marketing & sales

checklist: 10 keys to landing your next client

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young black businessman looking at his reflectionplus: 10 more questions to check your comfort level.

by martin bissett
understanding selling

i’ve been asking you to believe in yourself, to get your potential clients to open up to you, and to demonstrate to them the outcomes that working with you and your firm would create in their personal and professional lives.

more: the three habits of the rich accountant | you can’t land your next client without this | if you’re selling, you’re doing it wrong | what partners don’t tell you
goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

now here’s a checklist for you to run through before you begin your next business development initiative, and before each new business appointment that you have.

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the three habits of the rich accountant

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businessman looking at calendar on tabletthey’ll quickly become second nature.

by martin bissett
winning your first client

you may be thinking right now, “well, very good, martin, but we have finite time. we’re very, very busy people and we need to get business in the door, and therefore creation of opportunity becomes the issue.”

more: you can’t land your next client without this | focus on your client’s concerns, not yours | 4 reasons selling is hard | if you’re selling, you’re doing it wrong | 8 questions for business success | why believing in yourself matters | what partners don’t tell you | don’t wait for business to come to you | your first sale is to yourself
goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

regardless of whether we’ve got 20 opportunities on our plate today or none, when the next one comes along we can’t afford to be anything other than confident, comfortable, assured relationship builders who have tremendous value to offer. because people will see that body language, those voice tones and hear those words and it will be attractive. they will want to get to know more – they’ll want to be able to look at options. they’ll want to know what you’ll charge, and they’ll want to know what they’ll get for what you charge.
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you can’t land your next client without this

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how can expect any prospect to buy into us?

by martin bissett
winning your first client

it’s about time to realize that value is not about time.

more: focus on your client’s concerns, not yours | 4 reasons selling is hard | if you’re selling, you’re doing it wrong | 8 questions for business success | why believing in yourself matters | what partners don’t tell you | don’t wait for business to come to you | your first sale is to yourself
goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

when i look back on the research that has been conducted by various groups as to the biggest obstacles accounting firms cite to growing their practice,

  • 50 percent said creating opportunities,
  • 25 percent said knowing how to close deals
  • and the remainder said having self-confidence in presenting and then being able to positively differentiate from their competition.

let’s not sell, let’s attract.

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nine smooth moves to build client satisfaction

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which do you need to work on?

by bill penczak

client relationships have never been more vulnerable, as other firms, reeling from the covid crisis, will be knocking on your clients’ door with promises of better service, more services, and lower rates.

more: re-thinking today’s firm with five global leaders | 5 things your firm should do differently this summer | do you have the guts to beat the covid crisis? | how to inoculate your firm against covid competition | ‘found money’ delights clients | the three r’s for beating the corona crisis
goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

now, more than ever, tax and accounting firms should examine how they can constantly improve the service and relevance to their clients, for today and into the new normal.

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romeo, juliet, google and client accounting services

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silhouette of a woman smelling a rose against a sunsetnever tell them it’s “client accounting services.” here’s why.

by hitendra patil
client accounting services: the definitive success guide

i recently spoke with an experienced cpa who has been very keen to expand the firm’s client accounting services practice. i told her, “if your firm’s website and marketing material states you offer ‘client accounting services.’, you’d want to rewrite that content, like, immediately.”

more: why cas is great for revenue growth | survey: why some firms fall behind in cas | how cas makes firms better | cas: finding the why behind the why | how to lead clients into client accounting services | cas begins with a mindset
goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

she was utterly puzzled and asked:

“but cas is vital for the future of accounting firms, and you wrote the profession’s first book on cas, so why are you now saying so?”
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five tough questions for these tough times

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do you have the courage to beat the covid crisis?

male-lion-at-rest-portrait-serengeti-2017-telberg-photo crop
telberg.photo

by bill penczak

in times like these, firms should be challenging themselves with the tough question, “what do we want to be, today and into the future?”

more: re-thinking today’s firm with five global leaders | 5 things your firm should do differently this summer | do you have the guts to beat the covid crisis? | how to inoculate your firm against covid competition | ‘found money’ delights clients | the three r’s for beating the corona crisis
goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

if maintaining the status quo and “serving clients,” whatever that really means, are the only responses your partner and leadership teams can muster, then perhaps it’s time to evolve from being a lifestyle firm to being one with a vision and the guts to achieve it.

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focus on your client’s concerns, not yours

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attract new fees instead of chasing them.

by martin bissett
winning your first client

let’s start with two simple definitions to avoid any confusion:

  1. the purpose of marketing is to create the opportunity.
  2. the purpose of business development (sales) is to convert that opportunity into a paying client.

more: 4 reasons selling is hard | if you’re selling, you’re doing it wrong | 8 questions for business success | why believing in yourself matters | what partners don’t tell you | don’t wait for business to come to you | your first sale is to yourself
goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

when we meet with prospective clients – and i say this as someone who has sat in on many hundreds of meetings of this nature – we rarely give potential clients a reason to buy from us that they care about.

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four reasons selling is hard

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businessman with head in handsbut it doesn’t have to be.

by martin bissett
winning your first client

let’s take a look at the last 16 years of my experience and my research as to where new clients come from in an accounting practice. i don’t think there are going to be too many shocks here.

more: if you’re selling, you’re doing it wrong | 8 questions for business success | why believing in yourself matters | what partners don’t tell you | don’t wait for business to come to you | your first sale is to yourselfgoprocpa.com

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

what i’ve found is that 82 percent of all new clients in a given year who come into an accounting firm come in from a referral source. this may be a bank or a lawyer or some other source, perhaps an existing client, who has recommended that a particular business meet with your firm and come on board as a client.
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if you’re selling, you’re doing it wrong

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businessman holding two papers with happy and angry face each on themstart treating it like a service.

by martin bissett
winning your first client

being a successful person according to your own measurement of that, and your own goals and your own standards is different for everyone.

more: 8 questions for business success | why believing in yourself matters | what partners don’t tell you | don’t wait for business to come to you | your first sale is to yourself
goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

if you’re comfortable with yourself, it’s very likely that others will be too. if you understand the value that you offer (how you can improve a client’s situation to move them closer toward their personal and professional aspirations), you’re likely to be able to convey that value in front of a prospect.
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leaders need time to lead

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large group of people gathered into an upward arrow shapeonce you have the right people, figure out where to go.

by jody grunden
building the virtual cfo firm in the cloud

as our team was growing and we reached over 30 team members, we recognized the need to establish a formal leadership team. when we were smaller, it worked fine for adam and me to be the primary decision makers, but as our client base and workload grew, we realized we would become a bottleneck and slow things down.

more: better understanding = better communication | why your firm’s core values matter | when value billing eliminates guesswork | make tech your ally in protecting clients | be more efficient with tech stacks | put bots to work for you | not all employees want the same perks | not all employees will work out | uncover potential in 10 interview questions | what running a virtual cpa firm really costs | learning to love video calls
goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

at that point, we made a conscious effort to transition our daily tasks and client responsibilities to other team members so we could remove ourselves from the weeds and focus on the higher-level view of the company.
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8 questions for business success

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hint: be successful in life first.

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.

more: why believing in yourself matters | what partners don’t tell you | don’t wait for business to come to you | your first sale is to yourself
goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

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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why believing in yourself matters

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young man fixing collar in mirrorperception, even your own, is reality.

by martin bissett

“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: what partners don’t tell you | don’t wait for business to come to you | your first sale is to yourself
goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

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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marketing without borders

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make more potential clients aware of your cpa firm.

by kelly schuknecht
summit cpa group

as a distributed accounting firm, we have learned a lot, since our founding in 2002, about how to successfully grow our client list. this growth involves creating and executing marketing strategies that help us attract clients from all over the nation.

more on marketing: what do you sell on? | why your google ranking is about to tank | five marketing mistakes to avoid | nancy fox: winning the mind game of success | survey: how firms market cas offerings | don’t wait for business to come to you | are you marketing for 2022 yet? | your first sale is to yourself | effective networking is an art | 5 ways to incentivize growth | price-sell-deliver is broken | sell your services on value, not price

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

we have also succeeded in attracting new business because we have a good understanding of who our client is, what they’re looking for, how to reach them and, finally, what grabs their attention. this knowledge has allowed us to develop and execute effective marketing efforts.
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