The Secrets of High Growth Consultancies

Tweet it:'Discover what high-growth firms are doing in 2021 to make them more visible and grow faster than their no-growth peers.'

What high-growth firms are doing in 2021 to make them more visible and grow faster than their no-growth peers.

Growth is top of mind for most consulting firm leaders. But why do some consultancies grow faster than others?  The recently released 2021 Hinge High Growth Study: Consulting Firm Edition is packed with valuable insights regarding the ways resilient consulting agencies and organizations have adapted -- and even thrived -- in what is likely the most unpredictable marketplace in recent history.

More Market Research

Findings of particular interest in the High Growth Study include the importance of target-audience research and the increased return seen from expanding marketing budgets.

One of the most significant findings especially relevant to high-growth consultancies, was the significant jump in marketing budgets. While the report showed a jump of more than 43 percent compared to previous years, marketing investment, including audience research, is taking the place of resources that were previously allocated to conferences, trade shows, and similar in-person outreach. Those once-familiar ways to get directly in front of prospective customers now have to take a back seat to technologically anchored marketing strategies such as building an active, responsive social media presence.

For consultancies looking for guidance on where to put their outreach resources, the report makes clear that reinforcing online presence is a smart strategy. Among high-growth consultancies, leveraging leads from website presence, email marketing, social media presence and digital advertising grew by close to 40 percent. The pandemic clearly fueled that growth, the report makes it clear that marketing efforts that make digital lead generation a priority definitely correlate to higher growth. The findings were convincing: strong digital lead-generation capability delivers a serious competitive advantage when compared to consultancies still dependent on face-to-face outreach. 

Coupled with that insight is that firms need to be conducting research on their target audiences. It’s essential for shaping market strategy, improving the precision and effectiveness of messaging and outreach. The Hinge report made it clear that an organization acting on timely and relevant business intelligence had a crucial competitive advantage. They experienced more rapid growth, and were more profitable thanks to research that:

• Provided insights into prospect industries and accompanying challenges,
• Informed better content plans to make sharing expertise more effective,
• Influenced referral sources to build a stronger sales pipeline.

Connecting these two takeaways -- the importance of market research and the effectiveness of digital outreach -- is an imperative for consulting firms in the year ahead. New business opportunities are flourishing in an increasingly virtual environment.

And Speaking of Growth

The 2021 Hinge High Growth Study: Consulting Services Edition expands on the importance of market research and digital outreach as well as other specific strategies and techniques that have worked for the most successful Consulting firms and contrasts them with their No Growth peers.