Attract Clients, Don’t Sell to Them

Make your expertise a magnet.

By Martin Bissett
Business Development on a Budget

It’s about time to realize that value is not about time.

MORE: How to Attract Clients | Four Reasons Accountants Struggle with Selling | Perception, Even Your Own, Is Reality | Stop Waiting for Business to Come to You | Four Key Questions About Leadership | Showing Leadership through Customer Service | The Real Math Behind the Sales Pipeline | Keep Business Development Going During Busy Season | Walk the Commitment Walk | Two Steps Toward Mastering Selling | Thirteen Ways to Show Commitment | Clients Can’t Grow without You | Seven Mistakes in Winning New Fees
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When I look back on the research that has been conducted by various groups as to the biggest obstacles accounting firms cite to growing their practice,

50 percent said creating opportunities,
25 percent said knowing how to close deals
and the remainder said having self-confidence in presenting and then being able to positively differentiate from their competition.

Let’s not sell, let’s attract.

Posted on September 24, 2024

Martin Bissett

About the Author

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Martin Bissett is the author of

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Winning Your First Client,
Passport to Partnership, and
Meet Your New Best Client

Shop the Martin Bissett Practice Growth Collection

He is the founder of The Upward Spiral Partnership Ltd., the UK-based consulting firm that specializes in the implementation of professional selling and leadership skills in the next generation of accounting professionals.

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Previously, Martin served ten years on the board of directors of the UK’s leading provider of high-quality new business appointments for accountancy firms. There, he held the responsibility for the nurture and organic growth of the organization’s new client base, including six of the UK’s top 30 firms of accountants.

Martin became fascinated by the apparent juxtaposition of partners not vocalizing what they were looking for in terms of an accomplished skill set from their potential future partners and their managers not asking to discover what that skill set included, despite wanting to reach that very position. In a profession with a supposed “Succession Crisis” on the horizon, this apparent stand-off struck him as curious.

This has led Upward Spiral Partnership to personally interview several hundred partners and managers in the US and UK to learn what partners are looking for and how the managers see their own future in the firm. There are, of course, firms that have addressed this issue already, and their initiatives have also been captured.

The results of the research, including both the consensus and the exceptions to the general opinion, is called “Passport to Partnership.” This study provides the highlights of each factor that the majority of partners interviewed use as their criteria when evaluating whether someone in their organization can make it to the top.

As a result of the combination of his experience, intellectual property, and this proprietary research, Martin now consults with accounting firms in the UK, Europe, and the USA to support them in their transition through to the next stage of their development and growth.

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