Decision Desk™
Your proposal is due. The scope is written. The fee line is still blank.
The Decision Desk™ prices one dated decision from your documented record: your value, your ask, your floor, and the evidence behind each.
$500 · 45 minutes. Identify what is missing in your active decision before determining whether the Decision Desk™ fits.
Cynthia Barnes, Principal Analyst. 41 enterprise contracts. 1,513 compensation conversations. The basis
We promise the strength of your record. Not their answer.
A private analytical engagement. One client, one decision.
For Black women with a consequential financial decision inside 90 days.
Is it right for you?
$500 · 45 minutes. Identify what is missing in your active decision before determining whether the Decision Desk™ fits.
Is it for you
The decision trigger
A live decision requires preparation before the terms are settled.
The Decision Desk™ exists for one situation: a specific consequential financial decision that is active, or expected within 90 days.
- A consulting price, proposal, or contract renewal
- A retainer or recurring engagement
- A licensing discussion or intellectual-property rights
- Materially expanded scope, where a counterparty signs the new terms
Who it is for
When the decision is already moving.
The decision is specific and it is close: a proposal, a contract renewal, a retainer, a licensing question. The stakes are high enough that improvisation is not a reasonable strategy. You have documented work and evidence behind you; what you do not yet have is an economic position built from that record and specific to the decision in front of you.
What constitutes a consequential decision
Whether this engagement is economically rational for the decision.
As a qualification guideline, the decision should generally involve sufficient economic significance to rationally justify the engagement. The guideline describes fit. It is not a promised result.
Why proxies are insufficient
What external benchmarks cannot establish.
Published rate ranges, what a peer quotes, what a competitor charges. Collect all of them and you have assembled a description of the market. You still have not established what you specifically produced, which portion of it is attributable to you rather than to a team or a client, and what that supports in the terms now on the table.
That is the harder problem. An external benchmark does not contain your record or establish attribution from it. Aggregation is not attribution, and context is not a case.
What you receive
The completion standard
What complete means.
The Decision Desk™ is not complete when a file is delivered. It is complete when you hold a documented economic position for the decision in front of you: what the evidence supports, your proposed ask, your floor, your concessions, and the evidence supporting your position.
That is the completion standard. It is the thing being purchased.
Walk in with the feeling, leave with the number and the four sentences behind it.
The Value Audit methodology
Six sections. Every claim traceable.
The Value Audit is the proprietary analytical mechanism inside the Decision Desk™: an individually researched valuation of your documented portfolio, with every claim traceable to your confirmed record.
- Executive Valuation Summary
Your headline financial value, your current rate or fee context, and the primary gap between them.
- Evidence Portfolio
The documented wins behind the valuation, organized and classified.
- Replacement Cost Analysis
What the market and replacement context show.
- Invoice Number
The range of documented financial impact across your portfolio.
- Revenue Diagnosis
The financial, attribution, and revenue findings the Audit identifies.
- Appendix
Data gaps, assumptions, and full methodology transparency.
How the Value Audit works
What your work can mean, and what you can stand behind.
Looking like a valuation and holding up as one are different things.
The test comes from the person across the table. Where did this number come from? Was that result yours? What happens if one assumption is wrong?
A Value Audit is built to answer those questions before they are asked. It is researched against your documented record and licensed comparative data. Every finding is tested for attribution, assumptions, and the limits of its evidence. Then Cynthia Barnes reviews it personally and puts her name behind the judgment.
The Decision Desk™ uses that analysis to establish your economic position, prepare your decision materials, and reassess the decision when terms change.
Who this is for
You have a consequential pricing decision ahead: a proposal, a renewal, a retainer, a licensing term, or an offer. You have documented work behind you. What you don’t yet have is a clear account of its financial significance, and of its limits. Not every financial conversation needs a Value Audit. It fits when the stakes justify establishing the record first.
Looking like a valuation and holding up as one are different things.
The test comes from the person across the table. Where did this number come from? Was that result yours? What happens if one assumption is wrong?
A Value Audit is built to answer those questions before they are asked. It is researched against your documented record and licensed comparative data. Every finding is tested for attribution, assumptions, and the limits of its evidence. Then Cynthia Barnes reviews it personally and puts her name behind the judgment.
The Decision Desk™ uses that analysis to establish your economic position, prepare your decision materials, and reassess the decision when terms change.
What work like yours can reveal
Work that enables others often carries financial significance that never appears on an invoice or in a proposal. The fictional example below shows how a Value Audit presents a finding: what the figure refers to, whose work it reflects, and what it does not claim.
In the example, a communications executive led an employee information system. The finding describes one stated business effect, $76,700 in staff time released annually. It keeps three lines clear:
- The system’s benefit, not hers alone. Others contributed. Her attributable share is not claimed.
- Capacity, not cash. Time released is not money saved.
- A finding, not an entitlement. It is not a rate recommendation.
What you receive
The six sections above, each traceable to your confirmed record, with assumptions and gaps stated. The Decision Desk™ then builds your position on them: your ask, your floor, your concessions, and the materials to present them.
What you provide
You bring the records you already have: results, emails, proposals, contracts, work product. You don’t need polished wins, and you don’t assign dollar values yourself. That work is part of the Audit. After acceptance, you complete the intake. The findings are then delivered in a live session. If you are still employed, the outcomes you produced for your employer are the record that prices your consulting work.
How you can use it
In the conversation itself. The Decision Brief and your decision materials carry the findings into the room, and 30 days of decision support covers changed terms. You remain the decision-maker and negotiator. The Decision Desk™ does not negotiate on your behalf and does not provide legal, tax, or investment advice.
Your next step
Questions before you begin
What if I can’t identify my wins?
Most women can’t at first. Identifying, organizing, and classifying your wins is part of the Evidence Portfolio. Bring your records, not a finished list.
What if I don’t have all the numbers or documents?
You can still begin. Every finding traces either to your confirmed record or to a clearly labeled estimate with its logic shown. What can’t be supported is named as a gap, not filled in.
How is this different from rate research, or résumé writing?
Rate research describes what a service pays in the market. A résumé describes your experience. Neither establishes what you specifically produced, which part is attributable to you, and what that supports in the terms in front of you.
Why shouldn’t I just ask an AI tool for my number?
Looking like a valuation and holding up as one are different things.
The test comes from the person across the table. Where did this number come from? Was that result yours? What happens if one assumption is wrong?
A Value Audit is built to answer those questions before they are asked. It is researched against your documented record and licensed comparative data. Every finding is tested for attribution, assumptions, and the limits of its evidence. Then Cynthia Barnes reviews it personally and puts her name behind the judgment.
The Decision Desk™ uses that analysis to establish your economic position, prepare your decision materials, and reassess the decision when terms change.
Can I use it alongside my existing coach?
Yes. The Decision Desk™ is analysis, not coaching. The documented record and position are yours to use with anyone advising you.
Does it include negotiation or implementation support?
It includes talking points, decision-specific correspondence, counteroffer language for a client’s proposed fee, scope, payment, or licensing terms, an evidence presentation, and 30 days of decision support with up to 2 material recalibrations. It does not negotiate live on your behalf.
How is my information handled?
What you share for a Decision Desk™ engagement is read by Cynthia Barnes and kept as part of the client record, currently three years after the engagement ends. Your information is not used for marketing, testimonials, or case studies without your separate written permission.
Human verification
Accountable human judgment.
Every figure is reviewed before delivery against the confirmed record, attribution, stated assumptions, comparative context, and the internal consistency of the analysis. Cynthia Barnes performs that review personally and is accountable for the analytical judgment behind the numbers.
Comparative data
External context informs the position.
Your documented record is examined alongside relevant external context: licensed comparative data, market evidence, replacement economics, and the terms of the decision itself. Those inputs provide context; they do not produce the position. The analytical work is determining what your record supports when those inputs are considered together.
Economic Stakes Analysis
What may be at stake, made visible.
We model what may be economically at stake in the decision. Not what another party will agree to pay. Using the terms currently under consideration, your documented record, and clearly stated assumptions, we examine the potential economic difference between plausible decision paths.
These scenarios are decision tools, not forecasts or guarantees. Their purpose is to make the financial consequences of different choices visible before you make them.
Ask, floor, concessions
You don't need another confidence intervention. You need an economic position.
- Your proposed ask, established from what the evidence supports.
- Your floor, the decision floor below which the terms do not work.
- Your concessions, identified in advance rather than improvised in the room.
Non-cash terms
The fee is one term among several. Scope, exclusivity, payment terms, timing, and resources can materially affect the economics and acceptability of a decision even when they do not change the cash figure. Those terms are identified, prioritized, and evaluated alongside the fee when the economic position is established.
Decision Brief
What you carry into the conversation.
The Value Audit establishes what your evidence supports. The Decision Brief makes that position usable in the conversation itself. It is built to keep the economic case clear when the terms are being discussed, questioned, or changed, and to make the position understandable to someone who has not read the underlying analysis.
Decision-specific response materials
Decision materials, prepared for your use.
- Talking points
- Decision-specific correspondence
- Counteroffer language for a client’s proposed fee, scope, payment, or licensing terms
- An evidence presentation or slide deck
Your evidence record
Your Value Vault
Your organized evidence record. Wins documented, attribution resolved, assumptions and gaps identified. It is yours to keep, and your next decision does not begin at zero.
If the terms change
If the terms change
If the terms change, the analysis changes with them.
30-day decision support
Your Decision Desk™ includes 30 days of decision support from delivery of your completed economic position. During that window, if the same financial decision changes through new rate or fee terms, altered scope, revised deliverables, payment terms, exclusivity, or timing, we will reassess the decision against your documented economic position and help you determine the appropriate response.
Material recalibrations
The engagement includes up to 2 material recalibrations.
The support window applies to the same decision and counterparty. A new opportunity, separate engagement, or substantially different transaction constitutes a new Decision Desk™.
What we promise, and what we don’t
You remain the decision-maker
What we do, and what stays yours.
We prepare the economic case, analyze the terms, formulate the response, and help you recalibrate the decision. You remain the decision-maker and negotiator.
Evidence Integrity Guarantee
The Evidence Integrity Guarantee
What it covers
Your Value Audit will be grounded in your confirmed intake, your documented portfolio, relevant comparative data, and clearly identified assumptions. If you identify a factual error, an incorrect attribution, or information that does not accurately reflect the record you provided, notify us within 14 days of delivery. Once the correction is confirmed, we will revise and reissue the affected portion at no additional charge.
What it does not cover
This guarantee applies to the accuracy and integrity of the work. It does not guarantee a contract, a fee, a revenue outcome, a client’s acceptance of your counteroffer, or any decision made by a client, buyer, or other third party. No honest firm can promise you someone else’s answer. We promise you the strength of your own record.
Scope
Inside the Desk, and outside it.
The Decision Desk™ may
- Prepare the economic case and analyze the terms
- Compare the terms against the Value Audit
- Establish a proposed ask, a decision floor, and potential concessions
- Model plausible economic scenarios
- Identify, prioritize, and evaluate material non-cash terms.
- Prepare talking points, decision-specific correspondence, counteroffer language for a client’s proposed fee, scope, payment, or licensing terms, and an evidence presentation
- Help you recalibrate after changed terms
The Decision Desk™ does not
- Negotiate live on your behalf or act as negotiation counsel
- Provide legal representation or legal advice
- Provide tax, securities, or investment advice
- Guarantee a rate, fee, or revenue outcome
- Control a buyer’s, client’s, or counterparty’s decision
Engagement details
Engagement terms
Timing
Standard completion: within 5 business days after complete intake and required evidence are received.
Share your deadline before committing to work that depends on it.
Investment
Decision Desk™$5,000
Invoiced after acceptance, once a Money Decision Review™ shows the Desk fits your decision.
The $500 Money Decision Review™ payment is credited in full toward the Decision Desk™ for the same decision. The balance is $4,500.
Capacity
Initial capacity: no more than 5 new Decision Desk™ engagements per week during the initial release. Priority Handling is not available.
Your analyst
The experience behind the analysis.
The method was built from a founder’s record before it was offered to anyone else. Documented economic contribution of $17.5 million to $52.5 million.
Contracts negotiated with 41 enterprise organizations across automotive, technology, insurance, telecommunications, healthcare, industrial manufacturing, and logistics. 1,513 compensation conversations. Forty additional accounts held through a single logistics engagement are excluded from the count.
Cynthia Barnes is the Founder and Principal Analyst of Black Women’s Wealth Lab®. TEDx speaker. LinkedIn Top Voice. Four-time Salesforce Top Sales Influencer. First Black woman to keynote a national sales conference.
Note what you will not find: adjectives doing the work of evidence.
Which conversation is yours?
One decision, active or expected within 90 days.
If you run a practice
“Why does this cost what it costs?”
You walk in with the documented outcomes behind your price, and the floor you will not go below.
If a client proposes different terms
“Is there any flexibility?”
Whether the change is to your fee, the scope, the payment terms, or a license to your work, you answer with the figure, the evidence behind it, and your floor.
Carrying both? Start with the decision that arrives first. No decision active yet? Continue to Insights.
How it starts
Three steps. You can stop after the first.
- Book a Money Decision Review™, $500 for 45 minutes.
- Cynthia identifies the gaps in your active decision. The diagnosis is yours whether or not you go further.
- If deeper work fits, the Decision Desk™ prepares the documented position under its engagement terms. It is invoiced after acceptance.
Begin
Before money is decided, establish what the evidence supports.
$500 · 45 minutes. Identify what is missing in your active decision before determining whether the Decision Desk™ fits.