Pipeline: Your Conduit to Growth
Process Helps Partners See, Understand and Act

By Gale Crosley, CPA

Reprinted with permission from the August, 2007 edition of Accounting Today

Like motherhood and apple pie, a pipeline process that helps you organize and realize your opportunities is easy to label as “a good thing.” But there’s a considerable gap between knowing this and making it happen in your own firm. My goal in this article is to help you bridge that gap.

Gathering the Fruits

A pipeline is an inventory of current opportunities and activity. Opportunity development that employs the pipeline process is step 3 in my four-step Rainmaking Model that also includes: marketing (step 1), lead generation (step 2) and service delivery (step 4).

A regular pipeline review helps firm principals remain aware of what everyone else is doing and brings a sense of urgency to their own assigned duties. Imagine a field with the harvest ready to be gleaned – gathering the fruits of previous labor is what the pipeline process is all about.

There’s something highly energizing about giving partners access to the same information. By focusing everyone on the same end result, the pipeline changes the environment from one in which disconnected individuals are pursuing solo pursuits to one in which a cohesive team aspires to a shared purpose.

An inventory of opportunities sequenced on an Excel spreadsheet-type report is a roadmap that helps managing partners clearly see their destination and what’s required to get their team there.

I’ve seen partner groups go from scribbling out a pipeline on a Starbucks napkin to tackling growth as an orderly and predictable process. They know who does what, how resources will be allocated and what happens when anticipated results don’t materialize.

Case in Point

Bethesda-based Reznick Group has embraced the pipeline process, with most of the firm’s eight offices now implemented. At those locations, a review takes place every 2 weeks for about 30 to 45 minutes. The process has had distinctive benefits for key members of the leadership team.

Kenneth E. Baggett, managing principal of the 90-partner firm, says the process has helped move partners in a cohesive direction. In the past, it was not unusual for two offices to pursue the same piece of business. “The pipeline helps ensures we are assembling the best possible engagement team,” says Baggett.

The most valuable benefit for this CEO has been getting people excited and motivated. “Even some partners who have not been too focused on business development bring more focus to it in this way.”

Bill Riley is managing partner of Reznick’s Baltimore office. “For us, the pipeline provided a very orderly process for controlling and analyzing sales leads.” As well, it creates accountability, positive peer pressure and genuine enthusiasm for the sales process. “With all the information collected in one place, people can see that sales is not an abstract process. And they can see exactly who’s doing what.”

Stacie Benes, Reznick’s national director of business development, concurs. “The pipeline has facilitated and enhanced our business development efforts. The process gives you insight into whom you’re approaching, what you’re working on, what services are being sold and the staff you’ll need if you get the deal.”

The jury is in – an opportunity pipeline process brings order, enthusiasm, insight and bottom line sales success. I’d call that a win-win!

Copyright © 2007 by Crosley + Company

Gale Crosley, CPA, was selected one of the Most Recommended Consultants in the Inside Public Accounting BEST OF THE BEST for 2006, 2005 and 2004 Annual Survey of Firms, and one of the Top 100 Most Influential People in Accounting by AccountingToday in 2006. She is founder and principal of Crosley + Company, providing revenue growth consulting and coaching to CPA firms. She brings more than 30 years of experience, featuring a unique combination as a practicing CPA in two national accounting firms, along with significant experience in business development in the cutting edge technology environment with such firms as IBM and MCI. For more information, visit the website at www.crosleycompany.com or contact her at .