I regularly speak to audiences of lawyers, accountants and consultants about the challenges of making partner. In my talks I often share the ten lessons that my clients have learnt along their journeys to make partner. In this blog post I am going to share the fourth lesson, create a strong, personal brand.
It can be exceptionally tempting to do this
When someone comes along and asks you “what do you do?”, do you claim a specialism or hedge your bets and decide to be a “jack-of-all-trades”. After all, you don’t want to miss out on a piece of work by being too niche. Or do you? That’s the thing. I see so many accountants, lawyers and consultants trying to make themselves as attractive as possible to a wide as range as possible of clients. In the process becoming attractive to no-one.
Clients want to work with an expert
Let’s imagine that someone close to you needs surgery. Who would you want to operate ? The top “specialist” surgeon in the country, or a general surgeon who will “give it a go”? Of course, you want the top specialist surgeon!
Whilst your clients may not need surgery, the work they need doing normally carries a high degree of risk, as well as personal financial and reputation repercussions if they don’t solve their issues.
Let’s look at this another way
Most professionals’ business cases for partner are based on growing a practice to increase the overall size of their firm. This means a firm can’t have an aspiring partner aiming to grow a practice, which cannibalises part of a partner’s existing practice. This means you need to become an expert in an area where the referrals will naturally come to you rather than to your partners.
When to specialise?
So, you get the arguments for needing to specialise. The question is when to specialise? My opinion is the sooner the better. The more you get known for a certain type of work or client, the more likely you will get sent or given this type of work. And so a virtuous circle starts. Of course, if your partners need you to do work outside of your specialism, then of course you say yes….
We have a great course in Progress to Partner called “How to become the Go-To-Expert”. And a Game Plan of resources to work through called “...if you need to raise your profile” has sections on raising your profile inside your firm as well as externally – Check it out!
In summary
The sooner you specialise, the higher your internal and external market value will become. Trying to be a “jack-of-all-trades” in today’s business climate is career suicide.
