Grow your consultancy beyond the partners' network

Consultancy is sold on trust, so most firms grow through the network of their partners. That network has limits: it ages, it is busy, and it is the same network your competitors know. Calling companies that go through a change is a way to meet decision makers you would never meet at a reception, as long as the call is about their situation and not about your firm.

The market: a crowded field of mostly independent advisers

The supply side is enormous. According to Eurostat business statistics for 2023, Belgium had 69,932 enterprises in management consultancy, a group that also includes public relations, and the Netherlands 165,656. Most are independents: 58,617 in Belgium and 152,939 in the Netherlands had zero or one person employed. Only 583 Belgian and 1,373 Dutch consultancy firms had 10 or more people. The same Eurostat series counts 114,120 persons employed in Belgian management consultancy and 188,009 in the Netherlands.

For a buyer, that means choice and suspicion at the same time. In a Gartner survey of 632 B2B buyers, 61% preferred to buy without a sales rep and 73% said they actively avoid suppliers who send irrelevant outreach. A consultant who calls has to bring an insight, not a brochure.

The public sector is a large buyer, but under pressure. The Dutch central government reports that external hire fell to 13.1% of personnel spending in 2025, down from 15.4% in 2024, still above its 10% norm, mainly because of demand for ICT specialists and temporary projects. Public work is usually bought through tenders and framework agreements, which a calling team cannot shortcut.

In private companies, decisions sit high. The owner or CEO decides on strategy and organisation, the CFO on finance projects, the HR director on people topics. Larger assignments often go through a selection with two or three firms and a proposal.

Who you call and what you ask

• Owner, CEO or managing director: strategy, growth, organisation and succession.
• CFO or finance director: finance processes, reporting, cost programmes.
• HR director: organisation design, leadership, change.
• COO or operations director: processes, supply chain, efficiency.
• Executive assistant: not a decision maker, but often the key to the agenda.

Trigger events: a new CEO or director, a merger or acquisition, a reorganisation, fast growth or a downturn, new regulation, a project that failed, a succession question, and the budget round for next year.

Discovery questions that work in consultancy:

1. What is the one change that takes most of your attention this year?
2. What have you already tried, internally or with advisers, and what happened?
3. What does it cost you if this stays the same for another year?
4. When do you decide on budgets for next year, and who is involved?
5. What would an adviser need to bring to be worth a first meeting?

A first sentence that works

Open with the change, not with your methods. For example: "I am calling because you announced the acquisition of a competitor, and I wanted to ask how you are bringing the two teams together." It is about something the director is living through right now. If the answer is "we handle that ourselves", ask what would make them bring in outside help, and when they look at that again. Often the honest answer is a moment: after the summer, at the budget round, when the first results are in. That moment becomes the next call. Do not send a long proposal after a first call; a short note with one relevant insight keeps the door open.

Questions like these follow SPIN selling, and a teaching angle works well with executives; see the Challenger Sale applied to cold calling.

What slows a calling team down in this sector

• Gatekeepers. Executive assistants protect the agenda. Be clear, brief and honest about why you call, and ask when to call back.
• Trust takes time. Few executives hire an adviser after one call. The first goal is an exploratory meeting.
• Partners have no time. Billable work wins over new business. A junior caller who books meetings for partners needs a good script.
• Timing and budgets. "Not this year" often means "ask me in the budget round". Plan that call.
• Tenders in the public sector. Government work runs through formal procedures; calling helps you understand needs, not skip the procedure.

What it can bring you: efficiency, money and more

One new client can mean a series of assignments. The table below is an example with assumed numbers, not a forecast. It assumes one caller with 400 call attempts a month for the partners, and a first assignment worth an assumed €40,000.

Your rates will differ, and with long cycles the client in the last row may sign months later. What you can measure is how many conversations turn into meetings per offer and per caller, and which reasons for not interested keep coming back.

Efficiency matters most for partners whose hours are billable. When each call ends with one key and the follow-up call is planned, nobody has to remember who said "call me after the summer". If logging and planning take a minute per call today, 400 calls is close to seven hours a month. Measure your own time before and after, read how to follow up a sales lead, and try the flow in the demo.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

1. Eurostat: Enterprises by size class and NACE Rev.2 activity (sbs_sc_ovw), 2023
2. Eurostat: Enterprises by detailed NACE Rev.2 activity and special aggregates (sbs_ovw_act), 2023
3. Rijksoverheid: Rijksoverheid wordt efficiënter en effectiever, minder externe inhuur (20 May 2026)
4. MarketScreener: Gartner Sales Survey Finds 61% of B2B Buyers Prefer a Rep-Free Buying Experience (Gartner press release, June 2025)