New Partners Must Be Impact Players

Man explaining something to three office colleagues around table

Seven reasons why.

By Marc Rosenberg
How to Bring in New Partners

An impact player in sports is more than just a productive, loyal member of the team. The team relies on this player to be a consistent winner.

MORE: Why Partners Can’t Shirk Performance Reviews | Twelve Questions That Prospective Partners Should Ask | Six Systems Used to Determine Partners’ Goodwill Payments | Fifteen Steps to New Partner Buy-in | Four Philosophies for Managing a CPA Firm | Public Accounting as a Business, 101 | 16 Steps to Creating a Partnership Path
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I’ve always liked this term to describe what a partner in a CPA firm should be. I like it so much that I inserted the term “impact” in the name of the partner self-evaluation form I offer.
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Four Surprising Keys to Communication

Component parts of how the other person perceives your in-person communication
Component parts of how the other person perceives your in-person communication

How to show that you value your clients – and yourself.

By Martin Bissett
 Business Development on a Budget

I’ve had the benefit of meeting, speaking and observing hundreds of very successful and unsuccessful partners over the last two decades and there is indeed a set of differentiating factors that set a partner apart from the chasing pack.

MORE: Four Reasons People Struggle with Communication | Five Questions for Measuring Partner Potential | Five Ways to Rally Your Firm to Its Culture | When Would-Be Partners Aren’t Candidates | Make Your Expertise a New-Client Magnet | Don’t Think of It as Selling | Experts: What It Takes to Become Partner | Where Is Your Next Money Coming From? | Your Website Promises. Do You Deliver? | Five Reasons Firms Don’t Thrive | What the Next Generation of Practice Leaders Faces
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Here are the four “best-selling behaviors” that I’ve observed:

1. Road tested

None of us can have a track record of partner-level excellence on day one in the position but we can be road tested in four ways:
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Why Partners Can’t Shirk Performance Reviews

two men talking across a table, one holding a sheet of paper, window and brick wall in background

Five types of partner evaluations. BONUS: Partner self-evaluation and impact form.

By Marc Rosenberg

The classic purposes of a performance evaluation are:

  • To improve performance.
  • To clarify what is expected of the individual and what is needed to advance.
  • To provide management with information to use in making promo-tion and compensation decisions.

MORE: Twelve Questions That Prospective Partners Should Ask | Adding New Partners: 19 Reasons to Choose between Equity and Non-Equity | How Partner Buyouts Work | What Buying In Actually Means | How Partner and Staff Actions Impact Profits | Nuts and Bolts of Mentoring Staff | Nine Ways to Measure Staff Performance on the Path to Partner
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The need for performance evaluations applies to partners as well as staff. Contrary to what many partners may feel, partners can and must continually improve their performance.
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Four Reasons People Struggle with Communication

Chart showing Passport to Partnership's 7 levels of communication managementPlus two things you must demonstrate with existing client relationships.

By Martin Bissett
Passport to Partnership

Ultimately, when we have to interact with clients, subordinates, superiors or peers, the questions are always the same: Who do I need to deliver this information to and what approach would they respond most favorably to?

MORE: Five Questions for Measuring Partner Potential | Culture Can’t Be Ignored | Three Questions About Your Competence | 10 Can’t-Skip Steps for Business Development | Attract Clients, Don’t Chase Them | Success in Business Comes Second | Business Won’t Come to You | Forged in Fire: The Pains of Leadership | A Lesson in Customer Service and Reputation | Prioritize Your Prospects | Good Enough Is Not Enough
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In arriving at “Communication” we come to the most intangible of all the components to obtain a “passport to partnership.”
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Twelve Questions That Prospective Partners Should Ask

Plus 11 questions your firm should ask prospective partners.

By Marc Rosenberg

This post should be read from the perspective of two different audiences: prospective partners and existing partner groups.

  • Prospective partners: Well before accepting a partnership offer, prospective partners should ask basic, critically important questions to help them judge whether accepting it would be a smart decision.
  • Existing partner group: Well before extending a partnership offer, the firm should get its house in order to avoid being embarrassed by smart questions posed by partner candidates.

MORE: Adding New Partners: 19 Reasons to Choose between Equity and Non-Equity | What Firms Should Address in Partner Agreements | 11 Best Practices for Partner Compensation | Why Buying Into a Firm Is Such a Great Investment | The Business Side of CPA Firms | It Shouldn’t Take So Long to Make Partner | Three Types of Skills You Need to Become a Partner
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Questions Prospective Partners Should Ask Their Firm

It’s one thing for a staff person to join a CPA firm, enjoy the job and experience success via nonstop promotions, feeling all along that the firm is a great place to work. But it’s quite another thing for a staffer to consider whether or not to accept a partnership offer that may come in the future.
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Five Questions for Measuring Partner Potential

PTP_2ndCPlus how to read your firm’s cultural blueprint.

By Martin Bissett
Passport to Partnership

What conclusions can you draw from your knowledge of how the promotion system works in your firm that you need to keep in mind?

MORE: Culture Can’t Be Ignored | Why Firm Culture Matters for Partners | Three Things That Rich Accountants Do | Four Reasons It’s Hard to Sell | Win Your First Client: Yourself | 10 Questions for Reconsidering Your Prices | A List Is Not a Pipeline | Are You Committed to Your Firm?
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In terms of firm culture, you need to understand the four navigational points of the compass:

  1. Who do I need to stay on the right side of?
  2. What are the unwritten rules in my firm?
  3. Whose opinions can be trusted?
  4. What really impresses the partners?

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Adding New Partners: 19 Reasons to Choose between Equity and Non-Equity

The ways they differ.

By Marc Rosenberg

It’s worth exploring the reasons for equity partners in great detail.

Here are the key points:

  1. New partners deserve the promotion to such a great extent that the firm can’t afford not to admit them to the ownership ranks.
  2. The firm needs to expand its partner ranks.
  3. The firm needs to replace a departed partner.
  4. It rewards longtime managers who have solid client service skills.

MORE: What Firms Should Address in Partner Agreements | Six Systems Used to Determine Partners’ Goodwill Payments | Fifteen Steps to New Partner Buy-in | Four Philosophies for Managing a CPA Firm | Public Accounting as a Business, 101 | 16 Steps to Creating a Partnership Path | Six Ways New Partners Differ from Managers | The Four Essentials for Every New Partner
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  1. It’s part of a succession planning strategy.
  2. Partner promotions send a strong message to the staff.
  3. It energizes the partner group.
  4. It’s part of a merger strategy.

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What Firms Should Address in Partner Agreements

Businessman sitting in office and reading documents
… and what partner candidates should know before they sign.

By Marc Rosenberg
How to Bring in New Partners

What is a partner agreement?

According to nolo.com, “A partner agreement spells out the rights and responsibilities of the firm’s owners. Without one, firms will be ill-equipped to settle or avoid conflicts because if certain key passages are missing or written improperly, the courts will intervene in ways that the partners may not like. A partner agreement allows the firm’s partners to structure their business relationships with each other in ways that suit their desires, needs and preferences.”

MORE: Six Systems Used to Determine Partners’ Goodwill Payments | How Partner Buyouts Work | What Buying In Actually Means | How Partner and Staff Actions Impact Profits | Nuts and Bolts of Mentoring Staff | Nine Ways to Measure Staff Performance on the Path to Partner | Sixteen Duties of a Partner
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Any post on partner agreements will have an obligatory paragraph like that. Here is a more in-depth description that may be illuminating.
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