Comms

When people are the problem, make them the solution

The partnership had a performance program in place, but the partners themselves weren’t following it. They were promoting people in their teams who hadn’t been meeting expectations, let alone exceeding them. It had become an accepted practice driven by the fear of losing people in a tight employment market. The firm’s leadership knew this was not the road to excellence.

The solution was to work with the partners themselves. The first step was to listen to the partners individually to determine the underlying problems, then to feed an assessment of those problems back to the partnership as a group to gain a shared understanding. A workshop was then able to gain agreement on the approach so an implementation plan could be put in place.

The plan addressed the underlying problem of poor performance on the part of the team members. Partners were coached on how to hold effective performance conversations with their team members and staff received training to upskill them in their areas of need.

The program reaped huge rewards for the partners as well as staff, and especially firm’s overall performance.

How to sell different services consistently

The accounting firm realised its partners needed to be able to differentiate its practice areas in the market, but still send a consistent message about the firm as a whole. The partners, although excellent at their work, needed help with what to say about their business when speaking with clients.

The solution was a series of workshops with partners and senior staff to distil the key value each practice area provided to clients. This resulted in succinct key messages for each practice area to use to present a consistent face to the market and easily explain the value of each practice area. The messages were used as a basis for conversations and pitches and were a springboard for other marketing activity. The clarity and confidence had a significant positive impact on winning work.

Bringing two firms together as one

When two similarly sized accounting firms merged, everyone expected the usual admin headaches, but the real risk was strategic. The two firms had different ideas about who their ideal client was, how fast to grow, and what the combined firm should be known for. Left unresolved, this threatened to create two competing cultures under one letterhead.

The solution was a joint strategic planning process that brought partners from both firms together before the ink was dry on the deal. Facilitated workshops worked through the hard questions - target markets, practice area priorities, brand and name - so decisions were made deliberately rather than by default or seniority. A single strategic plan gave the new firm a shared story to tell clients, staff, and the market.

Instead of two firms operating under one name, the combined firm moved into its first year with genuine alignment on where it was headed and why.