Analytics consulting is great work. Now turn it into a great business.
I advise analytics consultancies and agencies of all sizes on the commercial side of the practice: packaging, positioning and team structure. The stuff that turns great work into a great business.
Practical, useful and agenda-free advisory from someone who's already completed the journey.
Analytics practices tend to be built up around technique and expertise. Either they grow around a practitioner that starts a consulting business, or they grow around a talented person or small team that started delivering what clients ask for.
My advisory puts commercial and operational latticework around this, to make sure it scales profitably and sustainably.
Packaging and pricing. What you sell, at what price, and why clients agree to it without putting up a fight. Service definitions that prevent leakage and stay profitable, and pricing that reflects the delivered value rather than the consumed hours.
Positioning. The specific expertise that your practice is known for, and the deeper well of work behind it. A position specific enough to win the first conversation and broad enough to grow the engagement.
Team and operations. Who does the work, how margin survives delivery, and where the founder’s time actually goes. Structure that lets the practice grow without the founder becoming the bottleneck.
M&A preparation and advisory. Build the right practices, systems and relationships to create an analytics business that gets acquired.
How we work together.
Advisory Retainer
Do you need a trusted adviser for the commercial and operational decisions that keep your analytics practice from moving forward? The Advisory Retainer suits founders and operators of solo practices, small teams and established agencies. We work through regular advisory calls, with decision support between calls, on the problems that shape how the practice sells, delivers and grows. Some people want me In The Room, and others want me On The Journey. We can cover packaging and pricing, positioning, team structure, operations, and preparing the business for M&A. You bring the decision or recurring problem; I help you see the trade-offs, choose a path and keep the work moving. The result is a clearer set of decisions and next moves for your practice.
Practice Builder
How do you build or rebuild an analytics function that can sell clearly, price profitably and deliver without depending on one person? Practice Builder is a structured twelve-month programme for consultancies building an analytics function or rebuilding one that no longer fits their commercial goals. It connects the function's offer, positioning, pricing, team, and operating model. Over the twelve months, we work through four connected decisions: define the analytics offer and positioning; make pricing and packaging decisions; shape the team and delivery structure; and set an operating plan with implementation support. In practice, building or rebuilding the function means deciding what it sells, who delivers it, how work gets delivered, and what the business does next.
Practice Diagnostic
What is holding your analytics practice back, and which decision should you make first? Practice Diagnostic is a fixed-fee, three-week review of the commercial state of your practice. I review your offer, pricing, pipeline and delivery, then give you a written findings report and a short list of decisions worth making in sequential order. The diagnostic gives you an outside view of the issues affecting the practice and a sensible order for addressing them. It is a focused starting point when you need to understand the commercial state of the business before committing to a larger change.
Advice from someone who has run the business you're building.
I founded Data Runs Deep, and grew it from a solo-operator freelance operation, then to a small team, and then into the largest GA360 Reseller in Australia and New Zealand before selling the business to Jellyfish.
I now advise people running businesses at various stages throughout the same journey, aiming to be the one thing I never had while I was building: unbiased, effective advice from someone who’s done it before.
Thoughts on the business of analytics consulting.
I post on LinkedIn now and again, thinking about the commercial patterns under analytics practices. For longer, more considered, less frequent and (hopefully) still useful stuff, subscribe to my newsletter by adding your email address in the box alongside.
The same thinking, out loud.
I’ve spoken at industry-leading analytics events across APAC, the US and Europe, including Superweek and Emetrics. My speaking now focuses on the commercial side of analytics consulting: how practices get built, priced, sold and scaled.
If you’d like this thinking on your stage, on your podcast, or in front of your team, get in touch.
Start a conversation.
Tell me a bit about your practice and what prompted you to write. I read everything and reply personally, usually within a couple of business days.
I’m based in Naarm / Melbourne and work remotely with clients anywhere in the world.
Prefer LinkedIn? My DMs are open ↗