MARKETING & SALES

Eight Life Questions for Your Business Success

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young businesswoman looking in mirror

Ignoring personal issues will affect your work.

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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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.
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Bissett Bullet: Build On Their First Impression

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Today’s Bissett Bullet: “The great proposal document is one that recreates, in part, the empathy and resonance that the prospect experienced when they met us in person.”

By Martin Bissett

A great proposal document is one that tells a story for you on your behalf. A great proposal can do a lot in terms of creating goodwill to your prospective client if it’s ever read when you are not present with them. So, when writing a proposal, it is important to understand that we are not just quoting for some services in exchange for some money, we are actually telling the story of the business to date, where that business is going next and how we will accelerate the development for that business. It is another opportunity to build on the first impression you have created by demonstrating that you have listened to, understood and given careful consideration to their needs.

Today’s To-Do:

The action today is to revisit the template you use for your proposal or quote documents and make it far more worthy of a prospect’s time and attention than it is right now.

See more Bissett Bullets here

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Maybe You Need a Marketing Audit

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hand holding light bulb

The good news? You can do this yourself.

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

Great marketing tactics can take time, money and a great deal of sweat to plan and execute. CPAs who appreciate the power of marketing are frequently anxious to jump right into the implementation process without doing any planning. But do they really know what the marketplace wants from them? Sometimes gut feelings are right, but few firms can afford to act on intuition alone.

MORE by August J. Aquila
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Investing marketing dollars with confidence requires a thorough understanding of your practice, its people, the marketplace and your competitors. An audit-based marketing plan lets you do just that. This article provides both the theoretical and practical knowledge needed to perform a marketing audit, then develop marketing objectives.
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Believing in Yourself Matters

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Young man fixing collar in mirror

Self-perception is reality.

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 by Martin Bissett
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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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Bissett Bullet: What Are You Known For?

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Today’s Bissett Bullet: “Of all of the components of an effective marketing strategy, your message is arguably the most important.”

By Martin Bissett

If you are known for being accountants, if that is what you tell people you do, then you will find yourself lumped in with all of the other accountants in the marketplace. But what if you reframed the message and were known for something that made you stand out from the competition?

If you help time-poor business owners who are too bogged down with admin for their own business to add value to their own customers and give them a platform to go out and create new sales, then that is your message. You put business owners in control of their finances. Would you not rather be known for that than for being “just another accountant”?

Today’s To-Do:

Think about three outcomes your deliverables have for your clients. How could you use them to describe what you do?

See more Bissett Bullets here

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