Bissett Bullet: Why Do You Do What You Do?

Today’s Bissett Bullet: “In accounting, our impact on businesses, lives and futures is substantial. We need to pull people into that knowledge to attract them.”

By Martin Bissett

If I were to visit your website today, how many stories would I find about how you helped businesses? Really? That many? That’s what I thought. We need to communicate the “why” of what we do far more than the “what” of what we do.

Today’s To-Do:

Take a look at your website today. How many client stories can be found on it? For many firms this is zero. Look to improve that by one, today.

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Four Obstacles to Selling for Accountants

Businessman with head in hands

A detailed and historic look.

By Martin Bissett
Winning Your First Client

Let’s take a look at the last 20 years of my experience and my research as to where new clients come from in an accounting practice. I don’t think there are going to be too many shocks here.

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What I’ve found is that 82 percent of all new clients in a given year who come into an accounting firm come in from a referral source. This may be a bank or a lawyer or some other source, perhaps an existing client, who has recommended that a particular business meet with your firm and come on board as a client.
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Bissett Bullet: Could You Do More?

Today’s Bissett Bullet: “When marketing delivers us new prospect meetings, each interaction that prospect has with us influences them for or against using us.”

By Martin Bissett

New business meetings can be like gold dust given the amount of competition we are up against and they are too lightly treated by too many firms. Understand that the response that they get from us by email, the response that a prospect gets from us when they call us, the response they get from us when they see us, all influence their decision-making process. We need to ensure that every “touch” we have with a potential prospect is a positive one that puts another weight on our side of the scales.

Today’s To-Do:

Today review the number of interactions that we have with a new potential client from the first time they inquire to when we sign them up. Is there anything more that we can do to make them feel welcomed into the practice?

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Stop Calling It Selling

How to reframe that word accountants dislike.

By Martin Bissett
Winning Your First Client

Being a successful person according to your own measurement of that, and your own goals and your own standards is different for everyone.

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If you’re comfortable with yourself, it’s very likely that others will be too. If you understand the value that you offer (how you can improve a client’s situation to move them closer toward their personal and professional aspirations), you’re likely to be able to convey that value in front of a prospect.
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Bissett Bullet: Give Your Clients a Commercial Hug

Today’s Bissett Bullet: “How are your clients, really?”

By Martin Bissett

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, accounting firms all over the world went into reactive mode. They adapted, they got their own houses in order – which is an entirely appropriate response to an unprecedented crisis – and then those who really cared reached out to their clients. They called them on a regular basis just to see how they were faring.

This should be something you do routinely in the interests of relationship building. Call your clients, no charge, no sell, no angle, just a commercial hug. Ask how they are, if they need anything and offer your help. That may be in the form of expertise, of monetized help or of goodwill, that is at your discretion; but cement that relationship by showing you care after their signature has dried on the original contract.

Today’s To-Do:

Start with your biggest or most vulnerable clients. Diarize one call a day starting today; pick up the phone and add value.

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