We’ve worked with legal experts and proofreaders to pull together a simple consulting agreement template (PDF and Word) to help streamline your practice and secure more clients.
We’ve worked with legal experts and proofreaders to pull together a simple consulting agreement template (PDF and Word) to help streamline your practice and secure more clients.
What’s in this template?Consultants are paid to give expert advice to individuals and businesses in professional or technical fields. You’ve spent years building up your experience to be in a position to help clients get the results they want.
How you approach your consulting work is dependent on your client’s needs and the industry they’re in. Every situation is unique, and you need a place to capture the essential details of every engagement.
A consulting contract is a formal agreement between consultant and client, which lays out the terms and conditions for which the work is to be performed.
Consultants need to get paid for their expertise, and clients want results for that investment. Without contractual agreement in place, this risk is that payments could be missed, inaccurate advice is given, and all parties walk away dissatisfied.
The worst-case scenario is the relationship between consultants and clients sour to the point of costly legal disputes.
A consulting services agreement keeps everyone accountable and focused on reaching professional goals.
DISCLAIMER: We are not lawyers or a law firm and we do not provide legal, business or tax advice. We recommend you consult a lawyer or other appropriate professional before using any templates or agreements from this website.
Pitching and tendering for consulting work can be a tedious process. That’s why we’ve designed a standard consultancy agreement to take some of the pressure off you when you’re trying to grow your client base.
Click below to download our free consultant agreementA signed consulting contract represents a new paying client, which is an exciting prospect for professionals.
With such a powerful business document, it’s important to understand when to introduce your consultant agreement to potential clients.
Consultants usually source new business from client referrals, strategic networking, and content marketing. Hopefully, by the time a prospect reaches out to inquire about your services, you’ve already established some credibility to take the relationship further.
You do a thorough analysis of your client’s bottlenecks and put together a detailed proposal outlining all of the issues in their current practices and how you can improve their results.
It’s at this point you can start some dialogue about your contract. This is a critical moment in your client intake process as you need to draw the line between free advice and paid work. When a client is confident in your approach, naturally, they’ll want to know about the services you offer and your payment terms to get the job done.
Your contract is also a reference document to follow up on prospects to see if they had any concerns about your terms and conditions. It’s a great way to extract objections and find common ground to close the deal.
Consulting agreements can be long and confusing. However, we’ve found that they’re only a handful of components that really matter.
Below are five key elements when establishing your consulting contract.Services are at the essence of your consulting agreement. What are you offering in exchange for a premium fee? The quality of your offerings is going to come down to how well you’ve interviewed your client to understand all of the pain points and opportunities.
Be precise when summarizing your services, so your client clearly understands what transformation you’ll be delivering as part of your contract.
A retainer is a fee structure where a consultant charges a client a particular amount each month. The fee amount is dependent on how much of the consultants’ time the project will take, as well as the complexity and resources involved.
From a cash flow perspective, communicate when you expect to invoice your client each month and how long they have to pay your fee.
Consultants are often required to travel as part of their work. This comes with costs like meals, transportation, and accommodation.
It’s not feasible for consultants to pay for these expenses as part of their service fee, so it’s best practice to include a section in your contract covering the approval process to reimburse project-related costs.
Client confidentiality is crucial to any successful business relationship and is only amplified when it comes to consulting work.
Consultants often have access to sensitive client data to perform their duties.Therefore a confidentiality clause is essential in any consulting contract to hold all parties accountable to fraud and disclosure breaches.
A consulting agreement is not legally binding without written consent from the client and consultant. Signatures are legal proof that all parties acknowledge and accept the terms of the consultancy arrangement.
Pitching and tendering for consulting work can be a tedious process. That’s why we’ve designed a standard consultancy agreement to take some of the pressure off you when you’re trying to grow your client base.
