Consulting Might Be Changing. But the Industry’s Winning Plays Aren’t

This blog is written by Florian Heinrichs, Partner, The Visible Authority, with notable contributions from Faheem Moosa, Founder, Consulting Leap.

First, some confirmation: Yes, things are trickier than usual. Demand has softened, budgets are under scrutiny, SaaS is increasing the pressure, and Artificial Intelligence (AI) is creating, if not disruption, then confusion.

But then there is another and much simpler truth: despite what you might have read online, the rules for winning consulting business haven’t changed.

Yes, clients are demanding more for less. Yes, competition from SaaS and startups is becoming fierce. And yes (sigh), AI is everywhere.

But the firms that thrive in times like these aren’t the ones trying to chase every shiny new thing or to graft new tech onto old processes. They’re the ones doubling down on the fundamentals: a clear strategy, sharp positioning, compelling propositions and disciplined execution.

The Recipe for Winning Consulting Business: Focus First, Fix Everything Else Later

At the heart of a firm’s performance lies one non-negotiable: clarity.

A consultancy’s strategy, positioning and a sharply defined proposition form the operating system of its business.

And if they are missing, no amount of vendor partnerships or AI will help. Because without clarity, all the dashboards, delivery frameworks, or culture initiatives in the world are noise.

You can’t systematize what you haven’t clarified.

So, what’s required? Specificity and focus. Because if you can concentrate the entire firm on solving specific issues for specific clients, through specific services and processes, you’ll unlock everything else.

A narrow focus allows you to step away from “heroic delivery” — the blood, sweat and late-night PowerPoint marathons — and into a way of working defined by perspective, structure, repeatability and scale.

Focus isn’t limiting. It’s liberating.

What Clarity Unlocks: The Real Building Blocks of Performance

Growth: Grow Your Relevance, Grow Your Business

Speaking about your firm and its services is the biggest mistake you can make while marketing it. It kills all relevance and explodes your business development costs.

Clients don’t care about the things you know. They care about the challenges they’re facing and whether or not you can help.

So, it’s much better to speak about these challenges and share insights, ideas and tips from the trenches on how to solve them.

We call this “educating your prospects,” and we know it’s still the most effective way to build relationships and grow a firm’s business. Plus, it almost always leads to some truly impressive changes:

• You stop talking about yourself and start talking about the client’s real pains and issues — which, spoiler alert, is what they actually care about.
• You can create truly distinctive thought leadership and IP (instead of yet another “Top 10 Trends in [Insert Industry]” PDF). McKinsey’s recent industry report reveals that thought leadership is more than content — it’s a strategic tool. It helps build trust and influence “hidden buyers,” with 40% of B2B deals stalling due to internal misalignment.
• Most importantly, you build pull instead of push. Clients come to you because your expertise resonates. You’re no longer chasing prospects with generic sales decks that rarely land.

In a market where clients increasingly want solutions (not capabilities), and where AI and SaaS promise plenty of those, clarity-driven growth is your unfair advantage.

Delivery Excellence in Winning Consulting Business: From Reinvention to Repeatability

Too many consultancies still operate on adrenaline: every project is a fresh act of reinvention. That might impress a client once, but it doesn’t scale.

With focus, delivery transforms from “heroics” to systems. Methodologies can be reused, IP embedded and outcomes become predictable. That means faster onboarding, more consistent quality and space for continuous improvement — instead of consultants constantly firefighting.

Hence, our key recommendation to all the clients we work with: Spend the time to design an ideal, unifying “client success journey” to guide all your new clients through – from initial diagnostics to discovery, strategy, delivery and expansion.

Then, define the services, deliverables and processes you’ll offer to them at each step (and enjoy the delivery efficiency you’ll get from this step).

Profitable Operations: Margins Are Made in the Basics

Did you know that only 26% of firms track client profitability well?

Profitability isn’t just about tightening expenses or negotiating harder with clients. You simply can’t control your firm into growth! Instead, find better work from higher-paying clients by delivering better value.

Focused firms do this by minimizing variance in their business by maximizing repeatability and repetitions, and by re-investing efficiency savings into their thinking, methods and client delivery.

Oh, and they also price high, of course, and allocate resources effectively and efficiently (including, dare we say it, AI, where it makes sense). Most notably to automate repetitive tasks to improve aspects like average revenue per billable consultant, which dipped to a five-year low at $199,000 in 2024, according to the latest SPI PS Benchmarks report.

Or, to put it differently: They leverage their focus to step out of the time-and-materials, utilization-must-go-up hamster wheel and play a different game altogether for winning in the consulting business. A game of fewer surprises, greater calm, deeper expertise and healthier margins.

Talent & Teams: Purpose > Ping-Pong Tables

Every consultancy says its people are its biggest asset. Fewer build an environment where those people know exactly why their work matters.

Focus gives teams purpose. It accelerates learning, sharpens expertise and gives consultants a reason to stick around beyond the next recruiter’s LinkedIn message. And if you grow your consultancy’s visibility on the back of a narrowly focused proposition, then chances are you’ll build its reputation as the “go-to place” for people who are keen to hone their expertise and work among the best of the best in their field.

Start with Focus, Then Call Your Play

To summarize: The path to performance doesn’t begin with a dashboard, a new delivery framework or the next recruitment drive. It begins with focus.

Firms that master clarity unlock their ability to grow, deliver, operate and retain talent at a higher level. Those that don’t will keep burning time and energy on surface-level fixes.

So, here’s the real question: If you had to define your firm’s focus in one sentence, could you?

That’s not a thought experiment. That’s where the real work awaits.