Common models
Day rate
Useful when scope is uncertain or the client is explicitly buying specialist capacity. Easy to understand but can punish efficiency.Fixed fee
Best when scope, outputs and boundaries can be defined. Gives the client cost certainty and rewards a repeatable method.Value-informed fixed fee
Set a fixed fee with explicit consideration of the commercial value at stake. This avoids pretending you can precisely charge a percentage of hypothetical value while still preventing purely time-based pricing.Retainer
Useful for ongoing advisory, optimisation, governance or managed services. Define what access, outputs and service levels are included.Price a diagnostic using five factors
- Scope: number of processes, teams and locations.
- Stakeholders: interviews, workshops and decision-makers involved.
- Evidence complexity: interviews only versus structured operational data and additional analysis.
- Commercial importance: how consequential the decision is.
- Delivery risk: uncertainty, technical dependencies and turnaround expectations.
Protect yourself from underpricing
Do not hide these inside a fixed fee without limits:- unlimited interviews;
- unlimited revisions;
- undefined data cleaning;
- multiple business units;
- implementation design beyond the agreed diagnostic;
- open-ended executive workshops.
Presenting price
Explain the scope first, then the fee. Make exclusions and client responsibilities visible. If you discount, trade for something meaningful: reduced scope, faster payment, longer commitment or a reference/case-study right where appropriate.Illustrative market prices should be treated as context, not a substitute for your own economics, geography, experience and scope.