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Don’t let the money you spend on new Partners become a sunk cost.
Private equity is rewriting the rules for professional services firms. Growth targets for most firms (regardless of ownership) are higher, timelines are shorter, and there’s little patience for slow, steady Partner development.
To keep pace and drive growth, firms do what seems logical: buy more Partner talent. It’s faster than building talent, it’s visible, and on paper it looks like predictable growth. Need an additional $20 million in revenue? Hire two $10 million Partners. Easy, right?
What we’re seeing in the market tells a different story: simply buying Partner talent does not guarantee growth.
Investing in new talent works better.
Mistaking Purchasing for Investing
There are trends emerging from our conversations with leaders in professional services firms. For example, a firm hires a new Partner, hands them a $15 million sales target, and expects near-immediate progress—even though no one in the firm has ever delivered at that pace. (Not to mention, the new Partner brings with them a thorny non-compete.)
Another firm spends heavily to hire Partners and provide integration support but doesn’t communicate clear success measures or provide meaningful sponsorship, because “you know, smart Partners will figure things out.” In both cases, the outcome is predictable: frustration, underperformance, and high failure rates.
Firms often mistake purchasing talent for investing in talent. When conversations about investing in talent take place, everyone nods along. After all, they are spending heavily to bring direct-admit Partners in the door, so they are making investments, right?
Not so fast… Yes, they are spending money on talent, but many firms stop short of making the right investments to protect those purchases.
Spending = Making the purchases to acquire new Partner talent
Investing = Intentional efforts and support to accelerate Partner performance in the role
Without the right support, even experienced hires have a 30–40% failure rate. So, either they stay and underperform, or, worse, they leave, and the sunk costs are never recovered.
Where Standard Onboarding Falls Short
The standard onboarding process doesn’t help. Firms that are hiring Partners at high rates are often running them through the standard onboarding playbook we’re all familiar with…
- Distribute laptops and order business cards
- Require a one-size-fits-all onboarding (risk management, CRM, compliance training)
- Ask Partners to list contacts and “off-limits” clients
- Introduce them to a dozen – or more – colleagues virtually, plus an assigned “buddy”
- Add them to recurring calls
- Wash, rinse, repeat for every new Partner
Necessary? Sure. Sufficient to accelerate performance and deliver growth? Not even close.
This kind of administrative onboarding doesn’t prepare Partners to hit aggressive revenue targets, manage ambiguity, or thrive in a PE-backed environment where the clock is ticking from day one.
Without tailored development, clear expectations, and active sponsorship, the outcomes are predictable:
- High failure rates that lead to increased churn
- Millions in recruiting and failed integration costs down the drain
- Reputational damage in the marketplace
- Value creation plans left unrealized
Yet firms continue to run the same playbook and expect different results.
They spend significantly to purchase Partner talent without investing in protecting their purchases.
From Purchasing to Maximizing ROI
Because Partners are people, not commodities, simply purchasing them with the hope that they will deliver value without support is not a winning strategy. Unlike aluminum or oil, “buyers” of Partner level talent can directly increase (or decrease) the value of their investment based on what they do with the talent they acquire.
Firms can do a few things to drive higher ROI on their investments in new Partners:
- Know what you’re looking for: Clearly define the Partner profile you need to deliver on the growth plan and use psychometric data to identify the talent that is likely to succeed.
- Be realistic: Recognizing that very few candidates are perfect, be prepared to actively leverage their strengths and address their challenges. Do not expect new Partners to “hit the ground running” or you are likely to be disappointed.
- Act with intention: Create personalized traction plans that detail the tactics that will accelerate performance. Combine specific performance expectations with insights gained from psychometric assessment to deliver focused performance coaching to help new Partners perform better faster.
Together, these strategies provide insurance to protect significant expenditures on new Partners, so they are likely to perform better, faster, and deliver results.
If you’re going to spend heavily to bring new Partners in the door, the real question is: how will you protect your investments and accelerate their performance?
Purchasing Partner talent may put growth potential on paper. Investing in their success is what turns it into reality.
At Kinavic, we understand the disproportionate impact Partners have on a firm’s growth and success. We work with professional services firms and PE operating groups to help them design and execute strategies to identify and develop Partners who perform better, faster. Let’s discuss how to protect your Partner purchases to deliver the expected returns on your talent investments.