Many consulting businesses don’t have formal sales teams.

Many consulting businesses don’t have formal sales teams.

Founders, partners, or key senior staff handle lead generation, client acquisition, and account development.

And for this reason a lot of the advice around building or optimising a sales team feels misaligned with their day-to-day reality.

That's because:

🤝 Lead generation is heavily reliant on referrals, relationships, and reputation ... rather than direct sales tactics.

🤐 Clients prefer consultative selling that delivers trust and value in advance, not a traditional sales pitch.

💡 Expanding key accounts relies on deep, productive client relationships where improvement ideas are identified in partnership.

And those same advisors might tell you it's everyones job to sell.

That's nonsense.

What's essential is aligning everyone with growth objectives and supporting well thought out new business and account growth processes. But not everyone in the organisation is, or should be, directly responsible for selling. The trick is creating a commercially aware culture that supports growth and those responsible for sales.

Develop sales-capable teams, not pitch jockeys.