Six Techniques for Acquiring New Clients

man displaying emails on computer screen

Don’t be afraid of giving too much information away.

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

A good marketing program never stops marketing the firm. You must always think about acquiring new clients to replace lost ones and to improve the quality of your client base. It’s a fact of life that some clients will move, go out of business, merge or even leave us for another firm.

MORE by August J. Aquila
GoProCPA.comExclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

 

Let’s look at some basic client acquisition activities that should be part of your marketing plan. You may be asking yourself, “Which ones work?” They all do. The secret of business development is to constantly be in the marketplace because you never know when a prospect is ready to buy from you or to move from their existing accounting firm.
READ MORE →

What Will You Get from Your Marketing? Make Sure You Know

woman holding tablet and smiling, talking to man at trade show

How to maximize three activities.

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

I once knew a firm that was spending a significant amount of money on marketing and was experiencing little or no growth. They could not understand what was going wrong. They tried all sorts of marketing activities. They presented webinars, sent out a client newsletter, did some advertising and public relations, and so on.

MORE by August J. Aquila
GoProCPA.comExclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

 

The problem was that this firm did not know what to expect from their marketing activities. Sometimes they wanted clients immediately, and when that did not happen, they then tried another marketing activity, never staying with an activity long enough to see results. The moral of the story is that marketing takes time to produce results, and if you are not patient, it can eat up your hard-earned dollars and time.
READ MORE →

Ten Key Questions for a Successful Marketing Plan

Don’t waste your efforts by shortchanging your planning.

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

The main reason most marketing programs don’t work is that not enough time is spent up front in the planning stage. Marketing, like anything else, takes careful planning as well as execution.

MORE by August J. Aquila
GoProCPA.comExclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

 

I’m going to propose 10 key questions that you need to answer before embarking on your next marketing program.

  1. What one purpose do you want to accomplish? Too often, accountants begin a marketing program without really knowing what they want to accomplish. Sometimes there are so many things they want to do that it becomes unrealistic to achieve all of them. The result is confusion and dissatisfaction.

READ MORE →

The Sales Cycle and What You Need to Know

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.

MORE by August J. Aquila
GoProCPA.comExclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

 

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.
READ MORE →

Five Practice Building Basics Revealed

two men standing and shaking hands

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.

MORE by August J. Aquila
GoProCPA.comExclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

 

Here are the basics:

  1. Creating opportunities to meet people

READ MORE →