Best Practices In Consulting: Recommendations from Women In Consulting Annual Survey

Now in its 17th year, the Women In Consulting (WIC) Best Practices Recommendations for Successful Consulting   have been used by scores of consultants as a source for insights on what drives success for their consulting businesses.

The recommendations are from a professional survey, run annually, that takes an in-depth look at the state of best practices across consulting firms. All consultants, including those beyond the WIC community, are invited to participate in this confidential survey.

All survey participants, as well as WIC Premier and Leaders Network members, receive:

• A free copy of the survey report when it is published.
• Membership into a Community dedicated to discussing how to put these best practices in place
• Access to a complete overview of the results in video format
• Exclusive access to interviews with consultants who have used these best practices and reveal their successes and challenges.

If you are not a Premier or Leaders Network member of WIC or did not participate in this year’s survey, you can purchase a copy of the report here and also receive access to the community and the interviews.

Members may access the report, community access, and interviews here.

“It’s hard to believe this is the 16th year WIC has run our consulting best practices survey. Over the years, it’s offered interesting insights into the evolution of consulting businesses, such as revenue and profitability trends and fees, consulting expertise and specialties, business structure and operations. These in turn help our WIC community and beyond gain critical insights in how to streamline operations and drive growth of their consultancies.” 

Ellen Grace Henson, Marketing Mechanics
WIC President, 2017-2019

Research Scope

The survey asks detailed questions about strategies and tactics consultants used to more effectively manage and drive growth for their businesses in the previous calendar year. These include:

• Total revenues, fee types, and profit
• Challenges faced
• Best practices to generate new business
• Use of social media and online marketing
• Number of subcontractors used

News

WIC President Ellen Grace Henson and past WIC President Deb Siegle unveiled the results of the 2018 survey at our June 21, 2018 General Meeting.

The 2018 report was released in September 2018. Access it here. 

Here are words of wisdom from a few of our survey respondents: 

“Network with a Passion.”“Network with a Passion.”
“Word of mouth is everything. Never burn bridges or leave a bad impression."
"Be direct. Be honest. But be respectful.”
“Value people. Clients, vendors, freelancers... it’s all about relationships.”
“I can trace about half my income last year to WIC in some fashion or other
(referral, direct subcontractor, etc.)”

Special thanks to Women In Consulting volunteers

Deb Siegle, Strategic Marketing Solutions, managed the project overall in addition to doing deep and broad analysis, identifying differentials and trends
and helping shape the themes.

Jen Berkley Jackson, The Insight Advantage, has been involved for almost all of the 16 years Women In Consulting has conducted this research. She helped define the flow, programmed the survey, and created data tables.

Tish Millsap, Revenate Marketing, contributed some different perspectives with her analysis of statistical significance.

Ellen Grace Henson, Marketing Mechanics, had the great pleasure to review, consolidate and analyze the qualitative data.

The 2018 final report was produced by:

Gabriela Martínez, Texto Graphic Design. This is the seventh year Gabriela has been responsible for layout and design.

Cecily Whiteside, Sora Creative Imagining, was the report writer, helping to organize the report flow and tell the story of the research findings.