Client confidence is on shaky ground—here’s why and how your firm can help

How confident do consulting clients feel today?

Regular readers of our research know that we segment the clients of consulting and professional services firms into three categories. “Frightened” clients—currently the largest group—see the world they operate in as being fundamentally unreliable. The old rules of engagement have evaporated; even the worst-case scenario is plausible. Because they don’t think the world can revert to where it was a year or so ago, they’re taking far-reaching decisions about their business at breakneck speed—and consequently 60% expect their use of external support to increase significantly over the next two years. “Determined” clients view the world in very much the same terms as frightened ones, but their response is different: They believe they have the capacity to deal with the challenges this new world order creates. Forty-seven percent of determined clients expect their use of external support to increase significantly. Our third category of client is the “undecided”, those who still think they inhabit a world that is simply uncertain, one that will go back to normal at some point, if only they wait. In contrast to the heavy spenders of the “determined” group, only 13% of “undecided” clients expect to significantly up their consulting usage.

The distribution of these three client groups has varied wildly over the last three to four years, as the chart below illustrates. Although the proportion of “determined” clients had been growing from its tariff-induced nadir in 2025, it fell back again last quarter following the outbreak of war in the Gulf region. At the time that we started measuring clients’ confidence in relation to the turbulent macroeconomic and geopolitical landscape (Q1 2023), two thirds of clients were “undecided”. They didn’t know how to react—not unreasonably. That proportion has now shrunk to just over a quarter, while the proportion of frightened clients has gone from a fifth at the start of 2023 to almost half today.

What factors have a negative impact on client confidence?

We ask clients why their confidence has fallen.

In Q2 this year, 36% attributed it to rising costs, 21 percentage points higher than in Q1 2023—and a salutary reminder of just how significantly the economic pressures that clients are under have increased over this timeframe.

Other factors have been more constant: Changing consumer behaviour that puts pressure on sales; whether an organisation’s overseas operations make it vulnerable to political volatility; and the extent to which clients are short of key skills. One factor has become less of a problem: Back at the start of 2023, there were real fears that the supply of raw materials and components would be disrupted. The investment many organisations have made to secure alternative sources and to change appears to have relieved that particular pressure.

But there are factors that have become increasingly influential in determining clients’ confidence:

• As we’ve noted in previous updates, the lack of reliable and timely information is having a significant negative impact on clients. That’s not surprising: Being able to understand in real-time the impact of political and economic unreliability on an organisation is key to identifying alternative courses of action.
• Without useful, up-to-date data, decision making takes longer and, our data suggests, this eats into executives’ confidence about their ability to develop and execute new strategies.
• Both these factors make it harder for leadership teams to respond effectively and quickly—and, of course, this creates a vicious circle in which it becomes less likely that organisations will have the right information and will be able to take decisions promptly.

What are the implications for consulting and professional services firms?

Everything begins with data, so it’s no surprise that companies that lead with data and can bring proprietary tools that rapidly extract and analyse information in ways that can transform clients’ understanding of their own organisation—and at speed—will have a material advantage.

The “tip of the spear”, the entry point of so much consulting and professional services work in the past, has been relationships. And, despite all the efforts of procurement when buying and selling such services, relationships remain critically important today. But relationships are not enough: To succeed in the current, tumultuous environment, firms need to combine deep relationships with the ability to pull together actionable data about specific clients and present this in a way that doesn’t simply impress in the moment, but will bring clients back again and again.

What can firms do next?

We forecast data & analytics to be one of the strongest growth areas for consulting in the year ahead. Use our market-sizing data to understand more about how client demand is set to play out.

Source’s MegaModel is the largest and most comprehensive database of its kind, anywhere in the world. It’s built from the bottom up, sizing the global consulting market capability by capability. To speak to an expert who can provide insight tailored to your specific needs, contact us.