CONSULTING FIRMS

The partner should be selling and delivering, not chasing the proposal draft.

A consulting engagement passes through qualification, discovery, scope, proposal, onboarding, delivery, and billing, and the partner is usually the only thread holding them together. We connect those steps so the firm knows what is pending, what is scoped, and what has been billed.

Get the free audit See the five workflows

A day that will sound familiar

A Friday at a boutique consultancy

The managing partner owes four proposals. Two discovery calls happened this week, with notes in two notebooks, and a referral from a board member who emailed on Monday still has no answer. The proposal for the largest opportunity has been open in a tab for three days. It is a copy of last year’s proposal for a different client, and that client’s name is still in the second paragraph.

On the delivery side, the engagement that kicked off two weeks ago is still waiting on the client for data access, and the analyst assigned to it is logging hours against reading old decks. The milestone invoice for the engagement that finished phase one has not gone out because nobody told the office phase one was done. The partner will find all of this on Sunday night, because Sunday night is when she does the chasing.

Five workflows

What changes for consulting firms.

  1. 01Lead qualification

    Today

    Every referral gets a partner call, whether it is a fit or not. Half the calls are with people who cannot buy or are not ready.

    Connected

    Inbound leads answer a few questions about the problem, the timeline, and who decides. Fits get a partner call booked. The rest get a courteous reply and a place on the list for later, with a date to check back.

  2. 02Discovery

    Today

    Notes go into a notebook. The second partner on the call has different notes. Neither set is typed up before the proposal is due.

    Connected

    The discovery call follows a structured form with the questions the firm always asks. The answers become the record the scope is built from, and anyone on the team can read them the same afternoon.

  3. 03Scope and proposal

    Today

    The proposal is a copy of an old one, edited over several evenings, and sent when the partner finds a quiet hour.

    Connected

    The scope draft is built from the discovery record, with phases, deliverables, and the pricing options the firm uses. The partner reviews, edits, and sends. Follow-ups go out on a schedule until there is an answer either way.

  4. 04Client onboarding and project handoffs

    Today

    After the signature, the partner emails the client, emails the team, and books a kickoff. The analyst learns about the engagement from that email.

    Connected

    Signature starts the onboarding: access requests to the client, a project record with the phases, the team assigned, and the kickoff booked. When a phase ends, the next owner gets the handoff with the files, the decisions made, and the open questions.

  5. 05Billing on milestones

    Today

    The invoice goes out when the partner tells the office the phase is done, which is usually a month after it was.

    Connected

    Marking a phase complete builds the milestone invoice from the proposal and sends it. Reminders follow until it is paid, and the partner sees outstanding invoices by client without asking.

Where it breaks

Four places the process usually fails.

  1. THE PARTNER AS THE ONLY THREADEvery step of every engagement routes through one person. When she is in a client meeting, the firm is paused, and she does not know that until Sunday.
  2. THE PROPOSAL COPIED FROM LAST YEARIt is faster than starting from nothing, until the wrong client name gets through, or the scope carries a deliverable nobody discussed on the call.
  3. THE CLIENT WHO HAS NOT SENT ACCESSThe engagement started on paper two weeks ago. The team cannot begin. The hours are being logged anyway, and the milestone date has not moved.
  4. THE INVOICE NOBODY TRIGGEREDPhase one is done. The team knows. The office does not, because the handoff from delivery to billing is a sentence someone forgot to say.

One handoff, before and after

A referral from a board member

Today
  1. The board member emails the partner on Monday with a name and a one-line description of the problem.
  2. The partner means to reply, gets pulled into a client workshop, and replies on Thursday asking for a call.
  3. The call happens the following week. The partner takes notes in a notebook.
  4. The proposal is due in a week. It is started from an old file the night before it is due.
  5. It goes out late with a leftover paragraph from another client, and the follow-up happens when the board member asks how it went.
Connected
  1. The referral becomes a lead record the same day. The prospect gets a reply with a short set of questions and a link to book a call.
  2. The answers show the problem, the timeline, and who decides. The partner sees a qualified lead on the board before the call.
  3. The discovery call runs from the structured form. The answers are on the record by the time the call ends.
  4. The scope draft is built from those answers, with the firm’s phases and pricing options in place. The partner edits it that afternoon.
  5. The proposal goes out within the week. Follow-ups are scheduled, and the board member gets a thank-you without anyone remembering to send it.

What to track

The numbers that tell you whether it is working.

We do not promise a percentage. We show you which numbers to watch, and we measure them before and after.

Questions consulting firms ask us

01What does AI do in a consulting firm, day to day?

It carries the steps between the thinking. The lead is answered and qualified, the discovery answers become the record, the scope draft is built from it, the follow-up goes out, the kickoff is booked, the handoff carries the files, and the milestone invoice is sent when the phase closes. The advice, the analysis, and the price are still yours.

02Every engagement is custom. What is there to build?

The engagement is custom. The path it takes is not. Every one is qualified, discovered, scoped, sold, onboarded, delivered in phases, and billed. We build the connections between those steps and leave the content of the work alone.

03Will it make our proposals look templated?

Less than copying last year’s does now. The draft is built from what the client told you on the discovery call, in your structure, with your pricing options. The partner still writes the parts that win the work. She just stops retyping the parts that do not.

04We are three partners and an analyst. Is this too small to bother with?

That is the size where the partner is the whole process, which is the problem this fixes. A small firm loses the most when one person is the only thread, because there is no one to notice when she is busy.

05How does billing on milestones actually work?

The proposal defines the phases and what each one is worth. When the team marks a phase complete on the project record, the invoice for that phase is built and sent, and the partner is told. Reminders follow on a schedule. No one has to remember to tell the office.

START WITH ONE PROCESS

Bring us the proposal that has been open in a tab for three days.

We will map how it works today, find where it waits or gets repeated, and tell you whether fixing it is worth the effort.

Get the free audit See what we build
  1. The mapOne process in your business, drawn end to end on a single page
  2. The waitEvery place it stalls or gets repeated, and who is carrying it today
  3. The answerWhat fixing it would take, or a straight answer that it is not worth fixing