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
never mind the bullets
bissett bullet: do i know you?
today’s bissett bullet: “what is your linkedin connection strategy? do you have one?”
by martin bissett
a vast number of connections on your linkedin profile page may look impressive but there is a compelling argument for knowing at least the vast majority of your linkedin contacts personally.
there will of course be people connected to you that you have never met in person. you may have worked with them remotely, may have presented with them on a virtual panel or you may have engaged with their content and identified them as somebody with whom you could build a mutually beneficial relationship; but there is a genuine connection there.
your linkedin network is a potentially valuable referral source and time spent nurturing those relationships is time well spent. the better the relationship you have with your connections, the more likely they are to champion your firm when someone in their network is in need of a recommendation.
today’s to-do:
take a look at your strategy moving forward. start to be more selective about who you connect with and prioritize people you know, would like to work with or who can introduce you to your ideal clients.
bissett bullet: speaking their language
today’s bissett bullet: “identifying an ideal client and sharing a definition of that ideal client internally is only worthwhile if it is consistent with and supported by your marketing.”
by martin bissett
your firm’s messaging must speak to the needs of your ideal client, do so in their language and demonstrate exactly why you are best placed to help them.
without educating the general market as to what you offer and how you have helped similar businesses – communicating that through social media posting, the firm’s website or other means of advertising – you are relying purely on the market’s perception of an accounting firm to dictate whether they reach out to you or not.
today’s to-do:
ask a friend or family member to look at your website and social media. ask them based on what they see there, what it is that they think you do for your clients. if they get it right, your messaging is on the money. if they don’t, the assumptions that they made are likely to be the same ones that your prospective clients are making.
see more bissett bullets here
bissett bullet: remember the golden rule
today’s bissett bullet: “please do not talk to your clients and prospects about services but rather the achievement of their desired objectives and outcomes.”
by martin bissett
despite us having discussed this subject earlier on, nevertheless you will already have forgotten about it because it takes time to form a habit. remember the golden rule. people buy outcomes and people buy you. is your approach from a personal meeting perspective and a firmwide marketing perspective, demonstrating that you are the right person to work with and that you are focused on creating outcomes that they want to see realized?
today’s to-do:
if your website talks more about your services than it does about your results, change it today.
see more bissett bullets here
bissett bullet: the next level of advisory
today’s bissett bullet: “if advisory stage one is client care then advisory stage two is simply about providing the basics. by doing so, you help your clients to take control of their current situation and their future – today!”
by martin bissett
advisory is about helping your client to provide for both worst-case and best-case scenarios with the knowledge, skills and experience that you have. support them with budgeting, tax planning, financial forecasting, management reporting and so on.
remember to charge them appropriately for your advice, knowledge and skills.
today’s to-do:
are you supporting all of your clients in this way? who among them presents an opportunity for fee growth? arrange a meeting with them.
see more bissett bullets here
bissett bullet: this too shall pass
today’s bissett bullet: “you will undoubtedly encounter challenges in business, just as there will be good times. the important thing to remember is that neither lasts forever.”
by martin bissett
when you are experiencing bad times, keep perspective and plan for when circumstances are different and you’re able to grow. when times are good, build your cash reserves to weather any storms that may be ahead.
today’s to-do:
if today is a bad time, what would you do differently once the storm has passed? if today is a good time, are you building your cash reserves to cushion you from harder times ahead?
see more bissett bullets here
bissett bullet: who do you know?
today’s bissett bullet: “we convert high-profit clients by creating peer-level relationships and earning respect. we convert low-profit ones by discounting and devaluing.”
by martin bissett
if you ever hear an expert or practice guru advising you to lowball fees in order to win work, stop listening to them immediately, burn all the books you have in their name and understand that this is a profit-first business. lowballing always creates a profit-last scenario in your future.
today’s to-do:
take a look today at how many relationships you have with introducers in your locale, be they bank managers, be they financial advisers or be they somebody else altogether. if you do not have many of those, you need to strengthen your peer-level relationships in the town that you are in.
see more bissett bullets here
bissett bullet: the tortoise will always beat the hare
today’s bissett bullet: “when times are tough, choose short-term lifestyle changes over sacrificing long-term investments.”
by martin bissett
the temptation will always be to cash in an investment in order to enjoy the spoils of your previous discipline and maintain the lifestyle to which you have become accustomed. before you sacrifice your future with no guarantee that you’ll ever catch up on that lost income, have you considered cutting back?
play the long game for your future. run a budget at home and in your business that ensures that you spend less than you earn and that allows you to invest even when times are hard. stay the course slowly but surely and resist the urge to keep up with the joneses.
today’s to-do:
where could you cut back if you had to in order to avoid sacrificing an investment you’ve worked hard toward? make a list of unnecessary outgoings that could be canceled in the event of a reduction in income.
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bissett bullet: beware scope creep and seep
today’s bissett bullet: “‘while you’re there, could you just …?’”
by martin bissett
the scope creep is all of those seemingly small requests that fall outside of your agreement, for which you generally do not charge, out of a desire to please a new client or to avoid an awkward conversation. seep occurs when you volunteer to do that extra work and it becomes an issue when we are too busy doing that free work over and above the original scope to spend time winning any paid-for new work.
when presented with requests for additional tasks, it is important to say that a particular task is not within the original agreement but that absolutely, you would be very happy to raise a new invoice or undertake a new project for them.
today’s to-do:
practice confidently responding to a “can you just …?” request with a client so that the conversation feels natural when it next occurs.
see more bissett bullets here
bissett bullet: show them the value
today’s bissett bullet: “if we demonstrate that we can create more wealth for our client …”
by martin bissett
see more bissett bullets here
bissett bullet: your little black book
today’s bissett bullet: “your clients will have needs that you are unable to fulfill. signposting to ‘best in class’ not only serves your client beyond the scope of the firm’s work with them, but also elevates your expertise in the eyes of your clients.”
by martin bissett
the most advanced stage of advisory services is signposting other support that your clients may need. be it recruitment, marketing, investing or something else entirely, if their requirements go beyond the skillset of your firm then you should at least be in a position to advise them on who they should listen to.
making introductions to your network of contacts and the professionals you trust helps your clients to achieve the outcomes you have agreed together and further establishes you as a trusted advisor.
today’s to-do:
go one step further. use your knowledge of your client’s business to foresee other needs. what recommendations are you about to make for which introductions may be useful? have them ready.
see more bissett bullets here
bissett bullet: give them a reason
today’s bissett bullet: “‘businesses like what we have to say, they just don’t want to change their accountant.’ really? then why were they talking to you?”
by martin bissett
so often we make excuses for why we did not win work and why we did not have the guts to go through with actually asking for the business. i get told so often that a prospect does not want to change their accountant.
there are only two possibilities here:
1. either they were wasting your time, unlikely, or
2. they did not have a strong enough case for changing, likely.
if that is the case, revisit exactly what is involved in your conversation with the prospective client because you were not there for the sake of their health. you were there to discuss them coming to work with you. if they do not want to change, ask yourself why not?
today’s to-do:
if you were to be honest with yourself, how many prospective clients really do not want to change their accountant, and how many just did not see the reason to? now, on that basis with that reality confronted, be stronger in your next meeting with a prospective client.
see more bissett bullets here
bissett bullet: be the now accountant
today’s bissett bullet: “we talk a lot about what we could do for clients. we talk a lot about what we should do for clients and what we would do for prospects. what we don’t often talk about is what they need right now.”
by martin bissett