Helping to Build High-Performing Consulting Firms

🔴 EDITION #159 | October 7, 2026

Dear reader, 

Welcome to the 159th edition of our newsletter. 

In this edition, the featured article looks at a pipeline metric that most consulting firms use to make their decisions – volume.

We explain why measuring volume-related KPIs provides answers to the wrong questions and which questions consulting firms should be asking instead.

And, as always, we were very productive on LinkedIn again. Below are the topics we wrote about over the past two weeks. Check it out! 

Enjoy reading,
Luk & Florian

Our New Article

A Weak Consulting Pipeline? Stop Asking the Wrong Questions to Fix It.

Most consulting firms make their decisions based on the wrong metric.  

We see this a lot in our conversations with consulting leaders – firms tracking the volume of work in their pipelines:

- Number of leads generated this quarter

- Number of sales pitches delivered last month

- Number of proposals submitted in H1

- Number of new clients closed in the last fiscal year  

Tracking these numbers is necessary, of course. The trouble comes when consulting firms use the volume metric of their pipeline to answer the wrong questions.  

So what question should consulting firms be asking, and what metric can guide their decision-making? 

Read Our New Article

Our Recent Articles

STRATEGY

Consulting Has a Revenue Quality Problem

BUILDING TRUST

The Consulting Firm Trust Trap: Why Buyers Click Away

DIFFERENTIATION

The Problem with Consulting Firms’ Outcome Claims

OUR BOOK IS COMING, LATE 2026:

Consulting Proposition Design Book

Mastering Value Proposition Design for Consulting Performance

Join the waitlist to receive early access, get invited to a few pre-launch activities, and receive the book at the special launch price.

Join the Waitlist

Our Recent LinkedIn Posts

🔴 LUK SMEYERS

FUTURE OF CONSULTING

Is AI exposing consulting’s economic problem?

DIFFERENTIATION

98% of consulting firms compete in the Sameness Zone.

PROPOSITION DESIGN

“Luk, AI pushes us to change our offering almost every other week,” a consulting leader told me last week.

TRUST-BUILDING

Would You Buy Consulting From Your Own Firm?

CONSULTING GROWTH

Sales training in consulting won’t fix weak client attraction.

🔴 FLORIAN HEINRICHS

FUTURE OF CONSULTING

Lots of talk about how AI keeps impacting the consulting sector, repricing the work. And some of it is certainly true, too. So, where's it all headed?

STRATEGY

I'm getting more and more questions about my view re. "building 'AI native' consultancies" ... so I thought I'd share my 2 cents here:

Here's How We Help Consultancies

1. Consulting Value Review

A structured, 4 to 6-week, value-proposition-anchored rapid assessment of a consulting firm's growth and performance potential.

Best for:

• Buyers or Investors evaluating the proposition and performance of a consulting firm pre- or post-acquisition/investment

2. Value Maximisation Program

A 10 to 12-week intensive program designed to define, sharpen, and operationalise a firm’s consulting proposition. 

Best for:  

• Boutiques struggling with differentiation & business development
• Practices in large consultancies needing a clearer positioning
• Consulting firms launching new service lines
• Enterprise SaaS companies starting a consulting/service function or needing to improve their current consulting proposition

3. Service Portfolio Optimisation Program

A deep dive into the cohesion, efficiency, and superior client value of a consulting firm’s service portfolio.

Best for:  

• Large consulting firms with too many overlapping or unclear service offerings
• Consulting firm practices seeking to scale profitably by optimising service-market fit

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