An interesting session—the first we’ve seen anywhere—was a panel of young valuation experts giving their perspectives on the profession. The session was at last week’s Business Valuation & Financial Litigation Super Conference hosted by NACVA.

Soft skills needed: How to communicate with clients effectively is one thing the panel members all agreed they need more help with from their veteran colleagues. The young generation of valuers are very tech-savvy, but interpersonal skills are a different story. Interacting with clients effectively is an acquired skill that needs to be passed down to the new generation of valuers. This can be done through some explanation, but the best way is to teach by doing—experienced experts should include young colleagues in site visits, client meetings, copy them on correspondence, invite them to a client lunch, or anything else where they can observe how to build rapport. This will go a long way toward developing young talent, the panel noted.

Bob Lewis (Visionary Group) moderated the panel of up-and-comers: Ashley DeCress (Marcum), Kevin Foyteck (ABIP), Mary Fernandez (Bodine Perry), and Dalton Hopper (BMSS). The panel made some other interesting comments, and there will be a full recap of this session in the October issue of Business Valuation Update.