Is your business still paying for a room full of consultants?
Consulting firms have sold the same thing for decades. A few senior partners on top. Massive armies of juniors grinding away below. Then an extremely large bill.
Here’s the problem:
Clients are starting to ask a simple question… What am I actually paying for?
More people doesn’t always mean better results.
Technology has transformed project delivery. Activities that once required a team of analysts for weeks can now be accomplished in a matter of hours. This evolution is causing companies to redesign the antiquated model from scratch.
Let’s dig in!
What’s inside this guide:
- How The Traditional Consulting Model Works
- Why Large Teams Are Losing Their Edge
- Senior Expertise vs. Large Teams Compared
- Where Automated CRM Configuration Fits In
- When A Large Team Still Makes Sense
How The Traditional Consulting Model Works
The classic consulting setup is shaped like a pyramid.
Partners are at the very top. They few. They grab the work. They take care of the client. Managers are below them. Then below them is a broad base of junior staff. They do research. Data. Spreadsheets. Slide decks.
Juniors bill like crazy. The firm profits on the difference between what they collect from clients and pay to juniors.
Simple, right?
It served firms well for many years. However, most junior level work these days is being automated with software. Let’s look at CRM projects for instance. Creating fields, pipelines, user roles, workflow rules and more would once occupy an entire team for weeks. Automated CRM configuration now does the majority of that work in minutes. You can watch that process in action here. The beauty of that is now one senior level expert can lead the CRM configuration and the software can automate the repetitive build tasks.
That changes the maths for everyone.
Why Large Teams Are Losing Their Edge
Consulting’s largest firms have already taken note. Across the industry many have quietly reduced graduate intakes over the last year as machines automate junior-level work.
Why does this matter to you?
The pyramid was originally designed with the intention of having juniors occupied. If tools are now doing that job, then the additional headcount on your project team isn’t worth as much.
Think about it:
The bigger the group, the more meetings. The more handovers. The more people you need to “update.” Each layer takes time. Each layer increases cost.
And here’s the kicker…
Software will process data quicker than any fresh grad ever will. But it will never replicate experience gained from years of managing actual projects. Senior experience is where its at.
Senior Expertise vs. Large Teams Compared
So how do the two models actually stack up? Here is a quick breakdown.
Speed
Experts have encountered most situations previously. They know what steps are important and which aren’t worth doing. You don’t have to wait around for a junior to look something up.
Big teams are slower. Work filters through many people before it gets to the client, and each change in ownership adds latency.
Cost
With big teams you pay the salary price of every junior learning on the project. That salary is often disguised through long timelines and inflated day rates.
Hourly rates are higher for a lean senior team. However, the overall cost is typically less because they work faster and make fewer errors.
Quality Of Advice
This is the big one.
Senior consultants provide pattern recognition. They can identify a risk early and navigate away from it. Juniors are intelligent, but they just haven’t experienced enough projects to recognize those risks.
Here’s a quick side-by-side:
- Large teams: more people, more layers, slower decisions
- Senior teams: fewer people, direct access to experts, faster decisions
Pretty clear, right?
Where Automated CRM Configuration Fits In
CRM projects are one of the best examples of this shift in action.
Implementing a CRM successfully is difficult. Studies have found that 55% of CRM implementations fail to achieve their intended targets. And it’s not usually the software’s fault.
Most failures come down to:
- Poor planning
- Low user adoption
- A system that doesn’t match how the business really works
Bigger teams do not solve these problems. Adding more humans tends to exacerbate disagreement about system requirements.
This is where the senior-led model wins.
A consultant focuses your time on the areas that require human intervention. Mapping out your sales process, ensuring team adoption and identifying critical data are just some examples. The actual build is automated through CRM configuration. Fields, stages, security and automation are implemented rapidly and uniformly.
The expert thinks. The automation builds.
There are much worse ways to spend your money than hiring a senior expert…like having an intern squad run clicks through menus for weeks.
When A Large Team Still Makes Sense
Now, this doesn’t mean large teams are dead.
There are still projects where you need plenty of hands on deck. For example:
- Global rollouts across many countries and time zones
- Huge change programmes that affect thousands of staff
- Projects with lots of stakeholders who all need regular support
In these scenarios there are auxiliary personnel performing coordination and training functions. However even in these situations the best formula remains a robust senior core with automation performing the rote tasks. The group will be larger but should remain lean where it matters.
Match the team to the problem…. Not problem to the team.
The Bottom Line On Consulting Teams
The old model of consulting pyramids is dying. Automation has replaced the manpower needed to do rote tasks. Clients are realizing what they’re actually being sold.
For the majority of projects, you can get away with a handful of senior experts with the proper tooling behind them.
- Faster results: fewer handovers and quicker decisions
- Lower total costs: no paying for junior learning curves
- Better advice: real experience guiding every choice
So before you sign off on your next big consulting project, ask one question…
Do you need more people, or do you need the right people?
Buying automated CRM configuration coupled with senior expertise for CRM work above all else is one of the best investments a company can make these days.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is automated CRM configuration?
Automated CRM configuration refers to utilizing software to configure a CRM application. Automated configuration software builds out fields, pipelines, user roles, workflows etc., without having to manually configure large amounts of items within a project team.
Is a senior consulting team more expensive?
Hourly rate is normally higher. Projects get done quicker with less errors, which typically ends up costing less than a bigger team.