Managing the Professional Service Firm

many practice groups continue to maintain expertise-based approaches to running their affairs when their marketplace is probably closer to the efficiency stage.

Administration is a matter of “hygiene”: if done poorly it can hurt the practice, but outstanding administration never promotes the future success of the practice.

Professional services are not a “mass” business—clients are acquired one at a time, and any marketing program must reflect this.

After the engagement partner has forewarned the client (in person) that it is coming, and explained why the firm is doing it, the questionnaire should be sent out over the firm name (with the firm or office managing partner’s name attached), not the name of the individual engagement partner.

Disclosure certainly discourages the cooperative behavior required in most professional practice.

Only increased fee levels or leverage move the firm forward. All else is hygiene. It is the nature of the work brought in, not just its volume, that contributes to profit health.

FIGURE 19-1 Evaluation of the Practice Leader

In expertise practice areas, business development tends to be a personal responsibility of each partner (or partner equivalent).

One part of this system is critical: Follow-up.