“No” is the second best answer you can give me

This week I received a call from a CPA firm owner who had sat in on a presentation I gave a while back before one of the state societies.

If there was ever a Webster’s unabridged definition of a firm owner who should be planning for succession it was this man.

He was in his late 60s, a sole owner and no one within three area codes who worked for him had the desire or the wherewithal to assume the reins of the practice. Therefore, he had two choices, merge or eventually turn out the lights.

So I sent him the requisite paperwork and explained in detail how our M&A process worked.

Everyone who’s ever spent a day in sales knows that yes is the best answer you can get and no comes in second. His answer was a distant third – “let me think about it.”

A very distant third.

I once worked at a health club who employed a world-beater of a membership saleswoman who regularly shattered her monthly quotas. Every time a prospective member rendered the “let me think about it,” excuse she didn’t say a word. Instead, she calmly pointed to a poster in her office of an obese man with the phrase; “thinking about it never got anyone into shape.”

More often than not, it worked.

Now the accounting profession may not have such stark imagery to get people motivated, but the need to do something with regard to succession planning is nonetheless there.

So when he called me to reconnect, I was sure this time he was ready to finally go forward.

No such luck.

He explained that he would fill out the forms I’d sent him and keep in touch until he was ready to move ahead.

Okay, now there’s a time for cordiality to end and reality to begin. This was one of those times. I explained that he was already past his theoretical “expiration date” and if he continued to procrastinate, absolutely nothing good was going to happen.

I convinced him to at least begin the process of meeting firms so he can get accustomed to the questions that would invariably be asked. Again, he agreed – much like he did 18 months ago – so forgive me if I remain a bit skeptical.

Unfortunately what I didn’t tell him but wanted badly to was that continually putting off what obviously needs to be done will serve only to create client and real estate opportunities for firms and firm owners who didn’t.