Business Development Training for Accountants

Business development training for accountants has historically been considered important to the growth of accounting firms yet business development training for professional services is something you may want to rethink and here is why.

In reality, accounting firms that engage in business development (BD) training as a fix-all are widely ineffective and produce lack lustre results. From experience, we believe firms who don’t institute ongoing, behavioural change coaching as a foundation for building BD capabilities will most likely fail to adequately equip their accountants to achieve their full BD potential which will ultimately impede the firm’s ability to successfully win work over the long term.

Increasingly, the accounting profession is becoming more competitive, and in a post pandemic world, firms need to be innovative to deploying new, more effective ways to help their accountants to remain competitive and gain a leg up on the competition.

While BD training for accountants will undoubtedly contribute to a greater understanding of business development it is unlikely to change the underlying behaviour of accountants which is the critical missing piece. In essence, it is the equivalent to giving someone intending to climb Mt. Everest a day pack with some power bars, warm clothes and a map. Clearly these things will help but they certainly won’t get them to the summit!

Think about a business development training program for professional services that you have attended. It’s likely you left with good intentions to put the information you learned into practice but if you’re like most people, you end up going back to doing things the way you’ve always done them. It’s just human nature. We form habitual behaviour patterns over a lifetime so it’s unrealistic to expect to change those patterns of behaviour in a one or two-day training workshop.

Accountants undergo years of study, including the arduous process of completing their professional qualifications such as CA or CPA before they join an accounting firm. Their professional development continues throughout their career yet rarely are they given appropriate professional development in business development early in their career.

Typically, they are given work to start, and after years of becoming subject matter experts, business development is thrust upon them along with a revenue target. Most understand the need for BD activities as a daily practice, but the prevailing issue that often arises is they are ineffective at generating business for their firms because they have not invested in developing the core mindset, skills and daily routines necessary to succeed at business development. Firms often attempt to address this by employing external sales training organisation to run one-size-fits-all seminars and workshops designed for salespeople in an attempt to teach accountants how to ‘sell’, which are generally offensive and not well received by accountant. Standardised business development training for accountants is flawed and simply does not work.

The effective alternative to business development training for accountants is business development coaching for accountants. A coaching-based approach empowers accounting professionals through gradual behavioural change over many months to make a core identity shift to someone who conducts business development regularly and culminates in building high-performing BD habits that are pivotal for long-term results.

Many tier one and tier two accounting firms have moved away from traditional business development training for accountants and are enjoying substantial dividends from investing in fit for purpose, business development coaching for accountants that promotes sustainable behaviour change over time.

At Collective Intelligence we employ a team of highly experienced and qualified executive coaches and advisors who specialise in behavioural change and building high performance. We support accountants and accounting firms in achieving success outside of traditional business development training for accountants through our propriety coaching programs. We know good habits drive good outcomes, and our coaching-based approach gets results.

For more information on how your accounting firm can enact successful, long term change contact us today or visit the links below: