APQC’s analysis of consulting procurement practices finds that pricing pressure should be less intense in 2013. In 2012, 94 percent of organizations surveyed by APQC said they expected larger fee discounts (below book rates) than the year before; that percentage plummets to 14 percent in 2013.…

Selling consulting services to a former consultant requires a different mindset than when pitching a project to someone who has never sat on your side of the negotiating table. APQC’s analysis of 72 organizations’ consulting procurement practices found some key distinctions you should be aware of…

Of course the headline’s promise is a vast overstatement. And as a result, the credible advice I share with you below will be a letdown, which is ironically the point of this blog. While there are certainly notable exceptions, the IT consulting marketplace has had more than its share of…

The consulting profession’s largest firms--the multi-billion dollar global firms that offer services across multiple industries, geographies, and market segments--have brand awareness levels as much as twice that of the average firm. However, the relative likelihood that a client will hire them isn…

It’s all a matter of perspective. Countless books, reports, and journal articles lament the decline of the consulting profession, couching this grim forecast in phrases like the “end of big ideas.” Instead of writing the profession’s obituary, APQC has reached a different conclusion after…

The rise in sophistication among buyers of consulting services isn’t just changing what they’ll buy or what they prioritize when forming and narrowing down short lists (as we’ve reported in this blog the last two months). Today’s clients are radically changing how they expect to pay for consulting…

For professional services firms, knowing what clients value in a consulting firm—and crafting the message accordingly—can be the difference between winning and losing an engagement. To that end, APQC asked senior procurement and C-level executives to prioritize what they value when hiring a…

After several years of selling mostly cost-cutting work, many consulting firms refocused their market positioning around growth-related projects. Who are the best prospects? Conventional wisdom would say that companies experiencing high, double-digit, growth should be the ones most willing to…

Turnabout is fair play: Consultants spent decades helping companies squeeze out every bit of margin across supply chains and within their internal operations. Now, consultants are the vendors feeling the vice clamps. The last decade was bookended by two downturns, both of which led consultants to…

As demand for consulting improves, consulting leaders are becoming increasingly worried they won’t have as many consultants as they’ll need to meet future demand. And they have every reason to be concerned. Partners are sharing with me that they’re already finding it harder to recruit consultants…