9 ways to help partners manage their clients.
by marc rosenberg
the role of the managing partner
cpa firm partners have a tendency to get sucked in to many activities. there is a macho aspect to their personalities that says, “bring it on, i can handle it.”
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no. no. no. they cannot handle it well. the notion that multitasking is an efficient, desirable mode of conduct is pure myth and has been debunked by numerous studies.
client service partners (those having no management or administrative duties) need to do everything in their power to focus their time and energy primarily in two areas:
- take great care of clients. this goes way beyond merely getting the work out and collecting the fees. everyone does these basics. what’s more important is being proactive: bringing in new clients, establishing super relationships with existing clients, helping them improve their business, cross-selling them services they need, turning clients into cheerleaders who rave about you and the firm, introducing them to professionals outside the firm and creating multiple touch points with other firm members so that if a partner suddenly leaves the firm, his or her clients will stay.
- take great care of staff. this goes way beyond assigning projects to them and reviewing their work. everyone does these basics. what’s more important is being proactive: training, mentoring, giving them feedback, stretching their abilities by giving them challenging work and building their self-confidence, engaging them, showing them how to interact with clients, providing diverse work assignments, being a great boss, recognizing their achievements – even if the staff are merely doing what they were asked to do. partners should treat staff with as much respect they give to clients. they should never pull rank.
come on. what else is there for partners to do besides these two things? timesheets, billing and collections, attending partner meetings and cpe certainly take up some time, but not that much. the vast majority of partners’ time should be spent on client and staff activities.
it’s the managing partner’s job to help partners stay focused on clients and staff, and when they go astray to help them get their focus back.
manage partners by helping with client management
here is how managing partners can help partners manage their clients:
- administer client satisfaction or loyalty surveys. it’s not important what the partners think regarding whether or not they are providing great service to clients. it only matters what the clients think. client satisfaction can be assessed with surveys. there are two main goals of the surveys: finding out how the firm can serve clients better and identifying clients the firm is at risk of losing. remember, the bar for client satisfaction is very high: you want clients to rate you a 5 on a one-to-five scale. fours are nice, but research has shown that even clients who rate you as a 4 on being content with their cpa may still switch if a more intriguing competitor comes along.
- don’t let partners build up too large a client base. first, the larger one’s client base, the more difficult it is to provide each client with excellent service. perhaps more important, it is almost impossible to provide your best clients with the world-class service they deserve because too much of your time is tied up servicing smaller clients. second, one of the most effective ways to train managers and new partners is to delegate clients to them to manage. third, delegating clients from time to time frees up the partners’ time to find new clients. the managing partner should monitor the size of each partner’s client base and intervene where necessary to transfer clients to others with smaller client bases.
- exploit the potential for new business with existing clients. managing partners must remind partners that new client development should not be pursued at the expense of ignoring great opportunities with existing clients, the best source of new business.
- remember the 80/20 rule. the firm’s biggest clients, perhaps the upper 20 percent, should receive an even higher level of service and attention than the other 80 percent. the 80 percent should still be provided excellent service, just not at the level of the 20 percent. the managing partner can play an important role helping partners stay focused on this.
- train partners in business development. for various reasons that we won’t get into here, many partners at cpa firms, particularly at those below $10-$15 million in revenue, are not good business-getters. based on my anecdotal experiences, the percentage of partners at cpa firms skilled at bringing in business is only around 20 percent, which is very low.
it’s the managing partner’s job to understand this and work with partners to strengthen their business development skills. training in business development does work. remember, we are only looking to strengthen business development skills, not transform nonbusiness-getters into rainmakers.
as much as possible, the managing partner should not allow certain partners to simply opt out of business development .
- make partners accountable for business development. this is one way managing partners can have the biggest impact on getting partners to bring in more business. goal setting is a must.
- establish relationships with the firm’s largest clients. this can be a highly effective tactic. it makes the firm’s largest clients feel as if they are being singled for special treatment when the firm’s managing partner seeks them out.
- never let partners go on a sales pitch alone. there are two reasons why partners should bring other firm members along on a sales pitch.
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- staff learn business development skills by observing the partner’s style.
- bringing along a senior firm member with a different area of expertise shows the diversity of your firm’s knowledge and expertise.
partners often get so busy that they forget to make advance arrangements for bringing along others. again, it’s the managing partner’s job to remind partners to do this.
- provide multiple touch points. partners should involve other firm members with their clients, especially the larger ones. we call these other firm members “touch points.” if the partner suddenly leaves the firm, clients are likely to stay because they value the other highly skilled people who service them.