A consultant BWWL® worked with had her number in writing. The work behind it was documented. The figure was on the page.

Her first words were still a question: "How do I say it to the client?"

You may be in the same place. A renewal, a proposal, or a retainer goes to a client before the year closes. The client is the person who signs. You know the number. You do not yet have the sentence that carries it across the table.

That is a different problem from pricing. It needs a different fix.

Why it lands

If you have rehearsed the number in the car and lost it on the call, this is that moment. None of this is a personal failing. Nobody teaches the sentence.

The problem

A number alone is a claim. The client hears it and asks the next question: "What is that based on?" If the answer arrives as a paragraph, the number starts to shrink while you talk.

The sentence is the bridge. It tells the client what the number refers to, in the client's terms, before the client has to ask.

Translation: when you do not say what the number refers to, the client decides for you.

What has not worked

  • Lowering the number. A smaller figure still needs a sentence. It just costs you more to say it.
  • A longer explanation. Every added sentence reads as doubt. The client starts counting reasons instead of weighing the outcome.
  • More confidence. Confidence is not the missing piece. A woman with the number in writing is not short on nerve. She is short one sentence.
  • Waiting for the client to ask. The client's question sets the frame. Your answer then sounds like a defense.

The fix: write the sentence before the call

  1. Name the decision and the date. Write which document goes to the client and when: the renewal, the proposal, the retainer. Name the person who signs, by role.
  2. Name what the number refers to. One outcome the client keeps because the work exists. The revenue that did not slip. The audit that passed. Write it in the client's money, not your hours.
  3. Write it as one sentence. The outcome first, then the number. No adjectives. No apology in front of it.
  4. Say it out loud, then stop. Read it once, at speaking pace. If you need a breath in the middle, it is two sentences. Cut it.
  5. Write the client's first question under it. Usually it is "What is that based on?" Answer it from your record, in four sentences or fewer.

See the difference? The number did not change. The client now hears what it is attached to.

The example

An illustration, not a client case.

Before: "So for next year I was thinking around [number], but I'm
flexible, and I can walk you through everything I've added."

After: "This year your onboarding time went from six weeks to three.
The renewal is [number]."

The first version asks permission and offers a tour of the task list. The second states what the client kept, then the number, then stops.

Your template

The decision: ____________ (renewal, proposal, retainer)
The person who signs: ____________
The date it is due: ____________
The outcome the client kept: ____________
In the client's money: ____________
My sentence: ____________. The fee is ____________.
Their first question: ____________
My answer, four sentences or fewer: ____________

What the record does not do

The sentence carries a number. It cannot make one.

The number under it may have come from last year's invoice, a peer's rate, or a guess. Then the sentence will not hold when the client asks what it is based on. It holds only when the number comes from valuing the documented record.

Before the client signs the renewal or the proposal, have a valued number under your sentence, and say both in one breath.