Helping Your Clients Develop a Strategic Thinking Mindset
A 2017/18 HLB Mann Judd survey identified that 4 out of 5 businesses do not have a business plan. This finding is consistent with many other surveys I have seen.
The implication is that this is a problem that needs to be put right. We all know, if you fail to plan you plan to fail.
The problem with this thinking is that the plan – the deliverable – becomes the focus. The objective then becomes to have a written document and the accountant then tries to convince the client that they need a plan. This often then leads to what I call template planning – the accountant reaches for a business plan template or business plan app to develop a plan. Despite the best intentions of the accountant this becomes a sales-focused conversation where the accountant is trying to promote the benefits of having a plan. This is not a client-focused conversation and rarely, if ever, produces a worthwhile plan.
As a consequence, many clients, sensing this sales-focused approach, push back. The accountant often then concludes that their clients do not want or are unwilling to pay for these so-called ‘value-added’ services.
What has gone ‘wrong’ here?
The problem is the accountant has got things around the wrong way. The value is not in the plan but in the thinking that creates the plan. Or, as former US President Dwight Eisenhower so bluntly put it: “Plans are worthless, but planning is everything.”
So, how do you help a client, whom you know would benefit from developing a business strategy, but who does not see the value in having a business plan?
The answer lies in Dwight Eisenhower’s quote – you focus on the planning not the plan. The planning process should become the focus and the plan a by-product of that process. You don’t try to convince the client they need a business plan or a business planning workshop (the product-flog conversation). You simply start a conversation about how they see their future, the challenges they will need to address and how they are looking to address those challenges.
There are three key questions to be answered:
Where do you want/need to be (and why)?
What are the key challenges you will need to address, now, if you are going to get to where you want/need to be?
How are you going to address the challenges and progress from where you are today to where you want to be?
These three questions become the focus of the conversation – drill down into them with your client. Your goal is not to sell a business plan, but to challenge your client to think strategically. One is a product the other is a process. And you don’t need to seek permission or convince the client of anything before you start this conversation. You simply need to be interested enough to start. As you consistently have these conversations with your clients you start to influence their thinking and they start to think more strategically.
To be effective with this type of conversation you may need to make some changes in your own thinking:
You may need to change your view of value – value is not about how much you do, but what the client gets.
This change will enable you to shift from having to be the expert, who has the solution, to be the facilitator, who has the process to take the client to a solution. This is an anathema to many accountants, and other professionals, but is a fundamental and critical role change.
This, in turn, will free you up to shift from listening with the intent to solve the problem (distracted listening) to listening with the intent understand (engaged listening). This is one of the most important keys to adding superior value.
And you will need to be a competent strategic thinker, in your own right.
It is the process of planning (the journey) rather than the plan (the destination) which holds the real value. It is the thinking behind the plan that enables the client to anticipate the future as circumstances change. It is a bit like the old adage of giving someone fish versus teaching them how to fish. It is a big part of the business adviser’s role to encourage and support this strategic thinking, particularly in small business where the business owner is often operationally focused.
Warwick Cavell is a Profitable Conversations coach, thought leader in communicating for results and strategy implementation. For over 25 years, he has helped professional service firms improve business performance by changing the way people communicate and work to meet business challenges – both internally and with their clients. He is a highly respected facilitator, coach, speaker and trainer, and author of regular blogs.
