18 January 2026
Fee conversations without the pitch deck
Decks are where fees go to become abstract. Households pay in dollars. Module four of Household Ledger Studio is mostly people saying numbers into a quiet room until the number stops arriving with an apology.
Read the brochure you already published
If the PDF says a range, say the range. If it says a method, say the method. Do not invent a third explanation because the first one felt blunt. Blunt is usually the honest version of a document your licensee already approved.
Twelve sentences, not a monologue
We ask each principal to write twelve sentences: what is included this year, what is billed extra, when invoices go out, what happens if the household pauses, who to call, and one sentence that admits a limit (for example, we do not prepare tax returns). Then they delete half the adjectives. The remaining lines are what we rehearse.
Silence is not a closing technique
After the number, wait. Do not fill the wait with a story about ‘value’. If the household has a question about scope, answer scope. If they have a question about a product, that is a different meeting with different rules. Mixing the two is how fee talk becomes a pitch again.
What this will not fix
A rehearsal will not repair an office that underquotes to win files. Consulting can name that pattern. It cannot ethically help you hide it. If your listed fees and your actual invoices disagree, fix the paper before you practise the speech.