yes, even during busy season.
by martin bissett
how to win the new breed of client
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.
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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.
we all know that there are busy periods in any accounting firm, such as tax return deadlines, end-of-year audits etc. typically, during these times marketing and business development come to a screeching halt as everyone worships at the altar of the deadline. then, of course, when the busy time is over the engine has to be started all over again to get things moving, which doesn’t happen overnight. it can, in fact, take several months to get back the momentum that had been built up.
so i would suggest that one benchmark for success in selling is simply knowing that you are consistently trying to win new opportunities, to develop your selling skillset, to build relationships with existing and potential clients even during those busy times. that consistency is what is missing in the marketing and professional development efforts to many accounting firms, but if you achieve it, you will always have business in the pipeline for those times when referral business might drop off or dry up altogether.
so as part of your annual strategy, which you probably set at the beginning of each year, provide for time to be set aside each week to work on business development efforts. this will help avoid that “peak and trough” scenario where you are quiet and stop marketing during busy periods. it is that consistent effort that will create an always-full pipeline so that when you have capacity to handle more business, you will always have a flow of new business opportunities to work on.
consistency, therefore, is one measure of success. it is also the hardest discipline to achieve, but those who do achieve it will gain a substantial competitive advantage.
business development task
- schedule specific, non-interruptible time in your diary to work on a new opportunity creation every week – even in busy season.