{"id":114990,"date":"2023-10-03t11:56:50","date_gmt":"2023-10-03t15:56:50","guid":{"rendered":"\/\/www.g005e.com\/?p=114990"},"modified":"2024-08-27t17:01:05","modified_gmt":"2024-08-27t21:01:05","slug":"seven-mistakes-in-winning-new-fees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"\/\/www.g005e.com\/2023\/10\/03\/seven-mistakes-in-winning-new-fees\/","title":{"rendered":"seven mistakes in winning new fees"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/strong><\/p>\n plus nine metrics to measure.<\/strong><\/p>\n by martin bissett<\/i> like it or not, the 21st-century accountant is in the relationship-building business.<\/p>\n when a qualified accountant learns the art of developing those relationships in such a way as they empower the practice to be able to forecast its new fee income each year, the accountant becomes a profit center and their value to the firm increases tenfold.<\/p>\n more: <\/b>tell the world your worth<\/a> | don\u2019t overlook internal communication<\/a> | four reasons people struggle with communication<\/a> | why firm culture matters for partners<\/a> | competence is step one of seven<\/a> | three things that rich accountants do<\/a> | make your expertise a new-client magnet<\/a><\/span> our fourth \u201cc,\u201d conversion, has flirted with being the top answer from respondents in the passport to partnership <\/em>study and has featured in over 80\u00a0percent\u00a0of all firms interviewed as to what makes a senior manager stand out as a potential partner. because \u201cselling\u201d (the real name for business development) is still carrying somewhat of a stigma from the cultural traditions of the profession, it is typical to find a manager in a firm who has spent<\/p>\n if i were to spend 12 hours with you and benefit from all your experience and technical knowhow, realistically, how capable an accountant would i be at the end of it?<\/p>\n that\u2019s what i thought.<\/p>\n smart business development eliminates wasted time.<\/p>\n it could be argued that this skill gap is a direct consequence of what happens when entire generations have been able to build their firms on referral\/recurring work alone. what chance then has a senior manager whose role will be heavily weighted toward the business development tasks that await a 21st-century partner in feeling confident about their abilities to perform in that aspect of partnership? who will they learn from?<\/p>\n this concern was the second-highest in the feedback that came from the partner hopefuls, who felt their lack of knowledge in how to win new work from non-referred sources would harm both their chances of obtaining their \u201cpassport to partnership\u201d and their ability to \u201cgo places\u201d as a result.<\/p>\n when many existing partners surveyed look to their pipeline of prospective partners, they see famine rather than feast\u00a0but yet carry out no internal marketing \u201cirrigation\u201d in order to ripen their potential harvest. in turn, managers are often told that in order to make partner, they need to introduce anywhere from $50,000+ of new fees and managers have expressed bewilderment as to how to go about achieving that.<\/p>\n the main\u00a0faux pas\u00a0when\u00a0trying to win\u00a0new fees<\/strong><\/p>\n as technology and outsourcing abroad continually erode the compliance foundations of a traditional practice (walmart tax returns anyone?), the increasing value to our clients will be our advisory services. we\u2019ve seen \u2013 and will continue to see \u2013 firms amplify this element of their service but as everyone starts to amplify their advisory expertise, how will we get heard?<\/p>\n it will become the same scenario as choosing on compliance services alone is now, namely \u2026<\/p>\n as advisory services become the norm in terms of the value that an accounting practice offers, how will we differentiate? the answer is in our ability to sell professionally. how much\u00a0of a need, therefore, does our next generation of partners have to develop the skills that their training, to date, has yet to cover?<\/p>\n let\u2019s get some cpe\u00a0\u2013\u00a0control of prospects\u2019\u00a0expectations.<\/p>\n how much chargeable time, if it were to be calculated, is spent<\/p>\n for the sake of argument, let\u2019s say you see 20 new non-referred (you should be converting nearly all of those that are referred) prospects in a calendar year. let\u2019s say that we\u2019d like to have another meeting with 10 of those. let\u2019s say that we spend an hour writing, calling, and emailing each one before we give up when we get no response. what is your charge-out rate per hour? $250? $300? more?<\/p>\n so $250 x 10 prospects is a low-end first year\u2019s fee wasted and we all know that my very basic calculation omits many other associated costs. the real investment is in acquiring this work is much higher.<\/p>\n prospective clients are businesses like any other, having to make decisions each day like any other. why should the decision whether to meet with you again\/employ your firm or not be any different? why should we have to chase and wait for a response indefinitely, not knowing whether we are pestering them or not?<\/p>\n it is possible and is proven in firms worldwide that we can obtain decisions from clients regarding additional services, prospective clients regarding engaging us and so on, without prolonged wild goose chases.<\/p>\n which business development metrics should i measure?<\/strong><\/p>\n while not all of these may be relevant and applicable, in your department or personally, how many of the following have you had this month\/year?<\/p>\n if you\u2019re doing nothing more than actively measuring the above, you\u2019re ahead of around 85\u00a0percent\u00a0of your competitors.<\/p>\n what measures do you apply in your firm? could any of the above provide additional support in achieving the growth goals both you and the firm have?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" plus nine metrics to measure.<\/strong>
\npassport to partnership<\/i><\/a><\/p>\n
\nexclusively for pro members. <\/span><\/strong>log in here<\/a> or 2022世界杯足球排名 today<\/a>.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
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\nit will come as no surprise then that the ongoing mastery of this discipline of proactively winning referred and non-referred new fees should be right up there with developing technical skills in a senior manager\u2019s personal development priorities.<\/p>\n\n
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\n<\/a>
\nby martin bissett<\/i>
\npassport to partnership<\/i><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1343,"featured_media":45361,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2271,3120,3002],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-114990","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-marketing","category-pro-member-exclusive","category-special"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n