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Gear Up for Growth 
With Jean Caragher
For CPA Trendlines
In the latest Gear Up for Growth, host Jean Caragher, president of Capstone Marketing, sits down with Wade Clark, associate director-sales programs at Moss Adams and author of “Simplifying Complex Sales.” Their conversation delivers two critical messages for CPAs and firm leaders: the necessity of consistent account development and the strategic use of the Four Catalysts to uncover new opportunities.
Gear Up for Growth spotlights the best strategies for smart and efficient growth in today’s competitive landscape. More Gear Up for Growth here | More Jean Caragher here | Get her best-selling handbook, The 90-Day Marketing Plan for CPA Firms, here | More CPA Trendlines videos and podcasts here
“Account development is the Achilles’ heel of many firms,” Clark says. “But by focusing on consistent outreach and meaningful dialogue with clients and prospects, CPAs can create natural momentum that leads to growth, even when market conditions change.”
Clark, drawing on 30+ years of experience helping professional services firms grow, emphasizes that consistency — not one-off efforts — is what drives lasting client relationships and sustainable firm growth.
“If we are diligent in being consistent with our account development, and we’re meeting with these prospects two, three times a year, this is not starting a ball rolling — we’re just continuing what we’ve always done. And that builds momentum,” Clark explains.
He also introduces the Four Catalysts — Desire, Discovery, Dissatisfaction, and Driver — as essential tools for subtly moving prospects beyond their comfort zones and into meaningful conversations.
“Catalysts cause a reaction. And that’s what we’re trying to do — cause a reaction to get people to shift slightly from that status quo to, ‘Maybe I need to look into this more,’” Clark says.
Clark also explores practical strategies for smaller firms, including how to identify conversation starters from client experiences, trends, and regulatory changes. He advises firms to systematize their outreach and prioritize relationship-building over hard selling.
5 Key Takeaways
- True business development isn’t just about selling — it’s about helping prospects make the best decision for their business, even if it’s not with your firm.
- CPAs should not shy away from tough or uncomfortable questions.
- Current clients already trust you, making it easier to implement consistent outreach, uncover catalysts, and build momentum.
- The insights gathered through client conversations can fuel marketing strategies — helping firms create highly relevant blogs, articles, and campaigns based on real client needs and trends.
- Consistency ensures you’re not scrambling when the economy slows down and referrals dry up.
More About Wade Clark
Wade Clark has over 30 years of experience with leading U.S. and global professional services firms building more consistent sales and stronger practice growth. Currently, Clark is an associate director-sales programs at Moss Adams. He is the author of Simplifying Complex Sales (2012, updated 2022), which is available on Amazon.
Transcript
(Transcripts are made available as soon as possible. They are not fully edited for grammar or spelling.)
Jean: Hello, thank you for joining “Gear Up for Growth,” powered by CPA Trendlines. I’m Jean Caragher, President of Capstone Marketing and your host. Today’s guest, Wade Clark, has over 30 years of experience with leading U.S. and global professional services firms, building more consistent sales and stronger practice growth. Currently, Wade is an associate director sales programs at Moss Adams. He is the author of “Simplifying Complex Sales,” which was originally published in 2012 and updated in 2022 and is available on Amazon. Wade, welcome to “Gear Up for Growth.”
Wade: Oh, thank you very much. Appreciate you having me on.
Jean: Oh, you’re welcome. So for listeners and viewers who know Wade and I know each other for a very long time and are members of the Association for Accounting Marketing together, and, also, so I’m really happy that we could get this arranged and get you on. So let’s set the stage for our viewers and listeners. I’m sure that many have had that experience of pursuing a prospect and then not being able to move that sales process forward, and you have a chapter in your book dedicated to what you call the four catalysts or ways to get a prospect to want to learn more about a firm. So why don’t we just start off by kind of walking through this? And you define the first catalyst as desire. Tell us a little bit about that.
Wade: Yeah, the goal of the catalyst is really to help us be a little bit more systematic in the way that we develop with our clients. As we look at account development as a whole, the whole purpose of account development is to develop those relationships, but also mutual understanding, and I emphasize the mutual part, because as we start to know more about them, they start to get to know more about us and our capabilities as well. It’s beneficial on both parties.
Ultimately, if we do that consistently over time, that will lead to opportunities. They just naturally surface. It’s kind of like you can’t go fishing every day without eventually catching a fish. It’s that type of thing. So what you’re dealing with is mindsets. When we’re entering account development, it’s the vast majority of the development work we do, in all honesty. We have an introductory meeting. We go to an account. There is either no immediate opportunity, or the buyer is either happy with where they are, or they don’t feel enough pain, or they don’t want to deal with the change at this point in time. So at this point, there’s not an opportunity directly to chase, and that’s where we move into account development.
And what we’re trying to do is address that status quo mindset, that status quo mindset being, “Okay, I’m either happy where I am, very satisfied where I am, or even if I’m not, I’m not ready to make any kind of changes or deal with this at this time.” So what we need to do is make a subtle shift. And that shift is not, “Oh, I need to get ready to buy something or do something different.” We’re just literally trying to shift them from, “I’m okay,” to, “Maybe I need to learn a little bit more.” And that’s a very subtle shift. But the thing that’s interesting about that subtle shift, we know, in our industry, we have a very long sales cycle. And that’s because we’re…for most of the services that we’re selling, we’re displacing someone else. Not everything. Some consulting services, we can come in and be additional provider, but in many cases, we’re displacing, and someone’s not going to just do that randomly. And so that’s a challenge.
Jean: Right, because, Wade, what normally happens, right, when the CPAs go out and they meet with a prospect, and as you were giving this scenario, they’re not ready to change or they don’t have reason to do, what happens most of the time? The practitioner forgets about that. They’re like, “Okay, there’s no opportunity. Either let’s go on to the next one,” or they may write down what that next step might be, but whether that actually happens or not, it’s really kind of a crapshoot.
Wade: It is, and I believe it’s the Achilles heel in the profession, with a few exceptions. Maybe with some major strategic accounts that we’re pursuing, we’re diligent about our account development efforts, but for most part, this is the important but not urgent issue that we know we should do but we don’t do. It’s like the exercising regularly or eating properly or that kind of thing. It’s important we understand it, but we get caught up with the new meetings, we get caught up with the exciting pursuits, or we get caught up with the delivery of work with our existing clients, and so that other thing is just sitting there. And so you had asked about the first one of desire.
What happens is we need to have something that bridges that mindset where we’re saying, “Okay, we just need to make a subtle shift.” But we’re never going to know what that is going to be that makes that shift. And so as I’ve looked through and considered, observed a lot of sales over my career, as I’ve worked with other partners, as I’ve personally sold in various organizations, I realized that there’s really kind of four things that cause that shift. And the first of those is desire. And that is simply that there is something that we want to get it to a different position than we are today.
And so when I think of desire, I’m not just thinking of, gee, I’d like to have someone who’s competent or that’s timely or that… I’m talking about things that are strategically oriented, things that are moving my organization from where I am to where I want to be competitively, organizationally, operationally, financially. I mean, there’s all kinds of things from a strategic position. When we can tap into those things, that’s that desire component. And so if you think about the services that we deliver, one of the things that we need to think about is how does the audit, how does the tax, how does the risk management, how does the lean consulting, whatever it is that we’re offering, how is that impacting on organizations strategically, how is that putting them from where they are today to a different position, and that’s the whole desire.
Jean: Right. Now, I believe you’ve said that the desire catalyst is the easiest one to tap into.
Wade: I don’t know if I would say it’s the easiest. I would say it’s the most positively charged. And so when we look at the motivational factors, when we touch on something that is that desire component, I mean, it’s something that doesn’t take much arm-twisting to get them to get on board or get excited. I’ll give you an example in my personal life. Years ago, I had my own consulting practice, and I was called by a company who was, I understood, calling me because they did video production. Well, my oldest son does that as a career, so I really didn’t need that support, and I pretty well dismissed the call and forgot about it. To their credit, two weeks later, they called me back, and they said, “Wade, I think we may have misstated what we’re about.” They said, “Really, what we do is we work with authors to help them take their intellectual property and put it into e-learning courses or things of that nature. Yes, video is part of that, but that’s really what we’re about.” Well, that tapped into that desire, because on my strategic plan, that was a business objective. So I went from dismissing them two weeks earlier to hiring them about three weeks later, simply because they touched into that desire component.
Jean: Right, that’s a great… Because the desire… We’re talking about the business owners, what their goals are, what their dreams are, right? What they have in their plans and maybe in their head of what they’d like to accomplish, right?
Wade: Exactly, exactly.
Jean: Okay, so the number two is discovery. And I know this is one where CPAs can really tap into their areas of expertise.
Wade: Correct. Yeah, discovery is…it’s really part and parcel of things that we do, but sometimes we don’t think of it in that way. I mean, it’s the education element of our profession. There’s so many things that people don’t know that they don’t know. And when we think about the clients that we serve, when we think about the prospects that we meet with that are dealing with issues, and we think about the services that we perform, whatever that service may be, what is it that the questions that are coming up frequently, what are the challenges that they’re addressing that they didn’t know that there was a capability or a possibility out there to even address that challenge in that way? So the discovery element is really that aspect of looking at those services and saying, “Okay, how do we educate people on the front end and maybe bring up things that pique their interest?” That can also be a very positive motivator.
If someone wanted to buy a boat, and they had this boat that they’ve been wanting to buy, and it’s way expensive, and they’re like, “I’m not going to buy it at this point in time,” but then a buddy calls and says, “Hey, it’s a bad situation, but there’s some people down the street from me that are getting divorced, and I know you’ve been wanting this boat. They have a boat that they’re trying to get rid of. Cheap.” You may not be thinking about buying the boat this week, but all of a sudden, this boat that’s…whatever it is, it’s like 60% of what you were thinking you’re going to spend. All of a sudden, now that new discovery, your motivations may shift. You may actually start engaging and looking at something because you didn’t know that that was there. And that may be a more blatant example, but there’s all kinds of things that when new information presents itself, it causes us to think in a different way.
Jean: Right. And I think this is a good spot to make another plug for the strategy of niche marketing. Right, Wade? I know this is the way you go to market with your firms. So when you’re talking about really… So when you really know an industry and the challenges or opportunities within that industry, that gives practitioners more power to have those conversations and identify solutions with a prospect when you have that deep knowledge.
Wade: No question about it because it’s often in the nuances that it can be a subtle thing, very subtle thing. But you ask a question that just tells them, “You really understand me.” And that’s, I think, what people are wanting, is they want people to understand where they are. They don’t want to have to educate people on… I mean, they understand that there’s things that they’re going to have to tell them about their business, but, ultimately, they want someone who’s kind of been there and done that and maybe been in different circumstances than you’ve been in, and those nuances are where that falls. So, yes, that’s definitely where that discovery and those nuances of the niche come into play.
Jean: Yeah, I had to slip that in because big fan of niche marketing and I know you are too. So number three catalyst is dissatisfaction.
Wade: And I think everybody thinks about dissatisfaction. I mean, there’s like are they happy with their current provider, or are they happy with the results of the service that they’re receiving or in the way that the service is being delivered? And I’m not ignoring that issue because, yes, absolutely dissatisfaction from the standpoint of are you getting what you need and is it at the quality you want is part of that. But from a business development perspective, that’s a situation you may not be privy to. So, really, where I’m looking at this when we’re thinking proactively is, okay, when I’m going to be reaching out to a company to have another meeting to talk to them, think of it from the standpoint of what are the messes that I’m running into, that I’m having to clean up.
When I’m being called in, when I’m being referred in, when I’m finding out about a situation and a client or a prospect is dealing with a challenge that they that they don’t know how to resolve, those are dissatisfaction points that clearly if their existing provider would have addressed them, they wouldn’t be a dissatisfaction point at the present time. So I don’t ignore the fact of are you happy with how you’re being served, timely and all those, is the team right, is the chemistry right. That’s certainly a factor. But I don’t know that that’s the front door that I go through. I think more in terms of the services that were provided. What are the problems that they resolve? What are those messes that we end up coming to clean up? If they don’t address this… This kind of goes back to the whole SPIN selling concept of the “I” question of the implication. If you don’t resolve this, what is it going to mean for your business? And so that’s kind of the angle that you’re thinking about when you come into that approach.
Jean: Right. Right. And then, finally, the fourth catalyst you call the driver.
Wade: Yeah. When you look at the driver, the driven catalyst, really what we’re talking about are… I would say the first three catalysts I’ve mentioned, the desire, the discovery, the dissatisfaction, those are evergreen. In other words, I can sit down with a professional, I can sit down with a practice, whether let’s say it’s a SOC reporting practice or risk management, it doesn’t really matter, you can sit down, and you can pretty well start outlining reasons to have a conversation along the desire, along the discovery, along the satisfaction. Driven is different. That’s the non-evergreen piece. That is when you look out over the next 18 months, what are things that your client or prospect has to address or is going to be negligent if they don’t address? So it’s they have to or they should.
Now, the have-tos are pretty self-evident. I mean, if there’s an accounting law procedure change or if there’s a tax law change or something like that, regulatory compliance issue, hey, you’ve got a deadline that’s there, those are things that the client has to respond to or should respond to or they’re going to be putting themselves in a bad situation. So it’s looking out and, say, anticipating those things and bringing those topics of discussion up and before them. Now, for example, that’s a little subtle. I mean, everybody understands the regulatory change, the tax law changes, and the deadlines, and those kind of things. That’s pretty evident.
But when you start looking at other things like technology trends… I was with a firm at one point in time. I’m not going to name names to be [inaudible 00:16:03], but I was with a firm that was one of the slower ones to respond of a larger firm in terms of going paperless audit. And I know that’s going back ancient history ago. But the question is, did they have to go to paperless audit? Well, no, they really didn’t have to, but they would be left behind in the wake. And so, really, they needed to either way. And so when we look at the driven factor, it’s looking at those things that people have to address at the present time or those things that are trending either in the economy or technology or operations or even in the industry that they really should be looking at, even politically, that they should be looking at because they’re going to impact their business if they don’t.
And so when you look at this collectively, I call them the four catalysts because you want…catalysts cause a reaction. And that’s what we’re trying to do. We’re trying to cause a reaction to get people to shift slightly from that status quo to the, “Okay, maybe I need to look into this more. There’s no need to address it now, but maybe I need to look into this more.” That set it out to, hey, say, “Yes, let’s sit down and talk.” But we don’t know which one of those are going to trigger people. We don’t know which one of those things are going to catch their attention. And that’s fine. I mean, our goal with account development is to build consistency in that development effort. You know, one of the things… I mentioned the account development I feel is an Achilles heel. One of the reasons I feel that way is that, for it to be really effective, we need to be consistent.
Now, people go, “Okay, yeah, I got that, but good habits,” etc., etc. If you’re watching, I want you to think back to the kind of things that you’re doing in your firm. Some of the things that are the most profitable and beneficial for us in business development can actually become the most detrimental if we’re not careful. And I’ll give you an example. Referral-based development. Now, I don’t know a business developer who wouldn’t say, “I would rather receive a lead through a referral than another source,” because you’re going to have borrowed trust or, as I call it, borrowed trust, you’re going to have…you’re going to be further along in the decision process. Typically, that doesn’t mean you ignore the other pieces of that, but you’re going to be further along, and some of the barriers just are eliminated that are present otherwise.
However, referrals follow the marketplace. So when the economy is doing great, and our phone is ringing, and our email is blowing up, and we feel like, “Hey, capacity is our issue. We don’t need to worry about this business development stuff. Capacity is our issue,” account development completely goes by the wayside typically. And that consistency of making those outreaches doesn’t happen because we’re busy with everything else. Well, then, inevitably, the market turns. And things go the other direction. Well, referrals follow the market. So when the market turns, and the referrals dry up, and we’re not getting all these emails, we’re not getting all these phone calls, then what happens? We and every other firm that’s out there gets a little bit desperate, and then all of a sudden, lead generation becomes our big thing. And so we’re trying to start the ball rolling with no traction. If we are diligent in being consistent with our account development, and we’re meeting with these prospects, we’re meeting with our clients and our prospects two, three times a year, and we’re progressively going through the catalysts and exploring these issues, then if we’re reaching out, this is not starting a ball rolling, we’re just continuing what we’ve always done.
Jean: Right, right.
Wade: And that builds momentum.
Jean: Right, so I believe I read that you advise CPAs to possibly meet with their prospects six times a year. I can imagine the reactions that you get when you say that. So speak to that point.
Wade: Okay, well, it can be as much, and that’s on the high end, and that’s when you’re looking at your accounts and saying… Because I do believe in being very strategic in your business development. I mean, not every account deserves the same level of attention, and I don’t mean that from a standpoint of worthiness. I’m just talking about from the standpoint of you have to allocate your time appropriately. But if you’re having a strategic client account, things are changing. And so the six I would say was going to be more reserved for your key clients that you need to… It’s not just about coming in on a busy season and maybe once or twice a year. Yes, you can be careful in there because your competitors are going to be going in that account as well, and you want to be present when things are changing. But I think, for most accounts that we’re pursuing, it’s probably going to be more like three, maybe four times, maybe once a quarter that we’re trying to make an outreach, and that outreach doesn’t necessarily mean a meeting. It can mean a meeting, meaning we’re basically together. It can be a call, but the key is dialogue. And it’s a two-way exchange.
And that’s the distinction between what I would call account development and account nurturing, both of which are disciplines that are needed. So we understand or we use the term that marketing is a one-to-many discipline and sales is a one-to-one discipline. This is the same thing with nurturing and development. Nurturing is what I consider the marketing side of business development. It is when we’re making sure we’re sending things their way. Hey, it may be I forward an article to someone, “Hey, I saw this. I was thinking about you,” type of deal, or they’re on our email list, or we invite them to an event or those type of thing. That’s nurturing because we’re staying in front, but there’s no exchange. It’s just a one-way street. Development is two-way. We’re sharing things, we’re learning things, and it’s going back and forth from that standpoint. That can be over lunch, that can be on a call, that can be at a meeting, but that’s where I would say I think discipline to account development, you do need to invest those at a minimum twice but preferably three or four times a year with those accounts.
Jean: Okay. So what we’ve been talking about is all about developing relationships with prospects and building trust with these prospects. What are the best ways to build that trust?
Wade: You know, I think the first one, I’m just going to be very basic, I think, is being genuine. I had a team that I was selling for at another firm a number of years back. And we were having some pursuits with some pretty major corporations in the aerospace industry. And I was going into a town, and I had met with some of the companies in that town previously. And I actually had a pursuit going in one but not on another account. But I was going to be in town, and I said, “I mean just to check in. How are you doing?” and those types of things. And the way that meeting ended was really telling to me when I was getting ready to leave that person, and it luckily was a visit. I mean, because I knew there was no immediate opportunity. I had met with them three months or four months earlier. But at the end, she said, “Wait, I want to thank you for coming by.” Her comment was, “You don’t know how many people come by to see if there’s candy in the candy jar. And if there is no candy in the candy jar, I don’t see them again for two or three years. And then all of a sudden, they come to see if I’ve refilled my stock.”
But she knew I was there just because I wanted to build a relationship over time and that, whether they had a need now or not, I was ready to know where they were and share what’s going on. And so I think, with that trust, that genuine interest can’t be replaced by anything else. And you have to be consistent to make that happen. Now, there’s a lot of other pieces of the puzzle, and everybody’s sure read the Maister Trust Equation and all those types of things, credibility and intimacy over a low degree of self-interest and those types of things. And I don’t argue with any of those things, but I think that all of those things are embedded in that consistency of “I want to get to know you whether or not there’s an opportunity for me today,” which actually rolls into what I feel is important in business development.
Business development professionally in the way that we would want to do it, it’s not about simply growing your firm. And I know that that may be odd for someone who’s in sales leadership for a firm to say. My job with business development is to make sure that I help someone make the best decision possible. Now, if that’s my firm, great. I love that. But I’m in this to help my clients solve their problems and reach their goals. And so when I’m going through business development, that’s my objective. I want to make sure that I’m raising questions that may actually even hinder my opportunity in the process, but if that’s something that needs to be explored. And I think that all plays into that trust factor. People know whether you’re really out for their best interest or you’re out there for your best interest.
Jean: For your own, right? Oh, that’s an excellent point, right? Because that really demonstrates who you are as a person.
Wade: Right. And you’re [inaudible 00:26:07].
Jean: Right. Yeah, you’re not at it for all costs, like, “I’ve got to win, win, win, right, this deal regardless,” as opposed to, “What’s best for the prospect, and is my firm the best choice for that?”
Wade: Correct. Correct.
Jean: Yeah, I love that. What we’ve been talking about also to me brings up the importance of being able to ask good questions. What are your thoughts about note-taking, preparing questions? How do you guide CPAs in that area?
Wade: It’s funny you ask. I think we have to all recognize that, first of all, there’s a personality factor that gets involved. So we each have our own personality in our own bits. That said, we can all learn from each other, and we can all gain strength by stretching ourselves. I believe that the best part of the questioning process from that standpoint is, I mean, clearly, you’re going to be listening and following up and not just taking the first answer, but, honestly, is being as candid and as forthright as you can in the way that you ask questions. For example…and I’ve had some questions that I’ve suggested that people ask. I’ve had, point blank, some partners tell me, “I will never ask that question.” Let’s say we’re pursuing a business, and we’re not a Big Four firm, and we’re pursuing a client, and they’ve been served by Deloitte over the last 10 years. And before that, it was E&Y or something else, KPMG or whoever. And we’re in the suit of their audit. And we’re strong in the industry. We know we can do the work. We don’t have any questions on our capabilities. Otherwise, we should not be pursuing it. But that’s not the question.
I would go into that client, and I would say, “Listen, Jean, first of all, we very much appreciate the fact that you’re entertaining our firm as a provider for you, and we’re absolutely confident that hopefully we’ve been able to demonstrate our capability to serve you well. But I would like to ask you a question because I know that you’re being served by Deloitte now, and prior to that, you were served by another Big Four firm. So the last 15, 18 years, you’ve been with a Big Four. We’re not a Big Four. We’re not gonna be a Big Four in any kind of time period that’s gonna need. So I would imagine that you or a member of your board probably have concerns about going outside of the Big Four space. Could you talk with me about what those concerns are?” And people are…that’s the question they’re like, “I’m not going to ask that question.” Because it feels like you’re putting yourself in a bad light.
But the thing I look at is I think of it like a seesaw, okay? If the weight of evidence is already leaning in one favor, the fact that I do or do not ask a question does not change the seesaw. But if I ask the question, I might find things that I can…that they say, “Well, here’s the benefit of going with the Big Four.” And I might find that I can say, “Well, you know what, we also have that capability,” which kind of moves it a little bit. The other thing that we might find is that there may be a misunderstanding, and we can address that. Sometimes it’s not even a weight issue, it’s moving the fulcrum. So what I mean by that is like, “I know that one of the reasons that you’ve been with Deloitte for the last year is your objective to go public, but from our most recent conversations, that’s kind of off the table for the time being. So is there any reason why you’re wanting to continue to pay that premium that you’re paying in that mix at this point?”
So in that situation, it wasn’t really changing the weighting, it was changing the pivot point. I was like, “You know what, maybe that’s not the reason that you need to be basing your decision now.” So when you ask about questions, I tend to be very candid in my questions because I’m not worried about if they give me an answer that concludes that we’re not the right choice because, again, if we’re not the right choice, that’s fine. So I think that’s one big piece that I would point to that.
Jean: Right, okay. Now, you’re at a big firm. You have experience at big firms. Many of our listeners are with smaller firms, not all, but let’s…so I guess my second-to-last question would be, what advice do you have for practitioners at smaller firms who don’t have a BD director? It may be that they’re just doing a lot of this on their own. They may have marketers on board. But can you comment on all that we’ve been talking about up till now and how that impacts smaller firms differently or what should the practitioners at smaller firms really be focusing on?
Wade: So you’re right. Most of the companies that I’ve worked for as an employee have been larger firms. However, I did have a consulting practice where I worked with a lot of smaller firms. And so the nice thing is that the fundamentals don’t change. And so let’s take the catalyst that we were talking about earlier. What I would advise is look at your practice, whether you’re… You may be focused in the banking sector, you may be focused in ag, or you may have a risk management practice, or you do a lot of tax provision work, whatever it may be, it really doesn’t matter the focus your point. Get your team together. Think about your service and think about your clients and say, “Okay, first of all, we’re going to take some time, and we’re going to ask the questions, how does this that we serve change where our clients are strategically…” Put them in a different position operationally, financially, strategically, competitively, etc. “What are some of those things that we can do to help from that regard?”
There’s the desire. Sit there and think about, “What are the things that we’re frequently having to educate our clients on, are frequently having to educate prospects on? What are the questions we keep getting in this area?” and jot some of those things down. Sit down and say, “When we’re being called up and we’re having to clean up a mess, what are those types of messes we’re cleaning up, and what are some of those things that are involved on that? And then, lastly, if we look at the clients that we serve over the next 18 months, what do they need to be considering? I mean, what’s coming down the pike, either trend-wise or regulatory-wise, that they have to be responding to?” and consolidate this. A lot of times what I like to do is I like to ask each person to do that individually and then bring it in as a group because sometimes you get more answers that way, but I have not done that exercise. It’s a simple exercise, but I’ve not done that exercise where I have not ended up with at least two dozen reasons to have a conversation, and sometimes it’s even more.
Now, the next thing you have to do… Sometimes questions will come up. I remember one time someone said, “Well, we’re sick of the amount of regulation coming out of Washington.” Yeah, that’s an issue, but we can’t do anything about it. So you do need to look at those two dozen issues or 24 issues and say, “What do we do that helps with that?” But when you have that, you end up having this, for lack of better terms, of a cheat list of why to call, why to have that three to four, five to six meetings a year with that client, things that you can explore. And there’s other things that you can look at as things to explore, but that’s a very practical thing because one of the biggest problems is we put it on the calendar. We met with someone. “Okay, I need to get back with them again.” Hopefully, we’re actually putting that on the calendar. We may not be, but, hopefully, we’re putting it on the calendar.
But what happens if we don’t get specific, we just say, “Follow up with Chuck or follow up with Susan in May.” And so May comes around, we look at that to-do, and we’re like, “Well, what did we talk about last, or what are we going to talk about?” So when you get that cheat list, think through what was those last conversations. And when you put that calendar reminder, put in there, “Call Susan about and to talk about [inaudible 00:35:14].” It seems very basic, but I can guarantee you if you don’t put that, you’ll push it off to the next day, the next week, the next month. But if you have it, it’s just another thing you’ll get done, and you’ll be leading yourself into natural account development, even without even trying.
And that’s really not a firm size issue. That’s anyone, and the other beauty for our smaller firms is that list. Guess what? You’ve just come up with your reasons for articles, your reasons for blog posts, your reasons for web content, the things that may…different angles. Because it’s not just the breadth, it’s even the depth. So let’s take one issue like, let’s say, cybersecurity. You say, “Well, yes, I’ve already talked to my client about cybersecurity.” Well, have you talked to them about how cybersecurity could impact them positionally, strategically? Have you talked about the things that they need to learn about cybersecurity through discovery? Have you talked about the messes that come up if you don’t tackle this cybersecurity? Have you looked about the trends that are going on with cybersecurity? And it’s amazing how many different topics and approaches and angles that will come out of that that plays into your marketing, plays into your interaction, plays into your…if you give a talk to somewhere or something like that. And so it really will help you full circle along the way.
Jean: Right. So what I’m hearing is that this process can play with your current clients to begin, especially for those folks who don’t have a lot of experience in this area. And you’re implementing this process with someone who already knows you and trusts you, right? Because they’re clients. And then that can be extended to prospects and people that you don’t necessarily know. And the key, regardless of the size of the firm, is the consistency, which is a word you used very, very shortly into this [inaudible 00:37:25]. It needs to happen all the time.
Wade: Yeah, it’s funny. I was with a firm, and we were working with a branding agency. And one of the things that the branding agency said is, by the time the people in your firm are absolutely ready to vomit about hearing your brand, that’s about the time it’s starting to take off in the marketplace. So, yes, the word consistency maybe sounds like it gets into a rut, but it’s very, very vital to everything you’re doing in this whole process.
Jean: Wonderful. Okay, so I’d like to end with a bonus question.
Wade: Okay.
Jean: Okay, so you describe yourself as an avid musician. What is your favorite instrument to play and why?
Wade: I’m a guitarist, first of all, and I’ve been playing guitar for 45, 47 years or something like that. So I love playing guitar in really every style, every kind of music and 6-string, 12-string acoustic electric, all those kind of things. When I was even in high school, I taught myself piano from guitar. And so it kind of depends upon the mood. If I’m wanting to fight, I’ll pick up the guitar. If I need to settle down or calm down or just that kind of thing, I’ll try to find a place where there’s a piano and just sit down and play that. That’s kind of therapy for me.
Jean: Oh, I love that. I wish I had that skill, but I don’t. Well, we’ve been talking today with Wade Clark, associate director of sales programs at Moss Adams and author of “Simplifying Complex Sales.” Thank you, Wade, for sharing your expertise with us today.