Being more commercial starts with wearing your Director’s hat more often. 

As a Director, maximising shareholder value should be at the front of your mind.  Spending less time in Operations allows you to prioritise working on strategies that will maximise shareholder value.  

Most accountants I talk to have a real fear of selling.  They’re worried they’ll come across as product pushing - having visions of themselves in gold chains and snakeskin shoes - wielding a set of steak knives. 

I’m sure there are a hundred reasons why communication skills are neglected in the Accounting industry but four stick out to me....

You may or may not subscribe to the view that compliance is shrinking - that’s not the point.  You may or not agree that Advisory or Business Development Services are what’s needed to remain relevant to your clients - that’s not the point either.  What cannot be denied is that our industry is going through significant change and we need to adapt our skills.

During my 17 years running an accounting firm, particularly in the last five years when I was quoting for 100% of the work I did, I had hundreds of BFOs (Blinding Flashes of the Obvious).  Let me share four of them, relating to proposals and winning new work: