one rule: don’t be an arsehole.

We expect our team to behave with honesty and respect in their day-to-day work. It would be inconsistent if our commercial behaviour didn’t reflect the same principle.

We believe that obscuring pricing, making clients work harder than necessary to understand what we charge, and requiring meetings simply to obtain a basic ballpark figure doesn’t align with that standard.

Because our One Rule sits at the heart of everything we do, it naturally extends to how we price our work.

The practical benefits

The practical benefits of transparent pricing are considerable. Although it is designed to benefit the client, we have found that it benefits Iconic too.

What we sell is time. This is simple but true.

When our day rates are visible, conversations start in a sensible place. We don’t need to justify the price of our service, and clients aren’t surprised when our fees are discussed. By the time a client is ready to speak with us, they have already established that a professional project manager will add value, and that the cost of hiring one is compatible with their budget.

As a result, conversations focus on scope and volume rather than price positioning.

The commercial application of The One Rule

There is a tendency in business to assume that decency is naive. Our experience suggests the opposite. Transparency isn’t always comfortable. It requires clarity about the value of your work. But, in our experience, treating clients like intelligent adults leads to better relationships and better projects.

To achieve the best possible project outcome, you have to start as you mean to go on. For us, that means publishing our pricing. It’s the only way to adhere to The One Rule.

Don’t be an arsehole.

Author

Lizzie Hewitt

Lizzie is the driving force behind Iconic Project Management. She thrives on crafting creative strategies that set the company apart, ensuring every project delivers maximum value for clients.

Her leadership is built on a people-first approach—empowering the team with the right tools, support, and culture to do what they do best: deliver outstanding projects on time, on budget, and on brief.

Passionate about innovation and continuous improvement, Lizzie is committed to making the construction industry a place where people and projects thrive.