Consultancy BenchPress 2020/21 – The results

The Consultancy BenchPress 2020/21, the first survey of independent consultancies turning over £500k – £20m, reveals that despite Covid negatively impacting 79% of consulting businesses, almost half expect revenue to increase in the next 12 months. 

Our report also reveals that the partners of the top 10% of consulting businesses charge themselves out at £4,780 per day. This is more than double the average charge-out rates for partners, and challenges those who are charging less than this, to question why. 

Also in the report are the average day rates, salaries and utilisation rates for every consulting role.

We have produced the benchmarking survey with BenchPress and The Wow Company, and it represents consultancies across the world. It shows that 41% of new clients come from referrals – the most successful way of generating business. In all, consultancies ranked 25 methods of winning new business and the report reveals the top seven.

The full report includes many other unique insights into how to build a profitable, sustainable and valuable consulting business, including the facts that:

• high performing consulting business owners are earning over £/$250,000
• the average consultancy spends just under 5% of its revenue on sales and marketing
• 1 in 4 consultancies has a sales conversion rate of higher than 60%.

Insight into what high performing consultancies are doing, and understanding where you need to prioritise your limited time and resources to improving your performance, has been absent in our market for too long.

Marc Jantzen

Peter Czapp has been benchmarking businesses against their peers for nearly ten years. He is a co-founder of The Consultancy Growth Network and is co-author of the report. “The results of the Consultancy BenchPress 2020/21 give owners of consultancies up to £/$20m reasons to question, challenge and focus their energy on where the opportunities are,” he said. “The data and insights that we’re revealing will take people on a transformational journey that will move them to building a high performing business.”

Marc Jantzen, founder of The Consultancy Growth Network, agrees. “Insight into what high performing consultancies are doing, and understanding where you need to prioritise your limited time and resources to improving your performance, has been absent in our market for too long,” he explains. “As well as presenting the results of the survey, our report is full of recommendations for how to shift your consulting firm’s results, and why. I’m truly excited about how the survey, and the community we have built within The Consultancy Growth Network, are enabling and inspiring owners to learn from experts, collaborate with peers and predict the challenges ahead.”

The abridged results of the Consultancy BenchPress 2020/21 are available via the button below.