Five Years, Five Lessons: The Truth About How To Develop Consulting Teams
And why doing it well could add £500,000 per person in contribution margin
I’ve been reflecting on five years of building Honeycomb Consulting Skills Training and developing exceptional consulting teams (following on from 15 years in strategy consulting). Over that time Honeycomb has grown dramatically, roughly doubling revenue each year. We now work with over 30 consulting firms annually, delivering everything from live training to competency frameworks to fully outsourced L&D services.
I've seen firsthand what works and what doesn't. We've gathered powerful insights into what truly drives consultant development – some that may challenge common assumptions. And we've measured the concrete impact of getting it right.
So, if you're wondering how to develop your consulting team more effectively in 2025, how much to invest in development, or what return you can expect, I'd like to share five key reflections that could challenge the way you think about it.
The Five Essential Lessons
1. There's Real Value at Stake
Let's start with the bottom line. Accelerating team development directly drives profit potential. Here's why: in most boutique consulting firms, the scarcest resource isn't market opportunity – it's Partner energy. While we often talk about Partner time, it's really their energy that's precious. These are the individuals driving sales, managing client relationships, and working on business development. They're the engine of growth.
When you can develop your supporting team faster, enabling them to take on more responsibility sooner, you create a multiplier effect. Our data shows that accelerating promotions by just six months at each level (from consultant to senior consultant to manager) can generate an additional £500,000 in contribution margin per individual over five years. This isn't about lowering standards – it's about helping people reach those standards faster.
2. Plan Top-Down, Starting with Strategy
Your development framework must cascade from your vision and commercial strategy. Who are your clients? What problems are you solving? Which geographies matter? These strategic decisions drive the capabilities your team needs to master.
We break this down into three components:
Competencies: The behaviours you expect
Skills: The technical capabilities required
Mindset: The approach and attitude needed for success
If you want some guidance on writing your 2025 L&D Strategy we are running a free webinar on January 16th 2025 called Writing your L&D Strategy: Creating a Roadmap for Measurable Success. Click to find out more and register to attend.
To read more about how these three elements need to work together, check out our previous article: The Missing Link in Consultant Development: Mindset Frameworks.
3. Relevance Drives Engagement
Our impact measurement consistently shows that relevance is the primary driver of learning effectiveness. People need to see how they can immediately apply what they're learning to solve current challenges.
However, there's a crucial caveat: don't completely delegate development responsibility to your team.
We frequently hear firms say, "We've given everyone a £1,000 annual development budget, but they're not using it." The belief is that this is engaging for the team and will ensure that the learning they do is super-relevant to a development need they have. The reality? That money rarely gets spent, because the team don’t know what to spend it on.
This isn't engagement; it's abdication. Your role as a leader is to set clear boundaries and direction, then let people choose relevant learning paths within that framework.
If you are thinking about how to build a great training curriculum, have a watch of our pre-recorded webinar: Training Curriculum Design.
4. Behaviour Change Takes Commitment
The data is compelling: in a recent sales training programme for 30 Partners and Directors, those who attended all sessions (two training days and four coaching sessions) saw, post-training, the volume of deals in their sales pipelines increase 3.5x. Those who missed even one or two sessions saw only a 1.7x improvement. This wasn't about any single "magic" session – it reflected the impact of sustained commitment over four months.
But learner commitment alone isn't enough. We've seen technically excellent training programmes fail to embed real change - despite the learners telling us they loved it - because the senior team wasn't fully engaged. When Partners don't understand or reinforce new tools and approaches, even the most committed learners hit roadblocks.
How to make sure this happens? Always follow-up your training sessions with small group sessions to reflect on the experience of putting things into practice.
I’ve talked about this previously in an article called: The Goldilocks Guide to Good Training Investment Decisions.
5. You Can Measure Impact (But Only If You Know How)
While measuring training impact is complex, it's far from impossible. The key is tracking the full chain of cause and effect. We focus on four elements:
Reach: Who's actually participating fully?
Sentiment: How do people feel about applying what they've learned?
Actions: What initial behaviour changes are we seeing? What ripple effects are emerging from those changes?
Impact: How are these changes affecting key performance indicators?
This measurement approach helps you identify what's working in your specific context and double down on successful interventions.
If you want to dive into this topic in more detail, we will soon be publishing our webinar: Does Training Work? Measuring the impact of your training decisions. Subscribe to receive the recording direct to your inbox on Jan 2nd 2025.
Making It Work: Your 2025 Action Plan
As you plan for 2025, I’d recommend you focus on these three critical steps:
Secure Senior Team Commitment
Get explicit commitment from your leadership team to prioritise development, engage with the process, and reinforce learning throughout the year. Remember that £500,000 value potential per accelerated promotion – this isn't just about development, it's about profit growth!
Establish Your Framework
Create clear boundaries for development based on your strategy. What does excellence look like in your firm? What capabilities drive your competitive advantage? Make these explicit, and empower people to choose their path within those boundaries.
Enable Relevant Learning
Provide learning resources in multiple formats, but always within your strategic framework. Track engagement and completion, and watch for those early ripple effects that signal behaviour change is taking hold.
When executed well, this approach creates a virtuous cycle: accelerated development frees up Partner capacity, driving growth while building a stronger learning culture. The result? Faster top-line growth, improved margins, and increasing equity value for your firm.
The opportunity is clear. The question is: how will you seize it in 2025?
The Honeycomb Consulting Skills Accelerator Toolkit is a comprehensive, digital toolkit which supports skill development for your consulting team. It has a proven track record of developing consultants faster…
You’ll receive 400 competency frameworks, 100 consulting capabilities, 6 dynamic review templates, a detailed workplan, workshop agendas, and a financial model.
Rated 5* - “A brilliant aid for a consulting firm to manage and measure what they are doing. Rich with information and great if you haven't yet built your own toolkit.”
Find out more and get access to the toolkit now - CLICK HERE
Thank you for reading The Skilled Consultant. If you haven’t yet subscribed, please do so to receive all our articles direct to your inbox.
There are several other ways you can interact with Honeycomb Consulting Skills Training….
Connect with Deri Hughes (Founder & MD) on LinkedIn
Connect with Colin Mann (MD) on LinkedIn
Book a 30 minute intro call with Deri Hughes
Stay informed about our free workshops and webinars - follow Honeycomb on LinkedIn or visit our website.