David A. Fields Consulting Group There is always competition for the consulting engagements you’re hoping to land.
Always.
At a minimum you’re fighting inertia and your prospect’s internal staff.
Frequently, other advisory firms are in the mix. Especially as large consulting firms facing stiff revenue headwinds are courting clients and projects they previously would have considered too small.
Add the burgeoning use of AI to solve problems once directed toward consulting firms, and you have a fiercely competitive market for consulting engagements.
Do you know how to defend against the competition vying for your business?
Back in the vigorous days of my youth (i.e., my 40s), I decided to pick up ice hockey. So, I learned to play… poorly, but with enthusiasm.
What I quickly realized, and any hockey fanatic will tell you, is there’s a single player who determines whether your team has any chance to win the game: the goalie.
It’s your goalie’s defense, not your offense, that gives you a shot at victory.
The same idea applies in consulting: you need a strong defense to keep you in the game.
Of course, your consulting firm’s ultimate defense against competitors is a strong, trusted-advisor relationship with the decision maker.
However, relationships aren’t the only defense.
Even a healthy relationship can be displaced by a well-aimed shot from a hungry competitor.
That’s why you also need to defend your business like a goalie.
The Goalie Defense for Small Consulting Firms
Shrink Your Net
If a goalie had to prevent pucks from hitting any part of the 85-foot wide wall behind him, he’d make few saves.
But a hockey net is only six feet wide, and that’s a heck of a lot easier to defend.
Goalies can’t shrink the territory they’re required to guard, but you can.
Define your target narrowly. Focus your consulting firm on a highly-specific problem and a tightly-bounded market.
Improve Your Skills
Professional hockey teams know that developing a great goalie takes a lot of time and attention.
It takes years of practice and specialized training to become a netminding wizard.
The same is true of your consulting firm’s defense. It will take time and attention to specific skills.
Ensure you and your firm are obsessively building the two specific skill sets below while offloading other distracting tasks and challenges that could swallow your time.
- Business development.
- Solving the specific, narrow problem that your firm addresses for your target market.
Why those two skill sets?
Because the most reliable predictors of a small consulting firm’s growth are the breadth of their rainmaking team and the narrowness of the depth of expertise.
We’ve consistently seen firms that adopt the Goalie defense survive attacks from talented competitors.
Plus, when your firm is focused and you have great business development skills, you can knock competitors out of the game. Even if they have a strong relationship with the decision maker.
Have you implemented the goalie defense at your firm? Why or why not?
Text and images are © 2026 David A. Fields, all rights reserved.
Love the synergy between the BD and specialization – they super-charge each other with an upward spiraling effect!
The business development becomes a lot easier because the messaging is clearer and easily congruent, attracting client who have that specific need and are therefore better suited to your firm, and the quality of the service you can provide the client becomes better and better too! You also didn’t mention that it means your pricing can also go up because there likely are fewer competitors with your same net. Love the hockey analogy too, David.
Exactly right on all fronts, Gabrielle. Focus makes everything work better in consulting. And, as you smartly pointed out, it creates a strong platform for premium fees.
Love the article. Question: how do you define breadth of the rainmaking team—in terms understanding business problems, ways of pitching, geography (or spread across the accessible market)? I want to focus on those skills but didn’t understand the content of “breadth.” Thanks, Kendall
Great question, Kendall. We usually define breadth simply as the number of rainmakers on the team.
A firm that has a single rainmaker typically has a much lower revenue ceiling and much higher risk than a firm with two rainmakers. Similarly, as three, five or ten consultants in the firm develop into productive rainmakers, the opportunities for growth (and the firm’s market value) shoot up.
I’m glad you asked that smart question, Kendall!