and five ways to put it to use in your practice.
by sandi smith leyva, cpa
accountant’s accelerator
when i first heard the term “consumption marketing” i quickly fell in love with the concept.
consumption marketing is continuing to market to clients even after they’ve signed to do business with you. it’s helping them to more fully “consume” your product or service.
consumption marketing is good for business because: read more →
by sandi smith leyva, cpa
accountant’s accelerator
except for the usual tax due dates, this time of year can be slow for some accounting firms and especially some tax firms. but it doesn’t have to be if you know what to do. here are three ideas you can use to boost your revenue, not just this month, but all year long. read more →
by hitendra patil
pransform
celebrity author anthony “tony” robbins identified six fundamental human needs that everyone has in common, and states that all behavior is simply an attempt to meet those six needs.
these six human needs are certainty, uncertainty/variety, significance, connection/love, growth and contribution.
as an accounting services provider, if you can identify the ways to meet these six needs of your clients (and your staff), if you can recurrently and consistently do things that lead to clients (and your staff) actually experiencing the satisfaction of these needs, you are more likely to improve your firm’s performance. the question to ask is, “what should i do to ensure that my services/products fulfill these needs of my clients?”
for now, let us focus on your clients. here are some suggestions on what to do to fulfill six fundamental needs of your clients. read more →
the science behind happy customers.
by hitendra patil
pransform inc.
in “the 9 building blocks of a winning vision that the big four have discovered,” august j. aquila and robert j. lees brought out the common vision elements of big four firms. and one of them is “put the best people at our clients’ disposal.”
it’s not common sense! it’s actually human behavioral science. you will be surprised to know how this works at a much deeper level than you think.
read more →
question: i have a close friend who is also a client. he went through a rough time with his wife threatening a divorce and we spent a lot of time talking about it (out of office settings). i sent him a bill and he returned it with a notation that “we spoke as friends and not as a professional consultation, and the bill should be cancelled.” what should i do? read more →
it’s good for business and considerate to clients.
by ed mendlowitz
tax season opportunity guide
tax season is a business and businesses need to be paid. it is harder to justify prices when providing services rather than products. products are usually priced before delivery while many times services are priced after delivery, i.e. performance.
more on busy season management: tax season trends, issues and opportunities
many accountants price returns before they are worked on, usually basing the fee on last year, or a rate schedule. sending a bill with the return establishes the relationship that you should be paid promptly for the work done. read more →
clients say: not as long as you think.
if you’re a finance manager on the client side, what do you say?
by rick telberg
are most cpas fooling themselves?
if you ask a cpa, as 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 has been doing since 2006, how long they typically keep a client, you’ll get a fairly consistent answer through the years.
if you ask a client how long they’ve worked with their current cpa firm, you’ll also get a fairly consistent answer.
the problem is: the cpa and the client disagree. read more →
dazzle them with the pre-meeting meeting.
by joey brannon, cpa
axiom cpa
there is an old saying that “no man is an island unto himself.” this is certainly true in the world that i live in. i am nothing without my clients. so when we have time with them it is important that we use it to maximum advantage. and having an agenda in place well before the meeting starts exponentially increases the productivity and value of the experience. read more →
one of the key ways to improve client and workplace relationships is by showing appreciation.
“too often” leo buscaglia, the author, once said, “we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around.”
we can extend appreciation anywhere and everywhere — at home, at work, at school, and wherever you want to acknowledge those who make your life brighter.
here are a few ideas that might work for accounting firms: read more →
what we know that clients don’t even know they need.
by sandi leyva
i’m pretty sure that i am not the only accountant who has made the following mistakes with clients. here are a couple of ideas to help us remember what we know that the client doesn’t and why it costs us when we forget.
more sandi leyva: what’s in your new client funnel? | what’s in your welcome kit for new prospects? | five fun and easy ways to wow your clients | six ways to give yourself a raise | strategies to stop losing business to competitors | five tips to manage your ‘overwhelm’ level | easy ideas for a quick business boost | four new mega-trend marketing strategies | how to stop leaving money on the table
1. clients do not know how to evaluate our technical skills.
choosing a crm system can be tricky. here are some pointers.
by becky livingston
when do you need crm? you know you need crm when your list of contacts has outgrown your rolodex. you remember what a rolodex is right? another indication is when you begin to forget important information about your clients, or you notice your communication with them has dwindled.
also consider crm when you are looking to increase sales as well as relationships with clients, in the end positively affecting the bottom line.
lastly, if you find yourself personalizing emails manually and/or do not have a clear idea of where you customer or lead is in the pipeline, you may need crm.
income statement, balance sheet, cash flows? it’s time for a fourth statement.
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by edi osborne
ceo, mentor plus
in the words of bonnie raitt, “let’s give ’em something to talk about; a little something to figure out.”
fact or fiction, rumors or true business intelligence, those that can make the distinction have a huge opportunity to add value to their business relationships.
recently, i had the opportunity to sit down with several business owners to interview them about how they make business decisions. decisions, as it turns out, are one of the most important reasons business owners walk away from nine-to-five jobs. business owners like to have control over their destiny. they actually thrive on the decision-making process and are willing to live with the consequences of those choices. and although, business owners don’t want anyone to take away their options, they do want someone to help them examine them. they want to know that the information they are basing a decision on is accurate and relevant. that it is not conjecture, rumor, or worse yet, self-serving misinformation provided by others at the company. sounds like a job for a true, trusted adviser, would-be super hero.
unfortunately, when asked about the quality and quantity of data, business owners utilize daily to inform their decisions, including the real-time, management value of financial statements, their answers paint a very unsatisfactory picture of the decision support provided by their accountant. as the role of cpas who serve as cfos in a corporate environment has morphed into that of a cio — chief information officer — cpas in public practice continue to lag behind in this transition. when pressed on this issue, many cpas admit they want to do more, but they are not comfortable outside the realm of compliance matters.
more from edi osborne for 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 pro members (go pro here):
so how can public cpas become chief information officers? how can they utilize their accounting skills to capitalize on the fast growing business intelligence market?
it’s simple . . . read more →
use all five senses.
by sandi smith, cpa
accountant’s accelerator
you don’t have to be the ritz-carlton or mercedes to provide your customer with a great experience. just a little forethought and planning will make a huge difference. here are five tips for your consideration: