Be careful how you price a professional service
Our latest data about the pricing of consulting services suggests that the recent, ferocious pressure on fee rates may be stabilising, most likely because of alternative pricing methods and because consulting firms are offering substantial discounts. We posit three ways in which consulting and other professional services firms can respond while fee pressure remains high.
All the way through 2024 our research has highlighted the extent to which clients, who badly need to invest but lack the budgets to do so, have put immense pressure on the fee rates of consulting and other professional services firms. But the tide, while not actually turning, may at least have stopped coming in. A recent survey of 550 senior executives indicates that 39% of clients expect prices to fall. This is still significantly higher than the pre-pandemic level of price pressure, but is lower than much of the other data we’ve gathered so far this year and is very similar to last year’s level (36%).