The Challenge

In my coaching with managers and partners, I find that many are experiencing a good bit of confusion and anxiety about declaring their area of specialization. Their firm leaders are prompting them to more narrowly define what they do. They want you to specialize because your clients NEED and VALUE your expertise and experience.

The ”Explanations”

The difficulty comes in determining what you want to establish as your area of specialty. Complicating the effort are “explanations” as to why specializing isn’t possible or optimal. Here are a few I hear.

I like the variety of work that I do. The more variety of clients you serve, the more you force yourself into a “mile-wide; inch-deep” practice where your generalist skills are less valuable, and only to the least complex or least sophisticated clients. You basically choose a general, commonplace practice that doesn’t scale or isn’t seen as valuable.

I just like helping my clients. Helping clients is why you are in professional service to the public. This is admirable and appreciated. However, because you lack any real depth in their industry, it means that there are other professionals—many others—who could serve them as well as you do. And some a whole lot better. You are remarkable to your clients only because you are familiar to them. Familiarity isn’t a specialty area.

My client list doesn’t have a concentration. Building or inheriting a practice that is an accumulation of “whatever clients came around” will result in a general practice that is increasingly difficult for growing firms to serve.

I like all my clients. Some practitioners consider their clients like their children. “I can’t choose one over another.” The thought is distasteful that narrowing your practice will leave someone out. So you would rather offer your general competence to a lot of clients—clients who resist escalating fees.

I’ve served my clients for decades. Long time relationships are both a joy and a burden. What do you do when, as a result of technology, the services your clients need can be provided by a more efficient and economic option? Are you really looking out for them or for yourself?

The Beginning

Start where you are. A tax manager admitted to being unable to choose her specialty.  As we talked, we discovered that she really enjoys analyzing and planning with her clients. For now, she is pointed in a direction of encouraging clients to accept meetings throughout the year instead of only during tax season. She intends to include planning meetings with the return, thereby identifying the clients who are more fitting to her desired practice. We don’t know where this will take her, but she’s on her way to define the significant contributions that she enjoys.

You deserve better. Your clients deserve better from you. This is how you get both. Specializing is a process, maybe even a lifelong journey. But it’s yours to discover.