Portrait of an Innovative Managing Partner

The following includes excerpts, reproduced with permission, from a blog entry by Marc Rosenberg. In it, Rosenberg summarizes key takeaways from a recent talk by Greg Burbach, managing partner of Honkamp Krueger in Dubuque, Iowa.

Client relationships. We encourage our staff to talk to clients face-to-face or on the phone, and always try to establish two to three people on clients. Doing so creates better cross-selling opportunities and it’s good for retention. We initiate meetings with clients and tell them in advance we won’t be billing them.

Partner roles. Our partners average 900 billable hours a year. We ask just a few things from our partners: 1) Develop their replacements, 2) retain clients and expand services, 3) develop business, and 4) mentor staff.

Business development. Selling teams consist of partners, managers, and staff — two departments per team. They choose five clients and two new prospects per month. The team reviews planning and cross-selling opportunities and they train on a practice development topic. These meetings add thousands of dollars of additional billing.

We have a full time BD person on board. He is in his mid-30s and earns more than many of our partners.

Profitability. “A key to making [good] money is generating income not based on time.”

For the complete entry, read “Meet Greg Burbach — A Truly Innovative MP.”

From The Marc Rosenberg Blog, April 10, 2017, blog.rosenbergassoc.com.