Pricing: 25% of savings.
If savings are zero, so is our fee.
One fee structure. One number. One guarantee. The 'No Save, No Pay' promise is contractual — printed in the engagement letter, recoverable in court if we ever tried to charge otherwise.
How it actually works
Baseline agreement
Before any negotiation starts, we agree a written baseline — either your existing contract at current prices, or the vendor's last written quote, whichever is lower. No list-price manipulation, no phantom savings.
Negotiation
Our team leads the vendor conversation — strategy, pricing, contract language, escalation points, walk-away triggers. You stay informed; we do the work. Typical timeline: 60–120 days for a single vendor.
Verification
The executed contract goes to your finance team for verification against the baseline. The savings delta is confirmed on paper. No savings, no next step.
Fee
We invoice 25% of the verified savings. Single invoice. No retainer, no expenses, no change orders. You keep 75% of every dollar we save you.
The maths on a $4.2M Oracle renewal
| Baseline contract (vendor's opening quote, 3-year) | $4,200,000 |
| Final executed contract after our negotiation | $2,740,000 |
| Verified savings delivered to you | $1,460,000 |
| Your NoSaveNoPay fee (25% of savings) | $365,000 |
| Net dollars you keep | $1,095,000 |
Representative of a real 2025 engagement. See full case studies.
Every engagement includes — no extras, no surprises
Honest about the edges
- Implementation work — we negotiate the contract; we don't install the software. Systems integrators and internal teams run the implementation.
- Engineering architecture decisions — whether to move to S/4HANA, or stay on ECC, is your business-architecture call. We price whichever path you choose.
- Ongoing vendor management — we re-engage for the next renewal cycle; we don't sit in your day-to-day vendor meetings.
- Reseller / VAR channel selection — we're independent; if your procurement policy requires a specific VAR, we work with them but don't replace them.
Gainshare vs the alternatives
| Model | What you pay | Who carries the risk | Our view |
|---|---|---|---|
| NoSaveNoPay gainshare | 25% of verified savings | Us — fully. | This page. |
| Big Four flat fee | $150k–$500k before savings | You — fully. | Detail → |
| Gartner / Forrester subscription | $40k–$250k/yr for research | You — and you execute. | Detail → |
| Retainer advisor | $40k–$150k flat per engagement | You — paid regardless. | Detail → |
| Reseller / VAR | Built into margin (2–18%) | You — conflict of interest. | Detail → |
| In-house team | $180k–$350k/yr fully loaded | You — plus opportunity cost. | Detail → |
Questions buyers actually ask
How is the 25% gainshare calculated?
We measure savings as the difference between the baseline contract (your existing signed agreement or the vendor's opening quote, agreed in writing before negotiation starts) and the final executed contract at signature. Our fee is 25% of that delta, payable once the savings are verified by your finance team — not before.
What if the negotiation delivers zero savings?
Then you pay nothing. That's the entire point of the 'No Save, No Pay' promise. We carry the risk that a negotiation goes nowhere — you don't. This is the opposite of retainer-based advisories where you pay whether or not savings materialise.
Are there any hidden fees, expenses, or charges?
No. 25% of savings is the complete fee. We cover our own team, tooling, research data, and travel. The only costs you will ever see from us are on a single invoice at the end of the engagement, tied 1-to-1 to verified savings.
Is there a minimum engagement size?
We only engage where we believe savings potential exists — in practice that means contracts over approximately $500,000 of annual vendor spend, though exceptions apply for audit-defence engagements and multi-vendor consolidations where smaller individual contracts combine into meaningful savings.
How is 'savings' protected from baseline manipulation?
The baseline is agreed in writing before negotiation starts and is always the more conservative of: (a) your existing executed contract at current prices, or (b) the vendor's most recent written quote. We never use list price as the baseline — that would inflate apparent savings.
How long does an engagement typically take?
A single-vendor renewal runs 60–120 days from engagement letter to signed contract. Multi-vendor consolidations and ELA redesigns run 120–240 days. Audit-defence engagements compress to 30–90 days depending on vendor response deadlines.
Who owns the final contract?
You do — always. The contract is between you and the software vendor. We are your negotiation advisor, never a party to the commercial agreement. You have full authority to accept, reject, or modify any term at any stage.
What happens if your team recommends signing and we disagree?
You are the decision-maker throughout. If you choose not to proceed with a vendor's offer we recommend, no savings are realised, and no fee is due. We will never pressure a signature to generate our commission — doing so would destroy the model's trust foundation.
Ready for the zero-risk proof-of-concept?
30-minute free call. We review your vendor portfolio and tell you whether we think there's meaningful savings to chase. No commitment either way — just an honest answer.
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