RFPs: 7 Things NOT to Do

7NotAllowedPlus 6 keys to the perfect proposal.

By Martin Bissett
Passport to Partnership

What makes a written proposal become accepted by the potential client – every time?

MORE ON THE PASSPORT TO PARTNERSHIP: 7 Mistakes to Avoid When Going After New Work | Communicate Your Worth and Value | Best Practices for One-on-One Communication | Learn to Read Your Firm’s Culture | Experts Advise What Partnership Takes
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Proposal writing is a micro-science in its own right but here are the proven principles that it takes to get proposals accepted.
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7 Mistakes to Avoid When Going After New Work

Error stampedPlus 9 business development metrics you should be measuring when checking your conversion rates.

By Martin Bissett
Passport to Partnership

Like it or not, the 21st-century accountant is in the relationship-building business. When a qualified accountant learns the art of developing those relationships in such a way as they empower the practice to be able to forecast its new fee income each year, the accountant becomes a profit center and their value to the firm increases tenfold.

MORE ON THE PASSPORT TO PARTNERSHIP: Communicate Your Worth and Value | 5 Ways to Evaluate Your Communication | 7 Levels of Communication Management | 5 Ways to Get Buy-In for Firm Culture | Partnership: Competence Is Just the Foot in the Door | Are You Partner Material? Maybe Not
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Our fourth “C,” Conversion, has flirted with being the top answer from respondents in the Passport to Partnership study and has featured in over 80 percent of all firms interviewed as to what makes a senior manager stand out as a potential partner.
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Communicate Your Worth and Value

Search for valuePut it all together for both clients and coworkers to see.

By Martin Bissett
Passport to Partnership

An advisor is trusted when they can show that they

  • took responsibility for their end of the bargain in the client engagement,
  • educated the client of their responsibilities,
  • offered prompting and assistance throughout but then allowed the client to ultimately govern themselves in terms of following through on their commitments.

MORE ON THE PASSPORT TO PARTNERSHIP: 5 Ways to Evaluate Your Communication | Why Communication Matters So Much | 3 Questions to Evaluate Your Firm Culture | Competence: More Than Technical Skills | Are You Partner Material? Maybe Not
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This then empowers the advisor to make a commercial decision when the client now faces the consequences, as to whether they want to communicate even more assistance to make things all better for the clients and gain huge appreciation and emotional capital.
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30-Item Checklist: Getting People to Listen to You

7 businesspeople in meeting

Lessons in effective communication for partners and wanna-be partners.

By Martin Bissett
Passport to Partnership

The Passport to Partnership study collated a number of responses in a conversational style.

MORE ON THE PASSPORT TO PARTNERSHIP: 3 Questions to Evaluate Your Firm Culture | Competence: More Than Technical Skills | Partnership: Competence Is Just the Foot in the Door

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A couple examples really stood out as the first steps in effective communication: READ MORE →

Why Communication Matters So Much

Two businessmen talking at officeThe experts weigh in. Hint: It’s not about you.

By Martin Bissett
Passport to Partnership

What does communication mean at the partner level?

MORE ON THE PASSPORT TO PARTNERSHIP: 5 Ways to Get Buy-In for Firm Culture | Competence: More Than Technical Skills | Partnership: Competence Is Just the Foot in the Door

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Ask yourself and answer these questions when considering the current and future communication tactics that you’ll employ.
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Best Practices for One-on-One Communication

4 winning habits of top accountants.

Component parts of how the other person perceives your in-person communication
Component parts of how the other person perceives your in-person communication

By Martin Bissett

I’ve had the benefit of meeting, speaking and observing hundreds of very successful and unsuccessful partners over the last two decades and there is indeed a set of differentiating factors that set a partner apart from the chasing pack.

MORE ON THE PASSPORT TO PARTNERSHIP: 3 Questions to Evaluate Your Firm Culture | Learn to Read Your Firm’s Culture | 5 Ways to Get Buy-In for Firm Culture | Competence: More Than Technical Skills | Experts Advise What Partnership Takes | Partnership: Competence Is Just the Foot in the Door | Are You Partner Material? Maybe Not

Here are the four “best-selling behaviors” that I’ve observed:

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7 Levels of Communication Management

Chart showing Passport to Partnership's 7 levels of communication management4 reasons that senior managers struggle.

By Martin Bissett

Ultimately, when we have to interact with clients, subordinates, superiors or peers, the questions are always the same: Who do I need to deliver this information to and what approach would they respond most favorably to?

MORE ON THE PASSPORT TO PARTNERSHIP: 3 Questions to Evaluate Your Firm Culture | Learn to Read Your Firm’s Culture | Competence: More Than Technical Skills | Experts Advise What Partnership Takes | Partnership: Competence Is Just the Foot in the Door

In arriving at “Communication” we come to the most intangible of all the components to obtain a “passport to partnership.”
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5 Ways to Measure Partner Potential

Learn to read your firm’s ‘cultural blueprint.’PTP_2ndC

By Martin Bissett
Passport to Partnership

What conclusions can you draw from your knowledge of how the promotion system works in your firm that you need to keep in mind?

MORE ON THE PASSPORT TO PARTNERSHIP: 3 Questions to Evaluate Your Firm Culture | Learn to Read Your Firm’s Culture | 5 Ways to Get Buy-In for Firm Culture | Competence: More Than Technical Skills | Experts Advise What Partnership Takes | Partnership: Competence Is Just the Foot in the Door | Are You Partner Material? Maybe Not

In terms of firm culture, you need to understand the four navigational points of the compass:

  1. Who do I need to stay on the right side of?
  2. What are the unwritten rules in my firm?
  3. Whose opinions can be trusted?
  4. What really impresses the partners?

And here’s a five-part analysis to see how you measure up:

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