Wouldn’t it be nice if we never had to pay a cent until a product or service fulfilled its intended purpose? Unfortunately, that would leave us in a world of trusting subjectivity. If my new haircut, for example, didn’t impress my dinner guests enough to get them to fund my brilliant new project, I would then refuse to pay the stylist. Okay, right; that’s a stretch. There are, however, a lot of businesses that do operate on a contingency basis. In the right industries, it works well…and to the benefit of everyone involved.
Staffing agencies and lawyers are ideally positioned to do contingency work, and I recently realized that auditors were too. Temp-to-Hire is a classic contingency scenario. You perform…you’re hired. If lawyers win the case, they get paid. As far as auditing goes, they get paid if they find money “lost” in the books.
Not every staffing agency, lawyer or auditor works on a contingency basis. The ones who do, however, are doing themselves a huge marketing favor. You see, the draw is not the money factor. It is the brazen confidence in their skills that convinces people to choose their company over others. They have made their services free until they prove themselves worthy. What company would take that risk if they were not truly worthy? Exactly.
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Broniec is a national accounts payable auditing company that operates locally in Norcross. They actually helped pioneer contingency-based audits back in the early 70’s. This has led to a higher level of accountability in the field, and provided creative inspiration to other industries.
If you think about it, the standard retail store return policy makes the sale contingent upon the customer’s satisfaction. Personally, I think more industries could adopt a policy that required them to prove themselves upfront, not just after-the-fact if they happen to be sued. There is risk involved, but that’s not a new concept for business owners.
