---
title: Business development for consulting firms | Ricavi
url: https://www.ricavi.ai/industries/consulting
updated: 2026-10-21
language: en-AU
---

# Consulting firm business development, coached on client calls.

> Turn senior consultants into consistent rainmakers. Ricavi coaches business development on client calls and shows what’s missing before the proposal.

This is the Markdown version of Ricavi’s consulting page, written for AI assistants. It follows the page section by section. The figures are the page’s approved figures. Times and scores come from one example call.

- Page: https://www.ricavi.ai/industries/consulting
- Pricing: https://www.ricavi.ai/pricing
- Book a demo: the Book a demo button on https://www.ricavi.ai/industries/consulting opens the demo form.

## The five things on this page

1. Every consultant coached live on the call.
2. The client asked for a proposal. Ricavi’s nudge: ask who signs off first.
3. Scoping questions to ask before you say yes.
4. Ricavi drafts the email and the CRM update. They wait until the consultant says yes.
5. You choose which calls are recorded. Some never are.

## For partners and practice leads

- See the scoping questions
- SOC 2 Type I and II
- ISO 27001
- GDPR
- No external training on your data

> “Can you send us a proposal?” usually gets a yes and a week of writing. Ricavi shows what the client hasn’t agreed yet.”

## What Ricavi does for your consultants

1. **Live on the call.** Ricavi nudges the consultant while the client is still there.
2. **See what’s missing.** Ricavi shows the gaps before you write the proposal.
3. **See the whole team.** Practice leads see their team’s recorded calls and scorecards.
4. **Approve each draft.** Nothing is written to your CRM until someone approves it.

## Where Ricavi sits: coaching on the client calls and CRM you already run

Client calls come in from Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, and Zoom. Ricavi records them and reads the client’s record in your CRM. Drafts go back once the consultant approves them.

- 83%: less admin. Ricavi writes the notes and drafts the follow-ups. It updates the CRM once the consultant approves.
- Ricavi sits above your CRM and guides the work at every stage.
- Account, deal, and contacts
- Drafted updates
- So the pre-call brief lands 30 minutes before each call.
- Connected at onboarding, with your calendar.
- Nothing is written to your CRM until the consultant approves it.
- Not a DIY product. Installed and monitored by sales and technical leaders.

## Ask who signs off before you say yes

Ricavi tracks your engagement process live. If a key question is still open after halfway, a smart nudge suggests the words to say. Only the consultant sees it.

1. The client asks for **a proposal**.
2. The usual answer is yes. **A smart nudge** arrives.
3. **The words to say**: who else is involved in signing this off?

- Scoping call with a sponsor
- The client sees a normal call. Only the consultant sees Ricavi.
- The client asked for a proposal.
- Ricavi’s nudge: ask who signs off first.
- every discovery call, every demo, every renewal

## The consultant’s seat: business development for consultants who do the work

When the call ends, the summary and transcript are ready for your prep notes.

1. **Scored on your own process.** Each recorded call gets a score. It checks your questions, your tone, how you handle objections, and your firm’s own steps.
2. **A private coaching chat.** The coaching chat already knows what was said, so you can ask it what you missed in the scoping conversation. It stays private unless you share it.
3. **Your next move.** One press drafts the scoping questions you skipped, ready for the next client call.

- How the coaching works

> “I was at dinner and overheard my team telling our GM how valuable they found Ricavi.”
> Jane Susak, Sales Manager, Essential Assessment

## Scoping questions to ask before you say yes

The four areas the deal view checks, as questions for your next client meeting. Copy one, or copy all of them into your prep notes.

1. **Problem statement.** In your words, what problem are we being asked to solve? The deal view shows whether an agreed problem statement is on record.
2. **Buying committee.** Who else is involved in signing this off, and what are the steps? A pursuit with only one contact is flagged as single-threaded.
3. **Business case.** What is this costing the business today? The deal view shows whether impact evidence has been captured.
4. **Path to decision.** What has to happen between now and a signed engagement? A mutual action plan can be drafted in the Workspace.

- Copy all four questions
- Copy all
- Adapt the wording to your firm’s own engagement process.

## A pursuit that rests on one sponsor

Ricavi flags a pursuit with only one contact. It lines up an email asking your sponsor who else has a say. Nothing is written to your CRM until someone approves it.

- **To review:** The consultant edits and approves each draft on its own.
- **Send email:** Follow-ups go from your own account, and only once approved.
- **Or dismiss it:** Dismiss a draft and nothing is sent or synced.
- **Up next:** Your admin sets which CRM fields Ricavi may update.
- Ricavi drafts the email and the CRM update.
- They wait until the consultant says yes.
- until the consultant says yes

## What is consulting firm business development

- Consulting firm business development is how a firm wins and extends engagements, usually through the people who deliver the work. It tends to break in four places: the scope is set too fast, the proposal goes out before the client has agreed the problem, one sponsor carries the pursuit, and new work raised during delivery is never picked up.
- Scoping call
- The live checklist follows your engagement process and ticks off each scoping question as the client answers it. After halfway, it nudges you about any critical one still open.
- Writing the proposal
- When all four areas are covered, start it in the Workspace. The Proposal objective opens a chat that already has the pursuit’s CRM context.
- During delivery
- When a client raises a problem outside the current scope, Ricavi tags the moment with a timestamp. The follow-on conversation starts from their words.
- After a lost pursuit
- Ask the coaching chat “What did we miss in the scoping conversation?” The answer starts from that call’s transcript and scorecard.
- Last reviewed 10 Oct 2026
- Written by the Ricavi team

## Client confidentiality: choose which client calls are recorded

Here’s an example day of six meetings. Change a rule and the recorded ones change with it.

- Recording rules
- Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, Zoom
- Only people from your firm
- Kept for the period you set
- Your admin’s choice for regulated conversations
- Ricavi supports your compliance process. It doesn’t replace your compliance review or your record-keeping obligations.
- No bot, no notice.

## Write the playbook in the words your partners use

Ricavi’s screens say deal. Your methodology and playbooks are written with you at onboarding, and they drive the live checklist and the coaching.

- What it is
- On Ricavi’s screens
- In your playbook
- The work you’re trying to win
- Deal
- Pursuit
- The people who decide
- Buying committee
- Sponsor and steering committee
- The first real meeting
- Discovery
- Scoping session
- When the client questions the scope
- Objection
- Scope pushback
- The win
- Closed won
- Signed SOW

## Meet us before you buy. Watch, read, or join

- **Revenue Leaders podcast:** Hosted by Luigi, Regan, and Dave
- **The B2B Sales Playbook:** By Luigi and Dave
- **The live weekly session:** Free, in Growth Forum

## Under the bonnet: built on how sales is taught, not bolted on

Behind Ricavi are 20 years of the founders’ sales coaching and 5,000+ built-in skills.

- The people behind it
- Built by builders.
- Dave builds companies. Regan builds sales teams. Luigi builds performance.
- **David Fastuca:** Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer
- David is a serial entrepreneur who helped found Locomote and sold software businesses before Ricavi. Now he builds the product and the business, with a focus on making AI that sales teams use every day.
- **Regan Barker:** Co-founder and Chief Revenue Officer
- Regan builds sales teams, most recently for a professional services firm that sold for A$1 billion in 2026. Regan, a full-cycle revenue leader, manages Ricavi’s enterprise pipeline.
- **Luigi Prestinenzi:** Co-founder and Chief Customer Officer
- Luigi has generated $1.45 billion in pipeline across 20 years of selling and coaching. He built the coaching methodology behind Ricavi and co-hosts the Revenue Leaders podcast.
- Built-in skills
- 5,000+: each is a play for one moment with a client, like scope pushback.
- They say it seems expensive.
- Handling a price objection
- Nobody said who else has to sign it.
- Mapping the buying committee
- The proposal has been with them for eleven weeks.
- Restarting a stalled deal

> “I have been working with the team at Ricavi for the last two months and already achieved higher conversion rates and a faster sales cycle.”
> Stuart Cook, MD, TWIYO

## FAQ: what practice leads ask first

### What is consulting firm business development?

Consulting firm business development is how a firm **wins and extends engagements**. The people who deliver the work usually do it. It breaks in four places. The scope is set too fast. The proposal goes out before the client has agreed the problem. One sponsor carries the pursuit. And new work raised during delivery is never picked up.

### Our consultants aren’t salespeople. Will they use this?

Yes. Ricavi is built for consultants who sell as part of their role. It works inside the Zoom, Microsoft Teams, or Google Meet calls already in the diary. So business development doesn’t need its own afternoon. The sidebar follows **your engagement process**. The notes and CRM updates arrive as drafts to approve.

### Are client calls kept private?

Your admin can **exclude a client’s domain from recording**. Or they can have a named bot join, so clients know the call is recorded. Your data isn’t used for external training. By default no bot joins and no notification appears. Recording mode, retention, and which calls are recorded are set by your admin to match your consent requirements.

### Will practice leads use this to watch consultants?

It’s built for coaching. Practice leads see their team’s recorded calls, scorecards, and average playbook score. When a pursuit is at risk, they get **a coaching question** to raise. Coaching chats stay private unless the consultant shares them. After a lost pursuit, a consultant can ask the chat what they missed in the scoping call.

### Our CRM is always out of date. Does that matter?

It’s where most firms start. The record catches up one call at a time. After each client call, Ricavi drafts the CRM update: the stakeholders met, the topics discussed, and the next steps agreed. It works with Salesforce, HubSpot, and Microsoft Dynamics. **Nothing is written to your CRM until someone approves it.**

### What happens when a consultant hands over a client?

The summaries, key moments, and approved CRM updates **stay with the firm**. The incoming consultant’s brief is built from those notes and your CRM. So the client isn’t asked to explain it all again. And when the client raises new work during delivery, the follow-on conversation starts from their own words.

### Does consulting firm business development need a sales methodology?

It can be your own. You can use **your firm’s own engagement framework** as the methodology. It’s written with you at onboarding, and Ricavi coaches and scores calls against it. One methodology is active for the whole firm. Playbooks can be assigned to a practice or to a consultant.

### Is consulting business development the same as consultative selling?

They overlap. Consultative selling is selling built around the client’s problem. **Business development for consultants** is wider. It means winning work and growing it. The people who will do the work often win it. Ricavi coaches them on the client call, where it happens.

## Product facts

| Figure | Label |
|---|---|
| 83% | Less admin. Ricavi writes the notes and drafts the follow-ups. It updates the CRM once the consultant approves. |
| 5,000+ | Each is a play for one moment with a client, like scope pushback. |
| 20 years | Of the founders’ sales coaching behind the product. |

- Security and data: SOC 2 Type I and II, ISO 27001, and GDPR.
- Meetings: Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, and Zoom, through a Chrome extension. No bot joins by default.
- CRMs: HubSpot, Salesforce, and Microsoft Dynamics. Nothing is written to the CRM until the rep approves it.

## Links

- Consulting: https://www.ricavi.ai/industries/consulting
- Pricing: https://www.ricavi.ai/pricing
- Book a demo: use the Book a demo button on https://www.ricavi.ai/industries/consulting
- Sales coaching software: https://www.ricavi.ai/sales-coaching-software
- Professional services: https://www.ricavi.ai/industries/professional-services
- Legal: https://www.ricavi.ai/industries/legal
- Accounting: https://www.ricavi.ai/industries/accounting