Insights on Top-Earning Consulting Projects

Question

Given the diverse expertise and experiences within this community, I would greatly appreciate it if you could share your insights or experiences related to high-value consulting projects. In particular, I am interested in understanding:

1. Types of Projects: What types of consulting projects (e.g., digital transformation, strategy, operations improvement, etc.) are currently commanding the highest fees and why?

2. Industry Sectors: Are there specific industry sectors (e.g., finance, healthcare, technology) where these top-earning projects are more prevalent?

3. Key Success Factors: What factors contribute to the high earnings of these projects? Is it the complexity of the issues, the impact on the client's business, the reputation of the consulting firm, or any other factors?

4. Future Outlook: How do you see the landscape of high-earning consulting projects evolving in the near future? Are there emerging areas that are expected to become more lucrative?

I understand the sensitivity of this topic, so please feel free to share your insights in general terms without disclosing any confidential or proprietary information. Your contributions will be invaluable to my research and could provide significant insights into current and future trends in the consulting industry.

Thank you in advance for your time and willingness to share your knowledge.

Answer 1

Hi,

most consulting firms have set daily rates for each consultant level that they will charge a client. A partner day is charged with X, a project manager day with Y and a consultant day with Z, ..

So you take the required team setup and the number of days you expect you need to deliver the project (of course partners will not be required on every day of the project, etc.) and then you have a general ballpark figure of the total cost. If the project has travel requirements, you might have to account for additional charges - but this typically does not impact the profitability (assuming costs are handled as incurred).

Some firms may offer some sort of discount for new clients or also for returning clients. Some might even accept some sort of success-based scheme with corresponding incentives. Multiple consulting firms pitch their proposal and corresponding commercial offer to the client and compete for the engagement.

So, all this is to say that a high-earning consulting project is one on which you can staff a big team for a long period of time. This does not necessarily depend on the kind of industry or the project type per se.

Whereas of course a post-merger integration project tends to last much longer than a due diligence assignment for instance.

I hope that helps

Answer 2

Typically consulting firms charge based on the team they use.

There is some variability, but usually is related to how demanding a project is. For example, Commercial Due Diligence work tends to pay a premium because it is very demanding on the team. Also because are usually short term intense projects.

Implementation work since is longer and softer, a lower price is charged

Answer 3

Hi there,

We probably need a bit more information from you here…

Is this for your consultancy that you run? Is this for you as a contractor? Is this for research?

This sounds like something that could be well converted into a survey - making it much more quantitative and measurable than a free response.

Providing payment / rewards would give a good incentive for high quality responses. You should probably also have a geography filter…

Answer 4

Hi there,

The question lacks a bit of context.

Are you talking about top consulting firms, small firms, or freelancing?

1. Most top firms have standard rates and internal accounting, so the type of project, industry, etc usually makes little difference. What moves the needle most is the duration of the project and the size of the team.

2. There is a significant decrease in fees based on the reputation of the firm. Generally MBB > Tier2 > Boutique/Big 4/Accenture > In-house consulting firms

3. Strategy work pays better than implementation (a bit of an overlap with point 2.)

Cheers,

Florian

Answer 5

Hi there,

A couple of things here:

We need more context to help you with this
You are asking for confidential information that is a competitive advantage for consulting firms so don't expect any accurate answer on this

Best,

Alberto

—

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Answer 6

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