Promoting strategy conversations with questions

December 19, 2025|Accountants, Kim's Blog, Lawyers, Management Skills, Marketing, Strategy|

December’s “Be more strategic” PM Forum – PM Forum workshop for marketing and business development (MBD) professionals moved back to a full day format following feedback from previous delegates. Law and accountancy firms were represented on this session – during which there were various threads on strategy conversations. Promoting strategic conversations with questions – Be more strategic. We noted the 2023 Marketing Week research which found that marketers felt marketing strategy is the most undervalued skill by businesses.

One of the most popular strategy frameworks (from “Playing to win – How strategy really works” by Lafley and Martin, 2013) is based on a series of questions:

What is our winning aspiration?
Where will we play?
How will we win?
What capabilities must we have?
What management systems do we need?

So throughout the workshop, we considered what other questions we could ask that would promote strategic thinking in our conversations. Why are questions so important? (Questioning skills). This helps shift how we are perceived from challenging to curious.

What are we trying to achieve?

There are several components to being strategic:

Understand the current situation and challenges – Where are we now?
Agree the goals (and outcomes desired) – Where do we want to be?
Select the best way (strategies, tactics and resources) to achieve the goals – How will we get there?
Consider the impacts – What will be affected if we choose and implement this approach? (systemic thinking)

A starting point has to be to work out exactly what people want to achieve. And how this is different from the current situation. And what – to them – good would look like. This can be tricky.

People may not be clear about what they hope to achieve. You may have to help them manage their expectations about what is realistic. There may be longer time frames than initially expected. There may even be disagreement between partners or other stakeholders about which goals are important.

Without clear goals, you cannot choose the best strategy(ies). Without clear goals, you cannot work out what you need to spend to achieve a good return on investment. Without clear goals, you cannot measure your progress and success.

What are our short and long term goals?

Many stakeholders in the professions focus on the short term – they desire immediate results. Marketing and Business Development professionals can find they become overloaded with short term, tactical activities. Some strategies require a longer term approach.

There may be an annual plan which looks at improving business as usual (BAU) in the short term, and a vision for how the firm will transform in the longer term.

We talked about stepping stone approaches – e.g. if we want to be at X in year 5, this is what we must achieve in years 1, 2, 3 and 4. So break the goals down into manageable parts that are coherently integrated.

However, the strategic process must remain active if the assumptions we make, the goals we set and the planned actions do not achieve the desired outcomes. The proposed strategy needs to be constantly reviewed – and adapted as necessary.

What are everyone’s views?

Agreeing goals and strategies will be complicated when there are multiple stakeholders.

Leaders, partners, fee-earners and functional teams (e.g. marketing, technology, human resources etc) may have different views. You will need empathy with and explore competing perspectives. Keep an open mind and be flexible. There is always more than one view to consider.

Where there are different views, you may need to facilitate discussions where they can be aired, discussed and analysed. Data can be obtained to support (or otherwise) different views. There may be political sensitivities to overcome.

Marketing and business development teams have a role to play in mapping out the various stakeholders, understanding different perspectives and needs and guiding everyone towards a consensus or decision that is comfortable for the majority.

What are the different leadership styles?

Managing stakeholder engagement through strategic conversations is important.

Some reflected that their leadership teams adopt very different styles when it came to planning the future. Some took a short-term view and others looked at longer term horizons. Some were quite assertive and sought fast growth (hawks), whilst others were more risk averse (doves).

We talked too about different leadership styles including: Leadership teams: Maverick Magpies and Predictable Pigeons. Those who prefer new and innovative approaches and those who want to preserve the legacy. Some were better at considering their “North Star” strategy which guides all decisions along the way.

What’s going on externally in the market and internally in the firm?

Delegates discussed the PESTLE analyses with regards to the legal and accountancy markets:

PESTLE?	Factor	Positive or Negative Impact?	High, Medium or Low impact?
Political	Government policy on apprenticeship funding	N	M
	US trade policies	N	H
	Shifting geopolitical alignment from conflicts	N	H
Economics	Inflation and Interest rates high	N	M
	Budget taxation increases	N	H
	More private equity investment in PSFs	P	M
Sociological	Less people going to University – quality candidates	N	L
Sociological	Desire for work-life balance (workplace culture)	N	L
Technology	Impact of AI (on junior roles and investment)	P and N	H
Technology	Growth of LawTech sector	N	H
Legislative	New employment laws supporting workers	P	M
Legislative	Regulations and ethics on AI and automation	P	M
Environmental	Concerns about sustainability	N	M
Environmental	Appeal of B Corp structures	P	L

A good regular (and free) source of information about the external environment is Re-Tuning your firm | Managing Partners’ Forum. Examples of insights shared at previous events include:

Political, Practice and Marketing Trends February 2025
Highlights from the 2025 Professional Growth Summit – Kim Tasso May 2025
Strategic analysis – PWC’s UK Legal Services Market Report 2025 September 2025
Managing Partners’ Forum Strategy Summit July 2023

We explored different approaches to competitor analysis Pitching, differentiation and competitor analysis. And there was lots of discussion about the different ways firms monitor client wants, needs, satisfaction, loyalty and actions.

What weak signals might we be missing?

When analysing data we tend to look for trends. But this means we may miss exceptions and outliers that could be weak signals – early indications of emerging and new trends.

George S Day and Paul J H Schoemaker in “Peripheral vision: Detecting the weak signals” suggested eight key questions to help determine weak signals:

What have been our past blind spots? What is happening in these past blind spots now?
Is there an instructive analogy from another industry?
What important signals are we rationalising away?
Who in our industry is skilled at picking up weak signals and acting on them ahead of everyone else?
What are our mavericks and outliers trying to tell us?
What future surprises could really hurt (or help) us?
What emerging technologies could change the game?
Is there an unthinkable scenario?

During the workshop, some delegates experimented with AI tools to obtain an initial overview of likely weak signals in their markets.

What’s our strategy process?

We explored various strategy processes – for the business (e.g. Book review: The Strategy Book by Max McKeown) and for marketing/BD (Strategic thinking it’s a jungle out there). And recognised that different approaches might be needed for large and smaller firms – and for those who are sophisticated in their strategic development compared to those who are moving in this direction for the first time.

Lawyers and accountants appreciate process – it provides a logical and structured framework during which data is analysed and decisions are made. However, in today’s complex and fast changing world, the strategic process needs to accommodate complexity, frequent changes and even chaos. We also need to ensure that the process facilitates innovation rather than simply repetition of what has been done before.

However, some processes focus too much on the logical, data elements and therefore missed the human and emotional side of strategy development. The McKinsey 7-S Model for Organizational Alignment and Success | TSI was appreciated in this regard.

Some of the simpler processes omitted important questions around forecasting demand, multiple scenarios, risk identification and assessment of assumptions.

How do we shape the marketing and business development (MBD) strategy?

Many followed proven strategic marketing frameworks such as SOSTAC (Situation, Objectives, Strategies, Tactics, Actions and Control). We considered several case studies to see how leading professional service firms developed their MBD strategies:

Strategic marketing case study – Brand at Mishcon de Reya

Marketing and Business Development (MBD) law firm case studies

Marketing and Business Development (MBD) accountancy firm case studies

Marketing case studies – Digital thought leadership campaigns

We reviewed some of the most common MBD strategies in professional services firms: Strategies for developing a private client practice – Business development. There were delegate comments on rock star and constellation, networking, social media marketing and strategic relationship strategies.

There was much delegate discussion about using data during the analysis stage e.g.

Campaign tracking (and adaptation to results)
Analysis post-campaign to learn for the future
Return on Investment (ROI) measurement

Marketing trends were important too – for example, the growing importance of personalisation Political, Practice and Marketing Trends

Most recognised that a fundamental part of professional services marketing and business development revolved around effective targeting and developing the right sorts of relationships. Particularly, to invest time in building relationships with clients and referrers, providing real added value and being proactive (e.g “I saw this and thought of you”)

What might be the unintended consequences of our strategy?

A key component of strategic thinking in our complex, inter-related world is to consider the impacts of any proposed strategies. We need to adopt systemic thinking in our strategy development – to consider all of the impacts externally and internally of our chosen strategy.

Systems thinking allows us to:

Consider interconnectedness – recognize that all elements within a system (departments, people, external factors) are linked and a change in one affects others
Create feedback loops to help us identify reinforcing (positive) and balancing (negative) loops that amplify or mitigate change over time
Accommodate emergence – understand that complex behaviours arise from the interactions of simple components
Explore underlying structures – look beyond surface-level events to see patterns and structures that drive system behaviour
Adopt different mental models to challenge assumptions and biases to gain a clearer, more objective view

How to communicate strategy?

Strategy needs to be effectively communicated throughout the firm. And not just when it is a fait accompli.

We explored different ways to produce a succinct and meaningful strategy description and explored examples from professional services firms. There was a visualisation exercise that helped people identify the key components and messages of their strategy.

To achieve engagement and buy-in, there was recognition of the importance of communicating the strategy before it is developed, as it is developed, when it is agreed and how it is being implemented.

We talked about the value of involving people from all levels of the firm in surveys, workshops, roundtables and town hall meetings so that they have a chance to understand the rationale and reasoning and to offer their view and insights. Their involvement in the strategy development process will increase their acceptance.

Communication needed to inspire and motivate people as well as aid their understanding of why they were doing things.

We also recognised that those who are involved in strategy development will have been deeply immersed in strategic dialogue for some time. But they must recognise that others in the firm have had less time to get their heads around things. So internal communications need to be regular, repeated and remind people of the reasons for its choice and the impact it will make.

Alongside new strategies there are usually significant change programmes – perhaps restructurings, or mergers and acquisitions, cultural re-alignment or new systems. We need to involve people’s heads, hearts and hands.

Ten top takeaways on stakeholder engagement and buy in

Achieve more engagement and buy-in

We also talked about the sleeper effect Sleeper effect – Wikipedia. And there was a longer debate about the role of strategic internal communications Book review: Influential Internal Communication by Jenni Field

The strategic fluency ladder (How is your strategic thinking?)

This model helps assess your level of strategic thinking:

Level 4 – Strategic impact

“I shape outcomes and drive aligned actions”
Creates momentum, influences systems and delivers sustained results

Level 3 – Strategic fluency

“I think and act strategically across contexts”
Applies strategy in decision-making, conversations and execution

Level 2 – Strategic insight

“I see the bigger picture”
Understands context, trends, priorities and strategic goals

Level 1 – Tactical awareness

“I understand my tasks”
Clear on deliverables, timelines and immediate responsibilities

Level 0 – Task execution

“I do what I’m told”
No awareness of context, goals or implications

Strategic thinking when overloaded with tactical work

HBR published an article on 16 December 2025 Your New Role Requires Strategic Thinking…But You’re Stuck in the Weeds by Nihar Chhaya (an executive coach to the C-suite and leaders at global companies including American Airlines and Coca-Cola)

He explained that senior-level promotions are an opportunity for leaders to impact a company’s strategy, but it’s easy to get pulled back into the tactical weeds. A visibly higher spot on the organizational chart doesn’t guarantee time for strategic thinking. To gain that, you must do the hidden (and harder) work of redefining how you think, behave, and interact within the system, and be adaptable to the unpredictable needs of stakeholders you need to influence.

Understand what’s behind the pressure to stay tactical
Redefine expectations with an eye on partnership
Build strategic proof early.
Redesign your operating rhythm
Upgrade your leadership bench

Delegate key takeaways from the Be More Strategic session

Analysis
- Use PESTLE for analysis
- Use the McKinsey 7S model
- Identify market gaps and opportunities to go to market – What is the demand, how can we fill that gap for our current and potential clients
- Search for weak signals
Mindset
- Longevity when creating BD plans and strategy
- Improve strategic thinking and make time for thinking
- Allow for creativity when it comes to BD with fee-earners – create a safe space for them to come up with ideas
Process
- Improve business strategy process
- Consider hosting roundtables
- Importance of a clear and concise strategy – one page, 3-4 key goals
- Embrace conflict

Delegate poll results

Delegates find it useful to review the poll results to benchmark their views and firms against comparable firms.

Which sector do you represent?

75% Legal
25% Accountancy, insolvency, actuaries

How would you rate your experience in strategy?

25% A little
25% Average
50% A lot

Which topic is of most interest to you?

50% Thinking strategically
0% Understanding business strategy/strategic analysis
50% Marketing and Business Development strategy

Where is your main strategic focus?

25% Firm overall
25% Sectors
25% Departments/Practice Groups
25% Campaigns or projects

Which area presents the biggest challenge?

75% Strategy choice
25% Strategy implementation

Have you completed a marketing audit for your firm/team?

0% Yes
100% No

Do you have a marketing qualification?

25% Yes
75% No

Which element of strategic analysis do you think you most need to improve at your firm?

50% External analysis – far environment (PESTLE)
25% External analysis – sector issues and trends
0% External analysis – competitors
0% External analysis – clients
25% Internal analysis – strengths and weaknesses
0% Internal analysis – past clients and sources of work

Which frameworks have you or do you use?

100% Segmentation Targeting and Positioning (STP)
67% Positioning/perceptual maps
67% Ansoff markets and services
33% SOSTAC
33% STAR digital marketing
33% RACE digital marketing
33% McDonalds marketing plan
0% BCG portfolio analysis
0% Porters Generic Strategies/Five Forces

Which of the following is closest to describing your goals?

25% Really well designed – objectives and KPIs for financial and other measures
75% Partially defined – there are some goals and objectives

Which segmentation approaches are used in your firm?

100% Market or industry sector
100% Geography/region
75% Job function
75% Size of business
25% Nature of relationship
25% Personas
25% Other

How do you rate your firm’s measurement of MBD effectiveness?

67% Good
33% Average