Creating multidisciplinary solutions

Gary Reader, KPMG

Posted

Account management is a topic that more and more firms have been investing time and energy into in recent years. And one of the key reasons for that is that there’s been a fundamental shift in the way that customers buy consulting services. It’s becoming increasingly rare to see clients buying projects that fit neatly into individual service lines; instead, more and more clients are looking to work with firms who can deploy multidisciplinary solutions that combine together capabilities from across the breadth of their organisation. That additional complexity puts more pressure than ever before on the role of the relationship manager; firms need to make sure that the people in those roles have the skills and the knowledge necessary to create those solutions.

Gary Reader is someone who’s been on the frontlines of this shift. As KPMG’s Global Head of Clients and Markets, he knows better than most how clients today buy consulting services, and what that means for the way firms need to approach the topic of account management.

To start with some context; why is it that account management is an issue that’s on the agenda right now for KPMG?

Account management today is definitely more complex than it's ever been. It used to be that you spotted a problem, you went and found the capability that aligned to the problem—and then you're done, problem solved. But now, we're helping our clients tackle big, enterprise-wide challenges that require multiple capabilities working alongside each other; often, they also require collaboration with one of our alliance partners, and there's normally some sort of technology underpinning involved as well. That's why firms like ours are having to seriously think about the topic of account management and revisit some long-standing assumptions about how the process needs to work.

So how does account management currently work at the firm? Where do the responsibilities that fall under that umbrella sit within the organisation?

For all of our accounts, we appoint ‘lead partners’, who act as the focal point for managing all interactions between our business and the client organisation. On our largest accounts, those lead partners are supported by people that we refer to as ‘account managers’— their role is about converting opportunities by ensuring the right levels of buy-in and sponsorship at the client and in our firm. We ask our account managers to be problem solvers, connectors, innovators, and experts in the client and sector so they can identify meaningful insights and spot gaps and opportunities in support of our lead partners and the client.

And what do you think are the key skills and attributes that those lead partners have to have?

A good lead partner is intellectually curious and savvy about what's going on in the world. They need to be able to relate that back to their client; if I go to an insurance industry event, I can expect that people will be discussing Brexit, Trump's visit to India, climate change—and what all of those things mean for them. They have to be up to date on all current affairs.

What about knowledge of the firm itself? You mentioned that clients today are looking for complex solutions that combine multiple different capabilities; how do you make sure your lead partners have the breadth of knowledge to be able to deliver those solutions?

As a lead partner, you have to be a student of the firm; you need to know what we're doing where, and what capabilities exist in our organisation. You absolutely don't need to be an expert in everything, but you need to be broadly cognisant of where we're launching new services or growing new capabilities, and you have to be mindful of what we can do as a firm and what we can't do.

The issues that clients are facing today require multifaceted solutions. Gone are the days where you could try to be a lone hero; now, an effective lead partner has to be able to reach back into their own organisation and identify all of the relevant specialists—wherever they may be located—and deploy them onto their account.

So, once that knowledge is there, how do your lead partners convert that into a pipeline of work? What’s your approach to cultivating relationships with clients built on that foundation of knowledge and intellectual curiosity?

Lead partners obviously need to be natural relationship-builders. But client/partner relationships don't play quite the same role in the industry that they once did. It used to be that professional services was very much a relationship game; you built strong relationships, and then that gave you the chance to do work. But nowadays, you need those relationships to get access to RFPs. It's no longer the case that the client says, ‘We have a great relationship with you at KPMG; will you come in and run this project for us?’ Instead, they say, ‘We have a great relationship; can you respond to this RFP?’

I would say buyers of professional services are generally more sophisticated nowadays. So, a lead partner needs to be really in tune with what the client organisation is doing; they have to be able to pick up and interpret the signals that clients are putting out. And they have to be aware that the buyer for a given service may not be immediately apparent; tax transformation, for example, can be bought by the CTO as often as the CFO these days.

Does that mean that your lead partners need to be able to build relationships with a wider range of stakeholders than in the past?

A lead partner these days can't rely on a single strong relationship with one individual buyer to generate work. Projects today go through so many layers of sign-off on the client side, and there are so many different people involved in every purchasing decision; you need to be able to communicate with the client's whole organisation. You need to build credibility with their senior leadership and their department heads—but you also need to be able to make the case for your firm's value-add to procurement managers. It isn't easy to be able to do all of that effectively; it requires the ability to adapt your approach based on the individual person you're talking to.

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