What really impresses me most about what Robert's done is that he's realized that by selling the outcome that most clients want to hear (higher conversion rates, more leads) instead of what designers tend to emphasize (clean design, HTML5 compliance, etc.) he's pitching himself as an investment, not an expense.

"Clean design" doesn't mean "I'll make more money in the long run than I'm spending on this engagement." Sure, better design can lead to that, but it's a proxy.

Many designers and developers can learn a lot from what he's done. Focus on those outcomes that position ourselves as investment vessels, not expenses. This means realizing that — no matter how passionate we are about our hard-earned skills — it usually means diddly squat to our clients. They just want a positive ROI at the end of the day.

So don't think of proposing to a potential client that you'll write "Ruby code." Rather, figure out how writing Ruby code can get your client more customers, more profit, decreased overhead, whatever and sell THAT.