“Platform-based consulting” is a phrase that gets used a lot at the moment, and it tends to mean different things to different people. This session set out to pin it down. There are broadly two versions: always-on retainers that combine a platform, data, and advisory support, and internal platform teams built inside a firm. The focus here was on the first - the retainer-based, data-embedded, always-on advisory model - explored with two people who have run it for real.
Honeycomb’s Deri Hughes is joined by Tim Beattie, founder of Stellafai, and Adam Schaffer, who built a customer loyalty and analytics consultancy.
What’s covered:
The two competing definitions of platform-based consulting, and why the session focused on the always-on advisory model rather than internal platform teams.
The prerequisite most firms skip: standardising your proposition and your analysis before anything can be productised.
Why trust and a shared focus on outcomes, not one-off projects, are the foundation of any retained model.
Pricing principles - value-based pricing tied to the decisions a platform enables, subscription thinking borrowed from the product world, and how to avoid margin erosion.
The two genuinely defensible assets as the cost of analysis falls towards zero: proprietary data and human client relationships.
How much can be productised before it stops being consulting, and why a platform amplifies the expert rather than replacing them.
Questions from the audience included:
Where the tipping point sits between platform value and advisory value, and at what point an engagement stops being consulting.
How to keep a firm’s own fingerprints on AI-assisted output rather than letting it sound generic.
Whether platform-based models grow or shrink the consulting market overall - the panel’s view being that they grow it, provided real value is delivered.
One to watch if you lead or run a consulting firm and are weighing whether an always-on, platform-based model fits your proposition.
The Skilled Consultant is written by Deri Hughes and Colin Mann, Managing Directors of Honeycomb Consulting Skills Training. We help consulting leaders develop exceptional teams with world-class training to support every career transition.
If this discussion raised a question about your own team, do drop a comment below or book a 30-minute call with Deri or with Colin to discuss how we could help you.
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