here’s what you’re looking for: august j. aquila

six ways to draw people’s interest.

by august j. aquila
price it right: how to value accounting services

a good marketing program never stops marketing the firm. you must always think about acquiring new clients to replace lost ones and to improve the quality of your client base. it’s a fact of life that some clients will move, go out of business, merge or even leave us for another firm.

more: make sure you know what you will get from your marketing | ten questions to refine your successful marketing plan | four questions for choosing your marketing audit strategies | four steps to a successful email marketing campaign | five reasons to implement change orders | make your practice better | eleven marketing strategies for smaller firms | five questions for developing your marketing plan | you only have four strategies | the damage that traditional fee methods do
exclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

let’s look at some basic client acquisition activities that should be part of your marketing plan. you may be asking yourself, “which ones work?” they all do. the secret of business development is to constantly be in the marketplace because you never know when a prospect is ready to buy from you or to move from their existing accounting firm.
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are you spending your time effectively?

by august j. aquila
price it right: how to value accounting services

i once knew a firm that was spending a significant amount of money on marketing and was experiencing little or no growth. they could not understand what was going wrong. they tried all sorts of marketing activities. they presented webinars, sent out a client newsletter, did some advertising and public relations, and so on.

more: ten questions to refine your successful marketing plan | ‘sales’ is not a four-letter word | 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
exclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

the problem was that this firm did not know what to expect from their marketing activities. sometimes they wanted clients immediately, and when that did not happen, they then tried another marketing activity, never staying with an activity long enough to see results. the moral of the story is that marketing takes time to produce results, and if you are not patient, it can eat up your hard-earned dollars and time.
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is the right message reaching the right audience?

by august j. aquila
price it right: how to value accounting services

the main reason most marketing programs don’t work is that not enough time is spent up front in the planning stage. marketing, like anything else, takes careful planning as well as execution. i’m going to propose 10 key questions that you need to answer before embarking on your next marketing program.

more: ‘sales’ is not a four-letter word | 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 | 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
exclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

1. what one purpose do you want to accomplish? too often, accountants begin a marketing program without really knowing what they want to accomplish. sometimes there are so many things they want to do that it becomes unrealistic to achieve all of them. the result is confusion and dissatisfaction.

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the five steps of the sales cycle and what you need to know.

by august j. aquila
price it right: how to value accounting services

for a long time, the word “sales” was not an accepted word in accounting firms. unfortunately, too many accountants associated sales work with some type of unprofessional and even unethical activity. fortunately, those days are long gone.

more: three pillars support a successful accounting firm | four questions for choosing your marketing audit strategies | four steps to a successful email marketing campaign | five reasons to implement change orders | make your practice better | eleven marketing strategies for smaller firms | five questions for developing your marketing plan | you only have four strategies
exclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

the word “sales” is not a four-letter word; it is a professional activity. people who sell make a promise of some future deliverable: “i will do this and this for you.” in turbulent times, selling is a skill that accountants must learn to be successful. here is my definition of selling: “selling is problem solving.” nothing more and nothing less. it’s what you do every time you help a client with a problem. if you have been a successful new business developer, then you have been a successful salesperson.
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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
exclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

here are the basics:

1. creating opportunities to meet people
2. developing good listening skills
3. learning how to sell benefits rather than services/products
4. knowing how to overcome objections
5. providing client service that makes the client want to say, “wow!”

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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
exclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

selecting your strategies

let’s look at four different strategies.

1. 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.

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how to get started.

by august j. aquila
price it right: how to value accounting services

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: clients have six reasons for needing you | four steps to a successful email marketing campaign | five reasons to implement change orders | make your practice better | eleven marketing strategies for smaller firms | five questions for developing your marketing plan | you only have four strategies | the damage that traditional fee methods do
exclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

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 post provides both the theoretical and practical knowledge needed to (1) perform a marketing audit, (2) develop marketing objectives and strategies and (3) implement the plan through an integrated approach.
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understanding this is part of mastering the art of sales.

by august j. aquila
price it right: how to value accounting services

no matter how good your marketing tools are, there is one tool that needs to be especially sharp, and that is your salesmanship. all the marketing tools we mentioned previously will be of little value if you don’t know how to “ask for the business.”

more: four steps to a successful email marketing campaign | 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
exclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

you need to understand the selling and buying cycles. they are critical for your success.

while there are many ways to make a sale, i prefer the consultative partnership approach (cpa) to selling accounting and consulting services. this approach is based on three key principles:
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promote your consulting services as products.

by august j. aquila
price it right: how to value accounting services

we’ve discussed marketing tools, how they can be divided into three main types (one-way messages, two-way messages, and one-on-one messages), and what each type will accomplish. in this post i will examine using email and show you how to make it effective.

more: three types of marketing message, and which is best | 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
exclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

email marketing is a strategy for a firm to send promotional messages to people in mass quantities. to start email marketing, you need to select an email marketing tool/service, build your email list, decide the type of campaign you want to use, write persuasive messages, make a schedule, run the campaign and measure the campaign results.
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what are you trying to accomplish?

by august j. aquila
price it right: how to value accounting services

there is no silver bullet when it comes to marketing. that does not mean that having a focused marketing plan is not of critical importance to the success of your consulting practice. at last count, there were more than 15 different marketing tools that you can use to support your sales efforts, to generate leads and to get prospects to select your firm.

more: six ways to market your technology consulting practice | five reasons to implement change orders | make your practice better | eleven marketing strategies for smaller firms | five questions for developing your marketing plan | you only have four strategies | the damage that traditional fee methods do
exclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

the first question that comes to mind is, “which of the marketing tools should my firm use?” only you can answer that question, but here are some other things to consider in reaching your decision:
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plus how to decide what services to offer.

by august j. aquila
price it right: how to value accounting services

computer consulting has evolved over the last 30 years and there are more choices than ever before. in fact, it is much more than just a computer and is now rebranded as technology consulting. recent changes in technology will force us to learn a new type of technology consulting. despite your current level of technology consulting sophistication, you will still need to market your services.

more: five reasons to implement change orders | 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
exclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

get started by asking yourself (your team) the following three questions:
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