Rob Nixon, Author at CPA Trendlines

How to Turn Prospects Into Clients

Don’t be afraid to give them a “taster.”

By Rob Nixon

Want more clients? Just doing more meetings is a good start. Once you have people actually meeting prospects and clients, you will go a long way to making sales.

MORE ON STRATEGY: How to Be a Guru in Sales | The 10 Keys to Selling Accounting Services | 6 Steps of Moving to Value Pricing | Feel Good About Yourself | How to Build Enduring Relationships | They Should All Be ‘A Class’ Clients | Accountants Are the Last Trusted Advisors | How to Structure Your Firm for Success
Exclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

As you monitor the conversion rate of each person (prospect to sale ratio), the number of meetings it takes to make a sale and the average sale value, then you need to work on improving each area. You are looking for a higher conversion rate and fewer meetings per sale at a higher average transaction value per sale.
READ MORE →

FEATURED

How to Be a Guru in Sales

Prospects want to know what they’ll get, not how you’ll do it.

By Rob Nixon

Accountants can be really good at sales – with “gurulike” status.

MORE ON STRATEGY: The 10 Keys to Selling Accounting Services | 11 Ways to Move to Value Pricing | Get Rid of All Your Rates | You Can’t Lavish Time Unless You Have Time to Lavish | Changing Accountants: 2 True Tales | Your Clients on Your Terms | How Much Should Partners Make?
Exclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

If you have the inclination, being successful at sales is a skill that you can learn. It involves scripts, dialogues, practice, asking questions and following a sales process.
READ MORE →

CHECKLIST

The 10 Keys to Selling Accounting Services

Four checklists and 40 factors for sales success.

By Rob Nixon

Think of the most successful salespeople you know.

MORE ON STRATEGY: 11 Ways to Move from Time to Value Pricing | Are Your Prices Too Low? | Never Charge by a Time Unit | Put Your Own Oxygen Mask On First
Exclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

If you were to list their traits and characteristics then I would imagine that this list would apply.

Ethical
Problem solver
Personable
Trustworthy
Good communicator
Persistent
Passionate
Good product knowledge
Service-focused
Good listener

CHECKLIST

11 Ways to Move to Value Pricing

Plus: 13 benefits clients will happily pay for.

By Rob Nixon

As you go through the journey of value belief and client value perception, you have to be conscious of price parity.

MORE ON STRATEGY: Are Your Prices Too Low? | 6 Steps of Moving to Value Pricing | Feel Good About Yourself | How to Build Enduring Relationships | They Should All Be ‘A Class’ Clients | Accountants Are the Last Trusted Advisors | How to Structure Your Firm for Success | Why Average Project Value Matters
Exclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

If a client has been paying $5,000 for your service and even if you feel it is worth twice as much, the client may not pay much more for it – particularly if it looks like the same service. Your client might pay 15 percent or 20 percent more, but double? – give me a break. Unless you completely redesign your product offering so it looks completely different, your current client will have a hard time paying the price.

But when it comes to new services that the client has never bought before – different story. There is no price parity with a new service that has not been purchased before – charge at will!
READ MORE →

GROWTH STRATEGIES

Are Your Prices Too Low?

How much value do you create for your clients?

By Rob Nixon

The most popular question I get is, “How do you determine the price?”

MORE ON STRATEGY: 6 Steps of Moving to Value Pricing | Get Rid of All Your Rates | You Can’t Lavish Time Unless You Have Time to Lavish | Changing Accountants: 2 True Tales | Your Clients on Your Terms | How Much Should Partners Make? | Be a History Maker
Exclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

Unfortunately, there is no easy answer to that. If you were in the commodity business (selling the same things that others sell) then it would be relatively easy – see what your competitors are selling their comparable product for and price yours higher or lower based on the quality of your product and service.
READ MORE →

GROWTH STRATEGIES

6 Steps of Moving to Value Pricing

You’ll end up with 4 main KPIs.

By Rob Nixon

The idea of value pricing is that your clients know how much the price will be before the work commences and you get a healthy margin in return for your intellectual capital/property.

MORE ON STRATEGY: Get Rid of All Your Rates | Never Charge by a Time Unit | Put Your Own Oxygen Mask On First | Define Client Wants Vs. Needs | The Entrepreneurial Accountant: An Oxymoron?
Exclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

With the implementation of value pricing your average hourly rate (AHR) should increase dramatically. There are two ways to measure AHR.
READ MORE →

GROWTH STRATEGIES

Get Rid of All Your Rates

If you have them in mind at all, you’ll try to keep using them.

By Rob Nixon

I think this entire method of pricing by time is not only bad for you, it is bad for your client. It is highly unethical. There is no winner. There has to be a better way.

MORE ON STRATEGY: Never Charge by a Time Unit | Feel Good About Yourself | How to Build Enduring Relationships | They Should All Be ‘A Class’ Clients
Exclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

The good news is, there is a better, more ethical way. It’s called value pricing.
READ MORE →

GROWTH STRATEGIES

Never Charge by a Time Unit

3 flaws with this business model.

By Rob Nixon

I would love to meet the person who invented time-based billing. I think this person is a complete business moron and I would have much pleasure in highlighting the unethical behavior that this method causes. This is probably the same person who invented write-offs as well. What a complete idiot.

The premise is that if you get the charge rate right and the time to do the job right, then the price is right. Nothing could be further from the truth.

MORE ON STRATEGY: Feel Good About Yourself | You Can’t Lavish Time Unless You Have Time to Lavish | Changing Accountants: 2 True Tales | Your Clients on Your Terms | How Much Should Partners Make? | Be a History Maker | Why ‘Steady as She Goes’ Isn’t Enough | How to Calculate a Value Price | Boost Efficiency and Your Bottom Line | Marketing Must Generate Leads
Exclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

Time-based billing does not value the project. The only value of a project is what the market is prepared to pay for it. I am going to challenge your thinking of time-based billing and encourage you to adopt a new model of value pricing.
READ MORE →

SEARCH CPA TRENDLINES

Rob Nixon

MORE AT STORE.CPATRENDLINES.COM

Rob Nixon has coached more than 434 firms adding over $850 million in profit to them and delivered seminars to over 175,000 people in 16 countries He can be contacted at robnixon.com.

Nixon is the founder of Panalitix, a technology-based coaching consultancy and membership community for tax and accounting firms seeking to improve operations, accelerate growth, and improve profitability.

Rob has forged a niche to be the world’s foremost authority on how accounting firms can achieve peak performance. Rob believes that accountants are the natural trusted advisor to business. He believes that accountants make a massive difference to their client’s condition. He believes that technology needs content and methodology to really be useful. He believes that accountants are not that interested in the future they are interested in what they need to do now. He also believes that unless accountants change their business model then a big part of their current revenue will go the way of the dinosaur.

Since 1994 he has been running businesses that specialize in helping Accountants run better, more profitable businesses. Accountants intrigue Rob and over the years he has trained them, consulted to them, coached them, researched them and visited thousands of them. His speaking work has taken him around the world where he has spoken to in excess of 150,000 accountants. Currently, his landmark strategies and products are used by over 16,000 accountants in over 20 countries.

In 2005 he created the revolutionary coaching model called Coachingclub. The CoachingClub model enabled firms to be accountable, to consistently learn and to share ideas amongst their peers. Over 800 Accounting firms have graduated from his Coachingclub program. The vast majority of firms have doubled or tripled profits because of the program.

Rob is a keen golfer (single figures) and adventurer (he is ticket holder 293 on Virgin Galactic to go into space). He lives in sunny Brisbane, Australia, with his wife Natalie and three children.

Here’s what you’re looking for: Rob Nixon