Sales

Marketing vs. Selling: Both Must Serve the Client First

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Woman explaining financial brochure to manIt comes down to what will best serve your clients.

By Ed Mendlowitz
How to Build a Stronger Tax Practice

There are differences between marketing and selling.

Selling is a process whose goal is an actual order. Marketing involves the totality of presenting the company to the prospective customer so they want to do business with you.

MORE ON MARKETING: Adopt a Marketing Mindset

Salespeople need immediate gratification. Marketers take a long-term view.

Both are necessary for successful growth.
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Use This Spreadsheet to Evaluate Prospects

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Tiny businessman standing on dripping faucetGet your A.C.C.O.U.N.T.S. in order.

By Martin Bissett

There is a difference between a pipeline and a simple list of prospects.

MORE ON BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT: Consider Hiring a Sales Director | Understand the DNA of Business Development Success | Do You Deliver on Your Website’s Promises? | Lowballing Is Undervaluing Yourself | Appraise Your Prospects | The Science of Pipelines | Do You Have a Pipeline or Just a List? | Develop the Habit of Consistency | Prepare Your Next Generation of Professionals | Overcome Recurring Fee Apathy | Banish the Idea that Selling is Difficult | How to Win Your First Client | You’re Selling All the Time

GoProCPA.comExclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

A true pipeline grades prospects, works out the value of each prospect and determines where they should fit in your business development efforts. You can use this process to create a mathematical equation that scores how likely you are to win the work.
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Consider Hiring a Sales Director

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Businesswoman shaking hands across desk with man in officeWhat is the best use of your skill set?

By Martin Bissett

As a partner in an accounting practice, your average day (if there even is such a thing as an average day) is fraught with many calls on your time: producing client work, management of the team, checking the processes, following up unpaid bills and more. And that doesn’t even account for all the personal things you need to achieve every day.

MORE ON BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT: Understand the DNA of Business Development Success | Before the Sales Meeting | Your Perception vs. Your Client’s Reality | Do You Deliver on Your Website’s Promises? | Lowballing Is Undervaluing Yourself | Appraise Your Prospects | The Science of Pipelines | Do You Have a Pipeline or Just a List? | Develop the Habit of Consistency | Prepare Your Next Generation of Professionals | Overcome Recurring Fee Apathy | Banish the Idea that Selling is Difficult | How to Win Your First Client | 5 Ways to Make Selling Easier to Swallow | You’re Selling All the Time

GoProCPA.comExclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

So the thought of adding another skill, that of managing the sales process, might feel like the straw that broke the camel’s back. If that’s how you are feeling, here is some food for thought.
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Back to Basics: 25 Ways to Grow Your Practice

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Sprout growing on money pile of glass jar bankHow many are you doing? What would you add?

By August Aquila
Creating the Effective Partnership

Sometimes the best way to grow a practice is to return to the basics – no fancy marketing campaigns, just some good old fashioned face-to-face contact and working your existing client base.

MORE for PRO Members: 24 Points for AFTER the Deal Is Done  |   Innovate or Die | 3 Ways to Halt a Poor Leader | Partners Love, Hate Leadership | 8 Questions That Staff Ask In a Merger | The 4 Best Ways to Use Your Senior Partners | 11 Steps to Building a Better Partnership Team

GoProCPA.comExclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

Here’s a list of 25 ideas for growing your practice. How many are you currently doing? READ MORE →

Accountants Report 12% Annual Revenue Growth… And Accelerating

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Arrow rising above ever larger blocks in businessman's hand, indicating growthIndustry heads into 2016 with stronger performances than most clients.

By CPA Trendlines

As professionals who specialize in finance, preparing financial statements and assisting business owners with their financial performance, one would suspect that the tax and accounting industry would have a firm grip on  financial performance. Looking at statements filed over the past year, that certainly appears to be the case.

The average private company falling into the category of either accounting, tax preparation, bookkeeping or payroll services grew sales at an annual rate of 12 percent. This was a higher growth rate than the average privately held company achieved over that same period, despite being a healthy rate of revenue growth for the average U.S. company.
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Banish the Idea that Selling Is Difficult

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Two businessmen shaking handsDon’t take rejection personally.

By Martin Bissett
Business Development on a Budget

If winning new clients is simply a matter of being yourself, why is selling so difficult for accountants? Well, it’s a combination of several factors, but there are two main reasons.

MORE ON BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT: How to Win Your First Client | 5 Ways to Make Selling Easier to Swallow | You’re Selling All the Time

First, accountants have not traditionally been required to sell. Maybe your practice has grown by referral – business has come to you and you haven’t had to do much to win that business. Unfortunately, however, business doesn’t always walk through the door; you don’t know how often it will, or what caliber it will be when it does.
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It’s Not Sales. It’s Your Duty

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Ed Mendlowitz CPA The Practice Doctor Q and AHow to suggest additional services to clients and why you’re doing them a disservice if you don’t.

By Ed Mendlowitz
The CPA Trendlines Practice Doctor

QUESTION: I always feel awkward telling clients they need additional services that I should perform for them. Can you tell something that could “rev” me up for this?

MORE PRACTICE DOCTOR Q&A: Yes, You Should Send Rejection Letters | When to Hire an Admin Assistant | 7 Ways to Lose a Client’s Trust | How Much Should You Pay To Buy, Sell or Merge an Accounting Practice? | Why the Average Fee Doesn’t Matter | No More Printouts at CPE Programs? | 6 Ways to Take a Client Beyond Tax Prep

ANSWER: Actually, by suggesting additional services you are doing the client a favor and a good deed. Also, you are in business and the easiest way to generate additional revenues is to cross-sell services to present clients.

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