Tag: intentional growth strategy

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Why Does Growth Training at Professional Service Firms Fall Short?

Many professional service firms invest heavily in growth training for their professionals – partners, principals, senior managers, directors, and others. The goals are admirable – help professionals build deeper client relationships, identify new opportunities, have business development conversations, and ultimately win new work.

However, these growth training programs often fail to deliver real results and often times fail to fully equip professionals to achieve the desired outcomes. There are 4 main reasons:

  • The training is too generic and not tailored enough to the specific firm, its culture, and clients. Professionals sit through programs that feel disconnected rather than directly relevant.
  • There is insufficient coaching and reinforcement after the training workshops. Professionals are inspired in the classroom but left unsupported in the field.
  • Accountability is lacking. Without repercussions for inaction or rewards for success post-training, old habits can creep back in quickly.
  • Effective growth training focuses professionals on a live prospect or client scenario, directly relevant to each participant.  It sequences skill development over time though multiple sessions that are not all-day affairs and provides the opportunity to apply the training for tangible results.  Without real-world application, the training rarely leads to behavior change.

The key is customized, hands-on training paired with individualized in-person and virtual coaching over an extended period of time, focused on a current client or prospect. This leads to real behavior change, sustainable new growth skills, new business wins and a better return on investment on the training dollars spent by the firm.

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Intentional Growth and Growth Culture

What is “intentional growth”?

Why is that so important for a healthy growth culture for your firm?

Firms that have a strong growth culture generally grow at a faster rate than peer firms over time.

Firms that have a strong growth culture typically have professionals who work well together and have a high level of trust among all team members. 

But they also have a common focus around intentional growth using a common approach and methodology to organize teams around successfully attracting more profitable clients and by expanding existing clients in more profitable relationships.

The core to this approach revolves around understanding the needs of clients and prospects in each of the firm’s core target markets.  This “outside-in” approach requires professionals to be intellectually curious about problems and/or opportunities that these clients/prospects may be facing.  

These professionals then leverage topics and issues to engage their contacts to connect with them – discovering what matters to them.

Applying “third level listening” skills, they have a dialogue with stakeholders at clients/prospects using high gain questions to discover even more, increasing their relevance along the way.  

The goal is to get to the “white-board” bringing together decision makers from the client/prospect and subject matter experts from their firm to collaborate on possible solutions to the issues that are being faced.

The practice teams play a role in the process, as they help their professionals do through a disciplined targeting process to ensure that account teams are spending their time and effort where the payoff is high.  

And firm leadership reinforces this activity with tone at the top, providing guidance to practice team leaders, and prioritizing firm leaders to align resources with opportunities.

I have helped multiple firms create and implement a comprehensive intentional growth strategy seen the results at firms I have been associated with.  Each of these firms experiences sustainable growth rates in excess of peers, providing increased profits and opportunities for their professionals.

Andre Lerman