The shift to fear: How can firms win work from the rising number of worried clients?

Before heading into the detail, it’s worth pausing to explain how we define frightened clients. Every quarter, we ask business leaders to what extent the macroeconomic situation and political tensions have impacted their confidence to invest in their business. For the purpose of this blog we classify them as follows: Those whose confidence has been significantly impacted we term frightened, those whose confidence has not changed we deem confident, and those who fall in between we call undecided. It’s valuable information, because we’ve seen that this mindset impacts a client’s appetite to spend on consulting and what they will buy. 

While the rise in frightened clients is alarming at first glance, the good news for consultants (and by extension for the economy) is that our data shows frightened clients are the most likely to spend with firms. It may seem counterintuitive, but while 40% of clients overall expect to increase their use of consultants significantly over the next two years, this jumps to 56% when looking only at frightened clients. And, perhaps even more significantly, none of the frightened clients we surveyed expected to decrease their use of consulting.

Winning work from frightened clients 

While frightened clients are prepared to pay for external support, that doesn’t mean they’ll be spending in a cavalier manner or buying whatever’s put in front of them. These clients have self-identified as being wary of investing and will need to be reassured that they are spending wisely. Here, we offer four factors to consider when selling to these businesses. 

1. Speak to the barriers they are facing
Clients often complain that firms don’t fully understand their specific business, industry, or the pressures they are facing, and to win their trust it’s crucial to acknowledge their most urgent challenges. Frightened clients see large, complicated barriers standing in their way, with their own operating models—the very way they create value—actually constraining them. Frightened clients also say hybrid working is acting as a brake on progress, regulation is slowing them down, and their supply chains (complicated by challenges round tariffs and deglobalisation) are a problem. To win their trust, account managers and consulting teams will need to talk about these issues and put them at the centre of their pitches. 

The top five most significant barriers preventing frightened clients achieving their goals

 1. We need to rethink our business model 
 2. Internal hybrid working arrangements 
 3. Changing regulatory landscape
 4. Disruption to our supply chain
 5. Our ambitions exceed our tech capabilities 

2. Understand where these clients will be looking for support
When it comes to the particular services frightened clients say they are likely to buy, financial management is the top choice, selected by 24% of clients—and this is a solution that will help them navigate volatility in the short term. Risk management and productivity improvement also come in their top five. These are services that target resilience and performance in both the short and medium term. However, if they have confidence in their consulting partner, these clients will also be willing to invest in longer-term solutions, with business strategy work and projects around exploiting the opportunities of AI still high on their wish list. (As an aside, it is worth noting that although these clients flag their operating models as a barrier, they don’t expect to be reaching out for support in this area specifically, and this is a topic we will come back to in a future edition of this Leadership Market Update series).  

3. Deliver ROI upfront
Firms hoping to win work from frightened clients will need to pitch for the right projects, but they will also need to deliver them in the right way. While all clients want evidence of concrete value being created, frightened ones will be particularly sensitive here, and so any past projects you can point to that delivered compelling results, particularly in their sector, will be useful.  

These clients will also want to see measurable value being delivered upfront and throughout the lifetime of any project and won’t be willing (or able) to wait until the end for a big, and uncertain, payoff.  

4. Explain why waiting won’t work
Finally, while the data shows that frightened clients are willing to spend, they will likely need encouragement to take decisive action, rather than waiting a little longer to see if things improve. In today’s unreliable market, here at Source, we are convinced that waiting things out is no longer a viable option, and frightened clients believe this too: Sixty-six percent of them think the volatility will last three years or more.

Another compelling argument for action is that even if you are standing still, the market won’t be. Frightened clients say that changing consumer behaviour and increasing competition are putting pressure on them, and it’s worth reminding them that their customers and competitors could move beyond their grasp if they remain frozen to the spot. 

Ultimately, the leaders of these under-pressure businesses accept that they need to draw on external experts to help guide them through this challenging time, but they’ll need to be convinced that you’re the right firm to work with. Speaking to the barriers they face, the services they need, and the concrete results you have delivered will put you high up on their list. And then, if they feel they can trust you, you’ll have the opportunity to convince them that it’s time to take the leap. 

Questions firms should ask themselves? 

• How are the confidence levels of my existing clients changing, and how might this alter their needs? 
• Are we delivering results rapidly enough to reassure frightened clients? 
• How can we elevate our relationship management to build more trust?  
• What thought leadership topics and formats will resonate most with frightened clients? 

What can firms do next? 

In today’s volatile market, client needs are evolving faster than ever. To build trust, strengthen relationships, and stay competitive, professional services firms must be able to anticipate and respond to these changes at pace. Source’s Business Leader’s Voice Programme will allow you to do just that, with access to an ongoing stream of executive-level interviews and expert-led analysis. If you’d like to hear more, get in touch.