Bringing Your Team Into Client Conversations
If you want clients to trust your team, they need the opportunity to see what your team can actually do.
One of the challenges with the traditional advisory model is that the business owner or most senior person tends to lead every important client conversation.
Meanwhile, the team might be doing a huge amount of work behind the scenes — preparing the numbers, understanding what's happening in the business and spotting things worth discussing.
But the client never sees that.
So naturally, who do they think the expert is?
You.
In this episode of Advisory Secrets, I talk about why bringing your team into client conversations is such an important part of building an advisory team.
And it doesn't mean handing over an important client meeting and hoping for the best.
Start gradually.
Bring someone into a meeting to observe. Then give them something specific to contribute. Perhaps they explain a set of numbers they've prepared, share something they've noticed or ask the client a question.
Then, as their confidence and experience develops, give them more responsibility.
There's another important part of this too.
You have to give them space to speak.
If you invite somebody into a meeting but answer every question, explain every number and jump in every time there's a pause, the client still sees you as the advisor and your team member as the support.
Sometimes leadership means deliberately stepping back and allowing someone else to demonstrate what they know.
And something interesting can happen when you do.
Clients start recognising that expertise doesn't sit with just one person.
They begin building relationships with other members of the team.
Different people bring different perspectives to the conversation.
And gradually, the relationship moves from:
"My advisor is Deb."
to:
"This is my advisory team."
That's a very different relationship — and a much more scalable one.
Takeaways
- Clients can't develop trust in your team if they never get to experience their knowledge and capability.
- If the owner leads every important conversation, it's natural for clients to see the owner as the only advisor.
- Bring team members into client meetings gradually rather than expecting them to lead straight away.
- Give them a specific role or contribution, rather than simply asking them to sit in and observe indefinitely.
- Allow your team members to answer questions and share their own observations — even when you could answer more quickly yourself.
- Client trust can gradually move from one individual to the wider advisory team.
- Different perspectives can actually improve the quality of an advisory conversation.
- Part of becoming an advisory leader is knowing when to step back and create space for somebody else to shine.
And here's a question to think about:
When your clients think about advisory in your firm, whose face do they see?
If it's always yours, perhaps it's time to start giving your team greater visibility.
Find Out More
To find out more about developing advisory capability across your firm, visit APX Training.
You can also join our free Advisory Teams Facebook community.
And for longer-form conversations about advisory, search for Advisory Conversations with Tim Seymour and Deb Halliday on your usual podcast platform.
Transcript
Welcome to Advisory Secrets with Deb Halladay, the bite sized podcast for accountants and bookkeepers developing their advisory skills.
Speaker A:In this series, we're going beyond the individual advisor and exploring how to build advisory capability across your team.
Speaker A:Because a scalable advisory service shouldn't depend on one person.
Speaker A:Let's get started.
Speaker A:In the last episode, we talked about building confidence within your advisory team.
Speaker A:And there's a point where that confidence needs somewhere to go.
Speaker A:Because if you want clients to trust your team, your team needs the opportunity to become visible to them.
Speaker A:Which brings us to a really simple question.
Speaker A:Who should actually be in the client meeting?
Speaker A:In many firms, the answer is automatically the business owner, or perhaps the partner or most senior person in the practice.
Speaker A:They're the trusted advisor.
Speaker A:They have the relationship, they know the client.
Speaker A:So naturally they lead the important conversations.
Speaker A:But there's a problem with that.
Speaker A:If you're always the person in the meeting, you continue reinforcing the idea that you are the advisor.
Speaker A:Your team may do an enormous amount of work behind the scenes.
Speaker A:They might prepare the reports, analyze the numbers, speak to the client throughout the month.
Speaker A:They may even know certain areas of that client's finances better than you do.
Speaker A:But when it comes to the important conversation, they disappear and the owner steps in.
Speaker A:So what does the client learn?
Speaker A:That when something really matters, they need you.
Speaker A:And that's exactly the dependency we're trying to move away from.
Speaker A:Building an advisory team means deliberately creating opportunities for clients to experience the knowledge and capability that exists across your firm.
Speaker A:That doesn't mean suddenly disappearing from meetings and telling somebody else to take over.
Speaker A:It can happen gradually.
Speaker A:You might start by bringing a team member into a meeting with you.
Speaker A:But don't just have them sitting quietly in the background.
Speaker A:Give them a purpose.
Speaker A:Perhaps they prepared the management information so they talk the client through something they've noticed.
Speaker A:And perhaps they have the closest day to day relationship with the client.
Speaker A:So they lead part of the conversation around cash flow.
Speaker A:Perhaps they've been looking at a particular issue, so they explain what they found.
Speaker A:Now the client begins to see them differently.
Speaker A:They're no longer simply the person who does the bookkeeping or prepares the accounts.
Speaker A:They're someone who understands their business and has something valuable to contribute.
Speaker A:And that's an important shift.
Speaker A:Over time, you can increase that responsibility.
Speaker A:Instead of contributing five minutes to the meeting, perhaps they lead one section, then perhaps they lead the meeting with you there to support them.
Speaker A:And eventually there may be meetings where you don't need to be there at all.
Speaker A:That's how trust begins to expand.
Speaker A:Across the team.
Speaker A:But there's another reason I like having more than one person involved in advisory conversations.
Speaker A:Different people notice different things.
Speaker A:The person doing the bookkeeping may have spotted a pattern in spending.
Speaker A:The accountant might see something in the margins.
Speaker A:Someone who speaks to the client regularly might know they're struggling with capacity.
Speaker A:Another team member may have experience of a similar situation with another business.
Speaker A:Bring those perspectives together and you can often create a much richer conversation.
Speaker A:Because advisory doesn't have to be one expert sitting opposite one client providing all the answers.
Speaker A:It can be collaborative, and that can actually improve the quality of the advice.
Speaker A:There's also a development opportunity here.
Speaker A:Your less experienced team members get to hear how more experienced advisors ask questions.
Speaker A:They hear how difficult subjects are introduced.
Speaker A:They they see what happens when a conversation goes in an unexpected direction.
Speaker A:And eventually they start contributing themselves.
Speaker A:That's incredibly difficult to learn from theory alone.
Speaker A:Sometimes you need to be in the room.
Speaker A:There is one thing we need to be careful about, though.
Speaker A:If you bring a team member into a meeting and then answer every question yourself, interrupt them, or immediately add your own version of everything they've said, you're probably not building their credibility.
Speaker A:You're reinforcing yours.
Speaker A:Sometimes leadership means deliberately making space.
Speaker A:Let them answer, let the client look to them, let them have the conversation, and resist the temptation to jump in unless they actually need you.
Speaker A:That can be uncomfortable for the owner, too, especially if you're used to being the person clients rely on.
Speaker A:But remember what we're trying to build.
Speaker A:Not one brilliant advisor with a support team behind them.
Speaker A:A genuinely capable advisory team.
Speaker A:So here's the question I'd like you to think about after this episode.
Speaker A:When your clients think about advice from your firm, whose face do they see?
Speaker A:If it's only yours?
Speaker A:Perhaps it's time to start widening the picture.
Speaker A:Because clients can't build trust in people they never get to experience.
Speaker A:And your team can't develop advisory capability if all the valuable conversations happen without them.
Speaker A:In the next episode, we're going to look at something that can make a huge difference to how quickly your team develops.
Speaker A:And it may require you as the business owner, to do something that feels surprisingly difficult.
Speaker A:Stop being the person with all the answers.
Speaker A:Thanks for listening to Advisory Secrets with Deb Halliday.
Speaker A:If you're ready to develop advisory capability across your team, visit APXTraining Co to explore our evergreen elearning and live implementation cohorts starting in September, February and May.
Speaker A:You can also join our free Advisory Teams community on facebook@facebook.com groups advisoryteams and if you'd like more podcast content, listen to Advisory Conversations with Tim Seymour and Deb Halliday, available on all major podcast platforms.
Speaker A:I'll see you next time for another advisory secret.
