Collaboration The missing link for competitive advantage? Rob Brown speaks and trains clients globally to sell more, stand out more and win more business. In this article, he makes the case for better collaboration within and between professional firms and offers practical tips to make it happen.
We live in an era of significant disruption and unprecedented change. Trust in governments, leaders, politicians and the media is at an all-time low. Client expectations are at an all-time high.
A collaborative effort in business development
We live in a ‘similar’ society, with similar
and slow markets. Add to that longer-term client
firms serving similar clients for similar fees using similar technology and claiming similar outcomes. How does a professional firm stand out in today’s noisy, fast-moving world? There are very few areas where any kind of competitive advantage can be gained. Perhaps technology. Perhaps intellectual property. Perhaps brand. Maybe even people. But, might collaboration create a meaningful edge in the war for talent,
marketing spend. It enhances innovation and gives firms the chance to do more complex, interesting and higher paid work. It diversifies a firm’s clients to mitigate against local economies engagement, less pressure on price, greater client loyalty, greater share of wallet and reduced impact from negative market cycles and you see why collaboration might be a missing link. Obstacles to collaboration Alas, fostering a collaborative environment in professional firms is not easy. Silo mentalities, skewed payment structures, closed cultures, politics, personal agendas and a protective
The business case for collaboration
selling and collaborative conversation.
bring higher fees and improved margins from more complex work. There is strong evidence for the merits of an intentional focus on collaboration. Harvard Business School shows rising revenues and higher hourly rates when more collaborators are involved in more complex work. Collaboration based revenues dwarf isolated revenues by up to 6x. Better still, there’s an exponential effect too.
MSI Pulse
markets and new clients without significant
new business and market share?
Collaboration within and between firms can
2
and marketing opens ‘hard to access’ new
approach to clients create barriers to cross-
An agenda of collaboration is not easy to gain buy-in for. Old habits die hard, particularly in a firm skewed to powerful partners and a rigid leadership. In an era of short attention, people will only advocate change if it’s pain free and brings about quick results. That scuppers collaboration because it takes time for the benefits to appear.
