MARKETING & SALES

Bissett Bullet: Rapport Is The Ultimate Tool

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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.

See more Bissett Bullets here

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Seven Questions for Making Your Practice Better

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Older businesswoman pondering, seated by window

If you’re not the best, what are you?

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

There is only one person who can make your practice better. That person is you if you are a sole practitioner. If you are a multipartner firm, then it’s up to all the partners and senior staff. Let’s explore how you get your firm to the next level.

MORE by August J. Aquila
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Do you tolerate mediocrity? Tolerating mediocrity is the death of many good firms. Whenever and wherever you see it in your firm, stamp it out fast. Here are some questions to ask yourself and your partners to see if you are hanging on to what’s comfortable rather than stretching yourself and your partners to truly excel.
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Why You Might Struggle with Selling

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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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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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Follow the Laws of Client Attraction

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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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GoProCPA.comExclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

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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Green: Why Clients Quit You | Big 4 Transparency

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The number one complaint isn’t pricing. It’s confusion.

This is a preview. The complete video episode, with commentary and transcript, is first available exclusively to PRO Members | Go PRO here
Sponsored by Poe Group Advisors: Helping accountants buy, build, and sell exceptional firms. See Today’s Special Offer

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Poe Group Advisors consistently excels in helping our clients find the right accounting practice sales opportunity.
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Big 4 Transparency
By Dominic Piscopo, CPA
For CPA Trendlines

For many business owners, finding the right accountant feels like an impossible task. You’re trusting someone with your finances, your future, and sometimes even your peace of mind. But in an industry dominated by word-of-mouth and vague Google listings, Sam’s List has emerged as a game-changing alternative: a review-based directory for CPAs, bookkeepers, fractional CFOs, and financial advisors, designed to make trust and transparency easier for everyone. 

MORE Dominic Piscopo | MORE Private Equity | MORE Pay & Compensation

In this episode of Big 4 Transparency, host Dominic Piscopo speaks with co-founder Kimi Green, who shares the wild story of how the viral idea from entrepreneur Sam Parr (of My First Million) turned into a thriving lead-generation platform – and how she found herself leading it with no prior experience in accounting. “I despised accounting,” Green laughs. “I didn’t even ask follow-up questions when someone told me they were a CPA.” 

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Get Your Personal House in Order

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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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GoProCPA.comExclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

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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