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Bissett Bullet: Rapport Is The Ultimate Tool

Today’s Bissett Bullet: “How easy or difficult it is for an accountant to write a powerful proposal document is often dependent on how well the initial meeting with the prospective client went.”

By Martin Bissett

If I had a penny for every time somebody had reported a new business meeting they had attended and said to me, “Martin, you don’t understand, there was just no client need. I’m not sure why I was there, I could see no opportunity.” All these three phrases are code for “I did not find the need,” “I did not create strong empathy and rapport,” “I did not put together a compelling commercial argument for that business to work with our accounting firm.”

If this is true of your client meeting, you will find a proposal very difficult to write because you will be competing on the fronts of price, geography and likeability rather than a return on investment, which is the front we should be fighting on.

Today’s To-Do:

When reviewing your next quote or proposal document read it from the client’s perspective before you present it to them and see if YOU would buy from you. If not, can you identify an opportunity you missed to build rapport? Bear it in mind for the future.

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MARKETING & SALES

Why You Might Struggle with Selling

Businessman with head in hands

Accountants need to reframe their thinking.

By Martin Bissett
Business Development on a Budget

Let’s take a look at the last 20-plus 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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MARKETING & SALES

Follow the Laws of Client Attraction

Whose needs are you focused on?

By Martin Bissett
Business Development on a Budget

Let’s start with two simple definitions to avoid any confusion:

  1. The purpose of marketing is to create the opportunity.
  2. The purpose of business development (sales) is to convert that opportunity into a paying client.

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When we meet with prospective clients – and I say this as someone who has sat in on many hundreds of meetings of this nature – we rarely give potential clients a reason to buy from us that they care about.
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MARKETING & SALES

Reframe Your Thinking about Selling

Businessman with head in hands

Four reasons some accountants find it difficult.

By Martin Bissett
Business Development on a Budget

Let’s take a look at the last 20-plus 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.

MORE by Martin Bissett
GoProCPA.comExclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

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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ABOUT US

Bissett Bullet: Find Common Ground

Today’s Bissett Bullet: “When it comes to meeting with a prospective client for the first time, there is only one way to approach the conversation. As a fellow business owner and human being.”

By Martin Bissett

Your prospect is a business owner, just like you. They have cash flow problems and sleepless nights and clients to service, just like you. This meeting with them is, after all, simply a human interaction between two people. So, be you. Be sincere, be genuine, be empathetic. If you are interested in them and aim to serve them, not to sell to them, then that will resonate and they will reciprocate by opening up and giving you the information you need to find the right solution for their business.

Today’s To-Do:

Prepare a more informal agenda for your next meeting. Have questions that you know you need to ask and the means to record the answers to those questions but remember that a more natural, relaxed interaction will build better rapport.

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MARKETING & SALES

It’s Not Selling, It’s Service

Have you thought about what you’re building?

By Martin Bissett
Business Development on a Budget

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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ABOUT US

Bissett Bullet: Expertise Is Too Valuable to be Given Away for Free

Today’s Bissett Bullet: “When we can listen to our prospective client’s issues without giving away all the answers in our replies, we’ve got a chance of winning work.”

By Martin Bissett

It’s one of the hardest things to do in a professional selling situation. We want to oust the current accountant, we want to explain why we are a better choice and we want to demonstrate that we can solve their problems, but loyalty is a demanding mistress.

In the same way that our proposal should include the “what” not the “how,” we must appreciate that when we tell our prospective clients how to go about fixing their issues before we have their signature on a payment plan, we’re simply encouraging them to go back to their existing accountants and save themselves the pain of change.

Today’s To-Do:

Practice advising the prospective client “what” can be done to help them but not “how.”

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MARKETING & SALES

Get Your Personal House in Order

Eight questions to ask yourself.

By Martin Bissett
Winning Your First Client

You know the identity of your first client, and if you buy into you, then there’s a good chance of potential clients being prepared to do so, too.

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This is what we must remember about the purchasing of professional services such as accounting. If your prospective client is a Grade A or B style opportunity for your firm, then they are not buying the services you provide per se. The services are the vehicles of delivery; the means to the end.

The client is buying the relationship, and they are asking themselves:
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ABOUT US

Bissett Bullet: Who Should I Say is Calling?

Today’s Bissett Bullet: “Imagine you’re a business owner and you’ve just had a meeting with an accounting firm. The meeting went really well; in fact they made a very positive first impression and you are seriously considering leaving your current accountant to work with them. You did forget to ask something, so you make a quick call to their office … and nobody knows who you are.”

By Martin Bissett

You could be forgiven for feeling a little deflated. Now imagine you called and instead were greeted by a member of their support team who not only knew exactly who you are but had been instructed to put you straight through should you happen to call.

This is a very easy and effective way to make prospective clients feel valued, prioritized and ingrained in your firm’s culture but simple though it is, your competitors will not do it. Stand out by making sure that clients are handled in this way by your firm.

Today’s To-Do:

Diarize time after a meeting or set aside time each week to brief support staff on all prospective clients.

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MARKETING & SALES

Believe in Yourself to Sell

young businesswoman looking in mirror

Perception, even your own, is reality.

By Martin Bissett
 Business Development on a Budget

“No man has the ability to step outside of the shadow of his own character.” – Robespierre

As far as our potential clients are concerned, how they perceive us is how we really are to them, regardless of the truth of the matter.

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Because of this, it’s important to realize that when we are meeting a new potential client who has not been referred to us, it does not matter what the reality of our value proposition is; it matters how that potential client perceives our value proposition. Therefore, to be effective in winning work, we must understand how we can positively influence their perception of us at each stage of the relationship-building process.
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MARKETING & SALES

Personal Accountability Moves You Forward

Young man facing image of himself

Eight questions to ask yourself.

By Martin Bissett
Business Development on a Budget

The secret to overcoming failure to correctly implement a successful business development strategy is by “winning your first client” and this starts by being accountable to someone for your performance.

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Now that “someone” may be your fellow partners in the firm. If you are a senior manager, that may be the partner to whom you report.
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ABOUT US

Bissett Bullet: There’s No ‘I’ in Team

Today’s Bissett Bullet: “All it takes for an accounting practice to stagnate is capable, talented partners to take up a position of ‘my clients,’ ‘my fees.’”

By Martin Bissett

How often have we heard about a multipartner practice simply being a selection of sole practitioners operating under a common brand? So many accounting firms operate from silos, never really looking above to see what is going on anywhere else. So, as soon as it becomes “my clients and my fees” rather than “our clients, the firm’s fees,” then you can be sure the practice is on a slow steady decline.

Today’s To-Do:

If you ever catch yourself or one of your colleagues talking about “my clients, my fees,” remind them that they are a “partner in a practice” and that they are working for the good of the whole, not solely the good of the individual.

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PRO Member Exclusive

Why Do You Want to Be Partner?

Businesswoman sitting on table while talking with four coworkers

Our expert council weighs in on preparation.

By Martin Bissett
Passport to Partnership

The skill in producing financial reports is limited by the quality of the information presented to the CPA by the client. The motivation of the client to influence that financial information comes in many forms, some intentional and some unintentional. Competence comes first in being able to resist pressure and present a true and accurate position of the client’s organization.

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Sounds obvious, doesn’t it? But there’s a twist.
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