Rethinking the Traditional Consulting Business Model
Bringing a new approach to an old way of thinking
Last week was a busy one for GEO261. Not only was FOSS4G North America held in St. Louis, but we also organized and hosted the first Spatial Finance Roundtable in the city. This event was designed to bring together key players from the geospatial and FinTech industries. If you’re interested in participating or learning more about this area, please reach out so we can include you in the next roundtable.
You may have also noticed that the GEO261 brand has been refreshed with a new logo, color scheme, and a completely revamped website that more clearly outlines how we help organizations grow. Like many companies, GEO261 has matured over the past four years. While our ethos and mission have remained the same, our outward-facing presence needed an update to better align with our mission and vision.
The updated GEO261 website with all new branding and colors!
This wasn’t something we could accomplish on our own. While it’s often easy to explain who you are and what you do, it’s much harder to distill that into a brand image that is both intuitive and impactful for prospects. We decided to bring in professionals and contracted Cartel Strategies, a St. Louis-based firm, to guide us through their unique brand development process and help capture the true essence of GEO261 in a tangible way.
The results are simply astounding. The new color palette is vibrant, and the website now effectively communicates how we help our clients (imagine that!). If you’re considering a brand refresh of your own, I highly recommend Cartel Strategies.
Traditional Models Are Not Designed for Today’s Ever-Changing Business Environment
One of the most significant ways GEO261 has matured is in how we contract with our customers. The traditional business model for consultancies has long been outdated and in need of change, so we decided to take a modern approach.
Unfortunately, the word “consulting” has developed a negative connotation. Many of the long-established consulting firms have recognized that the “old” model is indeed broken and have begun rebranding themselves, even removing the terms “consultant” and “consulting” from their vocabulary. Don’t believe me? Take a look at the “About Us” pages for Deloitte and McKinsey & Company, two well-known and respected firms in the industry. Instead of “consulting,” you’ll see terms like “advisory” or “sustainment,” which are meant to convey a guided partnership towards a common goal, without the baggage associated with the word “consulting.” I’m actually a bit surprised that Boston Consulting Group hasn’t yet rebranded or at least changed how they describe their services to move away from the term “consulting.”
Honestly, I can’t say I blame them. Over the past four years, I’ve encountered numerous organizations that hired traditional consultants, hoping to leverage their decades of experience and extensive networks to drive business development. Unfortunately, many of these organizations end up walking away from those relationships after a year, feeling underwhelmed and disappointed by the lack of value and return on investment for the money spent. Even worse, in some cases, a Board forces a consultant on an organization, saddling them with a costly burden on the P&L for a year or more, often without any guaranteed upside.
In my humble opinion, the root of the problem is two-fold:
the concept of a year-long retainer-only contract is fundamentally flawed, and
the absence of clearly defined, achievable deliverables makes it difficult to gauge value. At worst, both parties walk away feeling cheated out of time and money. Let’s break this down further…
Challenge 1: Long-term Retainers Just Aren’t Smart for Most Businesses
Before I dive in, I want to clarify that I am not against retainers. Retainers have a valid place in business, especially for legal counsel, maintenance work, and other services where having someone on standby for fractional or ad hoc work is necessary. What I’m specifically addressing here are long-term (i.e., 12 months or more) retainer-only contracts, where an individual or organization is being paid to provide “help” in an undefined capacity.
These contracts work well for the consultant, as they guarantee revenue for a set period regardless of performance. However, businesses often fail to see value early in the relationship and find themselves stuck paying for the retainer through the rest of the contract term. The reasons for this lack of perceived value can vary. In some cases, there might not be the right cultural or personality “fit,” meaning the consultant never truly integrates into the organization. Other times, businesses may discover that a consultant’s network is outdated, or their knowledge and skills are out of touch with modern technology and workflows. While the reasons vary, the outcome remains the same—a perception of wasted time and money, with little to no real return on investment.
It raises the question: why pay a 12-month retainer for work that is fractional in nature?
One way to counter this issue is by offering fractional executive work—essentially “leasing” a traditional executive role (e.g., CTO, CRO, CPO) on a limited basis, instead of hiring someone full-time. This can be an effective way to get results from a seasoned professional without the full-time salary commitment. It’s also a great, low-risk approach to handling essential tasks while you search for the right permanent hire.
While fractional executive work isn’t a new concept, it has seen a resurgence in recent years, particularly as the pandemic strained budgets and companies had to rethink their spending. Evona, a staffing firm specializing in the defense and new space sectors, has even launched a platform called Fraction, dedicated to helping organizations find the right fractional executives to meet their needs. I found this to be an innovative approach to executive recruiting from a company already disrupting the staffing industry.
EVONA’s new fractional executive platform FRACTION
I can personally attest that fractional executive work is effective, largely because it just makes sense. GEO261 added fractional work to its service offerings in 2024, and it has become a significant revenue stream for us. We offer seasoned executive support to clients without the risk of long-term salary commitments. Here’s the best part: when a company hires a consultant, they often need to find additional money in their budget for a role that wasn’t previously budgeted for. However, hiring a fractional executive usually just requires redirecting funds already allocated for an open position, and in 95% of cases, that money is already in an approved budget. This lowers the friction between the need for help and the ability to pay for it. Which brings us to challenge two…
Challenge 2: Without Clearly Defined Deliverables, It Can Be Difficult to Recognize Value
To me, the bigger challenge has always been defining clear value. I understand that “value” is a somewhat vague concept—largely qualitative and often different for each client. For the sake of this discussion, let’s define “value” as the perceived return on the investment made.
Often, consultants and advisors are brought into an organization to support business development efforts (i.e., to close deals). Naturally, a company might sign a contract where the consultant is paid monthly to bring qualified opportunities to the table or paid a commission when an opportunity is closed-won. Companies love this model because it largely operates on a deferred compensation basis: they only pay the consultant when a deal is successfully closed, and only after contract dollars are secured. In this model, the “value” is the number of qualified opportunities presented.
The problem with this approach is that the consultant does a lot of work before even bringing a qualified opportunity to the table—emails, phone calls, scheduling, and justifications for partnerships are all part of the legwork that facilitates an opportunity. In a deferred compensation model, the consultant might never be compensated for all this effort if the deal doesn’t close. Meanwhile, the consultant is passing on other opportunities that might have been more fruitful, making this a significant risk.
Worse still, in government contracting, simply making introductions or presenting opportunities doesn’t guarantee a deal will close within the same quarter. Budget cycles, requirements documentation, and other factors can heavily impact the timeline, even for well-laid-out deals. Despite opening new lines of communication and potential sales avenues, if the deal doesn’t close, the consultant’s contributions are often overlooked. This doesn’t seem fair, does it? Wouldn’t you argue that there is real value in building connections and deepening relationships, even if a sale hasn’t been made?
One way to sidestep the subjective question of value is to structure contracts around specific, clearly defined deliverables, tying compensation to the completion of those deliverables. This approach allows both parties to objectively determine whether the consultant has met the contract’s terms and whether value has been delivered.
Our world is full of examples of clearly defined deliverables with measurable outcomes. You must cross the finish line first to win a race. You move into a home only after signing the closing documents. You receive your diploma after completing the necessary credit hours. Few would argue with this order of operations, nor with the value of the outcomes. So, why should our business dealings with consultants be any different?
For instance, a deliverable might be a report detailing business opportunities within a specific agency. Another example could be a competitive analysis that outlines the environment the company is up against. These are tangible deliverables, with binary outcomes—they are either delivered, or they’re not. There is little room for interpretation here.
It’s easy to see why businesses become frustrated when they pay a consultant but struggle to define what “value” has been brought back to the business. Ultimately, I believe the issue stems from a lack of clearly defined deliverables that outline what success looks like and eliminate any ambiguity about how the consultant will demonstrate value to the company.
Geo261 Offers a Fresh Approach
We call ourselves growth strategists.
I believe the goal of every business relationship should be to foster growth. Every business needs a growth strategy to adapt to evolving markets, changing times, and advancing technology. Continuous growth and adaptation are essential for long-term success. At various stages of their lifecycle, most organizations require strategic planning to navigate growth, typically focusing on key areas:
Revenue Expansion: The ultimate measure of success, revenue growth validates market fit and signals an established and mature organization.
Customer Growth: Acquiring new clients and expanding your presence within and across industries through strategic investments, enhanced marketing efforts, and expert guidance.
Market Acceleration: Expanding your market reach with targeted strategies, such as brand awareness campaigns and market analysis, enabling you to thrive in any competitive landscape.
Product Growth: Driving product growth by refining pricing and packaging, optimizing marketing and messaging, and enhancing the overall go-to-market strategy.
Evangelism & Thought Leadership: Helping your business stand out by showcasing not only your understanding of the market but also your leadership in defining its future direction.
Strategic Funding: Most businesses stay alert for investor opportunities. A solid growth plan ensures that you’re prepared for the right investment at the right time.
Stability & Credibility: Whether you’re a startup seeking a loan or an established business looking to stabilize cash flow, having a well-defined growth plan gives your organization the credibility needed to control its financial future.
When we founded GEO261 in 2020, we knew we had to stand out to challenge the way organizations viewed advisors and consultants. We were swimming against the tide, battling decades of negative experiences businesses had in failing to see value from paid consulting services. Armed with decades of real-world experience, we needed to communicate that value without getting weighed down by the stigma of traditional consultancies.
We started by committing to transparency—sharing who we are and what we know right up front. In the advisory world, your value is built on who you know and what you’ve accomplished. As practitioners who began by performing the very jobs most organizations seek to optimize, we know what works and what doesn’t. We understand what motivates employees and how to deliver change in a way that resonates. With deep experience in the Geospatial, Defense, and Intelligence communities, we’ve earned the trust of our peers by always providing honest, unbiased opinions, even if it means turning down work.
Next, we made a conscious decision to carefully choose our clients. While it may seem unconventional, we don’t accept work from every organization that reaches out. We only partner with companies we believe in and understand well enough to confidently drive positive change. We also believe in mutual terms and conditions, allowing either party to terminate the relationship at any time if it’s not working out.
Perhaps the most important shift we introduced is offering modern, flexible business models tailored to today’s business environment.
No two contracts are the same because no two businesses are the same.
We understand that long-term contracts with hefty retainers often don’t make sense, so we offer various options customized to fit your organization’s specific needs.
All our contracts include clear, measurable deliverables. Whether we’re helping you grow through new clients or expanding your product offerings, our compensation is tied to deliverable tasks where both parties can quantify value.
We include mutual termination clauses, allowing either party to end the relationship if it isn’t working.
We offer fractional executive services, giving organizations the flexibility to tap into our expertise part-time, without committing to long-term engagements.
Our credentials speak for themselves. Success is built on the lessons of failure, and our deep expertise in what works - and what doesn’t - uniquely positions us to help you avoid pitfalls and capitalize on proven strategies.
So, if your company is seeking new or expanded avenues for growth and you’re tired of being let down by the outdated business models of traditional consultancies, give us a call. We’d love to learn more about your business and offer insights on how we can help you achieve sustainable growth.