Due to a substantial increase in time commitments and deadlines devoted to M&A services, Gould+Partners has made a key change regarding participation in its annual Best Practices Benchmarking survey, which tracks financial and management indices for the PR industry.
After 30 years of conducting the Benchmarking survey—previously open to all firms in North America and requiring in excess of 200 hours of time annually—Gould+Partners has decided to limit participation in the survey to existing M&A clients, retainer consulting clients and buyers of seller clients.
“These are ‘Best in Class’ firms,” says Rick Gould, CPA, J.D., managing partner of Gould+Partners, referring to the firms who will now engage with the survey. “They are profitable firms, with adequate tiers of executive staff, proactive billing rates, solid utilization/productivity stats and other management policies that all PR firm owners should emulate. They are ‘Model Firms.'”
For the 2018 Benchmarking survey, which will be distributed February 5th, Gould+Partners will include fewer PR firms. However, Gould+Partners will tailor the results for each participating client firm and point out areas of concern, such as how the firm stacks up against competitors similar in size, region and PR specialty.
“We will use the new survey format as an intricate basis for our Retainer Consulting Program and part of our 360-degree approach to Strategic Consulting services,” Gould says. “It will also help to inform and sharpen our ‘Build to Sell’ program, which we recently updated.”
Gould+Partners, “Best Practices Benchmarking Report and Billing Rates/Utilization Report” initially will be issued only to participating PR firms. The survey will be posted on the Gould+Partners website 45 days after the proprietary firm release.
If you have questions or comments concerning the change, please feel free to email Rick Gould (rick@gould-partners.com) or call him directly, 212.896.1909.
