Rewriting the Fee Formula: A Smarter Model for Pricing Your Services

Earn 1 AIA LU.

Are you tired of watching your fees shrink as your expertise grows? Does it feel like the better you get at architecture, the less money you make per project? You’re not alone—and you’re not stuck.

This webinar challenges the conventional wisdom of hourly and percentage-based fees that most AE firms have been trained to follow. This interactive webinar reveals a more powerful approach to pricing that aligns with the actual value you create for clients, not just the time you spend or the construction costs you influence.

In this 50-minute session, you’ll discover why traditional pricing models punish efficiency and reward inefficiency—and learn a proven framework for breaking free from the “efficiency penalty” that’s keeping your firm trapped in a race to the bottom.

Whether you’re a firm owner looking to improve margins, a principal tired of competing on price, or an architect planning to start your own practice, this webinar will fundamentally change how you think about your value and your fees.

Learning Objectives

• Transform pricing conversations from cost to value.
  Move beyond hourly rates and percentages to position your expertise as strategic transformation, not a technical commodity.
• Structure proposals that clients choose rather than negotiate.
  Create three-tier options that leverage psychology to guide clients toward optimal engagements while increasing your win rate.
• Win more projects at higher fees.
  Use value-discovery conversations and risk-reversal techniques to become the obvious choice rather than the cheapest option.
• Evaluate how adopting value-based pricing models supports ethical practice, enhances firm sustainability, and strengthens the long-term delivery of architectural services.

Steven Burns, FAIA

Founder

Steven Burns, FAIA

Steven Burns, FAIA, is a global thought leader and speaker on topics related to firm management and emerging technologies. He is the founder of The Well-Designed Firm, a nascent business consultancy helping A&E firms that wish to make their business as elegant as the architecture they create. Steven received his Master of Architecture degree from the Harvard Graduate School of Design, spent 7 years at SOM, and founded his own architecture firm, BBA Architects which he sold in 2007. He created ArchiOffice, the popular office and project management software, which he sold to BQE Software in 2010, which later evolved into BQE CORE.