09/07/2021

TGS Digested Week 27: beyond normal network activity

Business advisory Doing business Events TGS U

Monday 05/07/2021

TGS Doing Business in…

TGS “Doing Business In…” webinars are becoming increasingly successful. Why are these TGS webinars so interesting? Well, they are useful as a promotion tool for our TGS member firms not only because a webinar like this gives an opportunity to showcase opportunities in your country but also because the restricted format (10 minute presentation for each speaker) forces you to be succinct, pertinent and punchy. This is a very difficult thing to do. It’s easy to write a 70 page document about your services and skills but it’s a different challenge to sum up the advantages of working with your firm in a one-page document.

Not only do the “TGS Doing Business In…” webinars create connections for the host of the webinar, they also create opportunities for other member firms. This week TGS France received a very good referral from an Italian firm because they saw the promotional materials about the ‘TGS Doing Business in Italy”webinar. People don’t even have to attend the webinars for them to have value and each promotional activity for the webinar reminds potential clients to ‘Think Global Sustainability’ and to think about getting in touch with TGS.

Look out for our upcoming TGS Doing Business In webinars in September, October and November this year. Make sure you are following the TGS official Linkedin page so you don’t miss an announcement or exclusive invitation.

Tuesday 06/07/2021

TGS Shared Services Development Accountability Session IV – Interview with Heather Townsend about shared services program.

How do we go beyond the normal activities of the network ?

“Shared Services” means joining together to build things. A Shared Service is one that other members can proactively sell and promote for your firms. Sometimes people ask the following question, “How can we set up a strong international desk for our region?” but that’s not a shared service as such, it’s the first step to success within an international network but not so much a shared service. TGS is an international business network, we are looking to grow and to enhance our regional presence everyday and an ‘international desk’ is a critical success factor for each member firm.

If we take the example of tax, it is a magic world that generates international work that opens up a dialogue whether you are providing legal, accounting or audit services. Transfer pricing is partly about optimally routing the revenue of business. Where do you need to base your operations to get the best advantages of tax and corporate credits? To be efficient internationally, firms have to understand the tax regime in other countries and an international network or locally knowledgeable tax experts can offer a serious competitive advantage in this regard. And this is exactly what the TGS Tax First team have done and are doing more and more. TGS tax experts work collaboratively and go to market with international offers.

You may be interested in following the TGS Tax First team’s webinar, “Everything you wanted to know about Transfer Pricing but were too afraid to ask” in November. Keep an eye on the TGS U website for more information about dates and registrations. https://tgs-global.com/tgs-u/

TGS member firms can also share services if they have similar work processes, they can share staff which means they can adapt to the size of bigger projects when they need to. Inbuilt, agile scalability is another aspect of the network membership advantages.

Time is not always a friend of firms that are part of a professional services network and nothing is given to you on a plate. It takes time to imagine, to build, to promote, to sell and to execute a shared service. For a shared service to be a success and where we are seeing important progress there is a top level strategy buy-in from the partners within the firm with a shared service offer.

Shared services projects came a long and it was a mechanism that came to an idea to a thing. You have to make the time to make it happen. Things that did not come out were often too complicated.

How do you make your TGS Shared Service a success? Heather suggests that you “Keep it simple, get strategic buy-in from your firm and allocate time for it (Remember, you will never find time, you have to make time available.)”

Watch the full Shared Services Success interview with Heather on the TGS YouTube Channel.

Wednesday 07/07/2021

TGS Sales Development Course part IV: A decision making-unit

Today’s TGS Sales Development session was about a Decision-Making Unit.

A Decision-Making Unit is a team of people within an organisation that play a role in the decision making process for purchasing products and services. Understanding the decision-making unit of an organisation is very important for any member of your team who is involved in sales and marketing: everyone. It helps them to prepare their sales executives to approach the right people in an organisation to make a sale.

A number of factors influence the buying decisions of professional buyers…and that number is four.

Here are the four different roles in a decision-making unit :

The Pain – corresponds to the person that will listen to the problem that buyers can have and will suggest a solution that they might need. This person can be the sales director of the firm that cares about increasing sales performance.
The Bank – the person who sets the budget for the product or service being bought. This person can be the financial director who cares about keeping a budget.
The Money – that represents the person who owns the budget. This person can be the HR director of the company. She cares about employee engagement, retention and development.
The Concern – has no specific worries, she is interested in logistics areas. She could be the managing director of the company.

It’s important to know that several people can have the same role but The Pain must always be addressed first to get to the invoice because it is the person who can receive the problem and fix it first.

At the end of the session, Matthew asked us (and you) a difficult question, not easy so far but really interesting: What are the five best questions you can ask someone you identify as “The Pain” in the first meeting?

It’s not a question that we can answer in 5 minutes but think about it for your situation. In other words, when you meet somebody for the first time, what are the first things you need to know?

Watch the last course on the TGS YouTube channel: TGS Sales Development Course part IV: A decision making-unit.

Register here for the TGS Sales Development Course part V to find out what questions you can ask to find all the information you need to make a sale.

Thursday 08/07/2021

Andrew in the British Embassy in Paris

We are slowly getting out of lockdown and beginning to attend physical events. TGS were invited by Scottish Development International for drinks and networking in the British Embassy in Paris. We were talking here about how we can encourage more Scottish firms to come to France and more French firms to venture into Scotland.

We will be holding two webinars on this topic, one from each perspective. For the French, “TGS Doing Business in Scotland” and for the Scots “TGS Doing Business in France”. Of course, you don’t have to be Scottish or French to benefit from these webinars so make sure you are connected to the TGS LinkedIn page for exclusive information and invitations to all our Webinars.

There is more to the Auld Alliance (at 1295, it’s the oldest alliance in the world) between Scotland and France when the support between the French and Scottish Kingdoms against the English. Obviously, we are all friends now and the concept that we all agree on (even the English) is that sustainable development is the key to future success. We are delighted that the Scottish Government pegs its strategy to the United Nations SDGs as TGS is an Active Signatory of the UNGC: we all ‘Think Global Sustainability’.

And no, the British don’t drink tea all the time (although if you’ve spent some time with the TGS team in Paris you’d think this was the case). This was a very enjoyable ‘Pimms O’Clock’ and conversation at the British Embassy in Paris.

Friday 09/07/2021

TGS Walks Round the World Update

‘TGS Walks Round the Word’ is an online/in-real-life challenge to walk a combined 40 000km – the distance to circumnavigate the globe. There is no charge to use the RaceNation app but we do ask you to donate £5 to the WWF.

There is still time for you to get involved with TGS Walks Round the World and you don’t even have to be a TGS member to take part. TGS Walks Around the World is open to everyone and we’ll be delighted to have you walk with us!

Our TGS Walks Round the World project aims to help:

TGS do good for the planet (everyone donates £5 to the WWF, does not fly to a conference and perhaps also uses their car slightly less in their home city)
TGS do good for our teams (taking time to walk with your team creates a great connection and can even make you healthier and more productive.)
TGS do good for the image of our network and make new friends (TGS stands for Think Global Sustainability so we’re putting our words into physical action and we’re reaching out to our contacts to join with us and participate.)

So far, 85 participants, 17 members participating 🌍, £460 raised for WWF 🐼 and 6 210 kms covered👏!Get motivated for the challenge so we can raise more fund for WWF!

Top 5 : 1/ Brian 🇺🇸 (2 430kms 🥵) 2/ Roberto 🇮🇹 (842 kms 🔥) 3/ Mikolaj 🇵🇱 (787 kms🌪️) 4/ Pakrada 🇹🇭(687 kms) 5/ Maxence 🇫🇷(334kms)

Do you need help registering for the TGS challenge?