What Many Consultants Get Wrong About 'Out Of Scope' Work

If you follow the advice of many top consulting authors, you're likely to seriously harm your relationships with great clients. Here's what you should do instead.

One of my bugbears in the consultancy space is seeing authors of consulting books give advice which I know is going to cause harm.

Amongst the worst advice is to respond to any request for work which is out of scope with either a refusal or a quote.

This viewpoint is simple to understand. If it takes you more time, you should charge for it. And on the surface, that’s what consultants want to hear (a bit like ‘just charge more’).

Alas, this approach will also cost you a lot of long-term revenue.

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The Most Frustrating Thing About Consulting

It’s not what you might think…

There are plenty of things you will need to do to make a project work which are out of scope. Perhaps the most frustrating part of consulting is when you work with a new client. The larger the organisation, the more hoops you must jump through to work with them.

This might include things like:

• Completing data privacy and security forms with 100+ questions which aren’t relevant to you.

• Spending hours figuring out payment systems like Ariba (💀) just to enrol as a vendor and be accepted.

• Completing diversity forms so people can evaluate your one-person business and ensure it’s diverse enough.

• Creating an anti-slavery policy to make it clear to your client that you don’t hire slaves.

• Setting up client-issued laptops to your requirements.

• Completing complex forms or actions just to send an invoice and get paid.

• etc….

This can and will consume hours of your time. That’s hours of your time which you didn’t initially budget for.

So what should you do?

Some consultancy book authors will recommend you say this is billable time.

"I’m going to bill you for the time spent navigating your internal systems”.

It’s not an unreasonable stance to take - but it’s just a bad idea.

The problem is every time you resort to charging clients for things they get no value from - the less likely you are to work with the client again. It’s a little like if a plumber doubled the fee they initially gave you because the journey to your house took much longer than they expected due to road closures.

If you start discussing costs every time the client wants to make a change or has an additional request, you’re going to sound like someone difficult to work with.

And once you get a reputation as someone inflexible and difficult to work with - don’t be surprised when people don’t want to work with you.

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A Little Flexibility Goes A Long Way

Flexibility is the lubricant for great client relationships.

If we go back to the five skills to be a successful consultant, one of the items is being great to work with, highly flexible, and quick to adapt to changing circumstances.

You might be surprised just how important flexibility is to a successful relationship.

If you show a little flexibility at the right time you’re going to have a client who thinks highly of you instead of feeling frustrated about you.

One way to think about this is to imagine the plumber who comes to your house to fix a leaky faucet they’ve quoted for. At the end of the work, you ask if s/he can quickly take a look at something else that concerns you.

They’re well within their rights to say:

Nope, I’m only paid to do this one specific task”

And that’s fine - but would you hire them again?

This stance comes across as stubborn, rude and a little egotistical. We don’t want to work with people like that. It’s the same when we’re in a store, ask someone for help, and they reply “I’m on my break, sorry”.

However, if the person smiles and says “Sure, I’ll take a look”, even if they’re not able to solve the problem - any advice or thoughts they have will be warmly appreciated. They’re still the person you will hire in the future. It’s because they care. They’re likeable and adaptable. And these things matter a lot.

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A Client Asking For A Favour Is An Open-Goal

Don’t screw it up by turning it into a financial discussion

I can’t stress this enough. When a client asks for a favour which they know isn’t in the initial scope, they’re giving you an open goal. It’s a free opportunity to impress them and improve your relationship with them.

Likewise, if the client is asking for a change in the project, to shift meeting dates around or, to seek your availability outside of the times you usually work - it’s a free opportunity to market to them.

You don’t have to do it - but if you do they will think more positively of you.

Remember as well the importance of great testimonials and marketing to past clients as a key to growth.

If you think about how many non-billable activities you undertake to get the client in the first place - why waste an opportunity?

One consulting author had no problem taking clients out for drinks and dinner during a project but baulked at the idea of spending even a minute doing out-of-scope work. That’s a glaring contradiction which smells suspiciously of ego rather than doing what’s best for the client.

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Where To Draw The Line?

You don’t want to be a pushover or get sucked into a lot of out-of-scope work

The danger of this is you might end up doing a lot of out-of-scope work which you’re not getting paid for. That’s not ideal either - even if it makes the client happy. Worse yet, if you are too flexible the client might not even appreciate that you’re essentially doing them a favour. They might simply think that the flexibility is what you’re paying for.

This doesn’t mean you need to be a doormat (more on that in a second), but you should try to be as adaptable and flexible as you can. A good way to approach this is:

1. Determine how much time it will take.

2. Decide if it’s something you can help with.

3. Make it clear if it is or isn’t in scope.

A good response to a request favour is:

It’s not in the scope of work, but I’ll take a look at it and let you know my thoughts. If it’s something we can resolve quickly, I’ll tackle it on [date]. If not, I can share how you can solve it or we can discuss if it’s something you want to invest in fixing”

Now you’re being clear about your boundaries while also showing that you genuinely want to help the client succeed.

Some principles that might help:

• If it takes less than two hours and it’s an uncommon request - simply do it to help the client.

• If it takes less than two hours but you’re getting several similar requests - respond to the first one or two but then highlight this is taking time away from doing the project work which you want to focus on - but you can quote for it if they’re expecting more of these.

• If it takes more than two hours and it’s a solo request - spend up to an hour advising on how they can solve the problem themselves - with an offer to put together a quote if they want you to do it.

• If it takes more than two hours and it’s a repeat request - raise the issue directly with the client and discuss if they want to change the scope to tackle the issues they’re sending through.

Here’s how I tend to think about it:

Ultimately showing flexibility is a great method to build and maintain healthy client relationships (and any relationship). Don’t be a pushover, but always do your best to help the client if you can.

It’s worth it.

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Thanks for reading

Richard Millington