Retainers

Hi everyone, long time lurker infrequent poster....was hoping to get some insight from any other MD's or senior client facing people who may be out there....how much push back are clients giving on fees in particular retainers?

It seems that retainers are a non starter for clients and to be honest has been a huge sticking point lately. They feel they can get a Wall Street investment bank working for them for free. Now this isn't to say that there aren't situations where you fore go said retainer, but there's a lot of factors that go into that.

Basically every client I have encountered lately seems to be able to get a better deal elsewhere according to them. I know it's not me personally but I'm trying to pick some brains and see if anyone else has had these same issues? 

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