Imagine this… you’re on a discovery call with a potential client. You’ve talked about their business, what they need support with, the scope of your role, and what you’ll help them accomplish.
Then you confidently say:
“My retainer is $2,000 per month.”
They respond:
“Okay… so how many hours does that include?”
If you’re transitioning away from hourly work and into premium retainers, this question can immediately make you freeze.
You’ve been told not to sell your time. You’ve built your retainer around outcomes. But now they’re directly asking you for a number of hours.
So what do you say?
First, asking about hours isn’t automatically a red flag. But how you answer matters because this is your opportunity to reinforce what they’re actually hiring you for: your expertise, leadership, support, and ability to help create outcomes in their business.
Why Potential Clients Ask How Many Hours Are Included
Most service providers traditionally sell their services based on time.
A client might be used to hiring a VA for $50 per hour or purchasing a package that includes 10 or 20 hours each month.
So if they’ve never worked with someone on an outcomes-based retainer before, it makes sense that they might ask:
“How many hours do I get?”
What they’re really trying to understand is:
“What am I getting for my money?”
That’s a fair question.
You don’t need to get defensive or launch into a 20-minute explanation about why retainers are better than hourly packages.
You simply need to explain what they’re actually buying.
What to Say When Someone Asks How Many Hours Your Retainer Includes
If someone asks me how many hours are included in my retainer, I would say something like:
“My retainer actually isn’t based on a specific number of hours. It’s based on the scope and outcomes we’re working toward together. When you work with me, you’re retaining my service and expertise to help us accomplish those priorities in the business. Some months may require more support and some may require less, but business naturally ebbs and flows. This retainer gives us that flexibility to move instead of constantly watching the clock.”
That’s it. You don’t need to over-explain it, and most importantly, don’t give them a number.
Even if you know internally that the client will probably require around 20 hours of your capacity each month, the second you tell them that, you’ve essentially sold them 20 hours.
Now, if you work 15 hours one month, they might wonder why they paid for 20.
If you work 24 hours the next month, you might wonder whether you’ve given them too much.
Suddenly, both of you are watching the clock again, and that defeats the purpose of moving into an outcomes-based retainer.
The Shift From Selling Hours to Selling Outcomes
When you’re selling hours, you’re constantly asking:
“How much time do I have left?”
When you’re operating as an Integrator on a retainer, you get to ask:
“What does the business need right now?”
Those questions create two completely different ways of working.
Maybe you notice a system that needs to be improved.
If you’re working hourly, you might wonder whether you have enough hours left to fix it.
Maybe you automate something that used to take four hours and now takes one.
If your value is tied directly to time, becoming more efficient can actually decrease your income.
That’s backwards.
Part of your job as an Integrator is to make the business more efficient. You should be building systems, eliminating unnecessary work, solving problems, and figuring out how to do something in two hours that used to take five.
Your client shouldn’t pay you less because you’re getting better at your job.
Retainers Give the Business Room to Ebb and Flow
Businesses aren’t the same every month.
One month, your client might be in the middle of a major launch. You’re heavily involved, managing projects, coordinating the team, and keeping everything moving.
The next month might be quieter.
The systems you created are working. There isn’t a major launch happening. Your role is more focused on maintaining momentum and making sure everything continues moving forward.
That’s normal.
A retainer allows the relationship to move with those natural ebbs and flows without renegotiating the relationship every 30 days based on exactly how many hours you worked.
Instead, the conversation becomes:
These are the areas of the business I’m responsible for. These are the outcomes we’re working toward. This is the role I play inside your business. And this is what it costs to retain me in that role.
Your Hours Aren’t the Boundary, Your Scope Is
One of the biggest concerns I hear about outcomes-based retainers is:
“If I don’t give them hours, doesn’t that mean they can ask me to do anything?”
No.
Outcomes-based does not mean unlimited.
You still have a scope. You still have boundaries. You still have responsibilities you’ve agreed to.
The difference is that your hours aren’t necessarily the boundary.
Your scope is the boundary.
For example, maybe your agreement says you’re overseeing operations for one offer.
Then your client launches three new offers and expects you to manage all of them.
That’s a scope conversation.
Maybe team management wasn’t included in your original agreement, but suddenly they hire five people and expect you to manage the entire team.
That’s a scope conversation.
Or maybe the business grows significantly and your responsibilities essentially double.
Again, that’s a scope conversation.
Being on a retainer doesn’t mean, “Pay me $2,000 and I’ll do literally anything you ask.”
It means:
This is the role you’re retaining me for. This is the scope we’ve agreed to. And these are the outcomes we’re working toward.
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You Should Still Understand Your Hours Internally
There’s an important distinction here.
Just because you aren’t selling hours doesn’t mean you shouldn’t understand your capacity.
You should know approximately how much of your capacity a client requires.
You should understand whether your retainer is profitable.
You should notice when a client who typically requires 15–20 hours of your capacity suddenly starts requiring significantly more.
And you should pay attention to potential scope creep.
That information is business intelligence for you as the CEO of your own business.
You can use it to adjust your pricing, improve your packages, evaluate renewals, and understand your overall capacity.
There’s a huge difference between using hours internally to understand your business and selling hours externally as your product.
When Asking About Hours Becomes a Red Flag
Someone asking about hours initially isn’t a red flag.
They may simply be trying to understand a business model they haven’t experienced before.
Explain the retainer.
If they say, “Okay, that makes sense,” great. Move on.
But pay attention to what happens if they continue pushing.
“But approximately how many hours?”
“What’s the maximum?”
“Can you track your hours and send them to me?”
“How am I supposed to know I’m getting my money’s worth?”
Now I’m paying attention.
There’s a difference between someone trying to understand your service and someone trying to force your service into the business model they want you to have.
If they’re already nitpicking your time before they’ve even hired you, consider what that relationship might look like three months from now.
Will they question how long everything takes?
Will they start handing you random tasks during quieter months because they feel like they haven’t “used enough” of you?
Will they trust you to lead, or will they micromanage you?
Remember: you’re evaluating potential clients just as much as they’re evaluating you.
You don’t need every client. The goal is to build long-term partnerships with a small number of aligned clients.
If someone ultimately wants hourly support, they may simply be better suited for a service provider who offers that model, and that’s okay.
Your Value Isn’t Measured in Hours
The next time someone asks, “How many hours does your retainer include?” don’t panic.
You don’t need to defend your pricing, and you definitely don’t need to accidentally turn your retainer back into an hourly package.
Come back to what they’re actually retaining you for:
Your expertise.
Your leadership.
Your understanding of their business.
Your ability to create systems.
Your ability to anticipate what needs to happen next.
Your ability to take responsibility for an area of the business and keep it moving forward.
And ultimately, the outcomes you’re helping them create.
That’s the shift from being seen as a task doer to being positioned as a strategic partner.
Ready to Build Your Integrator Retainer?
If you understand the retainer model but you’re thinking, Okay, but I still need to actually land the client so I can have these conversations, that’s exactly why I created the Integrator Accelerator.
The Accelerator is designed to help you build your Integrator offer, position yourself as a strategic partner, and land your first or next Integrator client.
Inside, you’ll get my full training on landing your first or next client, plus access to the community, monthly live trainings, and my growing replay library.
Because knowing you want to move into retainers is one thing.
Knowing what you’re selling, how to talk about it, how to meet potential clients, and how to confidently have these conversations is another.
The Integrator Accelerator is the starting point.
Build your retainer. Position yourself as the strategic partner. Go land the client.
And the next time someone asks, “But how many hours do I get?” remember:
Your value isn’t measured by how many hours you give them. It’s measured by the value you bring to the partnership.
