The research | Symbioss

The research behind these problems

The figures on our About you page come from the sources below. For each, we set out what it shows and what it does not, so you can judge it for yourself. None is UK professional services data; where a source has a commercial interest, we say so.

1. Too much of your revenue rests on too few clients

Figure: A buyer can expect to apply a 10 to 20% discount to a UK agency’s value when one client accounts for more than 20% of its revenue; above 30%, sales often fall through.

Source: Alto Accounting, UK Agency Valuation Guide, 11 January 2026.

What it does not show: Research findings. It is one adviser’s guidance, and it concerns the sale of a business rather than investment generally.

2. Long-standing clients are drifting away

Figure: 60% of B2B customers are indifferent, 11% are actively disengaged and 29% are fully engaged.

Source: Gallup, For B2B companies, customer surveys aren’t enough, 26 April 2016.

What it does not show: UK or professional services data. It is cross-sector.

Figure: The decision to leave a supplier builds through a series of events over time, some of them outside the core service.

Source: Hollmann, Jarvis and Bitner, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 2015.

What it does not show: A lead time. This is qualitative research, so “months” on our page reflects our experience, not the study’s finding.

3. Your key client relationships sit with one or two of your people

Figure: Once one person had served a client for three and a half years, the chance of the client following them when they left had doubled. Each additional colleague working with the client made it about 2.5% less likely.

Source: Raffiee, Strategic Management Journal, 2017 (peer-reviewed), with figures taken from the author’s summary in Harvard Business Review, January 2017.

What it does not show: Rates for UK organisations. The study covers US federal lobbying clients from 1998 to 2014.

4. New decision-makers at your clients judge you differently

Figure: 90% of business buyers born after 1980 cited dissatisfaction with a supplier in at least one area, against 71% of older buyers.

Source: Forrester, Younger Business Buyers Are Having Their Say, 15 February 2023.

What it does not show: That younger buyers are less loyal or more likely to leave. The data is global.

5. Leaders cannot see the client portfolio clearly

Figure: 45% of sales leaders and sellers have high confidence in their organisation’s forecasting accuracy.

Source: Gartner press release, 12 February 2020.

What it does not show: Visibility of client relationships directly. It measures confidence in sales forecasts across industries, and the sample is not published.

6. Your CRM holds data, not client insight

Figure: 76% of CRM users and stakeholders say less than half of their organisation’s CRM data is accurate and complete.

Source: Validity, The State of CRM Data Management in 2025 (602 respondents in the US, UK and Australia).

What it does not show: A B2B services finding. Validity sells CRM data quality software.

7. You measure satisfaction and fees, not the strength of the relationship

Figure: Advisory and accounting practices score 57.9 out of 100 for the strength of their client experience management, against 62.5 across all industries.

Source: HLB and McorpCX, Stopping Revenue Leakage, June 2026.

What it does not show: A representative benchmark. The sample size is not disclosed.

8. Growth inside your clients is left to chance

Figure: 11% of professional services organisations with a relationship management platform almost always use it to identify new contacts and growth opportunities.

Source: BoardEx, via Consultancy.eu, 19 October 2020.

What it does not show: A figure for all organisations. It is 11% of those with a platform; this is vendor research and the sample size is not published.