MARKETING & SALES

Does everyone have the same vision?

By August J. Aquila
Price It Right: How to Value Accounting Services

I have discussed some of the issues behind developing an effective website. If your partners can’t agree on the overall points of the website, it merely means that there are different visions for the firm within the firm. The best way to overcome this obstacle is to conduct a self-analysis.

MORE: What Makes a Great Website? | Losing Can Help You Win More | Eight Areas to Cover for Personal Goals | Service Quality: The Key to Client Retention | How Life Cycle Changes Your Marketing | Clients Buy Solutions, Not Features | Make Sure You Know What You Will Get from Your Marketing | Three Pillars Support a Successful Accounting Firm | Clients Have Six Reasons for Needing You | Six Ways to Market Your Technology Consulting Practice | Sixteen Marketing Activities to Try | The Four Steps of Your Personal Marketing Process
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You can use the following questions at a firm retreat. Hand out the questions to the retreat participants prior to the meeting. Ask the retreat participants to write out the answer to each question. Then have open discussions about the questions and their answers, and try to come to some agreement. Here are the questions:
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Today’s Bissett Bullet: “A pipeline is essentially a list of people we would like to bring value to, but how can we use it to forecast new business?”

By Martin Bissett

How can you tell which of your potential clients are really looking to work with you and which are wasting your time?

Introducing the A.C.C.O.U.N.T.S system. Grading your prospects using a binary scoring choice – 0 for no, 10 for yes – to each of the following criteria will help you to determine who will want to work with you and who may just be comparing prices.

Answer – Can we solve their problems?
10 = yes, 0 = no

Cash – Can they afford us?
10 = yes, 0 = no

Convince – Do we need to convince anyone else in the business?
10 = yes, 0 = no

Objections – Are there any major objections unresolved?
10 = yes, 0 = no

Undertake – Is this work we actually want?
10 = yes, 0 = no

Necessity – Do THEY feel the need/urgency for change?
10 = yes, 0 = no

Timing – Is the next meeting date in the diary?
10 = yes, 0 = no

Signatory – Does your proposal need someone else to sign it off?
10 = yes, 0 = no

The higher your score, the more likely you will win the work. Got 6 yeses? There’s a 60 percent chance you will win the work. Now, what do you need to do to change the 0s to 10s?

Today’s To-Do:

Start to grade your pipeline against the A.C.C.O.U.N.T.S. system to help you prioritize your efforts and forecast new business in any given week or month.

See more Bissett Bullets here

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You have to believe in yourself.

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.

MORE: Eight Questions That Target Personal Accountability | How to Prepare for Partnership | Five Questions to Help Forecast Your Firm Growth | Do You Deliver on Your Website’s Promises? | Five Questions About Facing Challenges | Be Clear About Your ROI Proposition | 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
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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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Today’s Bissett Bullet: “So many judgments are made of us as accountants by prospective clients, sometimes even before we open our mouths.”

By Martin Bissett

Conclusions made about you by a potential client may be drawn from nothing more than the car you arrive in, for example, and that can be tricky. If the car is deemed too basic, the assumption will be that you’re not as successful as you say. Too flashy a car, however, and the inference will be that you’re splashing your client’s cash – “No wonder she charges us so much, we’re funding her lifestyle!” It’s a hard one to get right but as a rule, the aim is to project prosperity, not opulence.

It is important to present as professional an image as possible. In addition to clean, well pressed clothes and fresh breath, taking out an up-to-date laptop, using the latest phone and taking notes with a good quality pen are all external indicators of who and what you are and what it would be like to work with you.

Today’s To-Do:

Make sure that everything about your appearance is as professional as it could possibly be in order to create the right first impression with any potential clients.

See more Bissett Bullets here

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