Situations like these are exactly why the Hinge Research Institute conducts its annual High Growth Study of the consulting industry in partnership with Deltek. Consulting firms—like all other professional services firms—are still experiencing significant uncertainty. Over 300 consulting firms participated in this year’s study. Their top concern for 2023? Unpredictability in the marketplace, followed closely by a shortage of top talent. Today’s consulting firms are eager to find new ways to raise their visibility, attract new clients and expand their existing client base, but they often don’t know how. One of the best ways to achieve business growth is to learn from the strategies and tactics of the industry’s most successful firms. We call these organizations “High Growth Firms.”

In this article, we highlight a few of the findings from the 2023 High Growth Study: Consulting Edition by outlining the four key advantages of High Growth consulting firms that helped cement their path to growth and profitability. Focusing on what you can control in an uncertain environment will help consulting firms like yours develop a marketing system that delivers powerful results year after year.

To purchase the full report and unlock additional insights and advice, click here. (Use the discount code, GROW50, and save 50% on a report purchase.)

Defining High Growth Consulting Firms

The Hinge Research Institute defines a consulting firm as a “High Growth” firm when it has a compound annual growth rate of 20% or greater over a three-year period. What is impressive is just how fast these firms are growing. In the figure below, we see that High Growth consulting firms grew four times faster than their Average Growth peers.

Not only are the fastest growing firms far outpacing the No Growth and Average Growth consulting firms, High Growth consulting firms are also twice as profitable.

Key Advantage 1: Technology

This year’s data revealed that High Growth firms adopt and use business development and marketing software at a greater rate than their slower growing peers. While digital transformation has been a buzzword in the consulting industry in recent years, the best performing firms are walking the walk. Many consulting firms are likely helping their clients with their digital transformation strategy and implementation. And many High Growth firms have turned these skills inward and are enjoying the benefits of a successful digital transformation. The figure below shows that High Growth Firms are over 3X more likely to have gone through digital transformation than their No Growth peers. There are still many firms, however, that have yet to complete their digital transformation and enjoy the fruits of a fully deployed system. This is a key advantage now, but eventually the pack will catch up to the leaders.

The study also highlights which business development technologies are used by High Growth firms to improve efficiency and use data to understand the evolving needs of clients and prospects. In this way, consulting firms can deliver a more customized solution with greater efficiency to their clients—a win for both sides: better deliverables using fewer labor resources.

Key Advantage 2: Talent

At Hinge, we have been hearing from our consulting clients that it is taking longer to close new business, and prospective clients are pressing for the same value at reduced costs. At the same time, consulting firms are fishing in the same pond for the top talent to meet these higher client demands. In this year’s study, we found that to catch the best people, you need a great company culture built on transparency, authenticity, and team-focused initiatives. We also found that High Growth firms are doing a better job of building that company culture, as illustrated in the figure below. Having a desirable company culture might be the final deciding factor when top candidates are deciding between multiple offers.

In the study, we dive deeper into which activities and benefits are most critical to building an appealing company culture. We also explore what specific skills employees at top consulting firms need to meet today’s client needs. We also explore what skills High Growth firms are most likely to outsource, and why.

Key Advantage 3: Marketing

This year’s study dives deeper than ever into High Growth firms’ top marketing priorities, top marketing techniques, use of social media, and how they have expanded the role of the marketing team into non-traditional areas.

There is one question that is on most consulting firms’ minds: “How much should I allocate to my marketing budget?” The figures below show that High Growth firms are spending more on marketing and are seeing a substantially greater number of digital leads.

A crucial way High Growth firms generate those high-quality digital leads is by producing a steady stream of high-quality educational content. In fact, this was the number one priority for all consulting firms in the study. But it’s not enough to simply produce content. You need to produce and promote it correctly. Check out this recent post by Lee Frederiksen to learn why and how a content-based marketing program works.

Key Advantage 4: Strategy

One last advantage enjoyed by High Growth firms is in the realm of strategy. One key differentiator of High Growth consulting firms is that they look forward to the future instead of turning to the past for guidance. With the level of uncertainty in the current market, no one has a crystal ball to make sense of it all. But some key challenges are beginning to emerge, as you can see in the figure below. High Growth firms’ top three concerns are marketplace volatility, increased competition and downward price pressure on services. While there is a great deal of agreement in this list between High Growth and No Growth firms, note the areas where No Growth firms differ most: the need for new skills, managing a remote workforce and generational changes. These are issues that many High Growth firms have already dealt with. The biggest area of difference for High Growth firms—automation/artificial intelligence—is an indication of how these firms are looking further ahead than their slower-growing peers. High Growth firms usually see the tide coming in before the others. Firms can look at this list to gauge where their business challenges stack up. Is your firm worried about the wrong thing and putting too much effort into something that won’t solve future problems?

The full report also examines the role of M&A in the consulting industry, what topics and trends consulting firms want to learn more about in 2023, the way High Growth firms versus No Growth firms are approaching ESG (and why), and how conducting research can inform your firm’s key strategic decisions.

Putting the Data to Work

As we’ve learned over the eight consecutive years we have conducted this study, the marketplace is ever-evolving. If you are feeling the challenges of an uncertain marketplace, you are not alone. Uncertainty is the number one business challenge facing professional services firms today—and consulting firms are no different. What separates High Growth consulting firms from their No Growth peers is the sophisticated marketing system they’ve built to drive growth and profitability, year after year. You can use the data in our report to help your firm navigate the uncertain times ahead and start to build that successful marketing system. And if you need some support, be sure to reach out to us here at Hinge.

The post 2023: How Consultancies Can Win in an Uncertain Environment appeared first on Hinge Marketing.

On the contrary, too many new management consulting firms’ brandings efforts are hasty and unclear. Branding is tough, after all, and a learning curve is to be expected. But a murky brand can put you at a competitive disadvantage right from the start.

The need for thoughtful attention to branding doesn’t end once a firm is established, either. As your services evolve and your marketplace changes, you must continually reassess your branding to ensure that it is aligned with your goals and the realities of your industry.

Otherwise, you may lose competitive ground, while sowing confusion about who you really are and what you really do. But like I said before, branding is tough, even for the most successful firms.

Even if you once built a great brand, you might not know how to rebrand in a transformed marketplace. So here are 7 branding ideas that can you help you shape your brand the right way.

1. Understand your field’s unique challenges.

Branding a consulting practice is significantly different from branding many other types of professional services. It has its own opportunities and its own challenges.

Chief among the challenges is the fact that many of your audiences may not know very much about what you do – at least not by default. Most people have some idea of what a law firm or accounting firm does. But management consultants often offer very different sorts of services, and there is less general cultural awareness of what those services consist of.

As a result, firms need to spend more on marketing and business development. In fact, management consulting firms tend to spend a higher percentage of revenue on marketing than firms in other professional services industries, like accounting and AEC. Since you’re typically selling expertise and advice, it’s essential that you help your audiences understand exactly what kind of advice and expertise you offer.

2. Remember what makes up your brand.

It’s hard to fine-tune your brand if you don’t know what it is in the first place. Whenever you brand or rebrand a business, you must remember that your brand isn’t something vague or imprecise. In fact, it’s so specific and quantifiable that you can express it as an equation:

Brand = reputation x visibility

A positive reputation for your management consulting firm can take two forms. People might regard you generally as a “great firm,” or people might know you for your expertise.

Expertise-driven reputation is a particular asset, since it connects directly to your service offerings. One of your audiences’ biggest questions is always going to be, “What do you do?” A reputation for expertise helps you answer those questions clearly.

Your reputation for a specific type of expertise also has another advantage. A recent study in the accounting industry shows that it dramatically increases the likelihood of receiving an actual referral.

3. Experts have an advantage.

Speaking of expertise…
When it comes to boosting your brand, there is simply nothing like having individual Visible Experts^® on your team. Research shows that firms with Visible Experts build greater visibility and command higher rates. Indeed, the presence of high-visibility experts drives success for the whole firm.

New business development is a particularly high priority for management consulting firms, since by the nature of the work, many clients are not repeat engagements. Visible Experts help generate more leads and cement your credibility in the marketplace, making it easier to close more sales and grow.

4. Your brand should be based on reality.

It’s not uncommon for people to develop grand visions for their brands, but it’s important to make sure your branding is rooted in reality.

What do I mean by “reality”? Start with in-depth research on your clients, prospects, and influencers in your industry. Then move on to study your competition as well.

The tough fact is that you are the worst judge of your own brand. It’s almost a universal rule – most of us are simply too close to our brands to view them objectively. That’s why it’s so important to base your branding decisions on empirical evidence rather than opinions. This way, you can create a brand that truly serves the needs of your business.

5. Position your brand based on real differentiators.

For management consulting firms, research is the gift that keeps on giving. Not only does it help you ground your branding in the reality of the marketplace, it helps you identify or find new and relevant differentiators that will set your firm apart from the rest of the pack.

In the course of your research, ask questions like:

• What issues are your clients facing today?
• What are they talking about?
• What do your competitors specialize in?
• Are there areas of unmet need in your marketplace?

The answers to these questions will help you identify differentiators on which to build your new brand.

Some of these potential differentiators may be qualities that you already hold, but need to start emphasizing in your marketing. Others may be opportunities – areas where you can decide to be different. You may find, for example, that there is an opportunity to specialize in an unfilled niche or provide services through a novel business model.

Either way, your differentiators must pass three tests. They must be 1) true, 2) relevant to your target audience, and 3) provable. If you can prove to clients that you are different in a way that helps meet their needs, you’ll be positioned for success.

6. Reflect your brand positioning in all of your communications tools and all of your educational content.

It should be clear by now that a brand is much more than a logo and a tagline. It’s the soul of your firm, and in order to do its work, it needs to suffuse everything you do – particularly your public messaging and educational content.

Think about the various channels through which you communicate with and educate audiences. These might include:

• Website
• Marketing collateral
• Pitch decks
• Proposals
• Newsletters
• Blog

Every single one of these marketing channels needs to be fundamentally aligned with your branding ideas. You need to talk about your firm in a consistent way – ideally guided by well-crafted branding guidelines. Otherwise, your message will become muddled and audiences will grow confused about who you are and what you’re trying to say.

7. Build the visibility of your brand in multiple channels over time.

You might announce a new brand in the course of an hour – but real results take time. Your brand will need to work in the marketplace organically and across many channels, which is to say that people will have to encounter it through your website, social media, and their general experience of you.

To drive this process and reinforce your expertise, you can use a variety of tools. Search engine optimization can help you use targeted keywords to draw visitors to your website. Social media is a great way to engage directly with audiences and communicate in a way that aligns with your brand.

Not all brand-driven communications are online, either. Through public speaking, articles, and seminars, you can help build visibility for your expertise and cement your brand.

Ultimately, all seven of these branding ideas work together and reinforce each other for accumulated effects – visibility and growth. Through strategic and deliberate branding, you can help your firm stand apart and get ahead.

Free Resource

The Rebranding Guide for Professional Services Firms

Learn More

The post Top 7 Branding Ideas for Your Consulting Firm appeared first on Hinge Marketing.

We’ll walk through nine steps that will help sell the value of your services and win new clients.

1. Figure out the why

“Why do you need a value proposition?” If you can’t easily articulate why prospects should hire you, prospective clients won’t be able to either. It’s important to understand the value you have to offer your clients and express this clearly and succinctly. 

2. Really understand what you do

Take some time to understand exactly what services you provide so you can communicate this in your value proposition. When it comes to defining your “what,” consider these factors:

• Areas of business you serve
• Types of problems you solve
• Types of firms you serve

You could do this as a team exercise and have your colleagues write out what they think the organization does and compare notes. As part of the process, reflect on your firm’s positioning statement, if you have one.

3. Define your target audience

Narrow your target audience and let your expertise with that audience shine. Not only will it help differentiate your firm from the competition, but prospective clients will be more likely to engage your services knowing that you really understand their business.

4. Determine the how

• Think about the problems that you solve for your clients. 
• Think about the benefits you provide to your clients.
  • When you communicate these make sure you are speaking about benefits, not features. Often, people identify features (such as best approach or best expertise) rather than actual benefits (such as ability to eliminate bottlenecks, improve organizational productivity, etc.).

Start with a list and narrow it down to the ones that will make the biggest impact and distinguish you from competitors.

5. Prove it

Providing proof of your abilities will create another important layer of credibility. Develop a list of strong references that you can share with clients. In addition to this, think about where you can showcase studies of your success to boast your company’s credibility. Could this be done on your website? Social channels? Word of mouth? The opportunity here is endless. 

Don’t be afraid to add specific details such as clients you’ve served or years of expertise. These details that distinguish you from your competitors.

6. Create it.

Use this simple formula from Consulting Success to create your value proposition:

Who your customers are + What you provide them + Why they buy from you

Read over your value statement and make sure you’ve addressed all three points. Next, be sure that your statement is clear, no longer than a few sentences, and that it differentiates you from the competition. Your differentiators need to highlight something you do well that your competitors aren’t highlighting. 

7. Use it.

Your value proposition is part of your branding so use it everywhere—your website, as part of presentations, on collateral, social media sites, and anywhere else an opportunity exists!

8. Test it.

You need to make sure you’ve crafted a value proposition that will win new clients. The easiest way to test your value proposition is by trying it out! When you chat with prospective clients, see how people respond to you. Is it clear for people to understand? Do they seem to understand the value you offer? Do they seem to believe that you can deliver on your promise?

If you answered no to any of these questions, it’s back to the drawing board. Remember it’s worth the effort to get your value proposition right.

9. Revisit it.

As your company grows and services expand, you may want to revisit your value proposition. For management consulting, it’s especially important as services change and you develop new expertise.

Developing a value proposition for your firm is a crucial way to distinguish yourself from competition and easily be able to explain your services to prospects. So make sure you carve out the time and mental focus to develop one.

Already have a great value proposition? Have more brand building suggestions? Share them below.

The post 9 Steps to Building a Unique Value Proposition for Consulting Firms appeared first on Hinge Marketing.

To help firms like yours make sense of these changes, the Hinge Research Institute has released an all-new fourth edition of Inside the Buyer’s Brain: Consulting.—our ongoing study of buyer behavior in the consulting industry.

About the Study

The original Inside the Buyer’s Brain study was published in 2013 and provided the first comprehensive look at the differing perspectives of buyers and sellers throughout the entire professional services buyers’ journey. The second version was released in 2018, followed by the 3rd edition in 2020.

This year’s study analyzes the consulting industry in detail, based on input from more than 300 buyers and 300 sellers.

The 2022 study is organized around four questions that examine the key moments in a consulting services buyer’s journey.

Question 1: What are Consulting Buyers’ Top Business Challenges?

Most professional services firms believe they understand the challenges their potential clients face. More often than not, they are wrong. The data below highlights the key areas where sellers either overestimate or underestimate their buyers’ key business challenges.

Question 2: How Do Clients Feel About Their Consulting Firm?

 

Research Report

Inside the Buyer’s Brain, Consulting Edition

Learn More

The post New Research: How Buyer Expectations Have Changed in the Consulting Industry appeared first on Hinge Marketing.

So what makes speaking engagements the most effective marketing technique in any professional services marketing strategy? And what can management consultants do to unlock its benefits?

1. Boost referrals

Let’s address the bombshell about referrals. Have they lost their luster? Not necessarily. The issue with referrals is that 52% of them rule out an expert even before speaking with him or her. 

If fewer than half of referrals come through, what makes the rest sour on an expert? One is relevance. When buyers obtain recommendations from friends and colleagues, they conduct their own due diligence by checking out the expert’s online footprint. More often than not, referrals are left scratching their heads about how the expert can actually help them, find poor quality content or a combination of these. 

Another factor is your authority. Are you recognized by third parties in your industry as the expert you say you are? Since we’ve moved our lives and businesses online over the past year, your digital brand is now more essential. Anyone can call themselves a thought leader. Few can show they’re recognized as one.

Whether you want to establish your relevance or authority, speaking engagements are an effective way to do either. In fact, speaking engagements account for 30% of the way referrals are convinced you’re an expert or authority in your niche. 

The key to a successful speaking gig is to deliver educational, differentiated content that showcases your expertise in your audience’s pains and desired gains. Content that combines sound research and a case story your audience can relate to will turn event participants into followers and, over time, clients.

2. Improve your SEO ranking

Speaking engagements drive more traffic to your site from the submission to post-event phases. This increase in traffic alone will help give your SEO ranking a nice push. In addition, pre- and post-event promotions that mention you, your firm, and your topic also build your authority, which is key to driving up your ranking. Google’s Quality Rater Guidelines instruct raters to check whether people have spoken at events in determining the authority of the latter’s website. 

Even if you’re relatively new to the speaker circuit, don’t limit your speaking engagements to in-person keynote addresses. Today’s event producers are planning more online-only or hybrid events that can draw larger audiences while lowering both the cost of producing and running events, and, for their attendees, the cost of participating. Online events – webinars, podcasts, virtual conferences – are just as effective in growing your audience and giving them a taste of your expertise. Think of your time behind the podium or with a panel of speakers as an audition for being the expert they need and want to work with.

3. Fuel your lead generation efforts

As a contributing speaker, you may have access to other perks that can enhance your firm’s lead generation efforts. Try these strategies:

Ask for a list of registrants/attendees. If you can get this in advance, it will give you time to do your homework. Identify those you already know and would like to connect with; see if you can schedule a time in advance to meet during the event. Identify other prospects or strategic partners you would like to meet and be sure to make these connections while at the event.

Ask to advertise your firm in conference collateral. Similar to a paid sponsorship, conference organizers may be willing to let you advertise your firm in the conference collateral in return for speaking. If not, you may still want to consider paying to advertise if the attendees closely align with your target audience.

Meet (with) people. Being present offstage as much as onstage is a big part of making the most of your speaking engagements. Make sure to take advantage of all networking opportunities outside your speaking slot. These opportunities offer a unique chance for you to learn and share helpful information, building up relationships in the process with current and prospective clients, partners, and press contacts. 

For online events, deliver interactive sessions where you can see attendees, conduct polls, and answer their questions at any point. You could also suggest–when the platform permits–setting aside time during or after your presentation for session participants to break into discussion groups that you can easily join to form stronger connections with participants.

4. Position yourself as a thought leader

Speaking slots at events add credibility to your standing as a thought leader while enabling you to get your message across to a broad audience. That audience consists not only of prospective buyers but also bloggers and journalists looking for key sources. Well-attended industry events tend to draw buyers as much as they do bloggers and journalists on the hunt for trends and hot topics.

The simple fact that a SME from your firm has been selected to speak at a virtual industry conference or in-person training helps position them (and your firm) as a thought leader or Visible Expert. Once on this pedestal, it’s easier for Visible Experts to grow their reputation, attract better business, and command higher fees.

5. Generate new content for prospects, clients, and media

No doubt, preparing for a speaking engagement absorbs time and effort. However, you can easily repurpose the presentation you create as a webinar, a short video, a guest article, or even a guide. You can also pull key information and spin it off as infographics for sharing on social media or pitching to bloggers and journalists, especially if your topic is hitting the headlines. 

If you repurpose your presentation in any or all of these ways, it will keep your audience of prospects, clients, and the media engaged.

6. Deepen relationships with clients and partners, broaden your audience

Many event organizers today are interested in presentations based on case studies highlighting proven solutions to widely shared problems. If you’ve had success with a client, pitch your success story. If you and a strategic partner have a unique, proven solution, pitch it. 

Co-presenting with your clients and partners helps everyone shine. And, when everyone presenting does their fair share of promoting the event to their audience, everyone benefits from a lift in audience reach. 

Speaking engagements are not easy to come by. As I’ve written before in an earlier article, they are more of a marathon than a sprint. You need to have the right tools–a media/press kit, a compelling pitch, proof of performance, and media lists–and persistence, especially if you’re starting out. However, the time you invest will be well worth it, and is part of the journey to becoming a visible expert.

The post 6 Ways Speaking Engagements Benefit Your Management Consulting Firm’s Marketing Strategy appeared first on Hinge Marketing.

For many companies, even a small percentage of that is a windfall. It’s no wonder that organizations invest significantly into efforts to secure contracts with the Federal government. But while many companies have mastered the capture and business development processes endemic in government contracting, tracking potential opportunities over years and years, these opportunity-specific efforts alone are no longer enough. The barrier-to-entry has begun to shift and it’s requiring contractors to adjust their business-to-government (B2G) marketing approaches to include comprehensive firm-level strategies that increase the visibility of their expertise.

Federal agencies comprise the largest consumer of goods and services in the economy and have a set of challenges that are different from commercial customers. Contracting officers must satisfy market research requirements, solicit competitive bids, and comply with federal acquisition processes when evaluating potential vendors and they need credible information readily available. Sure, if your firm makes tanks and airplanes, there are only a few companies that are in the competitive landscape to evaluate, but in general, government contractors can’t simply rely on past performance, or the boilerplate language in their bid packages to win the award. The explosion of information online has raised the bar for how contractors approach the market by making sure their expertise is evident through well-crafted and relevant thought leadership content. Ultimately, that’s what makes them the “safe” choice.

First, Nail Down Your Overall B2G Strategy

Newcomers and longtime contractors alike need to devote resources to planning on an ongoing basis. Know your target agencies and their missions, where money will be spent, and potential primes or subcontractors. Many contracts are set-aside for firms that meet disadvantaged and other criteria, so understand the capabilities of possible teaming partners. Also know what contract vehicles you can use, certifications you should highlight, and what makes you different from other firms. All these elements will be important to weave into a content marketing program that helps you position your firm appropriately.

Next, Build Your B2G Content Marketing Strategy

Failing to plan is planning to fail. No more in B2G marketing is that old adage true than when it comes to creating a content marketing strategy. All too often, firms choose to buy into the philosophy of creating visibility through content without a solid plan in place. They jump in and start blogging, perhaps they create a whitepaper, post once a month on social media and when they don’t see revenue within the first quarter that has direct attribution to the content they are producing, they stop – give up – and swear off content marketing as not fit for B2G businesses. Building your reputation and visibility (and ultimately seeing the impact from a revenue perspective) takes time, but with a very focused program, the benefits will accrue.

Ensure your plan focuses on developing educational content that addresses the topics your audience cares about and utilizes the channels where they seek information. Settle on a handful of overall themes, conduct keyword research, and start to build out an editorial calendar. Aim to repurpose your content so that a series of blog posts on a particular topic can be combined into a premium content piece such as a whitepaper, for example. Promote it in social media, and ask your audiences via your website or a regular email to download the whitepaper in exchange for an email address. Then continue nurturing them with other high-quality, relevant content.

Ultimately, the goal of a B2G content marketing program is to provide educational content that helps your audiences do their jobs better. Once you’ve piqued their interest, they will come back for more, creating a multiplier effect – your reputation and visibility will precede your next call to the prime or sub you want to team with, the contracting officer at an agency will know of you before the bid lands on their desk, and your next star employee will have already identified you as a firm of choice in their next career move. Content marketing principles transcend industries and enable you to be a hub of information in your niche. Loyal followers will know how you think and get a sense of what it would be like to work with you – even before they speak with you for the first time.

The post Why You Need a Business To Government (B2G) Content Marketing Strategy appeared first on Hinge Marketing.

Last year in 2021, when the Hinge Research Institute conducted our annual High Growth Study in partnership with Deltek, consulting firms—like all other professional services firms—were caught up in the monumental wave of uncertainty introduced by the COVID-19 pandemic. But in 2021 attention shifted. Concern from over 450 study participants demonstrated a change in sentiment away from concern about the future and toward a need to take action and implement new technological solutions to manage future growth.

It is for the purpose of identifying and reporting such wholesale changes that the Hinge Research Institute conducts this High Growth Study annually. Each year the study examines and reports on the specific strategies and tactics implemented by the fastest growing professional services firms. We call these firms the “High Growth Firms.”

In this article, we preview the 2022 High Growth Study: Consulting Edition by outlining the four key advantages high growth consulting firms realized on their path to growth and profitability. By comparing your firm’s marketing and operational practices to those of the high performers, you can start modeling your company after some of the fastest-growing firms in the world. 

If you’re interested in purchasing this full report, click here.

Defining High Growth Consulting Firms

A firm is categorized as a “high growth” firm when it has a compound annual growth rate of 20% or greater over a three-year assessment period. What’s remarkable about high growth consulting firms is just how fast they are growing. In Figure 1 below, we see that high growth consulting firms grew three and a half times faster than their average growth peers.

Figure 1: Median Growth Rate of Consulting Firms in 2022 High Growth Study

Not only are the fastest growing firms far outpacing the no growth and average growing consulting firms, more than half of high growth consulting firms were also highly profitable.

Of course all firms want to be counted among those realizing this kind of growth and profitability. So what does the data reveal about these high growth firms?

Key Advantage 1: Technology

The data on high growth consulting firms revealed that they have a significant advantage with regard to their overall adoption and implementation of business software and automation products. We describe this in the survey as automation maturity and ask participants to rank their firms on a scale of 0 (no automation) to 5 (optimized). 

Figure 2 shows that high growth consulting firms reported higher levels of automation maturity in all three categories we studied: general business software, core business software, and marketing/sales automation.

Figure 2: Automation Maturity (High Growth vs. No Growth)

High growth firms have the biggest advantage in core business software that is at the heart of supporting service delivery. Interestingly, workflow and process automation is the #1 topic that most firms want to learn about this year. The high growth firms are already there.

The technology and software industry was the only other segment we studied where high growth firms showed such an intense advantage in all three automation maturity categories. This is another indicator of the central role such software solutions play.

Key Advantage 2: Talent

Aside from the pandemic, another topic dominated headlines in 2021: The Great Resignation. This trend was reflected in this year’s High Growth Study. If there was a battle for finding and retaining top talent in the past, that battle intensified severely in recent months. Consulting firms are at the center of this war, but high growth firms have an advantage.

Participants in the 2022 High Growth Study rated their firm’s overall skill level on a scale of 1-10 in a variety of different skill sets. High growth firms consistently outperformed their no growth peers in key areas. Figure 3 shows the top 5 marketing techniques where high growth consulting firms have the largest advantage over their competitors.

Figure 3: Marketing Function Skill Rating

Key Advantage 3: Marketing

Discovering how high growth firms market themselves has always been at the heart of the High Growth Study—and this year’s study dives deeper than ever into uncovering the specifics. 

One major change this year was how content creation returned to its top spot as the number one marketing priority of high growth firms. The fastest growing consulting firms have known for years the important role that content creation plays in marketing their expertise. They know that developing content that addresses clients’ top business challenges is key to being a thought leader in their industry.

Meanwhile, no growth firms are prioritizing investments to catch up on website performance, gathering the right analytics, and setting the right marketing mix. These are all worthy investments. But unless a fully automated marketing system is in place, many of these investments won’t pay off.

The high growth firms once again are ahead of the curve with a focus on creating high-quality content that helps bring organic visibility to their websites while also establishing them as a credible thought leader. Figure 4 showcases the top 5 marketing priorities of high growth firms.

Figure 4: Top Marketing Priorities of High Growth Firms

The High Growth Study also asked participants to measure their overall marketing effort and impact from the 25 marketing techniques they implement at their firm. When it comes specifically to marketing impact, once again we see some remarkable trends from high growth firms. Figure 5 shows the top 6 marketing techniques where high growth firms report seeing the most impact from their efforts

Figure 5: Top Most Impactful High Growth Marketing Techniques

Two techniques that stand out are keyword research/SEO and conducting and publishing original research. In the case of both of these techniques, no growth firms report significantly less impact from their efforts—an indicator that something is not working. 

This year’s High Growth Study probed further on the topic of search engine optimization (SEO). We find that keyword research and SEO techniques are best used by consulting firms when they are set up as a tool to help prospective clients find their content. A mistake we encounter quite often is when firms describe SEO efforts as a one-time investment—a set it and forget it kind of model. Unfortunately, this does not yield great results. SEO requires ongoing focus to adjust to Google’s ever-changing algorithm.

And when it comes to the kind of content that high growth firms find the most impact, original research takes the top spot. This aligns with the story that the Hinge Research Institute’s data has been telling for years—in a world full of noise, original research is the most powerful mechanism for developing thought leadership content that cannot be found anywhere else.

Key Advantage 4: Strategy

The final advantage enjoyed by high growth firms is in the realm of strategy. The full report focuses on the role that M&A had on the consulting industry along with the top anticipated business challenges of high growth firms. But here we highlight what high growth firms are focused on next. In Figure 6 we show the top five topics and trends that high growth firms are thinking about.

Figure 6: What are High Growth Firms Focused on Next?

The top response from high growth firms was workflow and process automation—which makes sense, considering what we mentioned above about the war for top talent. High growth firms are fully aware of the ongoing battle to find and retain talented team members. So what role can technology play in filling the gap? How can current utilization rates be optimized? This is the focus of the high growth firms—and by a fairly significant margin.

Putting the Data to Work

After a year of turbulence and uncertainty, the new normal is taking shape. And the high growth consulting firms are not waiting for difficult marketplace conditions to pass before they implement change. Rather, they are working to stay ahead of the curve and utilize the power of technology and automation tools to help them achieve impressive growth rates without sacrificing profitability.

As we’ve learned from conducting this study for seven consecutive years, the marketplace moves fast. So keeping up with the best marketing and business development practices has never been more important. You can use this data to help your firm navigate the choices ahead. And if you need some support, be sure to reach out to us here at Hinge.

The post Marketing Consulting Services in 2022: How Some Firms are Growing 3.5X Faster than Their Competitors appeared first on Hinge Marketing.

The forces driving change are numerous and vary. Disruptive technology, the rise of new business models, and the pressures exerted by intense global competition are transforming the marketplace. And this is coupled with the monumental disarray introduced by the COVID-19 pandemic. At Hinge, we wanted to build a focused understanding of the top issues that are occupying firms—and what that means for the industry at large. So we included this as a part of our 2021 High Growth Study.

Diving into the Research

In order to find the answers, we surveyed nearly 1,300 professional services firms, representing over $270 billion in combined revenues and nearly 1 million employees. The study covered a range of firm sizes and industries. In addition, we investigated a subset of these firms (more than a third of the full sample) that deliver consulting services to understand the challenges and drivers of success in that industry.

In one section of the study, respondents discussed their outlook for the industry over the next 3-5 years, as well as how they planned to respond to those challenges.

These insights allowed us to understand the current state of both the professional services landscape as a whole and the management consulting industry in particular. Ultimately, we were able to identify both broad trends and industry-specific issues.

In this post, we examine the business challenges and priorities of management consulting firms. So, what are those priorities, and what do they mean for the industry?

The Top Business Challenges

The top five overall business challenges for management consulting firms paint a striking picture of the marketplace today. Even though four of the top five challenges were the same as the 2019 study, what is interesting is that in Figure 1 the priority order has changed completely.

Figure 1: Top Anticipated Business Challenges of Consulting Firms

Let’s discuss these challenges one-by-one.

1. Unpredictability in the marketplace

These are turbulent times, and nearly 49% of respondents agree that unpredictability in the marketplace is a top business challenge. With a remarkable increase of 30% since 2019, respondents certainly have felt the waves of new changes spurred on by the global COVID-19 pandemic.

Nevertheless, unpredictability has been a challenge for management consulting firms for many years now. The consulting marketplace is evolving quickly from one that relied primarily on interpersonal contact to develop new business (think networking or personal referrals) to a wide-open online playing field. Increasingly, that is where the game is played and buyers are selecting the winners.

But there is more feeding the market frenzy than business development changes. The whole landscape is rapidly evolving, too — mergers and acquisitions are happening at a record pace, and new well-funded firms with different business models pop up with unnerving frequency. This churning marketplace is here to stay, and the most successful firms will learn to adapt to the uncertainty.

2. Changes in how buyers purchase services

Following only slightly below uncertainty in the marketplace was how 47% of management consulting firms are worried about the changing ways buyers go about buying services. While our data doesn’t include specific details, we suspect that this concern is driven by the increased use of online search, social media, and other non-traditional channels to find and evaluate consulting firms.

Even the way people get referrals has changed. Many referrals today are made by people who never even hired your firm, but they know about you from other sources. Increasingly, firms are building their reputations online — through sophisticated onsite and offsite content marketing programs and direct engagement in social media. No doubt, some firms feel unprepared to adapt to these changes. But time is running out! Consulting firms must embrace the digital revolution if they want to compete in this rapidly changing marketplace

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3. Increased competition

Moving down a position from last year, but still in third place, was the challenge of increased competition. Respondents from management consulting firms worry about competition coming from both new firms (42%) and larger competitors (35.4%), with an edge to the emerging-firm threat. In fact, these threats appeared in the top five challenges of every industry segment we studied.

What does this finding mean? Many firms that are not large, established industry players and don’t have a disruptive business model in the works are worried about their ability to stay competitive. After all, a great deal of consolidation is happening in the consulting industry, and new technologies threaten to commoditize lucrative bread-and-butter services. No wonder firms that aren’t part of either of these trends are feeling anxious about the future.

4. The need for new skills

Still a top challenge in 2020, nearly 40% of firms identified the need for new skills as a significant challenge for management consulting firms. As new technologies and techniques arise in the marketplace, firms feel an unrelenting pressure to keep up with the constant change. If they don’t, a competitor will. And keeping up, requires the right people with the right skill sets.

There are two primary ways firms can acquire new skills: 1) upskilling and reskilling their existing workforce; and 2) hiring new talent who already possess those skills. Most firms use both of these approaches, but each comes with challenges. For example, training existing staff takes people away from lucrative billable work. And hiring new talent in a highly competitive environment can be very expensive. Savvy firms recognize that if they want to compete for the best business they first need to have talent with the right skill sets.

5. Automation and artificial intelligence

Breaking into the top 5 anticipated business challenges for the first time, and mentioned by 36.2% of management consulting firms, are the emerging technologies behind automation and artificial intelligence (AI). This concern is not unique to management consulting firms. In fact, automation and AI was the third highest anticipated business challenge ranked by firms across the professional services spectrum.

Technology that allows consulting firms to automate aspects of their core business or marketing and sales initiatives stood out as a telling example of where high growth firms have a competitive advantage over their slower growing peers. Diving deeper into the 2021 High Growth Study: Consulting Edition, we see below in Figure 2 that high growth firms are 42.2% more likely to use automation in a more sophisticated way.

Figure 2: High growth firms vs. no growth firms with high levels of marketing/sales automation

Conclusion

Turbulent times generate tremendous change, and this is precisely the reality that management consulting firms are facing today. To adapt to rising marketplace pressures, to get ahead and stay there, they will have to adopt an array of marketing techniques. But in adversity lies opportunity — to build resilient and robust brands.

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The Hinge Research Institute’s newly released 2021 High Growth Study: Consulting Services Edition describes these challenges and how firms have responded to them. The report looks first at overall industry trends within the larger context of the general professional services industry. It then compares the fastest growing consulting firms (those having a compound annual growth rate of 20% or greater over a three-year assessment period) with their slower, no growth peers.

379 consulting firms participated with a combined revenue of $20 billion and more than 60,000 employees.

Unfortunately, the consulting industry as a whole is lagging all other professional services industries in terms of overall revenue growth.

Purchase the 2021 High Growth Study: Consulting Edition

The High Growth Study explores how firms are adapting to an unpredictable market and how they are handling marketing and business development. High Growth firms are defined as having a compound annual growth rate of 20% or greater over a three-year period. High Growth consulting firms come in all sizes, but growth seems to favor the smaller boutique firms.

It’s important to understand what these firms are doing differently. Read on to uncover some high-level insights.

Key Findings

Unpredictability in the marketplace overtakes the need for new skills as the top anticipated business challenge. 

In last year’s study, consulting firms ranked the need for new skills as their top business challenge for the next 3-5 years. This year, unpredictability in the marketplace tops the charts. While this shift  is likely due to the pandemic, it may reflect a longer-term change in the way firms approach the market, too.

Research on target audiences is a priority of 2020. More consulting firms are conducting research—and they are doing it more frequently.

Our data shows that consulting firms are doing more research than ever before—a strategy used by many high-growth firms to keep abreast of the evolving marketplace. And they are doing research more frequently than before (see chart below).

Marketing budgets jump as consulting firms learn to pivot in unpredictable market conditions.

It should be noted that in addition to conducting frequent research, consulting firms are also allocating more dollars than ever before to their marketing budgets. On average, about 43% more!

Why?

For the past few years there has been an emphasis on leveraging digital techniques. But we believe the pandemic has forced many firms to go all in on digital—a transformation that requires new infrastructure and new skills. At least some of that investment is reflected in the industry’s marketing budgets.

COVID-19 + Impacts on Profitability

According to the study consulting firms are solidly in last place when it comes to profitability. Most firms either had a really good year or were severely impacted by COVID-19. In this new virtual world, Consulting firms had to figure out how to meaningfully pivot from in-person events to hosting virtual ones. High Growth consulting firms also showed an increase in the number of webinars they were hosting or participating in because meaningful interaction with their audiences remains a top priority, COVID or not.

In addition, we’re seeing that over a quarter of firms are planning to go fully remote. Remote work is not a foreign concept to this group of professionals, though—many of them were fully remote even pre-pandemic. 

So why the change now? 

It could be because firms are looking to reduce overhead, and the pandemic showed them how it could be done. With this shift, we could potentially see more productivity and a bigger emphasis on work–life balance.

Purchase the 2021 High Growth Study: Consulting Edition

About one in four consulting firms achieved High Growth status.

High Growth consulting firms come in all sizes, but growth seems to favor the small players.  This may be due in part to buyers’ preference for the more personal service of a smaller firm.

The Bottom Line

We live in uncertain times and today’s firms are facing unprecedented pressures and decisions. The firms that pivot first—and have the best information—will undoubtedly gain a competitive advantage.

And there are no better examples to learn from than the High Growth cohort. Their emphasis on digital marketing techniques, conducting frequent research and automation are driving their success. The data is in. Now is the perfect time to learn from the firms that are leading the way.

The post Highlights from the 2021 High Growth Study: Consulting Edition appeared first on Hinge Marketing.

Why This Study is Needed

From a global trend perspective, some research indicates that many clients halted, postponed, or reduced projects right now to the point where consulting revenue could be reduced by as much as 15% in North America, 28% in Europe, and 12% in Asia Pacific. This reduction means billions of dollars in lost consulting revenue around the world. Even when clients are spending money, the way they look for and evaluate consulting firms is changing. At the same time, the traditional business development approaches that consultants have been using are becoming less and less effective.

On top of these industry-altering trends, add a global pandemic and a rapidly growing competitive marketplace and it is easy to see the stress and uncertainty that many consulting firms are experiencing,

Fortunately, there is a way to cut through some of this uncertainty and gain some real insight into what buyers of consulting services think today and where the trends are likely to take both consulting buyers and sellers in the future.

About the Study

The original study was published in 2013 and provided the first comprehensive look at the differing perspectives of buyers and sellers throughout the entire professional services buyers’ journey.

A second version of the study was published in 2018. This study revealed a rapidly evolving landscape that presented new challenges and opportunities.

The pace and scope of change was so profound that we decided to follow-up with the current study just two years in 2020. This study also saw the addition of industry-specific versions of the report, such as this one.

Purchase the Inside the Buyer’s Brain, Third Edition: Consulting Edition

The timing could not have been better. It allowed us to capture the first real indication of the emerging buyer concerns and preferences.

Focused on Consulting Firms

In the current report we are focusing on consulting firms. We explore the challenges consulting buyers are facing and the roles they see their consulting firms playing. We also look at the new client journey from their first exploration of a business challenge to the final selection of the firm they choose to work with.

We then explore the client experience and how it does or doesn’t translate into an ongoing relationship and referrals. To put the findings in perspective, we compare key consulting firm results to other professional services verticals such as Accounting & Financial Services and Technology & Software.

Sampled Both Buyers and Sellers

Using phone interviews and online surveys, we researched 362 buyers and 369 sellers of consulting services. Because the buyers bought services from the sellers and there were almost an equal amount of both, we were able to study both sides of the relationship and how they see each other. We were also able to identify disconnects that can derail a professional relationship or business opportunity.

Cross Industry Comparisons Included

In addition to reporting on the industry data, we also looked at the findings from other angles. This report examines the responses from Consulting firms and puts them in the context of three other major professional services groups:

The results of the study are organized around four questions that capture the most impactful steps in a consulting services buyer’s journey.

What are Consulting Buyers’ Business Challenges?

Most professionals believe they understand the challenges their potential clients face. This data demonstrates the fallacy of that belief in some key areas.

Professionals in consulting firms have some significant disconnects when it comes to understanding the top challenges of their clients. It is hard to be relevant to buyer concerns if you do not understand what they are. Strategy and planning are issues that continually top the list for challenging businesses, yet many consultants feel that motivating and managing people is a greater client challenge.

Look further down the list. In many industries, meeting ever-evolving regulations and requirements is a perennial challenge. Many organizations do not have the expertise on staff to address these directives. Yet, most consulting firms don’t consider compliance a top 10 client issue. That’s a big miss.

How Do Clients Feel About Their Consulting Firm?

More than three fourths of consulting buyers (76.7%) would recommend their consulting firm to a friend or colleague if asked. That was the highest response to the “buyer recommendation” question among all industries in the overall Inside the Buyer’s Brain study. In fact, only the consulting industry had an increase (17%) in a client’s willingness to recommend. All the other industries have seen decreases in the last two years — decreases as high as 23%.

There is another means of measuring how buyers feel about consulting firms: relevance. Fortunately for consulting firms, buyer perception of relevance to buyers’ most important challenges is highest compared to all other studied industries — almost 50%. That is a percentage change of 93% in the last two years.This is significant because relevance impacts both willingness to recommend and client loyalty. This is great news, but consulting firms still have room for improvement.

High-level relevance to the prospect’s key issues not only wins new clients, it also helps you keep them. Firms that are viewed as highly relevant to clients’ current issues are 82% more likely to be highly recommended by their existing clients. High relevancy ratings are also associated with a 76% higher likelihood of having highly loyal clients. 

How Do Buyers Search for Consulting Firms?

While the Inside the Buyer’s Brain overall research shows that referrals are down in most industries, personal recommendations still play a key role in consulting buyers’ searches.

The research also shows that digital channels such as web searches, articles/blog posts, webinars, and social media are gaining importance as consulting buyers search for information on work-related topics. LinkedIn remains the most dominant social media platform for consulting buyers with more than 83% using it. Facebook and Twitter are growing in popularity with more than 42% saying they use it platform. We believe that events like the global pandemic are likely to accelerate the use of digital channels, as live events and interactions are canceled or restricted. 

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Social media platforms play a key role in firm visibility. In the overall research, consulting firm visibility is slightly ahead of all other industries. While it is still low at 25.2%, it has soared by 160% over the last two years. Consulting firms need to continue to increase adoption of digital channels and social media platforms as part of a larger branding and messaging strategy to ensure that their visibility rises.

How Do Buyers Evaluate Consulting Firms?

While nurturing existing relationships has long been foundational in many consulting firms, we are seeing the limits of this strategy. Buyers are less likely to stay with an existing firm, especially if a competitor has more needed team skills, relevant experience, and industry knowledge and subject matter expertise.

Talented staff/team skills that can fill the gaps in many buyer organizations are now the top deciding factor for almost half of buyers. Relevant experience and strong industry knowledge and subject matter expertise are also becoming much more important in closing the consulting firm engagement sale.

What Does This Mean for Your Consulting Firm?

These are changing times for consulting firms. While no one can know for sure how these times will play out, some conclusions are clear. You may have to do some things differently.

Recognize that you probably have dangerous blind spots when it comes to understanding your buyers. While we may feel that we really understand our buyers and their challenges, the data paints a different picture. There are blind spots or disconnects that will cost you new business unless you adapt to your buyers’ lists of priorities. It is important to leverage or commission research on a regular basis to ensure that you stay connected to study findings, not your assumptions, to ensure you confidently make decisions that will impact your firm’s growth and success.

Listen. Check your ego at the door and carefully review what buyers are saying about their challenges and how they evaluate consulting firms. This research reflects the experiences of hundreds of buyers—not just one. Listen. Then respond.

Be honest with yourself. As you review this report’s top-five and top-ten lists, do you see areas where your firm could be doing things differently? Are you willing to make the important and tough decisions to get there?

Pursue relevance. Consulting buyers reward relevance with higher visibility, stronger reputation, deeper loyalty, and longer relationships. It is a constant balancing act. If relevance drops, those other factors usually follow suit. It takes specialized expertise and in-depth industry knowledge to beat the competition. Regular research helps you stay current. 

Realize that talent acquisition is now a business development function. Having great talent is the top factor that tips the scales for buyers. That means the quality of your team directly affects the bottom line. Make your expertise visible to potential recruits as well as prospects.

We’ve tried to give you a look inside the buyer’s brain from a consulting firm perspective. Obviously it is just a small glimpse. If you want to learn more key findings, insights, and actionable tips to help your consulting firm, please consider buying a copy of the Inside the Buyer’s Brain: Consulting Firm Edition report or licensing it to drive some of your content marketing strategy and campaigns.

Purchase the Inside the Buyer’s Brain, Third Edition: Consulting Edition

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