How to Grow Your Consulting Business

Not all consulting firms are created equal. Some are able to achieve high levels of growth and success, even during periods of economic uncertainty, while others struggle to gain traction. According to new research from Deltek and Hinge, there are several key things that high growth consulting firms focus on which help drive their success and cause them to become more successful than their peers. So, what is this secret sauce? We examine below.

3 Tips to Help Grow Your Consulting Business

1. High Growth Firms Focus on Client Relationships

High growth consulting firms understand that their success is ultimately tied to the success of their clients. As a result, they place a high value on building and maintaining strong relationships with their clients. This involves taking a proactive approach to understanding their clients' needs, actively listening to their concerns, and providing tailored solutions that meet their specific requirements.

To achieve this, high growth consulting firms invest heavily in client-facing roles such as business development, account management and client services. They also prioritize ongoing communication and collaboration with their clients, leveraging technology tools and platforms to facilitate remote collaboration and provide real-time updates. This is reflected in the 2023 Hinge High Growth Report: Consulting Edition, which shows that fast growing consulting and professional services firms intend to focus more time and effort on deepening online engagements with their clients and prospects in 2023 (see chart below).

Above: Important topics and trends for high growth consulting firms (from the 2023 Hinge High Growth Report)

2. High Growth Consulting Firms Focus on Talent & Culture

The success of any consulting firm ultimately depends on the talent and expertise of its team members. High growth consulting firms recognize this and prioritize talent management as a key area of focus. This involves several key strategies, including:

• Attracting top talent: High growth consulting firms are able to attract top talent by offering competitive compensation packages, professional development opportunities and a strong company culture that emphasizes collaboration and innovation.
• Investing in ongoing training and development: These firms invest heavily in training and development programs to ensure that their team members have the skills and knowledge needed to provide the highest level of service to their clients.
• Encouraging collaboration and knowledge sharing: High growth consulting firms foster a culture of collaboration and knowledge sharing, encouraging their team members to work together to solve complex problems and share their expertise with one another. It comes as no surprise that the firms growing the fastest are also the ones who have the highest overall satisfaction with company culture.

Above: High-growth Firms show a 63% greater rate of high satisfaction than their no-growth peers (2023 Hinge High Growth Report)

High Growth Firms Emphasize Operational Excellence

Finally, high growth consulting firms place a strong emphasis on operational excellence. This involves a focus on efficiency, productivity, and profitability, with a constant eye toward improving processes and eliminating waste. Key strategies in this area include:

• Leveraging technology tools and platforms: High growth consulting firms make strategic investments in technology tools and platforms to streamline processes, improve communication and collaboration, and enhance project management capabilities (see table below).
• Optimizing resource utilization: These firms closely monitor resource utilization to ensure that team members are fully utilized and that projects are completed on time and within budget.
• Fostering a culture of continuous improvement: High growth consulting firms encourage a culture of continuous improvement, with a focus on identifying opportunities for optimization and implementing changes to improve efficiency and effectiveness.

Above: High Growth Firms are More Digitally Mature than their Peers (2023 Hinge High Growth Report)

Summary

A combination of strong client relationships, effective talent management, and a focus on operational excellence should be high priorities within your firm to be better positioned to achieve sustainable growth over the long term. You can discover more about what strategies high growth consulting firms focus on and learn what they are doing differently than their no-growth peers in the new 2023 Hinge High Growth Report: Consulting Services Edition. You will find specific tips and strategies you can implement to grow your firm in 2023 and beyond.