Terms of service

1. Who you are contracting with

All work is carried out by Hugo van de Haar, a sole trader registered with the Dutch Chamber of Commerce. Registered details are in section 12. These terms apply to every quotation, engagement and delivery unless we have signed something that says otherwise in writing; in that case the signed document applies.

Your own purchase conditions do not apply unless I have accepted them in writing. If your organisation requires its own contract, send it and I will read it.

2. What is on offer

• Demand-Side Teardown. An assessment of one buyer segment and one commercial decision: a written report, annotated extracts from the agreed materials and a review call. One written check of a revised item, submitted within 30 days of delivery, is included. The proposal specifies that item, the materials, comparison set, delivery dates and call length; the report length reflects the findings within the agreed scope. Work starts once the materials and start payment are in place.
• Positioning Sprint. Buyer research, offer development and written positioning, followed by application to the agreed sales materials and an editable handover. The proposal fixes the scope, phase dates and delivery date. It also includes one follow-up on customer comments submitted together within 30 days of handover, with one adjustment to an agreed passage if needed.
• Research for your project. Research into an agreed commercial question, with the report and any working spreadsheet specified in the proposal. The fixed fee and delivery dates are agreed before work starts.
• Fractional Narrative Lead. A monthly arrangement after a sprint; either side can end it with 30 days notice.
• Demand-Side Diligence. A commercial read of one company, or of a segment, for a party assessing it. The scope, deliverables and delivery date are agreed in writing before work starts.

Standard service prices are published on the service pages and confirmed in the proposal. The proposal is what governs: it names the deliverables, the dates and the price. If it is not in the proposal, it is not in scope, and anything that arrives later becomes a new proposal.

The teardown and sprint follow-ups cover the original offer and customer groups. Each is one written response on the material named in the proposal. New research, additional markets and customer interviews are outside these follow-ups. These checks are separate from the correction of faults under section 10.

3. Prices, VAT and invoicing

All prices are excluding VAT. Dutch VAT at the prevailing rate is added for clients in the Netherlands. For business clients elsewhere in the European Union with a valid VAT identification number, VAT is reverse-charged. For clients outside the EU, VAT is not charged.

Sprints: €2,500 before the positioning phase; the balance before the remaining work starts, only if you choose to continue. The balance is €7,000 for one buyer segment or €12,000 from two segments. Teardowns and other fixed projects are invoiced 50 per cent on acceptance and 50 per cent on delivery; retainers monthly in advance. Invoices are payable within 14 days. One sprint runs at a time, so a date is held only once the first invoice is settled.

On late payment the statutory commercial interest applies and work may pause until the account is clear. In practice I send a reminder first.

4. Deciding whether to continue

For a sprint, the positioning phase is invoiced separately at €2,500. At the end of this phase, you can stop without giving a reason. You keep the paid work and no further invoice follows. The application and handover phases start only after your written confirmation and payment of the balance.

A fully paid teardown is credited against a sprint booked within 30 days of the teardown delivery. Its €2,500 fee covers the sprint’s positioning phase; there is no second charge for that phase. If you continue, the balance is €7,000 or €12,000. If you stop, no further invoice follows and the teardown fee is not refunded. A teardown is not required before a sprint.

5. What I need from you

A sprint includes two internal interviews with the people who decide the positioning, feedback on the work and a handover call. We agree the expected time commitment and schedule before starting, based on the scope and the material available. External customer interviews and website development are not included. The proposal lists the copy to be delivered and the revision rounds. If the agreed access or feedback is delayed, we review the delivery dates together.

You confirm that material you give me is yours to give, and that publishing it will not infringe anyone else's rights.

6. Who owns what

On full payment, all intellectual property in the deliverables made for you transfers to you: copy, messaging, documents and templates. You can use it, change it, hand it to an agency or publish it under your own name, without a licence fee, attribution or expiry date.

Two things stay with me; neither affects your material. The methods and frameworks I brought with me remain mine, including the Demand Transition Framework and the research instruments; you get the output of them, not ownership of them. And I keep the right to state that we worked together and to describe the engagement in general terms. Naming you in a case study, or quoting you, needs your written consent, and you can withdraw it.

7. Confidentiality

Anything you tell me that is not already public is confidential and stays that way, indefinitely, whether or not we sign a separate agreement. That includes your figures, your pipeline, your product plans and the fact of specific conversations.

I will sign your NDA if you want one. Send it before the first call.

8. Independence, and the conflict rule

The research and the client work are kept apart on purpose, because the research only has value if it is not for sale.

• Being a client does not buy coverage. It does not get you into The Demand Side, and it does not keep you out.
• I do not advise a company while reporting on that company to its investors. If an engagement would create that position, I will decline one of the two and tell you which.
• Published research is never based on anything a client told me in confidence. Public sources only, with the method published.
• Where I would have a conflict of interest, I say so before the work starts.

9. Changes, delays and stopping

Either of us can end an engagement in writing. If you stop partway, work delivered and work in progress up to that point is invoiced; nothing beyond it is. Rescheduling a sprint is fine with reasonable notice, though later dates may already be taken.

If illness or something equally unavoidable delays me, you hear about it the same day and we agree a new date, or you take a refund of anything paid for work not delivered.

10. What I am responsible for

I deliver the work with the care you would expect of a professional, and I will fix genuine faults in a deliverable at my own cost if you raise them within 30 days.

What I cannot promise is a commercial result. Positioning changes how clearly a buyer understands your offer. It does not control whether they buy, what a procurement committee decides, or what a market does next.

Liability is limited to the amount invoiced for the engagement in question, and excludes indirect or consequential loss, lost profits and lost opportunity. Nothing here limits liability for intent or deliberate recklessness, which cannot be limited under Dutch law.

11. Complaints, law and jurisdiction

If something is wrong, write to hugo@vandehaar.com within 30 days of delivery, describing what and why. I will answer within ten working days.

Dutch law applies. Disputes we cannot settle between us go to the competent court in Gelderland, the Netherlands.

12. Registered details

These are the details a finance or procurement department will ask for. They belong on the invoice too.

Name

Hugo van de Haar

Trading as

Hugo van de Haar and The Demand Side

Legal form

Sole trader (eenmanszaak)

Chamber of Commerce (KvK)

96811927

VAT identification (btw-id)

NL005232758B12

Address

Email

hugo@vandehaar.com

Terms last updated

12 October 2026

Written in English because the work is. A Dutch version is available on request. Where a translation and this text differ, the Dutch text of Dutch law governs.