Bissett Bullet: Who are Your Centers of Influence?
Today’s Bissett Bullet: “Who is sending new business your way and who isn’t but really ought to be?”
By Martin Bissett
MARKETING & SALES
Create a Bad Website in Ten Easy Steps
You have eight seconds to make a first impression. What kind do you want it to be?
By Sandi Leyva
The Complete Guide to Marketing for Tax & Accounting Firms
You can indeed get more business, more clients and more profits from your website. But not if you make these common mistakes!
MORE: Eight Steps to Getting Started with AI: A Guide for Tax Professionals | How to Weather Any Economic Storm | Ten Ways to Have More Energy This Tax Season | Seven Steps to Keeping Your Clients Forever | Give to Receive, and Eight More Ways to Boost Sales | Five Things That Clients Don’t Know about Accountants | Five Ways to Wow Your Clients | You’re Missing 60% of Your Revenue | Make the Most of CPE Conferences | Beyond Compliance: Six Tips for Adding Value
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Whether creating a new site or updating your existing site, here are some common pitfalls to avoid.
Be Clear About Your ROI Proposition
Consider what the next generation of practice leaders faces.
By Martin Bissett
Passport to Partnership
The Passport to Partnership study collated a number of responses in a conversational style. The need for professionals who can remain calm in the storm is showcased below and was repeated many times in various different ways.
MORE: Keep Business Development Going During Busy Season | Health, Wealth, Stealth: Challenges on the Path to Partnership | Don’t Let Recurring Fees Kill Your Practice | Rate Your Personal Purpose | Five Ways to Make Selling Easier | Six Keys to Getting a Proposal Accepted | Tell the World Your Worth | Four Surprising Keys to Communication | Culture Can’t Be Ignored
The expert council
What is going to be the single biggest challenge for the next generation of practice leaders?
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Three Pillars Support a Successful Accounting Firm
Yes, you need all three.
By August J. Aquila
Price It Right: How to Value Accounting Services
Some firms go from one marketing activity to another without much success. The firms that are successful do the basics very well. Like any athlete in spring training, accountants and consultants need to practice the basics of building their practices.
MORE: Four Questions for Choosing Your Marketing Audit Strategies | Maybe What You Need Is a Marketing Audit | Three Types of Marketing Message, and Which Is Best | Why You Need Progress Billing | Five Tips for Cross-Selling and Upselling | Five Keys to Successful Marketing | Twelve Fundamentals of Planning | One Question to Guide Your Growth Plans | Four Ways to Prepare for New Business Development
Here are the basics:
- Creating opportunities to meet people
- Developing good listening skills
- Learning how to sell benefits rather than services/products
- Knowing how to overcome objections
- Providing client service that makes the client want to say, “Wow!”
When There’s a Leak in Your Firm
Never mind who – why?
By Bruce Marcus
Professional Services Marketing 3.0
EDITOR’S NOTE: CPA Trendlines was privileged to have a long relationship with Bruce W. Marcus, who was ahead of his time in his thinking and practice in marketing for accounting. We are publishing some of the late expert’s evergreen work, which retains wisdom for the present.
OK, somebody talked to the press, and leaked information that shouldn’t have been leaked. That’s three problems, not one.
Primary, of course, is how do we control the damage caused by the leak?
MORE: Creating the Perfect Ad | Ten Keys to Crafting Ads | Four Things to Know About Social Media | Internal Communications Are Underrated | Four Things Better Than a Company Song | Let’s Lose the Word ‘Image’ | The Risk In Not Understanding Risk | What Your Marketing Program Can and Can’t Do | Nine Reasons That Prospects Say Yes | How Marketing Evolved to 3.0
Then we worry about who did it.
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Bissett Bullet: Are You Their Most Trusted Advisor?
Today’s Bissett Bullet: “Be your client’s first, last and ultimate line of defense in making sure that their business and personal aspirations come to fruition.”
By Martin Bissett
The best hope of a business owner’s successful startup, project or even eventual exit remains in the hands of the most caring and proactive accountants.
Very often you will be their only support. They carry the burden of ultimate responsibility for the financial security of their business, their team or their own family. Show them that you understand, are invested in their success and are there to make that burden lighter. Come to them with solutions that save them time, money and stress and you will cement your position as their most trusted advisor.
If your clients can sleep at night because you are there to guide them, to act as a sounding board, to offer a friendly ear and to help them make the most difficult decisions, why would they ever leave?
Today’s To-Do:
In what ways do you demonstrate you are caring and proactive to your clients? Are there any improvements you can make to ensure that your clients feel fully supported at all times by you and your team?
See more Bissett Bullets here
Keep Business Development Going During Busy Season
Consistency is key.
By Martin Bissett
Business Development on a Budget
You may be asking yourself how you will know when you are successful in your selling efforts. Many people have asked me that, but it’s the wrong question because firms have different goals.
MORE: Health, Wealth, Stealth: Challenges on the Path to Partnership | 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 | Competence Is Step One of Seven | Three Things That Rich Accountants Do
Some want to simply tick over and replace the clients they lose, some want to grow exponentially, some want steady and consistent growth they can measure and monitor. So there is no one definition of success. But no matter what yours is, you will never attain it if you are inconsistent in your process of winning new business.
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Four Questions for Choosing Your Marketing Audit Strategies
What segments and services offer you the most potential?
By August J. Aquila
Price It Right: How to Value Accounting Services
Let’s continue with our marketing audit discussion. Now that we have some firmwide objectives, we need to select strategies. There are many ways to accomplish something, and it is necessary to select how you are going to go about doing it.
MORE: Maybe What You Need Is a Marketing Audit | 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 | How Does Your Firm Measure Up? | Six Questions Before Asking for All the Referrals You Deserve | Five Rules for a Marketing Orientation | Ten Keys to Marketing Success
Selecting Your Strategies
Let’s look at four different strategies.
- Cost Reduction. As new forms of technology and artificial intelligence enter the workplace, it is increasingly possible to achieve a competitive advantage by using them to reduce the cost of service delivery. Tax processing software is a common example that firms have used over the last 20 years. AI could help firms reduce costs in multiple areas of the firm, from tax research to improving processes.