MARKETING & SALES

Today’s Bissett Bullet: “If you are not seeing growth in your firm, there is only so long that you can stand back and wait before you must take control of your own destiny.”

By Martin Bissett

What are you doing to return to growth? Is your pipeline in place and are you having conversations with prospective new clients? Are you known for what you do and are you asking your clients for those stories about the outcomes you have created for them so that you can leverage them to bring you new business?

Today’s To-Do:

Adopt a return-to-growth attitude. Which of the above could you do better in order to create new opportunities for your business?

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Today’s Bissett Bullet: “Your proposal document is what will differentiate you from the competition and show why that business should break away from their current accountant. To do so, it must speak to them on a level they understand.”

By Martin Bissett

Most proposal documents focus on one area. The accountancy firm, the services on offer and their associated cost. You must operate to a higher standard than that.

Your proposal must tell the prospective client’s story. What their obstacles have been, their major business goals and what the opportunities now are, as you see them.

It must demonstrate that you are a better option than they currently have, because you are invested in their goals and are in the business of achieving them by removing their obstacles and maximizing their opportunities.

Today’s To-Do:

Take a proposal of yours that has yet to be sent and review it. Does it fit the description above of a higher standard of proposal document? If not, there is still time. Reflect on the notes you took at the first meeting and use them to update it.

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Today’s Bissett Bullet: “Business owners are busy people. If they already have an accounting firm and have asked or agreed to spend time meeting with you, you can safely assume they’re open to change. Don’t lose momentum.”

By Martin Bissett

Picture this scenario. You’ve met with a potential client and it’s gone well. They may have given you a tour of their offices, you’ve talked through their issues and you know you can help them but the meeting has reached its natural conclusion and this is when you say goodbye and promise to send a proposal. Don’t do that.

Instead, tell them that you have identified several ways in which you can help them and need to put some thought into the best solution. Suggest the second meeting for a date that gives you sufficient time to prepare your proposal. If they are resistant to meeting again when they’ve been willing to invest time into speaking with you, then that should be a red flag that something has gone wrong during your meeting.

Today’s To-Do:

There is a very real possibility that the above approach will be met with a request for your proposal to be emailed. Practice doing the following so that it feels natural when you next have a conversation with a potential new client:

Ask who else in the business is involved in the decision to hire another accounting firm and when would be convenient to get everyone involved in the process in a room so you can share your thoughts with them all and give everyone a feel for what it would be like to work together.

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Today’s Bissett Bullet: Partner: “We tried this before and it didn’t work.”
MB: “Based on your analysis of that project, why didn’t it work?”
*silence*
Partner: “Dunno.”

By Martin Bissett

“We tried marketing and it did not work” is a refrain often heard from the managing partner’s office. This is because they neither understand marketing nor understand the failure or success thereof. To understand the subject, we first must master it, so bear in mind that to understand what makes a great marketing person or a great marketing campaign, we first must understand the discipline itself.

Today’s To-Do:

Take advice from a leader in their field about what works and what doesn’t in terms of professional services marketing so that you can delegate the task of marketing your firm in the future with the assurance and discernment that you know what works and what doesn’t.

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Today’s Bissett Bullet: “If a potential client is with a firm that has done a good job recording their past, let’s applaud that. We’re still the right choice for their future.”

By Martin Bissett

Just like in politics, it’s so easy to disparage the competition rather than provide solutions. We often ignore the fact that the business owner we are talking to is the one who chose the competition in the first place. By disparaging the competition, we are disparaging the client’s decision-making abilities and suggesting that they would not be clever by choosing us either.

When we find an accountant who has done a genuinely good job, let us congratulate our prospect for having partnered with a strong professional organization and not lose sight of why no matter how good they are, we are better.

Today’s To-Do:

Let’s understand before we ever get to a meeting with the prospect how we are likely to be superior as a commercial choice for this business. We should not be competing on price, we should not be competing on services, but we should always be competing on outcomes.

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