Your people are your brand – it’s time to start acting like it

For years, the instinct in accountancy and professional services has been to keep everything under the firm umbrella. One voice, one logo, one message. The assumption being that the firm's reputation is what attracts clients, and individual profiles are either irrelevant or a risk to be managed.

As a partner, I think that instinct is wrong, and the firms that have not yet challenged it are quietly falling behind.

Clients do not hire firms. They hire people they trust, connect with, and feel will be there for them when it matters most.

Recently, a doctor in the UK found his accountant through a WhatsApp group for NHS physicians. Someone asked for a recommendation, and a name came up – not a firm name, an individual’s name. That person had never pitched to the doctor, never sent a brochure, never run a campaign. His reputation had simply travelled ahead of him into a conversation he was not part of. That is what happens when personal brand is built well. And it starts with what firms choose to encourage.

As partners, we have more influence over firm culture than we sometimes acknowledge. If we want our people to be visible, trusted, and known in their markets, we have to model that behaviour ourselves and build it into how our teams operate – not leave it to chance or personal initiative.

At Lawrence Grant, we actively encourage our people to post on LinkedIn, to share client wins internally, and to show up to networking events, not just as representatives of the firm, but as individuals with personal expertise and perspectives. The results speak for themselves. Referrals come in through channels we never anticipated, from community groups, from social media, and from conversations that happened without us in the room.

Reputation is what people say about you when you’re not in the room.

Embedding personal brand into firm culture does not require a large budget or a formal programme. It requires three main criteria that require commitment: permission, encouragement, and consistency. Give your people permission to have a voice. Encourage them to share genuine thinking, not just firm announcements. And make visibility a valued behaviour, not an afterthought.

The firms winning in 2026 are not always the ones with the biggest marketing budgets. They are the ones whose people are known, trusted, and thought of first. That does not happen by accident. It happens because partners decided it mattered, and built a culture around it.

Start there. The rest follows.

---

Ben Korklin started his own practice in 2010 before selling and joining Lawrence Grant LLP in 2013. He is involved in all areas of general practice, specialising in personal tax, corporation tax, strategic planning, mergers and acquisitions, and specialist services to the media sector. His client portfolio includes UK and overseas companies and individuals.