Consultant Costs — What You're Really Paying For

You're asking about consulting prices. Good. Let's talk straight.

What consultants cost — the range

The spread is extreme. Junior consultants start at around €100 per hour. There's barely a ceiling at the top — highly specialised consultants charge €1,000 per hour. And get it.

For mid-market companies, the reality usually lands somewhere between €150 and €250 per hour. That sounds manageable at first. Until you calculate what a three-month project with two consultants actually costs.

What drives the price

Three factors determine the hourly rate:

1. seniority. The more experienced the consultant — or the higher their title in the firm's hierarchy — the higher the rate. A partner costs a multiple of what a junior costs. Whether the partner actually works on your project or just shows up for the kick-off? Different question.
2. specialisation. The more specific the brief, the more can be charged. "Digital transformation" costs more than "process optimisation." "AI strategy" is particularly expensive right now. Because everyone wants one and almost nobody really knows what it means.
3. project duration. And this is the part that should interest you. The longer a project runs, the higher the total cost. And who decides how long a project takes? Exactly.

Hourly rate, day rate or fixed price?

All three models exist — with very different implications.

The day rate sounds fair at first. A fixed amount per day regardless of hours worked. In practice this means: whether the consultant is on-site for 7 or 12 hours, the cost is always the same. Overtime is absorbed. Short days too. The model rewards nobody for finishing quickly.

Hourly rates are billed in various intervals — from 15-minute increments to the nearest full hour. A short alignment call? That's a full hour. A brief email with a follow-up question? Depends how the contract is worded.

Fixed prices exist too. 380 pages of slides for €28,750 for example. The deliverable is fixed. Whether it solves your problem — that's a different story.

Why are you actually looking at costs?

Let me guess. One of three reasons:

• You want to push your current consultant on price and need ammunition.
• You're mid-negotiation and need a reference point.
• Or — and this is the most common case — the costs are slowly spiralling, the problem still isn't solved, and you're wondering if that's normal.

It is normal. But it doesn't have to be.

What you actually need

If you have a problem that needs solving — not documenting, not strategically framing, but actually solving — then the question about hourly rates is the wrong question.

The right question is: am I paying for time or for results?

At MacNorris you pay for results. Fixed price, clear goal, no surprises on the invoice. If it doesn't work, we have a problem. And we don't let go until it's solved.

— Robert