2022世界杯足球排名 today<\/a>.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\nno. no. no. they cannot<\/strong> handle it well<\/strong>. the notion that multitasking is an efficient, desirable mode of conduct is pure myth and has been debunked by numerous studies.
\n
\nclient 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:<\/p>\n\n- take great care of clients.<\/strong> this goes way beyond merely getting the work out and collecting the fees. everyone does these basics. what\u2019s 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.<\/li>\n
- take great care of staff.<\/strong> this goes way beyond assigning projects to them and reviewing their work. everyone does these basics. what\u2019s 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 \u2013 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.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
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<\/strong> time, but not that much. the vast majority of partners\u2019 time should be spent on client and staff activities.<\/p>\nit\u2019s the managing partner\u2019s job to help partners stay focused on clients and staff, and when they go astray to help them get their focus back.<\/p>\n
manage partners by helping with client management<\/h3>\n
here is how managing partners can help partners manage their clients:<\/p>\n
\n- administer client satisfaction or loyalty surveys.<\/strong> it\u2019s not important what the partners <\/strong>think regarding whether or not they are providing great service to clients. it only matters what the clients<\/strong> 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<\/strong> 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.<\/li>\n
- don\u2019t let partners build up too large a client base. <\/strong>first, the larger one\u2019s client base, the more difficult it is to provide each<\/strong> client with excellent service. perhaps more important, it is almost impossible to provide your best<\/strong> 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\u2019 time to find new clients. the managing partner should monitor the size of each partner\u2019s client base and intervene where necessary to transfer clients to others with smaller client bases.<\/li>\n
- exploit the potential for new business with existing<\/em> clients.<\/strong> managing partners must remind partners that new client development should not be pursued at the expense of ignoring great opportunities with existing<\/strong> clients, the best source of new business.<\/li>\n
- remember the 80\/20 rule<\/strong>. the firm\u2019s 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.<\/li>\n
- train partners in business development<\/strong>. for various reasons that we won\u2019t 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.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
it\u2019s the managing partner’s job to understand this and work with partners to strengthen their business development skills. training in business development does<\/strong> work. remember, we are only looking to strengthen<\/strong> business development skills, not transform nonbusiness-getters into rainmakers.<\/p>\nas much as possible, the managing partner should not allow certain partners to simply opt out of business development .<\/p>\n
\n- make partners accountable for business development.<\/strong> this is one way managing partners can have the biggest impact on getting partners to bring in more business. goal setting is a must.<\/li>\n
- establish relationships with the firm\u2019s largest clients.<\/strong> this can be a highly effective tactic. it makes the firm\u2019s largest clients feel as if they are being singled for special treatment when the firm\u2019s managing partner seeks them out.<\/li>\n
- never let partners go on a sales pitch alone.<\/strong> there are two reasons why partners should bring other firm members along on a sales pitch.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n