Nick Anderson led a transformation at OneAccord by doing what most firms resist—cutting services, defining a narrow client profile, and saying no to anything outside it. The result: 40% topline growth, doubled gross margins, and a flood of high-trust referrals from wealth advisors and investment bankers. In this episode, Nick shares how getting crystal clear on who they serve and how they deliver unlocked pricing power, internal efficiency, and scalable demand. This is what it looks like when clarity becomes a business strategy.
TRANSCRIPT
Greg Alexander: Hey, everybody! This is Greg Alexander. You’re listening to the Pro Serv podcast. Brought to you by Collective 54. If you’re new to our show. This show is dedicated to founders of boutique professional services firms. So if you’re in the expertise business for a living, you market, sell and deliver expertise. This show is for you. and what we aim to do on this show is to help you make more money, help scaling become easier, you know, put an end to the 70 h work week and eventually gets you to the point that if you wanted to exit your firm, you’ve built an asset that somebody would want to buy on today’s show. We’re going to talk about a common problem that plagues our membership. and that is a fuzzy value proposition. and we’ve got a guest with us. Nick Anderson, who is the founder of OneAccord. and he is putting up big points on the scoreboard right now, and one of the reasons is he’s gotten great clarity around the value proposition. And before I ask Nick to introduce himself and dive into the topic. Just a little further explanation is the problem. What happens when you’re a small firm and a young firm you’re evolving. And because you’re evolving, you know what you do today, who you serve, etc. Might be different than what you did previously, and who you served previously, and unless you’re constantly bringing clarity to clients and prospects and employees. Sometimes they get confused, and that can cause unnecessary scalability problems. So that’s what we’re going to attack today. So with that, Nick, this is your first.st Go on the collective 54, podcast so please introduce yourself and your firm to our community.
Nick Anderson: Thanks for having me. It’s an honor, I guess, if I’m going to introduce myself, it’s important to say that the most important thing about me is the woman in the red dress pictured behind me? That is Ariana. And if I tell you the story of this photo it’ll tell you a lot about me. So we were. We were traveling in the north of Spain, and we were in this small town. Girona Beautiful. Some of the game of thrones was was filmed there. Beautiful brick buildings, just you understand, and I was taking a photo of her, and I said it would be amazing if you were wearing a wet red dress right now she wasn’t. She was wearing just travel clothes. About an hour later we were walking by a boutique. and there was a red dress in the window. so I bought the red dress. We went back and we took thousands of photos right? This is how much I love my wife. That is the very most important thing about me, but that also elucidates some things about my Mo. How I operate, where I see opportunity, make a decision and go for it. That isn’t really where our conversation is, though it’s on clarity. Now you gave me the credit of being the founder. Of one accord there will be a slight edit here. I’m the CEO and 50% owner, but not the founder. I am the succession plan to the founder. OneAccord was created 25 years ago by Jeff Rogers. and one accord has evolved. We had this conversation. One accord has evolved. It has been many things. Dare I say the brand has tried to be all things to all people, resulting in opacity at best, lack of clarity. And so Jeff and I. So I came in as an equity partner, and CEO in January of 24, and preceding that official day, one Jeff and I got really clear if I was to hold my hands out. If there’s anybody that’s listening, not seeing my hands are wide. This was the breadth of the services that we offered. And I, you know, if we think of an airplane, I cut the wings off, or just the fuselage. This is all we’re doing. We’re going to narrow our focus as sharply as we can, and I can go into some of those details. You know. Jeff will compliment me regularly for being clear. and I will every day fight the battle of trying to be clear.
Greg Alexander: Okay. Sounds great. Great introduction. I hope I get a chance to meet Arianna in the future, and it would be great if she was wearing the killer red dress. Alright. So let’s so let’s dive into it. So. as it has been explained to me by my team, who you have really impressed. You’ve had a breakthrough when stopped talking like a service provider and started talking like a problem solver. So what was the old message? And what is the new message?
Nick Anderson: The old message was at one accord, we buy companies, we sell companies, and we consult with companies. and we consult around growth and operations, and really anything that you need. So if you’re a business owner, we can do anything that you might need us to do. we we can do all things. So in 25 years, under the one accord brand, there have been 8 acquisitions. actually under a separate vehicle. But nevertheless it was. You know it’s the one accord team and an unknown number like, I don’t know the number of companies that one accord capital, a subsidiary or sister company took to market as an M. And a advisor. and nearly 700 organizations that we have consulted with in every industry vertical, you can think of and in every application you might think of. And so when I came in, folks would say to me in the market, I mean, talk about the founder problem. I’d say I’m Nick. I’m CEO of one accord, and it’s 1 1 accord. That’s Jeff Rogers, right? Jeff Rogers. Oh, man, I love Jeff! What a guy! What do you guys do? And I could. I could script everybody that I would talk to. They loved Jeff. They knew it was a solid brand. They knew that we did something with businesses. Okay? So one of the 1st activities that we did was get this, you know, one liner kind of really clear statement, what is it that one accord does? And and we would say, internally and and somewhat externally, we lead organizations through transition and growth to maximize enterprise value. Now there’s a lot of jargon. There’s a lot of buzzwords in there like we kind of understand that that’s not clear to clients. What we how we do. That is, we put operators into companies to do the things that need to get done. We put interim and fractional operators into companies in the c-suite roles. CEO Coo, chief revenue officer technology. Here’s the thing around. Clarity. What we don’t do. Hard, hard line. We don’t do. Cfo. We don’t do hr those are 2 roles that we don’t do. We have great partners in market and throughout the country that we can bring in for those services. I’m not trying to expand. really narrow, really well focused, and there’s more to it. But I’ll pause. You can see you might.
Greg Alexander: Yeah, no. Sounds good. That’s a good start. So my understanding is that your sales channels are investment bankers and business brokers. Is that accurate.
Nick Anderson: One of them. Yes, that is the the idea that I have my hypothesis is that some number like, you know, 3 out of 5, 7 out of 10, maybe higher owners that want to sell their business call a business broker and M. and A advisor, and that advisor is going to say, I can’t take you to market. You’re not ready. And you and I had a little exchange on Linkedin around, should, you know, should consulting firms, be PE firms and so forth. What I’m really clear on is that sell side advisors should not be consultants. It’s it’s just not good for their business, although they will try to be because they want to hang on to this lead in this prospect that you know, they might be able to take to market. So my value proposition to the investment bankers is. I work for you. I work for the Investment bank. We work for you. They are your client. We’re serving them. If an investment banker refers a business to us. I’m not going to introduce them to any other business, M. and A advisor. So that’s the hypothesis. Actually the greatest number of referrals that we get inbound are from wealth advisors because they have really intimate conversations with their clients. Business owners around, you know. What’s your what’s your plan? Are your kids taking over the business? How are you going to exit? Are you going to sell? Are you ready?
Greg Alexander: Okay. So since the topic today is clarity, let’s let’s do a little exercise. So let’s say I’m a wealth manager, wealth advisor. And you and I meet. and you’re going to hit me right between the eyes with a dead on description as to what you do who you serve? Give it to me.
Nick Anderson: Who I serve is a guy named Bob. and Bob is 65. He wears this red and kind of brown Filson flannel and some Carhart jeans, and he drives an F 350, and Bob started making parts in a machine shop in Kent, Washington about 40 years ago, and he was selling them to Boeing, and he’s expanded, and he’s selling to Spacex and other folks right now. Now Bob has a house in Arizona and 2 grandkids, and he tells me all the time that he doesn’t see either one of them enough. now. He would love to transition his company to his kids, but they’re not interested. So his buddies at the Golf club are talking about selling their companies for 8, 1012 times Ebitda, and he just knows that he should get 70 million dollars for his company. So he went to an investment banker and the investment banker said, Yeah, I’m sorry, Bob. We’re you know. We’re not gonna be able to take you to market. And so he’s now telling his wealth advisor. I don’t know what to do. I’ve got this company. I’m stuck. I’m working in it all the time. I want to transition my kids. Won’t. I need to sell it like I don’t know what to do. So, wealth advisor. Here’s what you need to tell Bob. Call my friends over at one accord. They have solved this problem for hundreds of business owners.
Greg Alexander: Okay, that is very clear. What I love about that example for listeners is it was told as a story. You know, the flannel vest. You know the kids, the house where it’s located. That’s how human beings understand things. We’ve been passing down stories across the fireplace since the beginning of time. So that’s how powerful storytelling is now to stay on this example, just to illustrate, you know the problem that you’ve solved here and how that’s helped you what’s in it for the wealth advisor? Why do I care what’s going to motivate me to send you that referral.
Nick Anderson: So. Greg, I’m just talking at you directly, like like the wealth advisor. Listen. I know how important your client relationships are, and how important it is that you introduce trusted advisors. And so we’ve been, we’ve had relationship. That’s number one. I’m not selling this cold. So we have to develop relationship over time. There’s a plan around that. But you’ve gotten to know us. You’ve seen what we do. You’ve hung out at our events. You’ve heard our stories and seen our testimonials, and I know that you, you know you’re not interested in any kind of a referral fee or success fee. What you want is for Bob to be successful. and for for his liquidity event to be on your books. So the financial incentive for you is greater assets under management like, that’s clear. We understand that. Set that aside. I want to represent you well. and know that when you’re introducing Bob to me that he is your client. I’m not going to take ownership of him. I’m going to be a good steward of your client to get him the successful outcome that he’s looking for, and I can tell you the story of We’ll call him Joe. I like 3 letter names, you know, Joe, that wanted to sell his company, and he thought it was worth 25 million dollars. But you know he had a 15 million dollars top line, and he’s in the trades. So the Greg, you know, for for you, as the wealth advisor to step in and and try to, you know. Have that really difficult conversation with Joe? Why don’t you let us have that? We’ll handle that with with care. and help him get to that place where you know he can. He can balance what his needs are long term. And you’re going to be in this conversation with us along the way.
Greg Alexander: Yep, okay, very good. All right. I’m gonna switch the line of questioning here because I think we’ve covered that part of it. The second part of it which intrigued me about your story. And the reason why I wanted you to be on our show today is that this clarity, this value proposition. Clarity, which is what we’re discussing right now. was also hugely helpful to you internally. and it made your firm more efficient, and I’ve had a chance to look at the margin expansion that you’ve executed, and is very, very impressive. I don’t think that part is crystal clear to our members when they hear value proposition. They think it’s a marketing exercise. and they underestimate how powerful it is as an operating exercise. So can you expand upon that a little bit.
Nick Anderson: Yeah, when when we’re clear about who we serve, or, better yet, what we won’t do. we? We put in that bucket of things. We don’t do the things that are not profitable at the metrics that that we want to achieve. I aspire to, to reach the gross margins that you encourage us through collective 54. I aspire to that, but I. Yeah, I look at industry data. And I’m a former banker. So I subscribe to some industry data reporting tools and short story. What I see in the professional services management consulting space is that gross margins average in the low 40%, 43, 44 small sample size. But that’s my benchmark is, we want to beat a 40% gross margin. If I’m taking on certain types of of work that are on the periphery, I can’t earn that margin it. Just it just isn’t there. But if I’m helping Bob create millions of dollars in enterprise value by reducing the company’s dependence on him, increasing the top line there. There is a strong justification for earning a margin if I get really clear, and I say that our sweet spot for clients is between 25 and 100 million in revenue. Then then I don’t have to, you know. Do mathematical gymnastics to try to fit margin into a 7 million dollars a year client. We actually developed another offer that fits that client that meets the the margins. So, being really clear about who we serve and how we do that really allows us to say No from a place of integrity and justification. It’s not. It’s not saying No, because I just don’t want to, or I feel like I should. It’s this doesn’t fit in the box. and and that’s actually helpful. So we have. We have maintained. That gross margin on target, which is a nearly a doubling over some of our historical performance. Right? Yeah. it also helps on the, you know, on the top line the clients that we’re serving tend to be bigger engagements. And so, you know, year over year, month over month, quarter over quarter, you know, if I look at this current year versus past, we’re trending about 40% top line growth with a doubling of our gross margin. And so the math works really well.
Greg Alexander: Yeah. So I want to double click on this a little bit. So we have a lot of members and and prospects who aren’t members who are. They have a lot of margin compression, and sometimes it’s counterintuitive that the financials are going to improve when you say no to work. You know they think bad breath is good breath. Any breath is good, you know any revenue is good, and it’s it’s not true. When you get super tight, as Nick and one accord have done. As to who you serve, what you do, the problems you solve you end up making more money, and I know that’s counterintuitive. But we’ve been doing this now for 5 and a half years, and I can tell you, after 52 exits there’s been 52 members that have exited and collected 54. It’s virtually 100%. The riches are in the niches. Now, Nick, as a give back to you, since you’re being very generous with your contribution to our community today, I will tell you your margin numbers are wrong. they reflect error. One. They don’t reflect error. 2 and error. 3. Error. One is A is a professional services era where work was delivered 100% by people by selling their time era 2. And in that era 40% was about right era 2 is tech enabled. So that is, the work is delivered partially through tech and partially through people. About a 50 50 spread margins there are in the sixties and the new era that we’re in right now, which is AI, where it’s like 80% of the service delivery is done through tech and 20% through people. Margins are in the eighties. So I want to. I want to inspire you. Try to think about how. Maybe that’s the next evolution for your firm. But but to take your firm from a low margin error, one firm to a high margin error, one firm, which is what you’ve done here by getting clarity around the around. The value prop is is super impressive. And listen, this is a journey. There’s a spectrum, you know. We’re all on this journey, right? We’re all living through the time period that we’re in which is digital transformation, and and some firms are further along than others. But we all have to be pushing to that. My, take every time.
Nick Anderson: I just would would say on that. You know I I came into an era one firm with low margins. So my 1st destination was to correct those margins and those margins then generate the resources to enable us to get. You know. Maybe era 2 is kind of a stepping stone to Era 3. But if I was to come in to the company with, you know, call it 23% gross margins. And say, all of a sudden, we’re gonna reach for 80%. And be, you know, full tech delivery like we don’t know what the what we’re. You gotta. You gotta crawl and then walk and then and run I’m just trying to crawl fast, man.
Greg Alexander: Yeah, listen. And you are. And and that’s and that’s such a great point to make, because we all are inspired by progress. Right? And you have made a tremendous amount of progress. And that’s what’s inspiring you to go even further. So I have one more question for you, because we try to keep these at 15 min. I’ve got about 25 others that I’m going to ask you during the private member Q. And A. But there’s the one other question. So when did you know it was working.
Nick Anderson: Hmm, okay. So I’ve got like, my, my right hand Guy Brian, like my number one, When when we were pitching the the biggest deal that I had my hands in. and we I mean we had the late night call, should we? Are we here? Is this the right? Can we? Can we get the gosh, I don’t, you know. And and there was there was some like, just I don’t know epiphany moment that was like, you know what if they say no, they’re the wrong client. If this doesn’t work, then it’s not us, it’s it’s them. and if it’s them, then it’s us, which means we need to go, you know, barking up a different tree. But anyhow, we we just held to what we said we were going to do. We did not capitulate. and they said Yes, and they said Yes, pretty fast. which made me think we probably under bid. So so it wasn’t even just that I knew it was working. It’s that I knew we were on the right path where there was even more. There’s even more there, there’s more juice in that, you know, in that fruit and that. And that was it. So that doesn’t change. Brian and I, 2 days ago, were bidding on yet again, the largest company, the largest deal. By a factor of 2, I mean the the company size is 5 x out of our sweet spot, but the deal size is is 2, and you know we’ve got some. We got a little I don’t know, pepping our step. And we’re like, Okay, this is where we’re. But we’re we’re also like, listen. we are very humble. And and that humility is really important for us in this, that we’re not overreaching. We’re actually comfortable under bidding a little bit, because we want to deliver value in excess of whatever it is they’re they’re budgeting, but it’s still a reach. So here we are, fingers crossed today. We you know, we we land another big one. But when I knew it was working is when we put our offer to the market. and the response was, Yes, and it was fast.
Greg Alexander: Yep. great story. Listen. Things are impossible until they’re not, you know. It used to be the 4 min mile was impossible, and then someone did it. And now there’s a lot of people that do it. So the moral of that story for listeners is, you got to have the guts to do what Nick did, and then, when you win. Now you have conviction that you know the market has validated your hypothesis, and that gives you courage to keep going for it and do as Nick and his team are doing, you know. Now they’re bidding on something that’s the next frontier, the new biggest deal 1 1 foot in front of the other. Next thing you know, you wake up and kind of standard operating procedure is 10 times better than it ever was. So, Nick, this is the end of our show. But congratulations to you for all the success you’ve had a big shout out to your founder for hiring the right, CEO, at the right time to come in congrats to Brian and everyone that’s helping you on this journey. We’re so lucky to have you in the community. Thanks for coming on the show and making a contribution today.
Nick Anderson: Thank you.
Greg Alexander: Great. All right. A couple calls to action for listeners. So if you’re a member and you want to hear more about Nick’s story, and who wouldn’t, after that little teaser, look for the invitation to the private member Q and A. And you’ll be able to ask questions to Nick directly if you’re not a member. And after listening to this, you want to become one. Go to collective 5, 4.com and fill out an application, and we’ll get in contact with you. But until next time thank you for listening, and I wish you the best of luck, as you try to grow, scale and someday. Exit your firm.
Note: This transcript was generated by Zoom.