Hiring a Partner? Better pay attention… Five mistakes consulting firms make with their most critical hires

1. Equating revenue participation with revenue generation

It seems that every firm has a different approach to recognizing revenue. Some firms double and even triple count to give incentives for collaboration. That type of accounting model also opens the window for a tag-along subject matter expert to claim that they have proven client hunting skills—and this is dangerous.

Picture this: a consulting veteran in a performance improvement firm with an incredible resume and reputation boasts responsibility for $10 million in revenue in his/her prior year. Taken at face value this seems impressive.  But dig a bit deeper – how does the firm recognize revenue? Of the $10 million, how much did the candidate originate? Was this just an account that he/she was given to manage? Who was involved in the sale? Has the candidate penetrated clients using his/her own network or a big-branded business card? How many people were on the pursuit team? Is this person "involved" in selling but really more of a subject matter expert? 

When recruiting a partner, you need to look beyond the revenue figures printed on the resume and understand how that revenue was attributed. Bottom line, helping to facilitate sales is nice, but a candidate who doesn't originate sales and own the client relationship is not well positioned as a partner. Being around the sale is not the same driving and owning the sale.

2. Downplaying the importance of culture fit

Most of us have probably been burned at one time or another by a blind date—or perhaps to put it in modern context, a dating app. You are matched with someone who looks great because their interests, values and background seem to align well with your own.  Then you go on the date and learn that despite all of these qualities, other personality traits are unappealing or downright repellent.  

In a similar vein, a candidate may come with a track record of experience, industry knowledge and a great reputation. But if that person doesn't gel with your firm's culture, it is unlikely to work out over the long term.  A candidate's cultural fit should take into account everything from business values, management style and instinct to community commitment, personality and trustworthiness. Yet, culture fit can be vastly different from firm to firm. A global strategy firm may value a candidate who is highly intellectual and has a fierce sense of self (allowing them to go toe to toe with successful CEOs), while someone who is more relationship-focused and driven by process and communication may be a better fit for a performance improvement firm. While culture is personal to each firm, the bottom line is that culture fit should be 51% of the hiring decision.

3. Buying a rolodex

When a consulting firm is recruiting a partner from another firm, there is often an assumption that that this person will be dragging along a roster of existing clients. This will in turn, open doors for your firm to sell new or different services to these loyal clients. Right? Not likely. It simply doesn't happen that way most of the time.

Of course, you may have decided from the onset that it's worth waiting out the legalities associated with any non-compete agreements.  But that's only one piece of the puzzle. Non-competes aside, I can't tell you how often firms make the mistake of assuming that clients are transferrable from one practice or firm to another.  More often however, the hiring firm ultimately discovers that their services may not be in perfect alignment. 

Rather than banking on an existing client roster that may or may not pan out, hiring firms must focus on a candidate's track record of sales and his ability to build and maintain relationships over time. In other words, the best predictor of future performance is past performance!

4. Buying into the fallacy of instant integration 

Congratulations! You've gone through the arduous process of identifying, recruiting, interviewing, offering, negotiating and finally signing the person who meets (maybe even exceeds) every major qualifying category to help take your firm to the next level – competency, experience, and cultural fit. Let the transformation begin!  Wrong.  

Unfortunately, while there are often well-defined processes for onboarding entry or mid-level consultants, this is often overlooked when it comes to executives. As a result, once a partner is hired, he/she can become isolated. The fact is, although new-hire integration may look very different for a partner or principal, it is equally critical.

A partner, who may be initially hindered by a non-compete agreement, must make up for his/her inability to be aggressive outside the firm by being aggressive inside. In the first six months, this may include spending half of his/her time travelling to other offices to meet other partners in the firm.  This will immediately position this person as a visible, approachable, team player.  In turn, he/she will build credibility within the firm and become a go-to, trusted leader for his/her niche in the organization. The best place to start building relationships is inside the firm.

5. Forgetting a fundamental rule: "you get what you pay for" 

With the high rates that consulting firms charge, I'm always amazed when a firm wants to low-ball the compensation package for their finalist candidate. To recruit a successful, passive candidate (i.e. one who is not actively searching for a new position) is always a financial stretch. In a great economy, your qualified finalist is likely even more expensive. 

When we examine the ROI for recruiting a partner who can grow a function, sell and deliver impactful work, build and maintain relationships with clients and build eminence for the practice—all while mentoring practitioners—it should be seen as an easy investment. This is even more true when we compare the 'cost' that often results when a less experienced or reputable person is hired to fill a role that he/she isn't quite ready to handle. 

Firms should be not be hung-up on signing bonuses or the high guarantee in performance bonuses. Instead, they should focus on making sure that the finalist has the proven competencies that are predictors to success, personality traits that complement the firm's culture and strong references to validate your assessments. If you follow these steps, your new partners will pay for themselves very quickly. 

Paul Maranville is co-founder and Managing Partner of Lantern Partners, a national, retained executive leadership recruitment firm.  He leads the firm's Professional Services practice, focusing on senior-level recruitment for Partners and other executives within strategy, operations, and technology consultancies. Paul can be reached at pmaranville@lanternpartners.com.