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The Seventh And Final AND Most Critical 'C' To Sail Through To Get Your Passport To Partnership

6th Dec 2012
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Before we get started today, if your firm would benefit from a free (yes, as in 'no fee') days training on 'The Seventh 'C' - The Most Important Factor In Gaining A Passport To Partnership, please contact USP on 07708 922622 or at [email protected]  

We've reached the end of the voyage. My thank you to those who both participated in this research in the UK and US and to the readers of the blog for taking the time to do so.

Our Seventh and final 'C' then was our 'top answer' in over 80% of all firms interviewed as to what makes a senior manager stand out as a potential partner. It will come as no surprise then that our Seventh 'C' is  - Conversion.

Because ‘Selling’ is still carrying somewhat of a stigma from the cultural traditions of the profession, it is typical to find a partner who has spent 3-5 years training to obtain their qualifications, a career’s worth of experience honing their technical skills and yet less than 12 hours in their entire career working on how to pro-actively win new work.

If I were to spend 12 hours with you and benefit from all your experience and technical know how, realistically, how cabable an accountant would I be at the end of it?

That's what I thought.

It could be argued that this skill gap is a direct consequence of what happens when entire generations have been able to build their firms on referral/recurring work alone. What chance then, has a senior manager whose role will be heavily weighted towards the business development tasks that await a 21st century partner, in feeling confident about their abilities to perform in that aspect of partnership? Who will they learn from?

This concern was the second highest in the feedback from the Partner hopefuls, who felt their lack of knowledge in how to win new work from non-referred sources, would harm both their chances of obtaining their ‘passport’ and their ability to ‘go places’ as a result. 

When many existing Partners surveyed look to their pipeline of prospective partners, they see famine rather than feast but yet carry out no internal marketing 'Irrigation' in order to ripen their potential harvest. In turn, managers are often told that in order to make partner, they need to introduce anywhere from £50,000 + of new fees and managers have expressed bewilderment as to how to go about achieving that.

As technology and outsourcing abroad continually erode the compliance foundations of a traditional practice (Tesco Tax Returns Anyone?) the increasing value to our clients will be our advisory services. We've seen and will continue to see firms amplify this element of their service but as everyone starts to amplify their advisory expertise, how will we get heard? It will become the same scenario as choosing on compliance services alone is now, namely...

1. How much do they cost?

2. Are they local?

3. Do I like them?

As advisory services become the norm in terms of the value that an accounting practice offers, how will we differentiate? The answer is in our ability to sell professionally. How much of a need therefore, has our next generation of partners got to develop the skills that their training to date, has yet to cover?

If this is an area which would benefit from developement in your practice, please revisit the first paragraph on this page and in the meantime, I wish you every success in building the firm of your future both in successful exit and continuing prosperity.

Martin Bissett

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