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.