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

Are you genuinely interested in your prospects?

By Martin Bissett
Winning Your First Client

It’s about time to realize that value is not about time.

When I look back on the research that has been conducted by various groups as to the biggest obstacles accounting firms cite to growing their practice,

• 50 percent said creating opportunities,
• 25 percent said knowing how to close deals
• and the remainder said having self-confidence in presenting and then being able to positively differentiate from their competition.

Let’s not sell, let’s attract.

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Today’s Bissett Bullet: “Very few business owners highly value compliance work. It is often viewed as a necessary evil and as such, the decision to change accountants for this sort of work will, more often than not, be driven by price.”

By Martin Bissett

Quantify, in monetary terms, what they earned during the time you freed up for them by completing that compliance work, however, and compliance suddenly becomes valuable.

What sales have your clients made in the time that you have saved them over the last 12 months? Justify your fee in terms of their return on investment and help them to understand why they need to change to your firm as a matter of urgency.

Today’s To-Do:

Who are you meeting to discuss compliance work? Find a client of a similar size and have the figure that you saved them at the ready.

See more Bissett Bullets here

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Focus on your client’s concerns, not yours.

By Martin Bissett
Winning Your First Client

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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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.

See more Bissett Bullets here

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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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