Here’s what you’re looking for: August J. Aquila

There are five steps and you can’t skip ahead.

By August Aquila
MAX: Maximize Productivity, Profitability and Client Retention

For a long time, the word “sales” was not an accepted word in accounting firms. Unfortunately, too many accountants associated sales work with some type of unprofessional and even unethical activity. Fortunately, those days are long gone.

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The word “sales” is not a four-letter word; it is a professional activity. People who sell make a promise of some future deliverable: “I will do this and this for you.” In turbulent times, selling is a skill that accountants must learn to be successful. Here is my definition of selling: “Selling is problem solving.” Nothing more and nothing less. It’s what you do every time you help a client with a problem. If you have been a successful new business developer, then you have been a successful salesperson.
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Plus a quick quiz about your marketing.

By August Aquila
MAX: Maximize Productivity, Profitability and Client Retention

Some firms go from one marketing activity to another without much success. The firms that are successful do the basics very well. Like any athlete in spring training, accountants and consultants need to practice the basics of building their practices.

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Here are the basics:

1. Creating opportunities to meet people

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Which segment will you target?

By August Aquila
MAX: Maximize Productivity, Profitability and Client Retention

We’ve discussed marketing audits. Once we have some firmwide objectives, we need to select strategies. There are many ways to accomplish something, and it is necessary to select how you are going to go about doing it.

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Let’s look at four different strategies.

1. Cost Reduction. As new forms of technology and artificial intelligence enter the workplace, it is increasingly possible to achieve a competitive advantage by using them to reduce the cost-of-service delivery. Tax processing software is a common example that firms have used over the last 20 years. AI could help firms reduce costs in multiple areas of the firm, from tax research to improving processes.

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The good news? You can do this yourself.

By August Aquila
MAX: Maximize Productivity, Profitability and Client Retention

Great marketing tactics can take time, money and a great deal of sweat to plan and execute. CPAs who appreciate the power of marketing are frequently anxious to jump right into the implementation process without doing any planning. But do they really know what the marketplace wants from them? Sometimes gut feelings are right, but few firms can afford to act on intuition alone.

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Investing marketing dollars with confidence requires a thorough understanding of your practice, its people, the marketplace and your competitors. An audit-based marketing plan lets you do just that. This article provides both the theoretical and practical knowledge needed to perform a marketing audit, then develop marketing objectives.
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Three simple principles.

By August Aquila
MAX: Maximize Productivity, Profitability and Client Retention

No matter how good your marketing tools are, there is one tool that needs to be especially sharp, and that is your salesmanship. All the other marketing tools we have mentioned will be of little value if you don’t know how to “ask for the business.”

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You need to understand the selling and buying cycles. They are critical for your success.
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