Client at a Glance
Dua & Co (DUA) is an award-winning accountancy and business consultancy firm operating within the professional services sector. The firm is FCA-regulated and a proud member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales (ICAEW).
Recognised for championing the SME sector, DUA supports small and medium-sized enterprises in growing sustainably and profitably.
The team operates across a range of industries, with particular expertise in healthcare, technology, and scale-up businesses, helping clients navigate their financial and strategic challenges with confidence and clarity.
Why This Project, Why Now?
Dua & Co has grown organically over the years and is now making a concerted push to become more than just a provider of traditional accountancy services such as tax returns.
The industry itself is evolving rapidly, with technology increasingly handling the heavy lifting of compliance and processing tasks. As a result, DUA recognises the need to redefine the value it provides to clients and transition towards a more advisory, insight-driven model.
Clients already view the firm as a reliable and trusted partner—a “safe pair of hands”—and the next step is to leverage those strong relationships to uncover broader business challenges and proactively support clients in new ways.
CEO Rakesh Dua firmly believes that every team member should be able to identify and pursue business opportunities during their interactions with clients and prospects.
Early challenges identified:
- Inability to upgrade clients — great at accounting conversations but struggling to uncover incremental opportunities.
- Communication challenges — the team is comfortable in their domain and nervous about asking open questions to explore vision, goals, and challenges (often triggered by client language).
- Struggling to obtain information from clients — causing processing delays with knock‑on impact on additional work.
- Time management — not setting boundaries; frequent reprioritisation; separating “nice to do” vs “must do”.
- Ensuring timely payments from clients.
- Commercial confidence — holding broader, more varied conversations.
- Buyer/seller psychology — managing expectations effectively.
- Portfolio management — not proactively seeking out growth opportunities.
- Creating urgency.
- Using available systems more.
Objectives at the Outset
The main objective of the engagement was to strengthen the team’s confidence, communication skills, and commercial acumen, enabling them to hold meaningful business conversations without feeling like they were actively selling.
As technically minded accountants, the team members were more comfortable focusing on the details, so the goal was to help them adopt a broader perspective; one that encouraged curiosity about their clients’ businesses.
Through a clearer understanding of the sales process, they would learn to ask better questions, uncover deeper insights, and identify opportunities for DUA to provide additional support.
Ultimately, the aim was to transform the team into brand ambassadors who could deliver value beyond accountancy services and help nurture new opportunities for the firm.
Why London School of Sales?
The partnership with LSOS began through a referral, with the London School of Sales quickly demonstrating a deep understanding of the team’s mindset and the specific challenges they faced.
This ability to connect with both the technical and behavioural sides of the business resonated strongly with DUA’s leadership. Rather than opting for a one‑off workshop, DUA chose a continuous learning approach built around monthly sessions.
This format allowed the team to absorb new ideas gradually, apply them in their day‑to‑day client work, and return to each session with reflections and real‑world examples to build upon.
Engagement & Solutions Delivered
- In‑person monthly training sessions focused on:
- Mindset, communication, and commercial confidence.
- Psychology of decision‑making.
- Accountability to process and identifying what needs to change to get different results.
- Mindset, communication, and commercial confidence.
- Limited coaching with individual team members.
Inside the Journey (in the Client’s Words)
Why did Dua & Co decide to invest in developing their team’s commercial and interpersonal skills — moving beyond purely technical accountancy training to build empathy, confidence, and real-world advisory capability?
What’s holding professionals in the accountancy sector back from adapting to change, embracing commercial thinking, and evolving beyond purely technical work?
What advice does Rakesh give to other accountancy firms that are not embracing transformation, and how can they start listening to their teams, modernising their culture, and rethinking their recruitment and development strategies to stay competitive?
How has DUA’s team changed in practice since the LSOS programme began — particularly in how managers now lead client conversations, own relationships, and proactively identify opportunities instead of waiting for partners to direct them?
How did the team initially respond to the idea of ongoing training, and what shifts have emerged — from early hesitation to enthusiastic participation, continuous questioning, and visible behavioural progress across the sessions?
Would you recommend LSOS?
Results & Outcomes
Cultural and behavioural shifts underway across the team: more confidence in client conversations, increased ownership by managers, and clearer pathways to introduce experts at the right moments.
Improved collaboration and practical application of communication techniques in live client settings (e.g., quarterly business reviews, data‑insight conversations, and tax planning dialogues).
Positive momentum recognised internally and externally (e.g., awards and finals cited by the client as markers that the shift is taking hold).
What’s Next for DUA
Looking ahead, DUA plans to continue the monthly training cadence and selective coaching that have already proven effective in building momentum.
The next stage focuses on tracking progress through both leading and lagging indicators of commercial confidence. Leading indicators will include actions such as manager-led follow-ups, proactive agenda-setting for quarterly business reviews, and improved on-time information sharing.
Lagging indicators, on the other hand, will reflect tangible outcomes like incremental project scoping, increased upsell and cross-sell opportunities, and more consistent payment timeliness.
Together, these measures will help DUA sustain growth, maintain accountability, and further embed a culture of commercial curiosity and client-focused value.
London School of Sales (LSOS) specialises in helping technically minded teams spot what’s not working, shape strategy, build process, enable managers, and train teams; creating the conditions for consistent commercial performance.
Bespoke Team Training — tailored, role‑relevant learning that sticks.
Manager Enablement & Coaching — practical confidence for leading commercial conversations.
- SMART Selling Accelerator — a structured 3-month programme that helps founders and leaders codify their sales approach, align strategy with process, and transfer knowledge across their teams.
Contact
If you’d like to equip your professional services team to hold confident, commercial conversations without feeling like they’re “selling,” let’s talk.