Consulting Roles and the Right Go-to-Market Strategy

By Nathan Simon, Partner at Kennedy Intelligence - Consulting Industry's Trusted Partner for Research and Advisory Services. I Co-Author the Consulting Navigator.

One of the key messages from our roadshow on consulting trends to watch out for in 2025 is the importance of connecting investments in consulting capabilities to value-enhancing growth. We track thousands of investments made by consultancies each year, including acquisitions, alliances, internal initiatives, and venturing. Our research shows there is effectively zero correlation between the investments a consultancy makes in new capabilities and the extent to which clients consider them to be differentiated in those capabilities.

We believe earning a return on those investments is a lot like getting the power to the road in a car. No matter how powerful the engine, getting the power to the road and controlling it requires the right transmission, wheels and, tires, and brakes. For a consultancy, the go-to-market strategy embodied in a consultancy’s business model is the drivetrain.

Our latest consulting industry analyses have identified four over-arching go-to-market strategies:

Source: Kennedy Intelligence

Top-Down: performed for the client executive leadership team (either directly or through downstream workstreams) led by the CEO/Board and direct reports (i.e., N and N-1 levels). Consulting resources align to a strategic alignment role with a decentralized industry and functional matrix operating model.

In-Function: work originates and stays within a particular functional group in the client organization led by functional leaders and their direct reports (i.e., N-2 and N-3 levels). Consulting resources align to a combination of domain expertise, project leadership, and technology platform roles coupled with a decentralized industry and functional matrix operating model.

Cross-Functional: offerings designed to unlock more optimal outcomes by connecting solutions in adjacent stages of the value chain for higher-level functional leaders (i.e., N-1 and N-2 levels). Consulting resources combine domain with technical expertise in an operating model that adds more centralized cross-functional and cross-industry management.

Data-Forward: offerings built on a foundation of technology and data infrastructure solutions for client technical leadership. Consulting resources combine technology platform and technical expertise with an operating model that adds centralized technical and product management functions.

In the current market environment, we see Cross-Functional go-to-market strategies

gaining the most traction.

If you’re interested in discussing your own Go-to-Market strategy or other strategic

considerations in the context of consulting sector themes that Kennedy Intelligence

is monitoring and analyzing, please get in touch.

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Please note: This article is for educational and informational purposes only and does not constitute investment, tax, or legal advice. The intelligence has been gathered from a variety of public and non-publicly available sources. The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not represent the views of any affiliate organization. Any opinions or views expressed are as of the date written and are subject to change without notice and may be updated or modified at any time.