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DACH · Engineering Services · Pricing

Pragmatic Pricing Tool

European Fire-Protection Engineering Services Firm

+24%

Hourly rate uplift after rollout

€1.4m

Year-one margin impact, 150% of target

+5%

Deal volume, 75 to 79 per month by Q4

€1.2–2.5m

Further opportunity mapped for 2026

Situation

Pricing was engineer-led and ad hoc. No systematic surcharges, inconsistent discounting against the statutory fee-schedule (HOAI) target, and hourly rates that had drifted below benchmark with wide dispersion across engineers. The leakage was structural, not a market problem.

What worked

A diagnostic on 18+ months of project-time and invoice data. A Low / Target / High pricing methodology co-developed with the firm's best engineers, factoring deal size, type, customer and competitive situation. Surcharge guidelines and an approval workflow for below-floor deals. A fit-for-purpose pricing tool embedded in quoting and time-tracking, with train-the-trainer rollout, a written guide, a KPI dashboard and coaching.

Impact

A 24 percent uplift in hourly rate and EUR 1.4 million of year-one margin impact, 150 percent of target. Deal volume rose 5 percent, from 75 to 79 per month by Q4. A further EUR 1.2 to 2.5 million was mapped for 2026 by migrating off the spreadsheet, expanding to all teams and linking the CRM.

The mechanism, visualised

How the pricing tool holds the price on every quote

The Low / Target / High logic was co-developed with the firm's best engineers, then embedded where quotes actually happen, so the right price is the default rather than the exception.

1 · Deal inputs

Deal size

Project type

Customer relationship

Competitive situation

→

2 · Low / Target / High guideline

Below floor

Low

Target

High

Below-floor quotes route to an approval workflow, holding the floor. Surcharges apply where the work carries them.

→

3 · Quote by default

Embedded in the quoting process

Linked to time-tracking

Written guide and train-the-trainer rollout

→

4 · Visible and coached

KPI dashboard: adoption, hourly rate, deal volume

Consistent under-quoters coached up

Handover once the behaviour sticks

Year one: hourly rate +24%, EUR 1.4m margin impact (150% of target), deal volume up from 75 to 79 per month.

Read the complete case study

Full methodology, the deployed pricing tool and KPI dashboard, the surcharge and approval logic, and the year-one impact in detail.

Margin leakage that is structural, not market

In professional and engineering services, the margin rarely leaks because the market is weak. It leaks because every engineer prices by feel against a fee schedule, with no shared floor, no clear target, and no systematic surcharges for the work that should carry them. Hourly-rate realisation drifts below benchmark, and the dispersion between engineers is wider than any difference in the work itself.

When every engineer prices by feel against a fee schedule, the gap is not the market. It is the absence of a shared floor, a clear target, and a tool that makes the right price the easy one to quote.

The pragmatic fix is to co-develop the pricing logic with the firm's best engineers rather than impose it, build a tool that is fit-for-purpose for the size of the firm, and embed it in the quoting process and the time-tracking system so the right price is the default. Surcharge guidelines and an approval step hold the floor, a KPI dashboard makes adoption and impact visible, and a short coaching cadence brings the consistent under-quoters up. We stay until the behaviour sticks, then hand over a roadmap for the next phase.

Custom Tooling Built

Tools that stayed in use after the engagement closed

Deal Quote Builder with Low / Target / High guidelines, surcharge logic, and an approval workflow for below-floor quotes
Impact and KPI dashboard tracking adoption, hourly rate, deal volume and coaching
Embedded in the quoting process and the time-tracking system, with a written user guide and train-the-trainer rollout

Where It Goes Next

The roadmap to capture the remaining opportunity

Migrate off the spreadsheet into a maintained pricing tool as the firm scales
Auto-surface below-floor quotes for coaching, so the exceptions manage themselves
Link the pricing tool into the CRM so quoting, pricing and pipeline share one source, unlocking the mapped EUR 1.2 to 2.5 million for 2026

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Facing a pricing challenge in a portfolio company?

We have delivered pricing transformation across manufacturing, distribution and B2B services, with references available on request.