The global professional services market is forecast to grow by 6% in 2025

In Source’s latest webinar, Forecasting Client Demand in an Unreliable World, CEO Fiona Czerniawska; Director of Market Trends and Analysis, Catherine Anderson; and Head of Content Emma Carroll, explored how firms can unlock these opportunities by understanding clients’ changing needs.

In the last three months, the market has shifted from uncertainty to unreliability. To help firms grasp what that means for them, we used an analogy about London buses. In an uncertain world, you turn up at the bus stop and wait for it to come. You don’t know when it will arrive, but you might as well wait in the
knowledge that sooner or later it will pull up and you’ll get to where you need to go.

In an unreliable world, you can’t rely on that bus turning up. In fact, some days, that bus doesn’t come at all. What do you do then? You don’t bother going to the bus stop at all. Instead, you take a taxi.

Translate that to professional services, and you’ll see that a shift from an uncertain to an unreliable market is good news for firms. In an uncertain world, clients tend to wait and see before investing, because they’re unsure what might happen. In an unreliable one, assuming the worst, they
need to act.

The crucial question is: “What will clients do next?” Source’s latest data and client conversations provide valuable insight here.

There’s one thing most clients have in common, and that’s a conviction that better technology will be crucial to help them face up to their challenges. Our Market Trends data shows that the topic dominates
discussion at senior levels of client organisations, and it’s likely that investment will follow.

Three of clients’ top five boardroom discussions concern technology

But beyond technology, we also see three groups of clients emerging—each with different priorities, each buying differently.

• Undecided clients are (in our analogy) sitting at the bus stop, crossing their fingers. Their spending priorities are split between exploring emerging technologies and improving their infrastructure, but their consulting spend is likely to stay the same or increase only slightly.
• Frightened clients are panicking about the bus being a no-show and looking for alternate travel routes. These clients present the biggest potential opportunity for firms. Focused on the threats to their businesses, they’re planning to increase their use of external support to lead them through digital transformation and improve their productivity.
• Determined clients have jumped in a taxi because not only do they want to get to their destination, they want to get there early. Demand is likely to be generated at the C-suite level because they’re looking at multidisciplinary strategic projects. This group is likely to spend on external support—but that relies on your firm being proactive, coming to them with ideas for action.

Given all this, we have identified two main areas of opportunity that firms should focus on, which speak to the challenges clients are wrestling with.

1. One involves helping clients build security—think cybersecurity, AI, and other investment to shore up their businesses. Frightened clients are likely to respond well to conversations like this, motivated as they are by a desire for resilience.
2. The other opportunity is to empower clients to seize the initiative. This means not only driving growth for determined clients, but actually showing clients how to move from that frightened mindset to being determined to act.

Today’s market is a tough one, but an informed firm can meet clients where they are, armed with an understanding of the pressures facing buyers and their attitudes to taking action.

What can firms do next?
If you want to understand how shifting macroeconomic forces could impact your unique client base—and what that means for your firm—we’ve got more bespoke insight to share with you. Get in touch to find out how Source can help you anticipate future scenarios and plan with confidence.