Top Three Issues Firms Face (From My Coaching Calls)

Hey 👋 - Brandon here.

Happy Saturday to 1,902 growth-minded accountants.

Today’s issue takes less than 5 minutes to read.

A couple of years ago, I got into the coaching game.

I took on a handful of accounting firm owners as clients and met with them monthly.

Last week, I consolidated the years of call transcripts and had AI sift through them to identify the top three issues I most commonly coached on and the solutions we discussed.

Here’s the result:

1. Leadership & Accountability Gaps

• Many firm owners default to being too in the weeds. And it makes sense - being in the weeds is what made clients trust them and helped their firm grow. But at a certain point, being the client’s main point of contact and reviewing all of the work no longer scales.

• Few of your directors/managers are actually leading their teams. Managing workflow and leading are two completely different skill sets. A common issue among firms is that staff receive mixed messages about what success looks like (e.g., number of returns vs. client service). The unclear expectations result in staff underperforming and being dissatisfied with the firm.

• Often, accountability is avoided because leaders and managers don’t want to come across as harsh. They believe that by avoiding the tough conversation, the employee will be happy and continue working at the firm. This mindset invites mediocrity and, if not fixed, will lead to long-term underperformance.

Common Solutions:

• Clearly define success by developing “standards” per role and setting clear expectations with each individual member of the team (everyone has a number they are responsible for).

• 1:1 conversations should happen frequently (2-4x per month) and should focus on building the staff’s self-awareness muscle by providing feedback frequently - this gets everyone bought into a feedback culture and “tough” conversations will no longer seem tough (because they will be normalized through making it a cultural expectation).

2. Client Communication Breakdowns

• Firms most often lose clients not due to technical errors but poor communication. There are too many hand-offs, bad context transfer, delays or no replies to emails. Clients want to feel like they are being prioritized.

• Staff misunderstand the value of prompt and clear communication. They instead focus on getting the work done, believing that’s the most important thing - but the deliverable is a part of the overall client experience… customer service is the other, arguably more important, part.

• Introverted staff will resist client interactions, preferring heads-down prep work. This perpetuates the communication issues and, if not solved, will lead to client churn.

Common Solutions:

• Reframe for staff: “Communication is the work” - clients value peace of mind and while the deliverable is a part of that, it’s not the only piece that matters.

• Set firm-wide SLAs (e.g., 48-hour response rule) and track compliance.

• Roleplay difficult client conversations in training and make sure you do not promote anyone to a client communication role unless they have demonstrated a pattern of success operating at that next level.

3. Scaling Structure & Staffing

• Small teams turn into large teams that turn into departments. Large teams are difficult to manage and require strong leaders to run them effectively (and strong leaders are hard to find).

• Context transfer between departments is hard to facilitate at scale. If you don’t hold teams and their leaders accountable to the right metrics, client service will take a hit.

• Production pay is great for small firms and certain teams but it will disincentivize teamwork. As you scale, if you don’t build a culture of teamwork, you will find that you (or 2-3 leaders) have to make all the decisions and solve all the problems. And that won’t work at scale.

Common Solutions:

• Be intentional about your team structure as you scale - keep teams small ($1M per team max) and ensure multiple “departments” are represented on each team. This is often referred to as a “pod” structure.

• Find a healthy mix between production pay (objective based on output) and subjective pay based on firm performance and contributions to the team.

Do you see the same issues at your firm?

I harp on leadership and accountability because, as I’ve grown Hall CPA, I’ve learned those are the keys to success. Underperforming teams are generally not being led effectively and not being held accountable.

That's all for this Saturday. See you next week.

Cheers,
Brandon

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