Where to start
Where does growth come from next? Some firms know exactly which part they need help with. Others know something isn't right, but not what. Either way it starts with a conversation - where you're at today, where you want to get to, and what might be in the way.
Growth advisory
Growth in professional services is rarely linear, nor is it easy. Problems and distractions come at equal pace to opportunities, and it’s easy to stay in cruise mode – doing what you’ve always done, because it works. Until it doesn’t. A big client leaves, service line growth slows, you’re losing pitches to firms you shouldn’t, pricing pressure mounts, cross selling is a ‘must do’ but lacks execution, or the pipeline is full, but it's work that’s not brand aligned, or winnable.
Sometimes the strategy itself is the problem. Some firms have one that's gathering dust rather than anchoring decision making. In others it's understood by two or three people, but everyone else is building their own practice in a different direction - a firm of people sitting in the same waka but paddling in different directions.
Growth advisory is helping you navigate whatever the growth challenge or opportunity you might have. You might have a revenue target, or growth horizon in mind – but the path to get there is unclear. It might be a specific problem, or a ‘gut feeling’ that something isn’t working like it should be. You may simply want an independent, experienced voice to join your leadership or governance forums – someone who can bring unclouded judgement, and a relevant perspective.
We’ll start with a conversation to get to the heart of what the problem might be – and work from there.
Growth diagnostic
The Growth Diagnostic examines your growth ecosystem as a whole - strategy, demand, sales execution and client experience, and how the four work together. Most firms will already have a view on where the problem lies, but it can often be a symptom of a different problem. In the diagnostic all four are looked at together - using your data and evidence - and read as one picture.
You'll get a clear read on whether your effort is going where client demand and your own strengths actually meet, where growth might be lost on the way, and what to do about it first. You'll walk away with a short, sequenced set of priorities, with the reasoning laid out well enough that your leaders can interrogate it and get behind it.
The Growth diagnostic is an end-to-end, scoped piece of work, but if there is something specific on your mind that isn't included in the standard scope, it can be added.
Project support
Sometimes you’ve already done the thinking. You know what needs building, and what's missing is expertise (or capacity) to frame it and lead it - someone to work independently or alongside your team, but without adding permanent headcount.
The range is broad. It might be programme design for client feedback, key client or other portfolio programmes. It might be strategic partnerships, or a focus on shifting CRM from admin to intelligence. Or it could look like a discrete piece of work: a go-to-market plan for a new service, an effective bid and pursuit process, or a review of sales governance and processes - the guardrails that your strategy runs on.
Projects are scoped up front, built end to end, and handed over finished, or ready to shift into business as usual.
Fractional and interim
There's a point where growth is still carried by the people who founded the firm - their relationships, their reputation, their diary. Those same people often still manage, lead, sell and deliver too. And a deliberate view of where growth comes from next is usually the first thing to go when everyone's busy, because it's the only item on that list with no deadline attached. Fractional support gives you that senior experience and outside rigour - without the full-time commitment or cost.
Independent challenge and accountability
You're leading the business, managing people, selling and delivering. Your attention is split four ways. Fractional support isn't - growth is the only thing on the list. You'll get an honest outside view to test the direction against, and the accountability to keep it moving, so growth doesn't stall the moment a big project lands.
Growth takes time
Clients rarely buy professional services the week they meet you. They buy from firms they know and trust, and that means being visible, credible and useful long before anything is asked for. Sharpening the proposition, lifting visibility, giving business development sustained attention - none of it pays back quickly. Which is why the work that produces revenue three years from now starts today.
The right experience, where it counts
Selling professional services is its own discipline. Long cycles, several people to convince, and buyers choosing a firm and an outcome they can't inspect in advance. Experience of having done it before means knowing which of that work is worth the investment, and which just looks like progress.
Senior experience, without the full-time cost
A full-time growth hire is a big commitment, and a hard one to time - you're betting on the role, the person and the fit all at once. Fractional support is the lower-risk version. Senior experience at a known cost, no overheads, no permanent salary riding on whether it works, and no time spent learning your market on your budget.
The commitment is agreed up front - a day or two a week, a day or two a month, or something in between. It might grow as you do. It might not.
Interim support while the seat is empty
Same arrangement, different trigger: covering a departure or holding things together while you recruit, so you hire the right person rather than the available one.