Growing a Client From One Project to Three
Every firm has a long list of clients it worked with once, and a short list it still works with today. This is about closing that gap.
For many consulting firms, the one-project client is the norm and the long-term partnership is the exception, which is backwards given how much cheaper repeat work is to win. This episode is about making that step deliberate rather than accidental. We'll share the play-by-play breakdown of how fast growing firms identify the right client accounts it invest in, how they grow them, who's involved in the relationship, and where AI makes it all easier.

Projectworks CEO Mark Orttung has built his career growing and selling both consulting firms and technology companies.

Vervint President and CRO Robert Elliott leads revenue and the execution of their growth strategy. Robert brings over 20 years experience in sales, growth and client satisfaction.
What you'll get from this episode:
- Why the second project is a different sale to the first, and who should own it.
- How to work out which clients you should be selling to.
- How to spot the next piece of work while you're still delivering the current one.
- Using AI to build the client relationship, and surface opportunities your team would otherwise miss.
- How improved client lifetime value (LTV) grows your firm's value.
Growing a Client From One Project to Three
Every firm has a long list of clients it worked with once, and a short list it still works with today. This is about closing that gap.
For many consulting firms, the one-project client is the norm and the long-term partnership is the exception, which is backwards given how much cheaper repeat work is to win. This episode is about making that step deliberate rather than accidental. We'll share the play-by-play breakdown of how fast growing firms identify the right client accounts it invest in, how they grow them, who's involved in the relationship, and where AI makes it all easier.
Your Z-Suite for this session:

Projectworks CEO Mark Orttung has built his career growing and selling both consulting firms and technology companies.

Vervint President and CRO Robert Elliott leads revenue and the execution of their growth strategy. Robert brings over 20 years experience in sales, growth and client satisfaction.
What you'll get from this episode:
- Why the second project is a different sale to the first, and who should own it.
- How to work out which clients you should be selling to.
- How to spot the next piece of work while you're still delivering the current one.
- Using AI to build the client relationship, and surface opportunities your team would otherwise miss.
- How improved client lifetime value (LTV) grows your firm's value.
Join us get your copy of the client expansion playbook:

Listen to moments from similar podcasts
In a small firm, delivery quality holds because everyone works side by side and the founder touches every project. Then the firm grows, the founder runs out of hours, and work gets delivered by people who never learned your delivery method firsthand. Project margins turn inconsistent, and it's rarely the same reason twice. Most AI you've used so far waits for you to ask it something. Agents are different: they work in the background and tell you what needs attention before you'd have caught it yourself. This episode is about what that shift means for delivery, and we'll introduce Kea, the AI agent we're building inside Projectworks, and where we're taking it.
Timesheet chasing, invoicing, month-end, reporting, and the non-billable hours that go with them... its all necessary work in a consulting firm. Without it, clients don't pay you. It's costly though – for most firms, admin as a % of revenue sits at about 15%. Its a whole lot of cost that otherwise could be sitting in your EBITDA. In the AI era, the best consulting firms will bring this figure into the single digits. Learn how in this episode of the podcast.
Client acquisition cost is the number no one measures but everyone should. Most firm leaders can quote utilization and margin, then go quiet when you ask what it costs to win a client. We'll work through how to measure it, what healthy looks like, and the leadership question underneath it: who you hire, and what an AI-forward exec team needs to be.