In this video I explore the one integral skill all Big 4 accounting firm partners have. Across the all the core divisions (audit, tax, consulting & transactions) at the firms, this ability is heavily focussed on.

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📝 Brief script:
Becoming a partner at one of the big four accounting firm is a very popular ambition for a lot of accounting students and individuals already working in the firms. It's an attractive proposition for several reasons including, the status of being a leader in one of the most prominent brands in the corporate world, the sense of achievement in being regarded as at the top of your profession and the financial rewards that come with the Position.

I've come across a variety of different Partners in my 5-years that I've worked at a big four firm. In this video I'm going to go over the One key skill that all equity partners share. Without it, you're just not going to be admitted to the partnership at a Big 4 firm. It’s something that doesn't get mentioned at all during the graduate recruitment process but once you join the firms, you understand the importance of the skill and how much it's emphasised. Towards the end of the video I will share what I’ve been encouraged to do by Partners in order to build this same skill.

The skill that I’m referring to is the ability to win new work and maintain existing assignments with clients. Naturally there are plenty of skills that partners require and have to be successful but this is arguably the most important one. The reason for this is that you don't survive as a partner if you can't increase the overall income for the firm. This again goes back to the partnership model. if as a partner you don't increase the fee income for the firm the other partners will lose out, in earnings, because of this, which clearly is not ideal. Partners are assessed heavily on their ability to meet targets so having the skill is critical.

The Most popular Way is to build strong relationships with prospective and existing clients. Naturally you’re right in thinking that networking is an important aspect of this. There are many ways to think about networking But according to me There is the first stage of introducing yourself and your capabilities and the second stage of maintaining the relationship. when it comes to the first stage There are a couple of common ways that directors in the firm so those who want to get the partner and Partners themselves find these new potential clients. The first is to attend various networking events that they get invited to on a regular basis.At those they get to interact with senior executives at different firms which might be in their industry or in their local geography.

The other common way that partners introduce themselves to potential clients is true utilising day network off other partners. So a common example is where a partner might be meeting a particular client for or just a general catch up to discuss the market and the other partner that wants the introduction joins along for this meeting. This Is a very effective method because in large firm such as the big 4 inevitably there will be other partners that know the c-suite Executives at large companies, so partners can utilise these wider networks to meet potential clients.

Aside from Maintaining relationships with clients, partners also need to build effective working relationships with other partners within the same firm. As I mentioned before one-way that they can reach out to new potential clients is through leveraging the existing relationships that the partners in the same firm have. So, by having good relationships with other partners those other partners will go out of the way to invite you and introduce you to potential clients. Building these relationships with partners begins well before you reached that stage. Even as you come up through the ranks and go for promotions at the more junior levels, you'll need partners to endorse you and recommend that you get promoted so it's important to establish these internal relationships from the start of your career.

🤔 The video provides answers to the following questions:

How to become a partner at the big four accounting firms?
What skills do partners at the big four accounting firms need?
How to make partner at the Big 4?
What are the skills required to become a partner at the big 4 accounting firms?

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