The Growth Engine: A Guide to Building a World-Class Growth Business Development Function in Professional Services

by Jacob Parks, Walt Shill, Erika Flowers, Andi Baldwin, Kathleen Li (Read by)

Overview

The Growth Engine describes the main challenge professional services firms face as they grow and shows how to develop a scalable business development effort, covering everything from CRM systems and metrics around utilization, to service development and expansion, to account planning and cross-selling, to winning new clients, to team structure and roles, and to performance management.

This book is supported by extensive interviews with rainmakers in professional services firms including marketing, law, consulting, financial advisory, and IT advisory companies. Interviewees include senior executives at McKinsey, Bain, BCG, Accenture, IBM, AWS, KPMG, Deloitte, Publicis, and Omnicom, as well as a number of Am Law 100 firms. Some of the concepts covered in this book include:

Identifying buyers, niching services to create awareness and strengthen brand, and using talent to leverage consultants' time and amplify their reach Developing new services, aligning sales with marketing, and using tools, processes, and metrics to drive accountability and growth Training talent, measuring and managing business development performance, and incentivizing and compensating key roles

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9798228710634
Publisher:	Recorded Books, LLC
Publication date:	12/23/2025
Edition description:	Unabridged
Product dimensions:	5.30(w) x 7.50(h) x (d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Jacob Parks is the president of PIE. He headed the research team on How Clients Buy, coauthored Never Say Sell, and has facilitated executive roundtable discussions on behalf of CFOs and COOs representing the largest companies across the globe.

Walt Shill had an illustrious career as a partner and growth leader in professional services, including McKinsey, Accenture, and ERM. He is a member of PIE's advisory board and the author of Friday Thoughts, a business blog focused on professional services.

Erika Flowers is PIE's chief client officer, where she leads a team of consultants who deliver business development and client engagement programs for PIE's accounts including AWS, KPMG, IBM, Capgemini, BCG, and other large professional services firms.

Andi Baldwin is the CEO of PIE. She is responsible for setting the firm's growth strategy and ensuring PIE is delivering exceptional work to its premier client base.

Kathleen Li is an Asian American narrator whose parents are from Taiwan. She has a warm, engaging, and empathetic voice that lends itself equally to YA, fantasy, historical fiction, and self-help audiobooks, as well as to other genres. She has also voiced characters in several audio dramas, including Doctor Who: The Voice of Reason, Seminar, and Pod to Pluto. Kathleen lives in Austin, Texas, where she sometimes slips into a Texas twang. When she's not in her booth narrating, you can find her learning to play violin, doing water aerobics, or cheering on her son's high school marching band.