MARKETING & SALES

Leah Yoneda: Future Partners Need More Than a Networking Script | MOVE Like This

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Sustainable growth comes from cultivating trust over time—not collecting contacts, memorizing sales scripts or forcing professionals into uncomfortable networking routines.

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Optimize Profits, Delight Clients, & Build a Top-Value Firm!

MOVE Like This
With Bonnie Buol Ruszczyk
For CPA Trendlines Research

In this episode of MOVE Like This, Bonnie Buol Ruszczyk sits down with Leah Yoneda, founder and CEO of Golden Ginkgo Group, to explore why so many talented accounting professionals struggle with business development and why the problem often has less to do with personality than with how firms define, teach, and reward growth.

Yoneda argues that firms frequently wait until professionals are on the doorstep of partnership before introducing business development, then expect them to master an entirely different skill set with little guidance or support.

MORE MOVE Like This | MORE CPA Trendlines Streaming Network

Rather than treating relationship building as a long-term professional competency, many firms reduce it to a one-time training session or a list of networking tactics. She believes this approach sets professionals up for unnecessary stress and overlooks the fact that meaningful business development takes years to develop.

A significant portion of the conversation focuses on introversion and the misconceptions surrounding it.

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Analyze Your Firm to Keep It Current

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Six people seated at table for a business meeting, with another six people visible on videoconference screen

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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Bissett Bullet: A.C.C.O.U.N.T.S.

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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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