Business Services

Business services are the infrastructure of the corporate world: highly dynamic, increasingly digital, and often undervalued. But in competitive markets under margin pressure, firms can’t afford to rely on legacy models. Whether you’re navigating consolidation, embedding tech, or scaling up with confidence, we help you uncover your competitive advantage and use it to go further.

We help our clients

True advantage is rarely skin-deep. We dig into what makes a business stand out, be it commercial model, delivery strength or operating structure, and assess whether it’s scalable, defensible, and worth investing in.
Budgets are tighter. Expectations are higher. We help service providers adapt. Streamlining operations, protecting margin, and finding opportunity in complexity, regulation and rising cost bases.
As technology reshapes service delivery, traditional pricing models often undervalue what’s truly being offered. We help clients rethink pricing models, aligning fees to the value delivered, not just time spent. This shift not only improves margins, but also strengthens customer loyalty and positions services as strategic rather than transactional.
As client needs evolve, so should the service offering. We help businesses identify adjacent opportunities: extensions that add value, strengthen loyalty, and increase embeddedness. Whether it’s launching a new solution, bundling services, or moving up the value chain, we assess where the commercial upside lies and how to capture it.

Case Studies

Expertise in action:

Pricing structure redesign

Which pricing levers helped boost revenue by 62% with minimal churn?

A legal services business wanted to understand where pricing could unlock growth. CIL ran a pricing diagnostic which included customer research, transaction analysis, and stakeholder interviews. The work identified several high-impact levers – including clearer pricing structures, stronger rate card discipline, and improved sales enablement. The result: revised pricing that increased revenue per customer by 69%, limited churn to just 4%, and grew total billings by 62%.

Automated market share analytics

How did better data reveal the strongest regions for growth?

A property services business with bold growth ambitions relied on manual Excel analysis that left material gaps in market visibility. CIL automated the extraction and transformation of market-share data into Power BI dashboards, giving leaders a single, timely view of trends, local performance pockets, and competitor activity. This on-demand insight enabled the client to benchmark effectively, pinpoint attractive acquisition targets, and empower branch teams with actionable intelligence for day-to-day growth decisions.

Preparing data foundations for exit

How did one business strengthen its equity story ahead of exit?

A property services business approaching exit needed reliable data to evidence its equity story. CIL unified multiple systems and ERPs into a single source of truth, replacing error-prone manual reporting with a consolidated, reporting-ready platform. The work delivered clear visibility of KPIs and growth drivers, giving management and investors confidence in the business’s performance. The result: a stronger equity story and greater investor confidence, with data foundations expected to support a higher valuation at exit.

Person explaining something while looking at laptop

Data-led pricing optimization

What does it take for a business services provider to raise prices without losing customers?

A business services provider wanted to optimize pricing to drive long-term value. CIL spoke to more than 140 customers, tested pricing in the market, and performed CRM cohort analysis to identify opportunities. The outcome: a 16% price increase, achieved without reducing conversion rates or increasing churn.

Three things on legal services

The legal services market is under pressure from structural change, talent constraints, and shifting client expectations.

Tom Stevens, who co-leads CIL’s Business Services practice, shares three key insights on how the sector is evolving.

Sub-sector expertise

We work across the business services landscape - from people-driven professions to tech-enabled operators - supporting growth through strategic clarity, operational rigor, and commercial insight. We also help investors assess and back the businesses best placed to outperform.

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Professional & specialist services

From legal and accountancy firms to ESG and business intelligence providers, these sectors are navigating pricing pressure, delivery disruption and the shift from time-based to value-based pricing models. We support clients in identifying scalable service lines, stress-testing operating models, and optimizing commercial strategy. For investors, we provide critical insight into differentiation, margin potential and future-proofing.

Human capital & workforce solutions

The talent economy is evolving fast, with rising demand, tech-led platforms and tightening regulation. We help providers build scalable models, enhance unit economics and position for growth in competitive markets. For investors, we assess scalability, market dynamics and delivery capability across the full lifecycle of human capital.

Property services

From estate agency to conveyancing, businesses in this space are responding to consolidation, compliance demands and margin pressure. We help firms optimize structure, route-to-market and integration strategy. For investors, we evaluate operational maturity, commercial opportunity and value creation potential in fragmented, often under-optimized segments.

BPO & operational services

In high-volume, cost-sensitive environments, such as energy, logistics, and compliance, strategic growth depends on process efficiency, tech enablement and customer retention. We support businesses in improving performance and building resilience. For investors, we analyze delivery models, stickiness, and the levers for long-term value.