Advisory Secrets with Deb Halliday

If you want clients to trust your team, they need the opportunity to see what your team can actually do. One of the challenges with the traditional advisory model is that the business owner or most senior person tends to lead every important client conversation. Meanwhile, the team might be doing a huge amount of work behind the scenes — preparing the numbers, understanding what's happening in the business and spotting things worth discussing. But the client never sees that. So naturally, who do they think the expert is? You. In this episode of Advisory Secrets, I talk about why bringing your team into client conversations is such an important part of building an advisory team. And it doesn't mean handing over an important client meeting and hoping for the best. Start gradually. Bring someone into a meeting to observe. Then give them something specific to contribute. Perhaps they explain a set of numbers they've prepared, share something they've noticed or ask the client a question. Then, as their confidence and experience develops, give them more responsibility. There's another important part of this too. You have to give them space to speak. If you invite somebody into a meeting but answer every question, explain every number and jump in every time there's a pause, the client still sees you as the advisor and your team member as the support. Sometimes leadership means deliberately stepping back and allowing someone else to demonstrate what they know. And something interesting can happen when you do. Clients start recognising that expertise doesn't sit with just one person. They begin building relationships with other members of the team. Different people bring different perspectives to the conversation. And gradually, the relationship moves from: "My advisor is Deb." to: "This is my advisory team." That's a very different relationship — and a much more scalable one. Takeaways Clients can't develop trust in your team if they never get to experience their knowledge and capability. If the owner leads every important conversation, it's natural for clients to see the owner as the only advisor. Bring team members into client meetings gradually rather than expecting them to lead straight away. Give them a specific role or contribution, rather than simply asking them to sit in and observe indefinitely. Allow your team members to answer questions and share their own observations — even when you could answer more quickly yourself. Client trust can gradually move from one individual to the wider advisory team. Different perspectives can actually improve the quality of an advisory conversation. Part of becoming an advisory leader is knowing when to step back and create space for somebody else to shine. And here's a question to think about: When your clients think about advisory in your firm, whose face do they see? If it's always yours, perhaps it's time to start giving your team greater visibility. Find Out More To find out more about developing advisory capability across your firm, visit APX Training. You can also join our free Advisory Teams Facebook community. And for longer-form conversations about advisory, search for Advisory Conversations with Tim Seymour and Deb Halliday on your usual podcast platform.

One of the biggest things that can hold someone back from stepping into advisory isn't their technical knowledge. It's confidence. You can have someone in your team who understands the numbers, knows the client and has great ideas — but put them into an advisory conversation and suddenly they doubt themselves. What if I say the wrong thing? What if the client asks me something I can't answer? Am I experienced enough to have this conversation? In this episode of Advisory Secrets, I talk about why I don't believe confidence is something you either have or you don't. Confidence can be developed. And one of the best ways to develop it is through experience. Bring team members into client meetings. Let them observe. Then give them a small part of the conversation to lead. Ask for their opinion. Give them feedback afterwards. And gradually increase their involvement as their confidence grows. Because we can't keep someone behind the scenes and then expect them to suddenly feel confident sitting in front of a client. We have to give them opportunities to practise. And different people will need different levels of support. That's also why, at APX Training, we've partnered with Hetty Verney. Hetty isn't only an accountant with around 30 years' experience; she's also a Belief Coding® specialist, working with people on some of the beliefs and confidence issues that can hold them back. Because sometimes someone has the knowledge and the ability. The thing getting in the way is what they believe about their own ability to do it. So perhaps the question isn't: "Why isn't this person confident enough to do advisory?" Perhaps it's: "What opportunities are we giving them to become confident?" Takeaways Technical knowledge alone doesn't automatically create a confident advisor. Confidence can be developed through experience, practice and the right support. Don't expect someone who's always worked behind the scenes to suddenly feel comfortable leading client conversations. Start small — observation, contributing one point, asking a question or leading one part of a meeting. Give feedback afterwards and help people recognise what they did well, as well as what they can develop. Different team members may need different kinds of support to build their confidence. Sometimes the barrier isn't capability at all — it can be the person's belief in their own capability. Before deciding someone "isn't confident enough for advisory", ask whether they've actually been given enough opportunities to develop that confidence. Find Out More At APX Training, we've partnered with Hetty Verney to support the confidence and belief side of developing advisory professionals. You can find out more about Hetty and our approach on the APX website. You can also join our free Advisory Teams Facebook community for more conversations around developing advisory capability across your team.

There's a big difference between delegating work and developing advisory capability. You may already have a team that handles the bookkeeping, prepares accounts, produces reports and manages much of the day-to-day client work. But when something needs interpreting, a decision needs making or a client needs advice... Does it all come back to you? If it does, you've delegated the tasks — but you haven't necessarily delegated the thinking. In this episode of Advisory Secrets, I look at why building an advisory team means involving people in more than just the delivery of work. They need opportunities to understand the thinking behind the advice, contribute their own observations, ask questions and gradually develop their own judgement. That might start very simply. Instead of telling a team member what you've decided, ask them: "What do you think?" What have they noticed? What questions would they ask the client? What do they think the numbers are telling them? What would they want to understand before suggesting what happens next? Those conversations are where advisory capability starts to develop. Over time, someone can move from listening to an advisory conversation, to contributing to it, to taking responsibility for parts of it — and eventually, where appropriate, leading it themselves. Because if we continue to delegate all the work but keep all the thinking, judgement and client conversations for ourselves, we've simply created a very efficient team... with the same bottleneck sitting at the top. Takeaways Delegating tasks and developing advisory capability are not the same thing. You may have delegated most of the workload while still keeping all the thinking and decision-making yourself. Advisory requires judgement, curiosity and the ability to interpret what's happening — not simply the ability to complete a process. Involve your team in the thinking behind the advice, not just the work that produces the numbers. Asking "What do you think?" is a simple way to start developing independent thinking. Advisory capability develops gradually through exposure, discussion, practice and increasing responsibility. The aim isn't to hand over client relationships overnight. It's to give people opportunities to develop until they're ready for more. If every important advisory question still comes back to you, you may still be the bottleneck. Find Out More To find out more about building advisory capability across your team, visit APX Training. You can also join our free Advisory Teams Facebook community. And if you'd like longer-form podcast conversations, search for Advisory Conversations with Tim Seymour and Deb Halliday on your usual podcast platform.

Your next great advisor might already be sitting in your team. They might not have the title of advisor. They might not be the most senior person in the firm. And they may never have been given the opportunity to have an advisory conversation with a client. But that doesn't mean the potential isn't there. In this episode of Advisory Secrets, I look at how to recognise the advisory potential that may already exist within your accounting or bookkeeping team. Traditionally, we've trained people to complete tasks accurately and efficiently. But advisory requires us to look for something more — curiosity, judgement, communication skills and the ability to notice when something doesn't quite add up. It might be the bookkeeper who spots a pattern in a client's cash flow. The team member who asks a really good question. Or the person who understands the client's business incredibly well because they're working with their numbers every day. Those are advisory skills starting to show. The important thing is creating an environment where people feel confident enough to speak up, share what they've noticed and contribute their ideas. Because building an advisory team doesn't mean turning everybody into a lead advisor. It means recognising the capability you already have and giving people the opportunity to develop it. And sometimes, the person with the greatest advisory potential isn't necessarily the person you would have expected. Takeaways Your next advisor may already be working in your firm. Advisory potential isn't necessarily linked to seniority or job title. Look for people who are curious, observant, good communicators and willing to ask questions. Team members working closely with the numbers can often spot things that create valuable client conversations. People need to feel safe to say, "I've noticed something here..." without worrying that they're stepping outside their role. Not everyone needs to become a lead advisor — advisory capability can exist at different levels across the team. Developing advisory capability isn't simply about delegating more work. You're developing people's thinking, judgement and confidence. Find Out More To find out more about developing advisory capability across your team, visit APX Training. You can also join our free Advisory Teams Facebook community for more conversations around building advisory teams.

This episode looks at one of the biggest challenges with the traditional advisory model: what happens when all of the advisory knowledge, client relationships and decision-making sit with one person? Very often, the business owner or senior advisor becomes the person every client wants to speak to and every team member turns to for answers. It can feel like a sign that advisory is working — until that person becomes the bottleneck. In this episode, I talk about why I believe we need to build advisory capability across the team, rather than simply creating one brilliant advisor. I share some of my own experience of building an accountancy, bookkeeping and financial coaching firm where advisory skills existed across the team. Different people could contribute to client conversations, recognise opportunities, understand the story behind the numbers and help clients move forward. That doesn't mean everyone needs to become the lead advisor. It means the knowledge and capability shouldn't live inside one person's head. I also leave you with a question that really gets to the heart of this series: If you stepped away from your client work for three months, how much of your advisory service would continue without you? If the answer is very little, perhaps you don't have an advisory service yet. Perhaps you have an advisor. And there's a big difference. Takeaways Advisory becomes difficult to scale when everything depends on the business owner or one senior advisor. Being the person every client wants can feel like success — but it can also create a bottleneck. Advisory skills and knowledge can be developed across the wider accounting or bookkeeping team. Not everyone needs to become a lead advisor; different team members can contribute at different levels. Building capability across the team gives clients access to more knowledge while creating capacity for the owner. A useful test is to ask how much of your advisory service would continue if you weren't there. Throughout this series, we'll explore the skills, confidence, leadership and culture needed to move from one trusted advisor to a capable advisory team. Find Out More Visit APX Training to find out more about developing advisory capability across your team. Join the free Advisory Teams Facebook community for more conversations and resources around building team-delivered advisory.