What drives development at at this time’s quickest rising consulting corporations?
For over a decade, we’ve been asking this query and discovering the solutions in our annual Excessive Progress Research. Since its inception, this analysis challenge has tracked the evolving advertising methods of profitable consulting corporations. The 2025 Excessive Progress Research: Consulting Version reveals the important components that separate at this time’s quickest rising consulting corporations from the remainder of the pack.
In at this time’s weblog submit, we’ll share just a few of the findings of this yr’s analysis report on consulting corporations. You should buy the complete analysis report on your firm right here.
The Quickest Rising Consulting Firms
Immediately’s consulting corporations are wrestling with a number of points, a lot of which have been with them for years, equivalent to worth sensitivity, a expertise scarcity, generational modifications within the workforce, and the necessity to develop new abilities. However in addition they face challenges distinctive to this second.
The 2025 Excessive Progress Research supplies a complete evaluation of those challenges and the methods that Excessive Progress corporations make use of to beat them.
Regardless of the numerous challenges confronted by companies that promote consulting companies, the Excessive Progress corporations grew at a powerful clip: at the very least 20% compound annual development charge over a three-year analysis interval. They characterize simply over a 3rd of the pattern of 384 consulting corporations who participated within the research.
With a development charge of 41.7%, the Excessive Progress corporations grew 4.4 instances sooner than common—a major enchancment over final yr’s efficiency, when median development for the top-performing cohort was 35%.
What can we study from these quick rising corporations? How are they responding to the challenges of at this time’s market? Which advertising methods do they make use of? Let’s check out a few of the findings from the complete research.
Discovering 1: AI and Automation Lead the Dialog
For the previous 5 years, a thrum of uncertainty has rattled the consulting companies panorama. In 2025, unpredictability remains to be with us, although its vibrations have diminished a bit to make means for a brand new seismic wave: the breakout of synthetic intelligence (AI).
In accordance with our knowledge, the consulting trade is grappling with incorporating AI and automation into their companies. This problem was reported to be the primary problem dealing with consulting corporations at this time.
Your complete consulting trade is attempting to determine how AI goes to have an effect on their operations, service supply, and advertising. AI guarantees to remodel consulting—with all of the alternatives and threats that include disruptive change.
On the similar time, AI is altering the way in which companies are marketed. Whether or not or not these guarantees are saved stays to be seen, however AI’s sharp ascent to prominence is actually outstanding. It’s no shock that AI has shot to the highest of corporations’ checklist of largest challenges.
Discovering 2: Content material Creation Is Right here to Keep
Like final yr (and the yr earlier than), creating content material stays the highest advertising precedence for Excessive Progress consulting corporations.
In a pool of choices together with over a dozen choices (together with partnership advertising, advertising expertise, purchaser journey mapping, creating thought leaders, and extra), the Excessive Progress consulting corporations chosen creating content material as their prime advertising precedence for 2025.
Clearly, content material advertising continues to play a significant position in these corporations’ success.
Excessive Progress consulting corporations perceive that producing instructional, useful content material showcases their thought leaders and builds belief with potential shoppers. This method aligns with a number of key findings from the 2025 Excessive Progress Research. Content material advertising serves as a strong engine for producing digital leads, utilizing priceless, skilled insights to seize the eye of potential consumers. It additionally enhances the usage of case tales, which might present particular examples, and context, additional demonstrating a agency’s capabilities (see Discovering 4 beneath).
By persistently delivering high-quality content material, corporations can differentiate their model in a aggressive market and set up themselves as thought leaders. That is notably essential within the face of rising competitors from new corporations and the evolving panorama of AI. Content material creation additionally supplies tangible metrics for measuring advertising effectiveness, permitting corporations to trace web site visitors, content material downloads, and social media engagement. Briefly, content material builds belief, generates leads, demonstrates experience, and positions a agency as an trade chief.
Discovering 3: Excessive Progress Consulting Corporations Generate Digital Leads
Excessive Progress consulting corporations generate a good portion of leads digitally—and notably greater than their friends within the No Progress class. They obtain about 40% of their leads on-line. Digital leads come from varied sources, together with web site contact varieties, content material advertising, social media, webinars, and digital promoting.
This can be a benchmark for digital lead technology, however we consider it might—and doubtless ought to—be greater. As you may see intimately within the full report, even Excessive Progress corporations haven’t achieved the best ranges of digital maturity with consistency. As that scenario improves, we anticipate this quantity to extend.
Discovering 4: Consulting Corporations Use Detailed Case Tales in Their Advertising and marketing and Enterprise Improvement
Once we take a look at which methods are used most frequently by the quickest rising consulting corporations, creating and publishing case tales got here in second—a discovering distinctive to the consulting trade.
What does this inform us about how these corporations attraction to their consumers? Case tales reveal previous efficiency and showcase success in a related and compelling format. They construct belief and resonate with potential shoppers. They supply tangible proof of experience. Additionally they present the influence of companies. By highlighting particular consumer challenges and profitable outcomes, case tales present a strong strategy to reveal the worth of a agency’s companies.
How accessible are your agency’s case tales? Are they revealed in your web site? Do you function the tales in your different advertising supplies? Have you ever tried delivering them in different codecs, equivalent to video?
Discovering 5: Excessive Progress Consulting Corporations Outsource Specialised Advertising and marketing Duties
Outsourcing specialised advertising abilities is a technique Excessive Progress consulting companies have used for a few years. On this yr’s report, we see that Excessive Progress consulting corporations outsource abilities extra typically than their No Progress friends in almost each class we measured.
Topping the checklist are net design, search engine optimisation, video manufacturing, and graphic design.
Outsourcing supplies entry to specialists, the newest instruments, and cost-effective options. Excessive-quality outsourced suppliers will prioritize transparency about their outcomes, making it simpler to measure your return on funding. Ensure you rent companies or consultants that know your trade.
Discovering 6: Measuring and Using Advertising and marketing Metrics is a Mess
A brand new addition to this yr’s analysis was a query asking corporations to charge their proficiency in capturing and using advertising and enterprise growth metrics. The info tells a transparent story: This can be a large problem for consulting organizations.
Whereas the quickest rising corporations did report a better degree of proficiency than Low Progress corporations, the distinction was marginal. Three quarters of Low Progress corporations have low proficiency in utilizing metrics, in comparison with 60% of Excessive Progress corporations. This discovering highlights an enormous weak point in each teams.
We requested those that reported low or some proficiency why they gave their ranking. Frequent solutions included time constraints, lack of devoted personnel, funds limitations, outdated expertise, and difficulties in connecting knowledge throughout platforms.
No skilled companies marketer will inform you that monitoring metrics is unimportant. However what’s clear from the info is that there’s a lot of labor to be carried out on this entrance.
Dive Deeper with the Full Report
These findings provide a glimpse into the methods of the quickest rising consulting corporations in 2025. The complete 2025 Excessive Progress Research: Consulting Companies Version supplies a complete evaluation of the components driving success in at this time’s market. It presents detailed insights, data-driven suggestions, and actionable methods. This report is a useful useful resource for any consulting agency that wishes to thrive within the face of change. Able to dive deeper and unlock the secrets and techniques of excessive development? Get the complete report right here.
