Ep. 141 – 70% Task Automation to 2 Thirds Advisory: How ABP Rebuilt a Commoditized Core - with Mark Robbins
Task automation was more than half the business, approaching 70% in some markets.
Profitable, in demand, and clients kept coming back for more of it… then the new revenue chief decided it was the problem.
Mark Robbins, Chief Outcome Officer at ABP Consultancy, had watched a technology category commoditize once before, from the vendor side, during 13 years at IBM. His diagnosis: clients were choosing task automation because it asked less of them, not because it delivered more. And a nearshore company of around 100 people was being priced against offshore providers who could simply quote lower.
He calls that a sustainability problem rather than a margin problem. In this episode he walks through what ABP rebuilt because of it, and tells the story of a client with £190K a year in verified savings, around £500K a year in fees, and the value that would have closed that gap sitting in a team nobody had measured.
You'll learn:
1. Why the work that sells most easily is often the work turning into a commodity, and how to spot it in your own portfolio
2. How to instrument an engagement for benefits realization at the point you scope it, rather than reconstructing evidence after go-live
3. Why ABP refused to run a pilot or a POC on a technology vendor's terms, and what writing its own methodology cost the executive team
4. What replaced the credentials deck in ABP's business development, including the 30 minutes of preparation Mark says you owe a client before asking for 30 minutes of their time
5. Why Mark wants the word revenue taken out of his own job title
Mark is open to connecting about commoditization, value attribution, and rebuilding a consulting proposition around outcomes. If you'd like to exchange perspectives, reach out on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-robbins-81531310/
Sarah Edwards is Chief Product Strategy Officer at Kantata and has spent over 30 years helping professional services firms scale, transform, and deliver measurable business value across the US and Europe. She is passionate about how AI is reshaping the consulting industry, from how firms win work and deliver outcomes to how they empower talent and strengthen client relationships.
Get in touch with Sarah on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahedwards3/
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