I reviewed the Partner Business Case for 3 potential partners in one week. I gave the same advice every time. It’s typically my advice after reviewing any Business Case for partnership. And here it is for you.
Add numbers and evidence to your partner Business Case
Words can tell a good story, but there is nothing quite like numbers to prove your achievement, effort, involvement, and suitability to be made up to partner. Remember that being made up to partner is not just another promotion. It is where your partners trust you enough to give you a slice of their business. Yes, it is their business. They own it. You owe it to yourself and to them to clearly demonstrate what they will get in return for letting you in. This means putting some numbers around your targeted KPIs and Objectives. For example:
- How much will you grow your practice?
- How much will come from existing clients, and how much from new clients?
- What graphs, charts or visuals can you add to your Business Case submission to easily show how you can be relied upon to increase your firm’s profits?
Typically the more numbers and evidence that you put in, the stronger your Partner Business Case will become.
If you need help to create, put together or pitch your Business Case for Partnership then download our FREE guide, How to create a cast-iron Business Case for partnership. Much of the guide draws material from Chapter 11 of our book Poised for Partnership. The fully updated 3rd edition of Poised for Partnership is a clear roadmap (for the post COVID-19 world) that strengthens your case and makes reaching partnership inevitable if you’ve got ‘the right stuff’. And if you haven’t, it will show you how to get it.
Make it easy to see ‘why you?’
The typical form that most firms make their fee earners fill in to demonstrate their partner Business Case can often lead to long unwieldy documents stuffed full of text. After reading these documents, I’ve often lost the will to live and forget the key points. If I’ve done that, think about what your partners are thinking after they have read multiple partnership Business Cases. In fact, one firm I work with extensively gets their partnership committee together once a year at their partner’s annual conference. This partnership committee then go through all of the Partner Business Case submissions and decide on who to recommend for partnership.
Therefore, treat the first part of your business case as an executive summary. This executive summary is ideally about 2-4 paragraphs long and succinctly captures why you should be admitted to the partnership now. It is probably based on your 3-sentence sell. (Have a go at putting together a one page talk sheet to help your partners see ‘why you’?)
Then, throughout the rest of the partnership Business Case form, use the 3-sentence sell to theme and structure the rest of your words. Everything should lead back to these 3 key reasons why your partners should make you up to partner this time around.
If you are reading this and feeling despondent. Don’t worry, most lawyers, accountants and consultants like you are taught to be great technicians; not great at business planning and putting together commercial and persuasive documents. After all, your Business Case for partnership needs to feel very commercially sound AND persuasive. To help you do this, we put together our course “How to Build a Cast-Iron Business Case for Partner”. It’s included within our subscriber-only site Progress to Partner. This course is one of the most downloaded of any of the 150+ resources within Progress to Partner.
Cut the waffle
I get it. Your Business Case for Partnership is the most important document you will create for your career progression. After all, making partner is something you have likely been working towards for years. But adding more words, or longer words isn’t going to increase the impact of your Partner Business Case. It actually may do the opposite, i.e. lessen the impact.
A good discipline is to look at your writing and make every word fight for its place. For example:
- Cut any superlatives such as “I am a great people leader” and make sure any claims you make can be evidenced
- Use a good AI tool like Grammarly Premium to reword the document to make your words succinct and punchier.
- Can you add a graph, chart or table to illustrate your words?
If you need help to create, put together or pitch your Business Case for Partnership then download our FREE guide, How to create a cast-iron Business Case for partnership.
In summary
Remember that often less is more regarding words for your partnership Business Case. Use numbers, graphs/charts to evidence your achievements and predicted future results.
What’s in Progress To Partner which will help you with your final step up to partner?
Progress to Partner is our membership site that will give your the knowledge AND confidence to fly through this final step up to partner.
It’s like a Netflix for your career in the professions. Find what you need to watch or read at the time you need it. Within the site, you’ll find over 150+ courses, videos, checklists, templates and plans to help you progress your career to partner. Amongst the many curated resources (no more unnecessary scrolling or searching), you’ll find:
- On-demand courses on how to create and articulate your business case, including our most downloaded course “How to Build a Cast-Iron Business Case for Partner”
- A section on the Partnership Admissions process with guides and recordings to help you find your way through the process with your sanity intact.
- Recordings and checklists on how to ace your partner panel interview
- On-demand courses on how to win the right sort of clients
- Proven advice on how to still do the day job and find the time to get through the Partner Track process
Related reading:
- The 6 premises for every business case for partnership
- 2 things which will significantly increase the impact of your business case
- Mistakes lawyers make with their business case for partnership
- Tips to write your business case in a weekend
- What really needs to go in your business case for partnership
- The most important tool to talk about your business case for partnership
