When the client forces your consulting into phases, offer partial rebates to guarantee future business.

You would see this happening generally in complex consulting projects. For example, projects covering needs analysis, design, pilot, implementation, or monitoring. Here, the client accepts the quote for one phase and when finished, asks for the second phase’s quote. There’s a way that almost works like a charm for getting the next phase consulting. Of course, you should have built a rock solid client relationship until the previous phase. The way is - you should offer offer a rebate from the fee for the prior phase on the succeeding one if the buyer commits before the prior phase is completed. This tends to dissuade buyers from looking for alternatives at every new phase, using your work from the prior phase.