Martin Bissett, Author at CPA Trendlines

Keep Business Development Going During Busy Season

Consistency is key.

By Martin Bissett
Business Development on a Budget

You may be asking yourself how you will know when you are successful in your selling efforts. Many people have asked me that, but it’s the wrong question because firms have different goals.

MORE: Health, Wealth, Stealth: Challenges on the Path to Partnership | It’s Time to Prepare the Next Generation | Who Are You More Committed to, Your Firm or Your Clients? | Nine Checkpoints Before Every Prospect Meeting | Three Questions about Conversion | Six Keys to Turning Prospects into Clients | Don’t Overlook Internal Communication | Four Reasons People Struggle with Communication | Why Firm Culture Matters for Partners | Competence Is Step One of Seven | Three Things That Rich Accountants Do
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Some want to simply tick over and replace the clients they lose, some want to grow exponentially, some want steady and consistent growth they can measure and monitor. So there is no one definition of success. But no matter what yours is, you will never attain it if you are inconsistent in your process of winning new business.
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Bissett Bullet: Do I Know You?

Today’s Bissett Bullet: “What is your LinkedIn connection strategy? Do you have one?”

By Martin Bissett

A vast number of connections on your LinkedIn profile page may look impressive but there is a compelling argument for knowing at least the vast majority of your LinkedIn contacts personally.

There will of course be people connected to you that you have never met in person. You may have worked with them remotely, may have presented with them on a virtual panel or you may have engaged with their content and identified them as somebody with whom you could build a mutually beneficial relationship; but there IS a genuine connection there.

Your LinkedIn network is a potentially valuable referral source and time spent nurturing those relationships is time well spent. The better the relationship you have with your connections, the more likely they are to champion your firm when someone in their network is in need of a recommendation.

Today’s To-Do:

Take a look at your strategy moving forward. Start to be more selective about who you connect with and prioritize people you know, would like to work with or who can introduce you to your ideal clients.

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Health, Wealth, Stealth: Challenges on the Path to Partnership

And why we need them.

By Martin Bissett
Passport to Partnership

Now we move on to our sixth “C” in the passport to partnership – challenges.

Again the heading has more than a single application, which we’ll explore here.

MORE: It’s Time to Prepare the Next Generation | Walk the Commitment Walk | Two Steps Toward Mastering Selling | Thirteen Ways to Show Commitment | Clients Can’t Grow without You | Seven Mistakes in Winning New Fees | How to Develop Your Communication Abilities | Five Questions for Measuring Partner Potential | Five Ways to Rally Your Firm to Its Culture | When Would-Be Partners Aren’t Candidates | Make Your Expertise a New-Client Magnet
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Ultimately, the partners interviewed in our research broke “challenges” down into two key areas:

The ability for a manager to pull the firm out of the mire when there’s a problem
The ability for a manager to pull the client out of the mire when there’s a problem

MANAGEMENT

It’s Time to Prepare the Next Generation

They’ll learn from someone. Shouldn’t it be you?

By Martin Bissett
Business Development On a Budget

If you are a partner in your firm, you may already have asked yourself the all-important question: how can I successfully retire and have someone else take over the firm?

MORE: Walk the Commitment Walk | Don’t Let Recurring Fees Kill Your Practice | Rate Your Personal Purpose | Six Keys to Getting a Proposal Accepted | Tell the World Your Worth | Four Surprising Keys to Communication | 10 Can’t-Skip Steps for Business Development | Attract Clients, Don’t Chase Them | Success in Business Comes Second | Business Won’t Come to You | Forged in Fire: The Pains of Leadership | 10 Questions for Reconsidering Your Prices
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The partner who has a satisfactory answer to that question is the one who is committed not only to developing business and building the firm on a regular basis, but also to developing and preparing the next generation of professionals in the firm.
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Bissett Bullet: Speaking Their Language

Today’s Bissett Bullet: “Identifying an ideal client and sharing a definition of that ideal client internally is only worthwhile if it is consistent with and supported by your marketing.”

By Martin Bissett

Your firm’s messaging must speak to the needs of your ideal client, do so in their language and demonstrate exactly why you are best placed to help them.

Without educating the general market as to what you offer and how you have helped similar businesses – communicating that through social media posting, the firm’s website or other means of advertising – you are relying purely on the market’s perception of an accounting firm to dictate whether they reach out to you or not.

Today’s To-Do:

Ask a friend or family member to look at your website and social media. Ask them based on what they see there, what it is that they think you do for your clients. If they get it right, your messaging is on the money. If they don’t, the assumptions that they made are likely to be the same ones that your prospective clients are making.

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PRO Member Exclusive

Walk the Commitment Walk

Five ways to show it.

By Martin Bissett
Passport to Partnership

There’s no doubt that consistent commitment is not as widely practiced as current partners of accounting firms might like to think.

MORE: Don’t Let Recurring Fees Kill Your Practice | Who Are You More Committed to, Your Firm or Your Clients? | Nine Checkpoints Before Every Prospect Meeting | Three Questions about Conversion | Six Keys to Turning Prospects into Clients | Don’t Overlook Internal Communication | Four Reasons People Struggle with Communication | Why Firm Culture Matters for Partners
Exclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

Business success is built on a dedicated team with a shared vision giving their all for the realization of that vision and the development of the next one.
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Bissett Bullet: Remember The Golden Rule

Today’s Bissett Bullet: “Please do not talk to your clients and prospects about services but rather the achievement of their desired objectives and outcomes.”

By Martin Bissett

Despite us having discussed this subject earlier on, nevertheless you will already have forgotten about it because it takes time to form a habit. Remember the golden rule. People buy outcomes and people buy you. Is your approach from a personal meeting perspective and a firmwide marketing perspective, demonstrating that you are the right person to work with and that you are focused on creating outcomes that they want to see realized?

Today’s To-Do:

If your website talks more about your services than it does about your results, change it today.

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Bissett Bullet: The Next Level of Advisory

Today’s Bissett Bullet: “If Advisory Stage One is client care then Advisory Stage Two is simply about providing the basics. By doing so, you help your clients to take control of their current situation and their future – today!”

By Martin Bissett

Advisory is about helping your client to provide for both worst-case and best-case scenarios with the knowledge, skills and experience that you have. Support them with budgeting, tax planning, financial forecasting, management reporting and so on.

Remember to charge them appropriately for your advice, knowledge and skills.

Today’s To-Do:

Are you supporting all of your clients in this way? Who among them presents an opportunity for fee growth? Arrange a meeting with them.

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Martin Bissett

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Martin Bissett is the author of

Never Mind the Bullets, the 366-day year-long daily email subscription providing guidance and inspiration for practicing professionals. | Learn more
Winning Your First Client,
Passport to Partnership, and
Meet Your New Best Client

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He is the founder of The Upward Spiral Partnership Ltd., the UK-based consulting firm that specializes in the implementation of professional selling and leadership skills in the next generation of accounting professionals.

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Previously, Martin served ten years on the board of directors of the UK’s leading provider of high-quality new business appointments for accountancy firms. There, he held the responsibility for the nurture and organic growth of the organization’s new client base, including six of the UK’s top 30 firms of accountants.

Martin became fascinated by the apparent juxtaposition of partners not vocalizing what they were looking for in terms of an accomplished skill set from their potential future partners and their managers not asking to discover what that skill set included, despite wanting to reach that very position. In a profession with a supposed “Succession Crisis” on the horizon, this apparent stand-off struck him as curious.

This has led Upward Spiral Partnership to personally interview several hundred partners and managers in the US and UK to learn what partners are looking for and how the managers see their own future in the firm. There are, of course, firms that have addressed this issue already, and their initiatives have also been captured.

The results of the research, including both the consensus and the exceptions to the general opinion, is called “Passport to Partnership.” This study provides the highlights of each factor that the majority of partners interviewed use as their criteria when evaluating whether someone in their organization can make it to the top.

As a result of the combination of his experience, intellectual property, and this proprietary research, Martin now consults with accounting firms in the UK, Europe, and the USA to support them in their transition through to the next stage of their development and growth.

Here’s what you’re looking for: Martin Bissett

Today’s Bissett Bullet: “What is your LinkedIn connection strategy? Do you have one?”

Today’s Bissett Bullet: “Identifying an ideal client and sharing a definition of that ideal client internally is only worthwhile if it is consistent with and supported by your marketing.”

Your firm’s messaging must speak to the needs of your ideal client, do so in their language and demonstrate exactly why you are best placed to help them.

Today’s To-Do:

Today’s Bissett Bullet: “Please do not talk to your clients and prospects about services but rather the achievement of their desired objectives and outcomes.”

Today’s To-Do:

If your website talks more about your services than it does about your results, change it today.

Today’s Bissett Bullet: “If Advisory Stage One is client care then Advisory Stage Two is simply about providing the basics. By doing so, you help your clients to take control of their current situation and their future – today!”

Advisory is about helping your client to provide for both worst-case and best-case scenarios with the knowledge, skills and experience that you have. Support them with budgeting, tax planning, financial forecasting, management reporting and so on.

Today’s To-Do:

Are you supporting all of your clients in this way? Who among them presents an opportunity for fee growth? Arrange a meeting with them.