Remove the guesswork: Set targets with market evidence on your side

If you run a consultancy, you know how planning meetings often go. With time tight and other priorities competing, the ‘planning’ is, at best, based on last year’s figures and some hunches about shifting dials for next year. You leave with targets you hope to hit.

But hope is not a plan. Numbers backed up by evidence is.

The 5th annual Consultancy BenchPress 2025 report gives consultancy leaders what they need to swap opinion-led planning for evidence-led planning. The benchmarks are based on the latest research of boutique consulting firms in UK&I and provide board-ready data and insights to help your leadership team align quickly, set confident targets, and get on with execution.

Why this matters now

Astute firms are starting to plan for 2026. You don’t need our research to know the market is tougher. What the data shows is the growing gap between evidence-led and opinion-led planning. One group moves with clarity. The other gets stuck in busywork and second-guessing.

When I was growing my consultancy, I wanted to be in the first group. I wished I could go into every planning meeting with market evidence on my side: data that supported our plans and gave us realistic targets to aim for, plus insights to help us reach our potential.

The headlines

Our research found one trait that doubles your chances of fast growth and high profitability.

Here are three of 27 headlines and data points you will find in the latest Consultancy BenchPress report:

• Profitability: The average gross margin (GM) of boutique consultancies is 41%, and the average operating profit (OP) is 13%. Your planning meeting takeaway: You should be aiming for 50%+ GM. [And by the way, the top-performing consultancies in UK&I are hitting 61%+.]
• AI and governance: 84% of consultancies in UK&I use AI. Whole-business adoption links to +9% on GM and OP. Yet only 14% have an AI strategy. Your planning meeting takeaway: running without AI guardrails is risky – can you really afford to not have an AI strategy?
• The biggest differentiator: Our research found that one trait doubles your chances of fast growth (26%+ revenue growth) and high profitability (61%+ GM). Only 17% have this trait. Read the report to see what it is and how you can use it.

What to do in your next planning meeting

If I were running my consultancy right now , I would prioritise getting my leadership team together for 30 minutes with the Consultancy BenchPress 2025 report in front of each of us. We would make decisions, not debate.

Here’s what our agenda would be:

1. Agree three outcomes. Growth rate, gross margin, operating profit.
2. Anchor to the market. Put our numbers next to the Consultancy BenchPress ranges. Let the data do the heavy lifting.
3. Pick one lever per outcome. Tighten pricing discipline. Clarify our resourcing approach and optimise it. Adopt fit-for-purpose PSA to lift utilisation. Approve an AI policy and run a short team training programme.
4. Turn levers into commitments. Decide who owns what, what changes we want by quarter-end and when we will review progress.

Where the leverage really sits

You don’t control the market. You do control scope, price dicipline and role clarity

Here’s how you can achieve what you’re aiming for:

1. Resource strategy: pick a lane. Hybrid by accident erodes control. Decide what you are optimising for, then build the operating habits to match. Clarity beats compromise.
2. Profit levers you control. You do not control the market. You do control scope, price discipline, role clarity and what you say no to. Set practical targets, track them, and tune weekly.
3. Proposition clarity wins. Be specific about who you serve, the problem you solve and the outcome you deliver. Then price and deliver to that promise. Clear beats clever.

Here is a real example of a consultancy who grew by building a niche:

Ready to plan with evidence?

Download the BenchPress report, run the 30-minute leadership meeting above, and if you want a sounding board, get in touch.

Book a call with Oli

Want even more benchmarks?

For a deeper view that sharpens your decisions, the full 55-page BenchPress report (exclusive to TCGN members and survey completers) includes:

• Role-by-role day rates so you can price with evidence, not instinct.
• Utilisation by role with year-on-year shifts and the “power of 1%” calculator that shows how a 1% utilisation gain drives a ~20% uplift in operating profit.
• Overheads as a percentage of revenue distribution and guidance on where profit improvement really comes from.
• Owner remuneration bands across boutiques of different sizes.
• Salary and compensation by role with year-on-year changes, to inform your review cycles.
• Gross margin on associates plus three practical ways top firms improve it.
• Time-tracking and resource-management adoption across firms, including how many fully track time and what tools they use.
• Most-used AI tools by consultants and several resources on how to harness AI for the best ROI