What Trump's win means for the consulting industry

• Trump's win could provide a much-needed boost to the consulting industry.
• Trump's proposed tariffs, tax cuts, and deregulation could drive demand for consulting services.
• Consulting firms have recently faced a decline in demand, leading to layoffs and delayed offers.

President Donald Trump's election victory could spell good news for the consulting industry, which has recently faced declines in demand and hiring.

Trump campaigned on several proposed policies — including global tariffs on imported goods and sweeping tax cuts — that could impact American businesses and, in turn, demand for consulting services.

Industry experts told Business Insider they expect Trump's election to increase demand for consulting, including strategy, management, reorganizational, and technical advisory services.

"I think the election of Trump is very favorable for the consulting industry," Michael Mische, a management consultant, former partner at KPMG, and professor at USC's Marshall School, told BI.

Mische said the primary factors that drive consulting are typically macroeconomic health, government spending, CEO sentiment, free cash flows, and client need. He said there has been client need over the past couple of years, but some CEOs have been hesitant to act on it due to a tough macroeconomic environment, noting that the industry is highly vulnerable and elastic depending on what's going on in the world.

"Our entire consulting industry — it's predicated on the fact that it's the discretionary item. It literally is the luxury item of the CEO," Mische said.

Unlike accounting or legal services, consultants are not a must-have, and they are quick to go when CEO sentiment is down or economic outlooks are uncertain. But Mische said Trump's election will likely boost CEO sentiment, noting that the stock market reacted positively to Trump's win.

Trump's proposal to cut the corporate tax rate could leave more money for companies to put toward discretionary spending like consultants. The unrealized capital gains tax floated by Vice President Kamala Harris is also unlikely to happen now, another potential morale boost for companies.

Tariffs might also favor the consulting industry, as responding to them could require "quite of bit of intellectual horsepower" and specialized skillsets that companies may turn to consultants for.

Two days after the election, Mische said he was already seeing clients warm up to hiring more consulting services.

Potentially a short-term bump

Tom Rodenhauser, managing partner at the consulting market research firm Kennedy Intelligence, agreed that the industry could see increased demand following Trump's election, but he thinks it could be a "short-term bump."

Rodenhauser said Trump comes with uncertainty, along with his promises of tax cuts and deregulation — all of which, including the unpredictability, can be good for consultants.

"But the bad part is you're borrowing against the future. You're kind of having this very short-term outlook," he said.

For instance, in recent years, there has been a push toward renewables as the energy of the future, but Trump's focus on oil and gas could lead to more focus and expenditures on those sectors, a move Rodenhauser said may not be ideal in the long term.

He compared the situation to what happened during the pandemic: surging demand for consulting services led to over-hiring, which led to layoffs and delayed start dates at some major firms, including Deloitte, EY, and PwC.

"I think the danger for the big consulting firms is you don't want to seize upon an opportunity that's going to give you a short-term fix," he said.

Doree Keating, a public sector industry leader at Ernst & Young, had a more optimistic outlook on Trump's impact. "We're seeing tremendous opportunity for the government to leverage cloud technology, responsible AI, and data to drive efficiency and effectiveness across all agencies. Ultimately, our focus will be on helping modernizing government operations to deliver better results for the American people," she told BI by email.

'Business as usual'

Two consultants both told Business Insider by direct message on Reddit that their firms are preparing for "business as usual" in Trump's second term. Both requested anonymity to avoid jeopardizing their careers but their employment was confirmed by Business Insider.

One consultant who works at Deloitte said there would likely be a shift from federal to state-level work. "The prediction for more state government contracts comes across some of the policy ideas we've heard from the Trump administration; if there's certain federal social services that change or end, states have a lot of work to do to implement those changes but also address gaps it creates for the respective citizens of the state," they wrote.

They added that Deloitte's leadership predicts a hiring surge next year to support staffing changes across agencies, new grant work, and implementing policy decisions Trump makes in his first year as president.

Deloitte did not respond to Business Insider's request for comment.

Three phases of preparing for Trump 2.0

Mische said he expects three phases in how consulting firms respond to the new presidency. First, they'll need more confidence about what they think will happen in 2025. Next, they'll need to work through the backlog of extended but deferred job offers to see who is still interested in working for the firm. And once they have clarity in those regards, firms can start amping up their recruiting efforts.

He expects much demand in the energy sectors, from fossil fuels to renewables, and an increased focus on more efficient government spending.

The federal government spends billions annually on consulting services, and he said there may be increased demand from agencies Trump has suggested making major changes to, including the Department of Education, the Justice Department, and the Department of Defense.