Last week I led an intensive and experiential MBL workshop on “Managing and Marketing a Profitable Surveyors Practice” (Kim Tasso – MBL Seminars). Delegates from medium-sized practices covered both commercial and residential sectors and their services included: strategic advisory, valuations, building surveying, dilapidations, town planning, agency, development, Landlord & Tenant, project management, refurbishments and party wall. I’ve shared the delegates’ key observations, takeaways and actions from each of the six modules of the workshop: Growing a profitable surveying practice – Key insights and actions.
Develop a vision and strategy
- Make decisions around the type and quality of growth and in which markets, clients and services. Convert our desire to increase the amount of advisory work (compared to transactions) into measurable goals Critical Thinking and Problem Solving – Some tips
- Ensure our goals go beyond profit performance – consider contribution to clients, staff and community
- Develop a concise and meaningful vision statement to motivate staff Strategy basics – Mission and vision statements with hedgehogs
- Remain alert to external trends (e.g. the planning regime, economic activity, growing sectors, workplace factors, rent reform, environmental concerns, AI adoption, building safety rules etc) Political, Practice and Marketing Trends
- Conduct a comprehensive and systematic review of our entire organisation (internal audit) to highlight strengths and weaknesses
- Identify a suitable niche and be brave enough to stick to it
- Review the business plan regularly – for the firm and each division Why do you need a business plan? 10 reasons why
Be a great leader
- Allocate time between fee-paying client work and practice management
- Recognise the value in sharing leadership responsibilities (e.g. Senior Partner and Managing Partner, partners leading firm-wide functional roles etc) allowing people to play to their strengths Leadership teams: Maverick Magpies and Predictable Pigeons
- Balance task and relationship activities emotional intelligence and teams in change management
- Remember the impact of the firm’s founders and leaders meeting new joiners and the importance of internal communication Book review: Influential Internal Communication by Jenni Field – to share the vision, obtain their input and encourage participation and inclusion
- Adopt a laser focus on the critical issues to achieve the strategic aims and minimise risks to the practice
- Be a great listener and give time to staff – as a mentor and coach Book Review: The Coaching Manual by Julie Starr – Kim Tasso
- Remain calm under pressure and tolerate uncertainty
- Maintain a strong ethical compass
- Be confident and resilient (“Weebles wobble but they don’t fall down” – WEEBLES WORLD COMMERCIAL) and Improve your resilience – tools to help you cope in difficult times
- Promote diversity in teams
- Trust your instincts
- Learn how to be better at delegation Delegation for leaders – a how to guide and avoid “holding the monkey” Management Time: Who’s Got the Monkey?
Develop your people and operational processes
- Avoid underestimating the resources needed to manage multiple change programmes (automation, technology, policy, branding etc) all at once Change Management – Ted Lasso leadership lessons, emotions
- Establish processes to forecast the future pipeline of work – both transactional and advisory work is lumpy and unpredictable Managing a surveying practice – Resource management
- Enhance management accounts to allow leadership to identify those areas and clients which are most profitable (and which are most important for cash flow)
- Develop processes and templates to ensure compliance and consistency
- Enhance our human resources capabilities and resources Recruitment and succession of surveyors
- Develop the next generation of leaders and devote energy to implementing our succession plan Book review “Life after Boris” – a story about succession in a partnership (Mendelssohn)
- Implement policies and strategies to attract and retain the right calibre of people
- Formalise new staff induction and onboarding processes
- Assess the emotional intelligence (EQ or EI) of our people An introduction to emotional intelligence (EQ) and empathy (Video)
- Be firm on performance management and do not tolerate unacceptable behaviour – but recognise that everyone makes mistakes. Take firm and rapid action if an employee needs to be removed
- Embed processes to analyse the financial performance of all teams and staff members and encourage line managers to take an active role
- Explore ways to include younger members of staff in management discussions (we talked about the value of Shadow Boards)
- Recognise that staff are motivated by more than pay
- Consider accreditation with Workplace Accreditations to #MakeWorkBetter | Investors in People or UK’s Best Workplaces™ 2025 | Great Place To Work® UK
Choose the right marketing and business development strategy
- Prepare a marketing and business development strategy and plan Marketing planning in a nutshell – simple and complex plans
- Analyse how much of our work is referred by third parties Referrer Management Strategies – Planning for the firm, teams
- Develop our social media activity – and engagement across the firm Social media in business development and relationship management
- Improve our CRM (Client Relationship Management) database and processes
- Help our marketing and business development professionals work more closely with our fee-earners
- Improve our thought leadership campaigns Thought leadership campaigns: Arcadis, JLL and Remit
Develop processes and skills for winning new business
- Reduce reliance on one or two key “rainmakers” by training more staff how to generate new business Complex sales processes made simple
- Ensure there are structured follow up and lead nurturing programmes for those people we meet at events Practical sales tips: Reach out and Follow up
- Increase fee-earner confidence when discussing fees with clients – reduce the temptation to “race to the bottom” 10 practical tips for fee and price negotiations – Kim Tasso
- Provide expenses to all staff to encourage them to network and socialise with referrers and potential clients
- Provide training to staff on networking Introduction to networking skills (Video) and Book review – Great networking by Alisa Grafton
- Ensure our email and telephone enquiry handling systems are effective Telephone skills – Focus on the caller’s needs – Kim Tasso
Enhance existing client and referrer relationships
- Ensure that our client service is consistently good across the practice
- Consider the value of collaborative marketing activities and events with key referrers Referrer Management Strategies – Planning for the firm, teams
- Analyse the range of services used by major and key clients
- Organise systematic client listening and research programmes Client satisfaction benchmarks – How do you measure up?
- Help clients see our full range of services and enhance cross-selling activities Cross-selling and referrer management – Data, focus
- Focus on retaining and developing our critical clients KAM – Less is more and take a different perspective
At the end of the session, I asked delegates to choose just one or two priorities:
- Make HR support as strong as possible – Focus on staff development and retention strategies
- Separate strategic and operational leadership – Allow people to play to their strengths by harnessing their skill sets in different areas of practice management
- Increase social media engagement across the firm – especially amongst younger staff
- Implement an improved CRM system
- Review our sales processes and sales training
Other MBL workshops presented by Kim Tasso are listed here: Kim Tasso – MBL Seminars
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