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- Your firm is pitching advisory work. But could you deliver it, really?
Your firm is pitching advisory work. But could you deliver it, really?
Storytelling, persuasion skills, workshop facilitation, and more - the gap between what advisory requires and what accountants are trained to do is bigger than most firm owners want to admit.
Alastair Barlow
May 30, 2026
Firms can’t be blamed for wanting a slice of the advisory pie. Advisory and consulting can bring in good money, adding a new and diversified revenue stream to (potentially) boost growth.
But winning an advisory project is one thing. Next, you have to deliver it.
And you need to deliver it well. Consulting fees are calculated to reflect the trust that advisory clients put in the firm and its people. By agreeing to a consulting project, clients buy into the impact and value-add of working together. They’ve got a problem that’s costing them, and they believe that you can help solve it.
Most firms aren’t ready for what that actually requires. It’s not just about knowing what ‘better’ could look like and redesigning new systems (which is a role more accountants might embrace as AI evolves). Acting as a “Virtual FD” and reading P&L variances is not advisory in my eyes, either.
Advisory requires a certain set of skills and behaviours that sit outside of the classic accountancy mould. Most firms can’t just decide to ‘do’ advisory - not if the right culture and strategic hiring plan aren’t in place first.