"Your rates should be lower since AI does half the work." If you haven't heard this yet, you will. Buyers are increasingly aware that consultants, lawyers, and accountants are using AI tools to accelerate research, drafting, and analysis. And they're asking a reasonable question: if AI makes you faster, why am I paying the same? This is one of the defining sales challenges for professional services firms right now. Handle it poorly and you're either cutting fees or losing the

Two major research studies this year point to the same conclusion: the way most firms pursue business development is backwards. The Day One Shortlist Problem The 6sense 2025 Buyer Experience Report surveyed 4,000+ B2B buyers (roughly a third from professional services firms) and found that 94% rank their preferred vendors before  first contact with sellers. The Day One Shortlist now captures 95% of eventual wins. By the time a buyer reaches out, the competition is essentially

A founder I advise recently said something that stopped me cold: "The earnout really works against investment." He runs a mid-sized consulting firm, the kind that punches above its weight, working with Fortune 2000 logos despite a lean team. He's on the goal line of closing a deal with a PE-backed acquirer. Good multiple. Reasonable terms. Significant earnout tied to EBITDA growth over three years, heavily weighted to the first year. And he's already seeing the problem. The S

Professional services firms are way behind SaaS when it comes to go-to-market. This isn't news to you. You know it. But here's what's interesting: you don't need to catch up to SaaS. You just need a simple, repeatable system that doesn't depend on the founder or two rainmakers who generate 80% of new business. Most PS firms I work with run lean. There's no dedicated marketing ops person. No RevOps team. No SDRs. Business development happens when partners have time between bil

For decades, professional services firms have operated on a simple formula: thought leadership plus relationships equals growth. Hire smart people (PhDs, top-tier MBAs, deep domain experts), extract their insights into publishable content, and trust that strong client relationships will follow. For twenty years, this was the playbook. It's no longer enough. Early in my career, I led US marketing and business development for a global HR consulting firm. We had brilliant consul

The Annual Planning Ritual November and December. Conference rooms across the professional services world fill with strategic planning sessions. Whiteboards covered with ambitious goals. Flip charts mapping new market positioning. Spreadsheets projecting 25% growth. CEOs leave these sessions energized. Finally, a clear roadmap. This year will be different. By March, 90% of these strategic initiatives are dead. Not paused. Not delayed. Dead. The positioning project that would

There's an arms race happening in sales right now, and it's absurd. On one side: AI-powered SDRs that can scrape LinkedIn, generate personalized emails, send text messages, and spam prospects at ten times the volume of any human sales team. On the other side: AI-powered gatekeepers that screen calls, filter emails, and block the spam with increasing sophistication. The result? AI is fighting AI. And the humans—the actual buyers—are hiding behind their digital walls, unreachab

"We work with companies across industries." I hear this from consulting and training firm leaders all the time. They see it as a strength—versatility, broad capability, ability to serve anyone. It's actually a weakness. And it's probably limiting your growth more than any other single factor. After 25 years in professional services—including roles at Hay Group, Miller Heiman, Richardson, and dozens of consulting engagements—I've seen one pattern repeat over and over: firms th

LinkedIn connections have become a vanity metric for many consulting and training firm leaders. Ten thousand connections. Twenty thousand. The number feels like an accomplishment—proof of reach and influence. But here's what I've learned working with dozens of professional services firms: network size is almost meaningless. What matters is network quality. Four thousand connections with 70% match to your ideal client profile will generate more business than twenty thousand ra

After years of client work, most consulting and training firms have accumulated something valuable: intellectual property. Frameworks developed across dozens of engagements. Methodologies refined through repeated application. Training materials created for client projects. Best practices documented from successful implementations. Templates, tools, models, approaches—all the content that makes your work effective. This IP represents years of investment. You built it through h

Every consulting and training firm needs thought leadership. It builds credibility. It generates visibility. It differentiates you from competitors. It gives buyers a reason to believe you know what you're talking about. But there's a problem with how most firms build thought leadership: they build it around a single person. Usually the founder. Sometimes a charismatic partner. One individual becomes the voice of the firm—the one who writes the articles, delivers the keynotes

When revenue growth stalls at a consulting or training firm, the instinct is usually the same: we need something new. A new service line. A new methodology. A new capability. Something to sell that we couldn't sell before. This instinct is usually wrong. In my experience, most firms don't have a product problem. They have a positioning problem. Their existing capabilities can deliver far more value than their current positioning allows buyers to see. The limitation isn't what

When consulting and training firm leaders need to grow revenue, they almost always start in the same place: new client acquisition. More prospecting. More outreach. More marketing to people who've never heard of them. This is the hard way. There's a faster path sitting in your contact list right now—relationships you've already built but haven't maintained. Past clients. Former colleagues. Industry contacts you've lost touch with. People who already know your work and trusted

Referrals are wonderful. A trusted colleague recommends your firm to a buyer with budget and need. The deal closes quickly. Margins are healthy. The client is predisposed to trust you. If you're running a consulting or training firm, referrals probably represent your best business. Shortest sales cycles. Highest close rates. Strongest client relationships. So what's the problem? The problem is that referral-dependent business development creates an illusion of sustainability

Here's a painful truth I've learned across 25 years in professional services: being the best at what you do doesn't guarantee you'll win. I've worked with consulting and training firms that deliver exceptional results. Their methodologies are sound. Their client outcomes are measurable. Their expertise is genuine. And yet they struggle to grow. Meanwhile, I've seen competitors with inferior capabilities—firms that any objective assessment would rank lower—consistently win bus

Most consulting and training firm CEOs I work with share the same instinct: growth requires expansion. More services. More industries. More client types. Cast a wide net and see what you catch. It's intuitive. It feels like smart business development. And it's almost always wrong. After 25 years as a CMO across firms like Hay Group, Miller Heiman, and Richardson—plus dozens of consulting engagements—I've seen the same pattern destroy growth potential over and over again. Firm

The Situation A pharmaceutical sales expert within a larger sales training company was tasked with building a dedicated life sciences vertical practice. The opportunity was clear: pharma is a large, distinct market with unique sales dynamics and substantial training budgets. But the practice was struggling—generating only a few hundred thousand dollars annually, far below its potential. The parent company's generic sales methodology didn't resonate with pharmaceutical buyers.

The Situation This specialized consulting firm had operated successfully for almost 20 years. The founder had built a credible business with deep expertise and a proven track record. But small businesses face a particular challenge: when you have only a couple of full-time people and everyone else is on contract, it's nearly impossible to step back and see your business differently. You're too close to it. You've been doing the same things for so long that you can't see what'

The Situation This HR consulting firm had solid expertise but limited market visibility. The brand wasn't well recognized. Search results weren't strong. There was no systematic content strategy driving awareness or demand. The firm needed a comprehensive growth plan—not just tactics, but a strategic roadmap they could execute over time. The Approach We created a 10-step growth plan covering the full spectrum of marketing strategy: Deep Industry Focus.  Identified the vertica

The Situation Two companies merged—a learning management system and a simulation training company—to create something new: an innovative predictive assessment platform. The vision was ambitious. The technology was disruptive. The market didn't know it existed. I came in as a consultant during the merger integration, then was hired as CMO because the need was so substantial. The challenge: take a brand-new product in an emerging category—one that required market education—and