Explore Margin Pressure Before Recommending a Service Redesign

Margin pressure is often described as a pricing problem even when delivery choices, client mix, or unmeasured rework are doing more damage. A business development director should slow the first conversation down enough to learn where the client sees the pressure and what data supports that view. A broad promise to improve margin gives the buyer little basis for choosing a next step.

Start with the service lines that matter. Ask which work has changed, whether utilization or realization data is available, and what leaders have already tried. Find the executive who owns commercial policy and the leader who owns delivery operations. Their answers may point to different causes, and that difference is useful discovery rather than a reason to force early agreement.

The chief financial officer says, “Our advisory practice is busy, but margins keep shrinking.” The director asks, “Which engagements create the biggest gap between planned and actual effort?” She says that complex projects add senior review hours that never reach the estimate. The director responds, “Could we examine three completed engagements with your finance and practice leaders? That would show whether the issue sits in scoping, staffing, or the way work is tracked.” The CFO asks if the firm can immediately redesign pricing. The director says, “A redesign needs a shared fact base and approval from the commercial and practice owners. The review would establish what they need to decide.”

Close by documenting the sample engagements, available reports, and the people who will interpret them. The next meeting should produce a decision map that identifies the decision, evidence, and owners. Practice this conversation by replacing claims about savings with questions that reveal the client’s own evidence and authority structure.