marketing & sales

and the role it plays in client retention.

by bruce marcus
professional services marketing 3.0

editor’s note: 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 was privileged to have a long relationship with bruce w. marcus, who was ahead of his time in his thinking and practice in marketing for accounting. we are publishing some of the late expert’s evergreen work, which retains wisdom for the present.

how do a firm and its people become part of professional services marketing 3.0?

more: professional services marketing requires flexibility | what your marketing program can and can’t do | have you planned how to service your new revenue? | how to set marketing objectives | nine reasons that prospects say yes | how marketing evolved to 3.0 | accountants don’t sell soap. | why competition matters most
exclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

part of the answer resides in building a marketing culture within a firm, which means that everyone in the firm understands that he or she has an active role in marketing and practice development and understands what that role entails.

it means that professionals have an attitude that grants enthusiastic hospitality to marketing.
read more →

soon they’ll 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: make your expertise a new-client magnet | attract clients, don’t chase them | success in business comes second | business won’t come to you | win your first client: yourself | perception is reality, client version | 10 questions for reconsidering your prices | would you make yourself a partner? | what the next generation of practice leaders faces
exclusively 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.
read more →

we understand our value.

by martin bissett
winning your first client

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

more: attract clients, don’t chase them | four reasons it’s hard to sell | eight questions to hold yourself accountable | win your first client: yourself | perception is reality, client version | 10 questions for reconsidering your prices
exclusively 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.

read more →

focus on their needs, not yours.

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: don’t think of it as selling | success in business comes second | business won’t come to you | forged in fire: the pains of leadership | a lesson in customer service and reputation | prioritize your prospects | good enough is not enough
exclusively 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.
read more →

what to focus on instead.

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: don’t think of it as selling | success in business comes second | business won’t come to you | forged in fire: the pains of leadership | a lesson in customer service and reputation | prioritize your prospects
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.
read more →

start 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: success in business comes second | eight questions to hold yourself accountable | win your first client: yourself | perception is reality, client version | 10 questions for reconsidering your prices | a list is not a pipeline
exclusively 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.
read more →

eight questions to make sure your personal life is in order.

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: eight questions to hold yourself accountable | experts: what it takes to become partner | where is your next money coming from? | your website promises. do you deliver? | five reasons firms don’t thrive
exclusively 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.
read more →

as the client changes, so must the accountant.

by bruce marcus
professional services marketing 3.0

editor’s note: 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 was privileged to have a long relationship with bruce w. marcus, who was ahead of his time in his thinking and practice in marketing for accounting. we are publishing some of the late expert’s evergreen work, which retains wisdom for the present.

the emerging relationship between professional and client, and between the marketers and the professionals, is further complicated by the changing nature of the professions themselves, in which several phenomena are redefining the nature of the professions.

more: what your marketing program can and can’t do | have you planned how to service your new revenue? | why is change so hard for firms? | why value pricing works | why competition matters most
exclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

in planning for both a firm and its marketing program, there are three factors that should be understood.
read more →

think like an entrepreneur, not a technician.

by sandi leyva
the complete guide to marketing for tax & accounting

when i look through accounting today’s top 100 leaders list and the comments they have made about what they perceive to be the challenges in our profession, many of the answers are the same: change, talent and relevance are a few you’ll see. and they are all right to some extent, but there is a deeper systemic problem that i think could fix quite a few of these in one swipe. i’m not saying it will be easy, but it is a fairly straightforward problem once diagnosed.

more: put your linkedin profile to work | leverage your client list today | why you need a link-in-bio tool | what’s in a (domain) name? plenty | need leads? try a quiz | four tips for tough times | now’s the time to clean up your email list | transform your marketing with crm | nine thoughts on self-marketing for the introvert
exclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

the most interesting part is that the smallest firms are getting better at solving this than the larger firms.
read more →

perception, even your own, is reality.

by martin bissett
 business development on a budget

“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: eight questions to hold yourself accountable | experts: what it takes to become partner | where is your next money coming from? | your website promises. do you deliver? | five reasons firms don’t thrive | four biz dev tasks to start the new year | what the next generation of practice leaders faces | five ways to show commitment
exclusively 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.
read more →