David A. Fields Consulting Group You want a consulting firm that funnels more profit into your pockets with less time and stress.
One key to that happy result is easy, in theory…
…but since the details may be a bit murky, this article provides you with clarity and direction.
More on that in a moment.
First, though, let’s remember one of America’s greatest sales geniuses—a silver-tongued, deal-maker whose enticing language, smooth delivery and mastery of negotiation awed millions.
Yes, I’m talking about Monty Hall.
In memory of Monty, this article offers you a choice.
We’ll go on the honor system here: I’ll offer a few options and just trust that you’re dressed up as a giant cantaloupe.
Which door do you choose? (Hover your mouse over one door.)
If you chose door #1 or #3, you’re probably itching to make a deal for door #2. Obviously, you’d like the high-profit, low-work consulting firm.
How do you win that prize?
Two more choices:
Profit Growth Path #1
Streamline all aspects of your practice so that your consulting firm becomes more effective and efficient.
To make this path effective you need to systematize your processes.
Profit Growth Path #2
Outsource all tasks and activities that aren’t aligned with your consulting firm’s greatest skills to resources and providers that excel at those tasks.
To make this path effective, you first need to systematize your processes.
No matter what type of consulting firm you lead, and regardless of how you want to grow, to increase your profit and your available time and your quality, you must systematize.
That’s not new news. I’ve stressed the importance of systemizing your practice in many articles, webinars and podcasts.
Still, you may be wondering what to systematize and how to actually make systematization work at your consulting firm.
The six steps below will give you a running start.
Step-by-Step Directions for Systematizing Your Consulting Firm
Step 1: Audit
Spend one month recording every repetitive task, client interaction, and deliverable your consulting firm tackles.
What frameworks, models, or approaches do you reuse? Document them.
Step 2: Knowledge Infrastructure
Avoid scattered folders and multiple sources of truth by choosing a single platform that will serve as your firm’s operational brain.
Common choices include Notion, ClickUp, Coda and Monday.com.
Ensure whichever system you choose is a searchable, AI-ready system that your whole team can access.
Step 3: Prioritize
Select which processes you’ll systematize based on frequency of use and impact.
For instance, your proposal process may be a good place to start because your consulting firm employs it often and it directly affects revenue.
Alternatively, systemize one of your core offerings.
Rather than trying to prioritize every important task, identify just a few candidates that rise to the top of the list, and ensure they’re humming smoothly before moving on.
Step 4: Draft the System
Embracing AI tools to generate first drafts of your systematic approaches will slash your systematization time by 60-70%.
For instance, you can feed ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini examples of your consulting firm’s best work and ask it to create templates, checklists, and process guides.
You can also have AI create templates in your selected platform with AI-assisted sections that adapt to different types of clients and projects.
Step 5: Automate
Connect your systems so that they fire automatically using built-in automations or tools like Zapier, Make, or PowerAutomate.
For example, when a proposal is accepted you can trigger a process to automatically create project folders, send kickoff sequences, and populate your CRM.
Automation will eliminate 50% of your administrivia within a few months. (Then your admin staff can tackle higher-value tasks.)
Step 6: Document
Don’t forget to document your thinking and approach to each system (e.g., proposals, offerings, etc.) in plain language.
Since people move on, and systems update and change their features, it’s important to memorialize the logic behind your systems.
You can capture the logic by hand, or tools like Scribe can watch you work and auto-generate step-by-step guides.
Your guides become training materials for new team members and prompts for AI assistants to help execute tasks.
You know the right time to start systematizing your consulting firm’s processes?
Now!
If you could systematize one element of your consulting practice to increase your profit, what would you choose?
Text and images are © 2026 David A. Fields, all rights reserved.
Thank you great one!!!
I just productized my service and put it in Notion my clients are thrilled!!!
Congratulations, Tony! Productizing can be a a great way to systematize your offerings. Well done.
Do you have concerns about providing ChatGPT, etc. access to confidential/proprietary client information?
Absolutely, Ryan! It’s important to ensure you are subscribed to an AI with security protocols. In some cases it may also be best practice to blind the data you feed into the AI.