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Seminar Round-up

We have had three seminars in the last quarter with the non partner and marketing events in July and the second tax forum in September. With a total of 46 delegates they were well attended.

Non partner seminar

Starting with the non partner seminar we gathered at Lane End Conference Centre for the Friday afternoon/Saturday morning workshop. The Friday afternoon was led by Richard Pound, from Grahame Robb Associates. Entitled "Crucial Confrontations", the three hour session covered dealing with problem situations involving people in all areas of life. Delegates were also given a book containing practical information to read after the event. The Saturday session saw delegates from each firm make a  presentation of a pitch to an imaginary potential new client, which they had been asked to prepare in advance. These ranged greatly in style and effectiveness and were all given valuable feedback from the group to help prepare for real pitching opportunities.

Marketing seminar

Later in July we had our marketing seminar in CBW's offices with Andrew Turner of Healden Grove presenting on three topics; practice development on a shoestring, cross selling and the science of selling for professionals. In Andrew's first session he talked about the need for anyone in a sales capacity to have a mix of relevant activities, sales skill and industry knowledge. He then focused on 10 practical things that we could all do to make potential clients more likely to want to do business with us followed by a presentation on cross selling which he preferred to refer to as "courting" as a way of making clients want more! After lunch we moved onto selling for professionals which was built around four basic principles of building empathy, making proposals from the heart, staying in control and asking the potential client for a decision.

Tax Forum

Earlier this week delegates for our second tax forum of the year gathered in Bristol. Not only to attend the meeting but for a dinner hosted by Milsted Langdon the night before, which provided an excellent opportunity for people to get to know each other better. Issues discussed in the seminar included VAT and other indirect taxes, low tax jurisdictions, international tax, transfer pricing and R & D claims with all delegates making a valuable contribution. We were particularly pleased to be meeting in Bristol as it enabled a large number of the strong and diverse tax team at Milsted Langdon to attend to further encourage the cross selling of services between member firms.

Future Seminars

We still have two seminars outstanding this year. On October 12 we have a gathering of audit partners and managers. In addition to the normal informal agenda we will be joined by David Southern from Mercia for part of the day to consider common audit issues he sees among MGI firms and how to make paperless audits more efficient. On November 1 we have the second managing partners gathering of the year where the main area of discussion will be the inter firm comparison.

For thoughts on next year's seminars and some dates have a read of the final section of this newswire