Growth consultants
Business development
Unlock growth with insight-led business development consulting services
Strategic business development for professional services firms
Sustainable growth isn’t just about acquiring new clients – it’s about deepening relationships, identifying untapped opportunities, and positioning your firm as an industry leader.
Excellent business development leverages your brand health and creates prosperous client relationships.
This starts with deeply understanding client needs and the effective communication of the value you bring through addressing them, such as in responding to RFPs and tenders. Knowing when and how to proactively reach out to clients with opportunities and valuable ideas is the key differentiator of profitable professional services firms.
The Beaton framework and approach teaches your team and practitioners how to pick the right clients and nurture the right business ideas. It is built on decades of practical experience and research.
Contact Us
Find how we can help you win more business and strengthen client relationships.
Beaton's BD consulting services
Key account management
Embed growing existing client relationships into the way your firm works with a whole-of-firm approach. Our key account management (KAM) development program help you unlock more value from your top clients, increasing retention, cross-selling opportunities, and long-term revenue.
BD training
workshops
Up-skill your teams to hold better, more valuable conversations with your clients. Backed by 20 years of client research, our interactive sessions teach professionals how to identify opportunities, strengthen client relationships, and improve cross-selling.
One-on-one
coaching
Develop the BD confidence and competence of individual professionals through on-going coaching with a Beaton partner. Through regular tailored sessions, we’ll work together to pinpoint the right opportunities, create a clear plan, and follow up to review progress. Each session builds on the last, ensuring you refine your approach, learn from real experiences, and embed new habits.
Did you know...
How our business development consultants help firms grow?
Beaton’s business development consultants help professional services firms grow by providing data-driven insights, tailored training, and proven strategies to win and retain clients.
With over two decades of client research, we know what clients value and how they make buying decisions. Our experts work closely with your team to refine BD strategies, improve client conversations, and develop a structured approach to relationship-building.
By focusing on practical, actionable skills, we help firms turn BD from an ad-hoc effort into a core business function that drives long-term success.
Our consultants equip professionals with the confidence and tools to generate new business, cross-sell effectively, and strengthen client loyalty. Through benchmarking, workshops, and key account management diagnostics, we identify gaps and opportunities, ensuring your firm invests in the BD activities that deliver real results.
Find the right clients now
Book a free consultation with us to get an outline of how our business development approach can lift your firm to new heights.
Who do we do it for?
Over many years we have developed frameworks for professional services firms of varying sizes. Our extensive experience in the built and environmental consulting professions and with legal, accounting, management consulting and IP specialists gives you a running start.
Why trust us with your business development?
Our approach is based on evidence and experience and benefits from our exclusive professional services focus. We understand your business models, how the marketing and BD function works and can tailor our frameworks to suit your needs.
Business development helps your firm win more work and lift profitability from the clients you actually want to work with. You can become proactive in your search for quality clients and key prospects that can develop into long-term business relationships. Develop your skills in closing deals and become confident that your team is equipped to help your firm grow.
What our clients say about us
""With the huge focus on trust in our profession, Beaton’s new benchmarking report provides Grant Thornton invaluable insights into our trust and reputation. This data, where we can compare to competitors, helps us understand how we most effectively deepen our clients’ trust in us. The clear presentation and analysis make the report easy to understand. We use this actionable data to train our people and inform our strategy. We highly value Beaton’s experience and expertise.""
Fraser McNaughton
Chief Marketing Officer & Head of Industry, Grant Thornton
""We can't improve what we don't ourselves measure and Beaton’s research provides us with the evidence and measures. Every business that wants to improve customer service needs this benchmarking.""
Ralph Fouche
ANZ Regional Leader, Stantec
""Objective market feedback is invaluable to our firm – it provides insight that shapes our business now, and for the future. The information we gain from Beaton offers unbiased insights into what matters most to our clients, supporting our ambition to become trusted advisors.""
Andrew Poole
Chief Executive, MinterEllisonRuddWatts
"“We’ve tracked our progress over many years and each year Beaton Benchmarks has helped us focus in on particular themes to drive improvement. A few years ago, for example, we had a major push on responsiveness and what that meant for our clients. It is particularly helpful to have insights across the funnel – from awareness through to repeat business.”"
Tim Gordon
Executive Partner, Gilbert + Tobin
"“Beaton Benchmarks has been a valuable tool in helping us improve our client service by providing us with valuable insights into our clients' needs and expectations. These reports are rich in data and we use them to inform strategy, marketing, business development and pricing decisions … The reports have enabled us to benchmark our performance against our competitors and identify areas where we can improve our services. The reports have also helped us identify areas where we excel. By understanding our strengths, we can continue to focus on these areas and differentiate ourselves in the market.”"
Jamie O’Rourke
Chief Executive Partner, RSM
"“Our goals for next year will focus on what’s important to our clients. To do this we will analyse the feedback from the Beaton survey, and break down the customer journey into stages … We are able to see what is important to the client and focus on how we can improve their experience. This covers all aspects of our business, including training, resources, people, culture.” "
Brett Lunn
FB Rice, Managing Partner
""We find it all valuable – providing a holistic view of our brand, performance and market. The personalised debriefs assist in elevating the information to our senior leaders and help dissect the data and identify meaningful actions."
Read the full case study"
Leigh Burnett
Head of Client Experience, Australia and New Zealand, AECOM
