by Robin Dicks | Apr 11, 2016 | Robin's Blog
There was a short but thought-provoking piece recently in Accountancy Age on this issue. To slightly paraphrase the article, it suggests that actually many of the approaches and ways of doing business undertaken by ‘professional firms’ or advisors are anything but professional in the 21st century. It also makes me wonder whether the description professional services firms, or indeed lawyers or accountants is the best way of describing what people do and the value they bring. While bolting ‘solutions’ at the end of a name or service descriptions risks an entry in Private Eye, firms would be advised to think about the commercial merit and value of what they do being much clearer in the description, and indeed the undertaking, of their...
by Robin Dicks | Jun 29, 2015 | Robin's Blog
Cross-selling, or as I prefer it to be terms, co-operative selling or successfully extending relationships with clients, requires a number of things to be in place. Fee earners need to be able to answer 5 questions with a “yes”. The link here to the Co-operative selling image shows you what these questions...
by Robin Dicks | Mar 31, 2015 | Robin's Blog
Forgive me if this sounds a bit “old school” but I think the Ansoff Matrix (see www.ansoffmatrix.com) can be used much more practically by firms than it often is. To apply it in real life, its worth thinking about the following: If you are to going to rely on market penetration and gaining more business from your clients in what you already do, what will be relevant to them in practice? If you are to extend the range of specialisms you provide, where are you credible as far as clients are concerned, and could you actually succeed in winning work? We have some excerpts with real life examples if helpful – just contact...
by Robin Dicks | Aug 22, 2014 | Uncategorized
For most professional services firms, successful growth remains driven by how well aligned marketing, business development and the activities of fee earners are – and, of course, how well they are executed. But it’s not a perfect world: what is there is a gap in the key activities you cover, or people duplicate effort, or the person responsible for the activity doesn’t have the skills (or desire) to do it? Effectiveness declines. Accountability, ability and appetite. Not all is lost if you don’t have all 3, and people can still drive results. But you do need to understand where people are at and how to maximise the impact of what you do. How can you optimise the effectiveness of all the people involved in the marketing and BD effort? Phil Gott, my colleague in the Winning Firm Alliance, and I have created a diagnostic which very inexpensively and quickly identifies how the whole firm, a practice/team, or an individual can really enhance the results from their activity. Contact me if you’d like more information on 44 (0)7940 886677 or at robin @ thrivingcompany.co.uk ...
by Robin Dicks | Apr 8, 2014 | Uncategorized
Or, to quote author Robert Mowbray more fully from the Nat West financial benchmarking report, “For firms that have spent the last five years believing that in order to make more money they need to spend less, it may now be difficult to believe they may need to spend more to make more.” You can click on further coverage of the report here; as well as points about investment and margin, it also emphasises the importance of cash management and understanding the key drivers of profitability. For an alternative view on profitability and to assess how well your firm is positioned to achieve profitable growth, click and access the Thriving self-review...
