Big shops will be sending their cheapest (aka youngest) consultants to all their small clients, or at least until they complain enough about the quality of work

Big shops will be sending their cheapest (aka youngest) consultants to all their small clients, or at least until they complain enough about the quality of work that they send someone more senior along to right things. That's what allows other smaller consultancy shops to compete, because such clients would be considered our "big" clients that we send our best people to. You're just waiting for that moment where they get fed up with a big shop and open it up for a new contract, and you can swoop in and pick up a new client.