“Stakeholder expansion”
Interview, preparation and synthesis days
Set a participant limitAdd a priced workstream
MANAGEMENT AND BUSINESS CONSULTANCIES
Stop giving away senior time in fixed fees.
Consulting fees are often sold through outcomes, access and expertise. MarginNudge helps you connect that promise to the partner time, workshops, analysis and stakeholder effort the engagement will actually require before you agree the fee.
14 days. Payment details required. No charge before your trial ends.
Pre-proposalReview
Consultancy quote check
Operating-model engagement
PRICE
£48,000
MARGIN
35.0%
Stakeholder planExpanded
Additional effortInterviews + governance
Decision
Review before the proposal.
Built to scale
The same commercial discipline, shaped around how your consultancy works.
Independent and growing consultancies
Give founders and engagement leads a fast pre-send check when fees still rely on senior judgement and a blended day rate.
Consulting groups and enterprise teams
Give partners, delivery leads and finance the same view of team mix, stakeholder effort, dependencies and approval decisions.
THE WORK CHANGES WHEN STAKEHOLDER REALITY ARRIVES
The client sees a clean workplan and a defined outcome.
A proposal may begin with a clean workplan and a sensible number of days. Then more stakeholders need interviews, a workshop needs redesigning, the steering group asks for another iteration and the partner stays closer to delivery than expected. The client may still receive the agreed outcome, but the economics have changed.
Visible in the proposal
Client-ready- Operating-model assessmentQuoted
- Two leadership workshopsQuoted
- Options and recommendationQuoted
- Mobilisation roadmapQuoted
Absorbed by the consultancy
Unpriced- Three additional interviews+3 days
- Workshop redesign and preparation+2 days
- Weekly steering calls+2 days
- Partner review and escalation+1.5 days
- Data validation and follow-up+1.5 days
10 consulting days sit outside the original workplan
WHERE CONSULTING MARGIN GETS ABSORBED
The delivery risk sits behind a clean statement of work.
Margin leak
Senior access is promised without a time budget
Partner and director involvement helps win confidence. Without a clear role in the delivery plan, it can become an unlimited escalation path.
Protective rule
Name the senior activities, decision points and review time included in the fee.
USE MARGINNUDGE BEFORE THE WORKPLAN BECOMES A COMMITMENT
Connect the outcome to the work it will actually require.
The goal is not to constrain the work. It is to make the exploration, decisions and production visible before the proposal reaches the client.
- 01
Organise the engagement into workstreams
Separate discovery, analysis, option development, validation and mobilisation so each stage carries the right effort.
- 02
Model the intended team mix
Include partner, director, manager, consultant and analyst time instead of relying on a blended day rate alone.
- 03
Account for stakeholder effort
Include interviews, workshop preparation, travel, data work, governance and senior review.
- 04
Define the engagement model
Set expected days and any hard cap for time-and-materials work, or assess one named month for a retainer.
- 05
Compare the commercial choices
Test changes to the fee, team mix or scope before the proposal or statement of work is approved.
ILLUSTRATIVE QUOTE
An operating-model engagement is proposed at £48,000.
The plan includes analysis and two workshops, but assumes five stakeholder interviews while the client expects eight and weekly steering calls.
Commercial insight
The client now has a clean choice: keep the £48,000 fee and the original stakeholder plan, or accept the broader involvement at £49,850. The consultancy is not defending an arbitrary uplift. It is connecting the price to a visible change in the work.
Review
Quote check
Operating-model engagement
Initial version
£48,000
Approve only for original scope
Reworked version
£49,850
Approve for expanded scope
CLIENT PRICE
£48,000
£49,850
DELIVERY PLAN
5 interviews; fortnightly governance
8 interviews; weekly governance; partner review
MODELLED COST
£31,200
£32,400
EXPECTED MARGIN
35.0%
35.0%
Decision options
Keep original scopeApprove expanded scopeAdjust team mix
Pre-proposal check
Have an active consultancy proposal under review?
Run the numbers through MarginNudge before you send the fee to surface senior time, stakeholder effort and engagement boundaries.
14-day free trial · No charge before trial ends · Cancel anytime
MAKE TRADE-OFFS VISIBLE BEFORE NEGOTIATION
Turn stakeholder complexity into a commercial choice.
Make interviews, governance, partner involvement and client dependencies explicit. Then hold the boundary, phase the work or reprice it without overwriting the assessed quote.
“Partner dependency”
Named partner activities and review time
Reserve partner time for decision pointsReprice added access
“Unclear data readiness”
Client inputs, access and validation effort
Add a dependencyPhase discoveryMove to time and materials
“Fixed fee under uncertainty”
Expected days, iteration and hard boundaries
Cap the discovery phaseFix the delivery fee after discovery
WRITE A STATEMENT OF WORK THAT SUPPORTS THE ECONOMICS
Make the commercial assumptions easy to follow without exposing internal economics.
A strong consulting proposal makes the workstreams, decision points and client responsibilities clear enough to support the recommendation and the fee.
Approved
Client-ready quote
Operating-model engagement
The client sees the workstreams, assumptions and change process. Internal cost, margin and approval notes stay inside MarginNudge.
Internal economics hidden- The workstreams, outputs and decision points
- The number of interviews, workshops and governance meetings
- The level and purpose of senior involvement
- The client data, access and stakeholder availability required
- The review and acceptance process
- The treatment of travel, specialist research and work requested outside scope
WANT THE COMPLETE WORKFLOW?
See how MarginNudge handles fixed fee, time-and-materials and retainer decisions through one consistent commercial workflow.
Explore the shared workflow for setting commercial rules, checking expected margin, comparing options, securing approval and producing the exact cleared client version.
Make the commercial logic as clear as the recommendation.
Show what the engagement takes, where the boundaries sit and what must change when the client asks for more.