Developing a clear and well-structured consulting scope of work is essential to landing new clients.
But preparing that winning scope of work isn’t always straightforward, especially for newer consultants. You need to know what to include, what to leave out, how to format it, and even how to communicate with clients about what to expect from you and when.
This is such a common challenge for the nonprofit consultants we coach, that we decided to put together this comprehensive guide to the nuts and bolts of what goes into a winning scope of work, including how to create your own templates.
What Is a Consulting Scope of Work?
A consulting scope of work is a formal document that outlines the activities a consultant (generally via a consulting business) proposes to undertake on behalf of a client. A scope of work also sets expectations for the consultant and the client about deliverables, timelines, fees, and client responsibilities.
Note that a scope of work is not a contract. It’s also not an engagement letter, an informational brochure, or a presentation pitching your business. Instead, a scope of work should focus on what you are proposing to do for a particular client.
Good Discovery Calls Lead to Better Scopes of Work
A winning scope of work starts with a great discovery call. That’s because the scope of work must be responsive to a client’s needs. During the discovery call, you should:
- Solicit the information you need to propose the right set of services. For example, some consultants have several services they provide, with template scopes of work for each service. During the discovery call, they’ll be deciding which template to customize for this client.
- Ask questions that will enable you to customize the final scope appropriately. A scope of work should show that you understand the client’s needs and challenges, and that your services will meet those needs. Customizing a scope of work does not mean writing it from scratch. It could be as simple as adding a framing paragraph and a few phrases throughout the document to recap what the client shared with you.
- Tell the client when to expect the scope of work and clarify their internal approval processes. It is perfectly reasonable to tell a prospective client that you will send over a scope within a week or even two. You can frame this as taking the time to reflect on what they shared and send over a customized proposal.
If you’re new to consulting, you can learn more about all the elements, like discovery calls, that go into creating a successful business in our Guide to Becoming a Nonprofit Consultant.
What to Include in a Consulting Scope of Work
Once you’ve gathered this essential information from the discovery call, you’ll use it to decide what to propose in your scope of work.
As a consultant, your scope of work document should include:
- A brief summary (2-3 paragraphs) describing the services you are recommending for the client and why. This is where you will do the most customizing. You can recap the client’s needs while also laying out the goals for your work together, the types of services to be provided, and the time frame for providing those services.
- Key tasks and deliverables that will be included in the engagement. Think about this in terms of benchmarks (such as a training session) and/or products that will be delivered (such as a strategic plan). Being clear up front can save you time and money later by preventing scope creep. For example, if you are creating a website or a strategic plan for a client, how many revisions are included?
- Pricing and payment terms. This includes the total amount due for the proposed work and on what timeline. For example, how much of the fee is due up front before work begins? Will you do monthly billing?
- Timeline of proposed activities, which can be separate from or integrated into the tasks and deliverables description.
- Client responsibilities and expectations. In order for the work to be successful, what does the client need to provide to the consultant, and on what timeline? Be honest here. This is a chance to be sure the client is a good fit for you, too.
- Out of scope services where you detail what is NOT included in the project and the fee. For example, if you are leading a training session for a nonprofit board, you may want to clarify that the client is responsible for confirming all board members’ availability before the session is scheduled.
What to EXCLUDE from a Consulting Scope of Work
As much as a well-crafted scope of work can win over a client, a muddled scope of work can convince a client to choose another consultant.
So, keep in mind that a scope of work is not:
- A menu of options for clients to choose from. By the time you send a scope of work, you should have already had a discovery call with the prospective client. A key purpose of that discovery call is for you to determine and propose the ideal service—or scope of work—that will meet the client’s needs. The scope of work you send should show that you listened and can be responsive to what the client is looking for.
- An argument for why the service is needed. You should only send scopes of work to clients who are very interested in your services. That means you’ve emailed with them, had a discovery call with them, had them complete an interest form, or otherwise engaged with the prospective client enough to know that they are looking for a service you provide. At this stage, you aren’t convincing them they need the service. You’re showing them that you are the right person to provide the service.
- A novel for clients to sort through. A scope of work should be direct and concise. Your client doesn’t have extra time to sort through pages and pages of content. In fact, your scope of work is one of the first demonstrations of your communication style to clients.
In other words, a scope of work should be easy for clients to review, understand, and make a decision about. Plus, some decision-makers within the client organization may not get a chance to meet you before signing off on the scope. So think of it as a second first impression.
Formatting Your Scope of Work
Your scope of work should be clear and easy to digest, reinforcing that you are a great consultant to work with.
Consider the following recommendations:
- Use brief, descriptive headers for different sections, e.g. outcomes, deliverables, client responsibilities. This makes the document skimmable.
- Use bullet lists where appropriate. For example, a list of activities formatted as bullets is much easier for clients to read—and share internally—than dense paragraphs.
- Longer isn’t necessarily better. A scope of work for a 12-month engagement can be as short as 1-2 pages if it’s concise and well-organized. Being efficient with your words shows you respect the client’s time and energy.
- Be responsive to any client formatting requirements. If you’re working with a small nonprofit vs a large state agency, your scope of work may look very different. Be sure to ask during your discovery call if there are any specific process requirements you should be aware of.
- Use plain language wherever possible. Yes, you are the expert in what you do—that’s why clients want to work with you. However, using too much jargon or overly technical language in your scope of work suggests you may not be able to communicate in a way that is client-centered.
- The scope of work should come from your consulting business. If the client will ultimately be contracting with your business, rather than you as an individual, then the scope of work should be “from” your business. Keep this in mind when preparing your document, including details like the document title, first page title, logo, etc.
How to Create a Scope of Work Template
To save time, you can create a template scope of work for each of the core services you provide. For example, if you provide strategic planning, grant writing, and grant research, you can create a template scope of work for each of these services. Then, during a discovery call, you can more easily solicit the information you need to recommend the right service and easily customize the scope of work before sending.
Your scope of work template for each service should include:
- A summary of the services to be provided and what they are designed to accomplish. Aim for one to three paragraphs total. You can even include placeholders to note what to customize after a discovery call.
- List of key tasks and deliverables included in the service. Ideally, you won’t be changing these much for each client, beyond adding or removing a couple of items.
- Timeline of proposed activities. Again, you can standardize this in your template: How long is the minimum engagement length required to provide the service? Is it three months or 12 months? What happens in month one vs month two? Later, you can then customize the timeline with specific dates if needed.
- Price and payment terms. Ideally, payment terms should remain standard across clients to simplify your internal processes.
- Out of scope services. Spell out anything that is specifically not included in the scope, especially areas where clients have gotten confused or pushed for scope creep in the past. What’s out of scope should be specific to a service, rather than a client, so it shouldn’t need customizing.
Scope of Work vs Contract: Know the Difference
You might hear clients using things like scope of work and engagement letter interchangeably—even though they are very different. Keep in mind that:
- A scope of work is NOT legally binding and is NOT a contract. It is a document that the consultant and client review as part of a conversation about the services that a consultant will be providing. A scope of work is generally included within or as an addendum to formal legal contracts.
- A signed contract IS legally binding. Contracts should always include or reference the scope of work that the consultant and client have discussed and agreed to. For more on contracts, check out our article on key elements of consulting contracts.
- An engagement letter MAY BE legally binding but is not always. In general, engagement letters are less detailed and less formal than contracts. For example, law firms commonly use engagement letters that spell out hourly rates and billing practices for long-term relationships where services are used “as needed.”
The vast majority of nonprofit consultants use contracts that include scopes of work rather than engagement letters. This is because detailed scopes of work enable consultants to set clear expectations with clients—and avoid costly challenges like scope creep.
Next Steps: More Consultant Scope of Work Resources
Even with a detailed guide like this one, sometimes it still helps to get a second set of eyes on your draft scope of work. Here at Funding for Good, we work with many consultants in our 60-Day Consulting Boot Camp program to design their services, create scope of work templates, and even customize those templates in real-time.
We also offer one-hour Consultations On-Demand, where we help consultants work through specific questions and roadblocks, including those related to developing scopes of work.
