Practice Paradox

The ONLY Two Functions of a Business? What Priority Are You Placing On Them?

Sat, 23 Feb 2013 06:29:00 GMT

I can recall, as if it was just yesterday, exactly where I was when I first read these profound words: “Because the purpose of business is to create a customer, the business enterprise has two–and only two–basic functions: marketing and innovation. Marketing and innovation produce results; all the rest are costs. Marketing is the distinguishing, unique function of the business.”

Peter Drucker, The Practice of Management, 1954

This quote struck me for three reasons …

Firstly, it seems counter-intuitive: Two? Only two? What would an accountant say about that? Or a lawyer? Or the sales, HR or production areas in a business?

Secondly, once you reflect on it for a while, you see that it is true: Marketing attracts customers (clients), and innovation is figuring out smarter ways to deliver. Everything else is, in essence, simply about keeping score and supporting these processes.

Attract and deliver. That’s business in a nutshell.

Thirdly, Drucker’s words resonated with me immediately because marketing and innovation are my passions. My entire career has been a blend of both, starting out as an industrial designer, winning awards, inventing patented products and then gradually gravitating towards marketing (and being fascinated by the psychology and strategy of it) once I repeatedly observed that the best products and services don’t win, the best marketed ones do. My 20+ years in business have revolved around marketing and innovation.

I love marketing and innovation because together they really are the equivalent of modern day alchemy: You can create massive increases in value and outputs, without increasing inputs, just through better communication and changing of perceptions (marketing) combined with smarter, more leveraged ways of operating (innovation).

For example, imagine tripling the revenue of a software business within the space of 12 months, but with one-fifth the number of sales people (supported by leveraged marketing systems) compared with the previous year.

Marketing and innovation did that.

Or increasing the annualised revenues of a small suburban travel agency from $800,000 to $3.4 million within the space of 6 months without hiring one additional sales consultant or spending even one additional dollar on advertising or marketing (other than getting smart advice from us).

Marketing and innovation did that.

The leverage that marketing and innovation provide any business is profound. This is what Drucker observed and what I continue to experience first hand, time and time again.

So if Drucker emphasised, almost 60 years ago now, the importance of the functions of marketing and innovation, what do most management teams these days focus their energies on?

Marketing legend Jack Trout who pioneered the concept of positioning (which is crucially different to differentiation) wrote in a Forbes article back in 2006:

“Today, when top management is surveyed, their priorities in order are:

finance, sales, production, management, legal and people.

Missing from the list: marketing and innovation.”

7 years on, the same holds true.

What about in your business?

Where does marketing sit in the standard agenda for your management meetings? Your team meetings? Your Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)? Is it a priority? If not, you’re incurring a significant opportunity cost that you’re blissfully unaware of; the cost of being perceived as just another business in your profession or industry. Being lost in the crowd. Being perceived as average.

And innovation? Where does that sit in the priorities, the culture, the daily language used in your business? Is it a focus? Is it a core value that the leadership team constantly talks about, encourages and rewards? Does innovation ooze from your organisation’s pores?

Our member’s webinar series this year will focus on marketing and innovation, combined. We’ll be demonstrating a long list of tools and technology, showing not just the ‘how to’ practical details of using the tools (not ‘death by PowerPoint’ here!), but wrapping these practical demonstrations and case studies in the strategic context of why you should use these tools in your business.

As a business owner, you should be almost bursting out of your skin with excitement about your potential to grow.

Why do I say that?

It is an incredibly exciting era of business we all find ourselves in. The playing field is the most level it has ever been, because any business now has at its disposal an array of leveraged communication (a.k.a. marketing) tools that allows you to get your message and value proposition in front of precisely the ideal people and businesses you want to target, without needing to spend a cent on traditional advertising.

3 Con's of Social Media

Fri, 22 Feb 2013 04:33:00 GMT

Social media is as here-to-stay as email. Yet many businesses are still sitting on the sidelines with a let’s-see-what-happens approach to social media. Or worse...

They’re dabbling.

They set up, for example, a Twitter account but then never even bother to insert their avatar (image) properly or brand their Twitter background to match their website’s look and feel. (We offer this as a service, just quietly.) Or they don’t post updates (tweets) on a regular basis, if at all!

What effect does this dabbling have?

When someone visits this type of half-arsed (Can I say that? I just did.) Twitter page, it looks amateur. It looks half-finished. Inactive. Less than useless, really, as it tarnishes the person’s and the business’ reputation.

Another example of futile dabbling: Signing up to LinkedIn and never going to the effort of completing your LinkedIn Profile to 100%.

That’s like having a half-finished C.V. out there in full public view. Why would you do that? Not a good look. Makes you look lazy. Disorganised. Someone who does not follow through to completion.

(By the way, if you haven’t connected to me on LinkedIn yet, see my Profile here. Let’s connect. I do frequent updates with links to educational and useful articles.)

Woody Allen said that 80% of success in life is just showing up.

Most businesses are not even ‘showing up’ in social media in terms of properly presenting (finishing!) their social media profiles.

If this applies to you, or you are considering using social media effectively in your marketing and communications, watch our brief video series, 3 Con’s of Social Media on our YouTube Channel.

The 3 Con’s are:

Content
Converse
Convert

The last item–Convert–is about the automated marketing systems you can put in place to educate, communicate and ultimately convert many of your social media connections into clients.

And that, at the end of the day, is the ROI you are looking for from your use of–and time investment in–social media, isn’t it?

There are other benefits to using social media, such as how much you can learn that is up-to-the-minute leading edge information, but obviously most businesses are looking for an ROI-based “Why should I bother?” rationale before they plunge (properly) into social media.

Are you ready to take the plunge? The ROI is there, if you have–and stick to–a strategy.

Watch the brief video series now and feel free to ask questions or make comments beneath this blog post.

Advisors Getting The Edge - With Social Media

Sun, 20 Jan 2013 11:37:00 GMT

Five quick things about social media …

It is here to stay. It is not a fad
It is a massively effective influence tool. For some.
To compete, advisors need to learn how to use it effectively. Including you.
If you don’t, you’re at a disadvantage compared with advisors who are using social media strategically.
In 2 weeks’ time there’s a Social Advice Summit you can attend to intensively school up on social media for advisors. A discount code is below.

We’ve been teaching firms how to use social media since 2010. It’s one component of the 10-module Marketing Machine we help firms build.

It is a crucial component. One that cannot be ignored.

Another aspect of strategy we teach firms is the value of going ‘inch wide, mile deep’ in their focus and service delivery. Having a clearly defined and disciplined focus on who you are targeting and the services you are delivering makes marketing more effective and operations easier.

Someone who has gone ‘inch wide, mile deep’ in specialising in how to teach advisors the strategic use of social media is Barry (a.k.a. ‘Baz’) Gardner. Baz has successfully built and then sold a highly profitable financial advisory firm and has since advised many firms around Australia on how to build trust at scale using digital and social media. Baz truly gets the digital era we’re in and where social media plays a central role for what he terms ‘the social adviser’.

Baz and his team are running a 3-day Social Advice Summit–AdviserEdge 2013–from 3 Feb on the Gold Coast.

I’m presenting the last session on Day 1, ‘Converting Social Media Connections Into Clients’. I’ll be showing real-life examples of marketing psychology and technology in action, with real-life case examples of firms who are using these tools in an automated “prospect education system” to attract high quality new clients.

You can read about AdviserEdge 2013 here and download a PDF of the event brochure here.

I’m one of over 12 speakers presenting at AdviserEdge 2013.

You can book online here and if you enter Paradox10 as the Discount Code, you’ll save 10%. (Buy me some beers on the evening of Day 1 with your savings. ;) )

If you’re already up to speed with social media, consider sending some new team members who you want to usher into this exciting new era for those advisors who learn how to master these exciting new tools of influence.

Ever had a prospect THANK you for your marketing?

Sun, 20 Jan 2013 11:36:00 GMT

Do you remember that last brochure created for your firm? That one where you mailed it out to a list of prospective people clients and then a number of people telephoned you and thanked you for sending it?

“Thank you so much for that brochure. It made a big difference to me,” they said.

And remember that ad campaign you ran where people called you and said, “That was absolutely brilliant. I really appreciated that. It taught me so much.”

No. Of course you don’t.

That’s one of the reasons that traditional marketing is a waste of time and money. It no longer works. People don’t take any notice of it. They don’t trust it.

Old school marketing is a one-way monologue. You are talking at people. And it’s all “me me me me,” that is, about you. Corporate chest beating.

That’s why we love content-driven marketing.

This is what we teach to accounting and advisory firms.

It’s educational. It adds value to the reader. It’s an engaging two-way dialogue.

It makes a difference to the readers’ lives.

And it attracts to you top quality, like-minded new clients.

Examples of content-driven marketing include:

blog articles
white papers and eBooks
videos
webinars
workshops
social media
podcasts
surveys and polls

To effectively use these marketing tools you need to know:

How to use the modern marketing tools, and
The skills for creating great, authentic, educational content.
Not ‘brochurespeak’ spin.

A quick story …

Recently a graduate of our Modern Marketing Academy (our online training program) shared the story with me where she was meeting with a new client who was really excited to be working with the firm.

Really excited.

The client was on exactly the same wavelength as the Principal regarding her views of business, the use of technology, and making things happen. And the client wanted a range of advisory services for her business, not just compliance services.

At the end of this perfect first meeting, the new client mentioned a blog article the firm had published on their website. She talked about how powerful the ideas were and how it really got her thinking and helped her change some key things she’d been doing (and not doing) in her business.

The point of that story is not that ‘educational content-driven marketing works’. It does.

The point is this: The article was published over one year ago. The new client read it over a year ago! It stayed with her. And it is still making a positive impact on her and her business.

By applying what we teach, the Principal has successfully positioned herself as a thought leader. Someone who people want to follow. Someone who is seen as ‘a guru’. Someone to whom people are not only happy to pay for their advice, but where they actually feel grateful and excited for the privilege.

This doesn’t happen when someone reads a brochure, does it? Or an ad.

How educational is your marketing? How engaging is your marketing material?

And when was the last time you were thanked for it?

Questioning The Usual Route

Wed, 09 Jan 2013 04:15:00 GMT

Riding my bicycle to the office this morning (under a blue sky and coming heatwave!) I happened to glance to my left, up a street I had never ridden along before. I noticed that it connected with the road our office is on.

I rode past it.

I was on my usual route, about to climb a (mildly sweat-inducing) hill when it dawned on me, "Hey, that street back there was flat. Hmmmm.

"It looks like it connects to our road, which is flat. Hmmm.

“Here I am, about to climb a hill that, when I get to the top of it, I then just come down the hill to the office anyway.”

I did a U-turn.

I went up the side street and rode to the office on my newly discovered far-less-sweat-inducing route. (I’m a commuter cyclist, not a lycra-clad masochist, so hills hold no appeal to me in this context.)

Now, you might be thinking, “Congratulations Sherlock! Isn’t that obvious?”

Well, it hasn’t been the many times I’ve climbed the unnecessary hill. I was just following the route that was the shortest distance on the map, when I first looked up how to ride to the office.

Ever since then, I have just been pedalling away, just ‘following directions’ and ‘doing it the way I’d always done it’.

Hmmm.

That got me thinking about how many times this happens in everyday life.

Think about your business and its processes.

Are you climbing any unnecessary hills? Are you or your team pedalling away, ‘doing it the way we’ve always done it’, rather than noticing other ways and questioning your usual route?

As a leader and manager in the business, are you giving your team members the freedom to experiment and try going up some side streets occasionally?

Or might that be considered a potential waste of time?

Do the occasional U-turn. Go up some side streets.

You might eliminate a number of unnecessary hills in your business processes.

Your Accounting Firm's Success Habits For 2013

Tue, 08 Jan 2013 11:08:00 GMT

One week into 2013, and the plethora of articles about ‘New Year’s Resolutions’ have already washed over us. Again.

Rather than think about creating resolutions (which seem to be inherently short-lived!), let’s instead think about forming habits.

Looking back on 2012, which habits created your results, good and bad? Which habits supported you? Which habits did not?

One of my favourite quotes is by Lao Tzu:

Watch your thoughts; they become words.
Watch your words; they become actions.
Watch your actions; they become habit.
Watch your habits; they become character.
Watch your character; it becomes your destiny.

Our habits make us. Or break us.

And most are simple actions done, or not done.

Which daily or weekly habits will you develop in 2013 to create the firm, the culture and the lifestyle you desire for yourself and your family?

(Heads up: In reference to lifestyle, this year we’ll be teaching practitioners how to become, what we have termed, A Lifestyle Accountant: One that helps clients to achieve their ideal lifestyle, and in the process, create a great lifestyle for themselves. It’s a very different type of model for a firm; one that throws out some commonly accepted ‘best practices’ and ‘rules of thumb’ on how to structure a firm. More about that in future posts.)

You can manifest whatever you firmly set your attention on, and then act upon. You can design your firm – and your life – to be however you want it to be.

Action: Write down three to six habits you will ingrain in 2013. Don’t write down more than six. Type them out in Word or Pages and print them onto a page. Laminate them. Put them on your wall. At your office. In your bedroom. In your shower cubicle. (Seriously!)

What you focus on in your life, you attract more of – positive or negative. That is scientific fact.

It is an exciting truth that, “Your life is an expression of your mind.”

If you’re a bit of a propeller head like me, you might like to track your ‘habit reality’ in the habit-formation iOS app, Lift. (It’s currently only available as an iPhone app. An Android app is in the pipeline.)

Or if you are more of a pen-on-paper type of person, and you’re a member of the Modern Marketing Academy, download the Daily Habit Tracker A4 sheet in the Downloads area. Use that to track completion of your habits each day.

Tracking habits during the formation phase is incredibly helpful. It helps avoid delusion. Remember, “Though shalt not kid thyself!”

The momentum you will build will amaze you.

And when you have momentum, everything is easier. Winning begets winning. It really does.

It is said that winning, itself, is a habit.

I say winning is the result of habits.

Ask yourself: Which new habit, if performed consistently across 2013 will contribute significantly to your success?

Have your say: Please enter your habit and thoughts in the Comments below. It will be fascinating to see which aspects people are focusing on in 2013.

5 Marketing Mistakes Most Accounting Firms Make - And How You Can Transform Your Firm's Marketing

Thu, 15 Nov 2012 02:12:00 GMT

Marketing is a blindspot for most accounting and financial planning firms.

They "don't know what they don't know".

Yet, for firms that bridge that gap and either:

Learn how to become effective in how to market and how to sell additional services; and/or
Bring in or hire external resources with these competencies ...

... then their world changes.

For example, Growthwise, the current Xero Partner of the Year was a Foundation Member and is a graduate of our Modern Marketing Academy program.

What a transformation in the past two years.

For Steph Hinds, the Principal of Growthwise, to go from "feeling paralysed" about marketing their firm and not knowing where to start before learning from PARADOX, to becoming crystal clear on their strategy and then implementing the modern marketing tools that are freely available to each and every firm (but which less than 2% of firms use effectively), is a testament to Steph's progressive thinking and willingness to learn, innovate and implement.

By the way, Steph told us she only looks *outside* of the accounting industry for inspiration and innovation, and not to other accounting firms. She also shared that PARADOX is the only accounting industry-based consultants they use because, in her opinion, all other advisers to the accounting industry are trotting out the same 'old world' thinking that they have been for years.

Growthwise frequently have weeks now where they receive 10 to 12 enquiries from new prospective clients, and all of which are generated with ...

... *zero* advertising budget.

Modern marketing is powerful.

So why don't more firms apply it?

They don't know how. And they keep making the same mistakes.

In this webinar you'll learn:

What marketing is *not*
The myth of differentiation
Why social media is a waste of time for most firms (and amazingly powerful for some)
Key resourcing mistakes firms keep making
Achieving team engagement in your marketing and selling processes

Join us. Register now.

Great Videos That Cut Through The Marketing Clutter

Thu, 30 Aug 2012 14:00:00 GMT

Video is one of the hottest areas in marketing right now. Online video that is.

We have reached a point in developed countries where bandwidth is large enough to give viewers a good experience, even on mobile data connections and handheld devices. No more annoying stop-start-stop-start buffering of videos. Thank goodness. And even YouTube provides HD options now (720p and 1080p) and has dramatically improved its user interface in the past 12 months. For years the poor quality (‘fuzzy’ low resolution) of YouTube videos coupled with the clunky YouTube player spawned a number of aethetically-minded video hosting start-ups such as Vimeo, Viddler, Vzaar, Wistia among many others. These specialist providers give business customers more functionality (e.g. security and control options, analytics re which videos are being watched, how far through, etc.) than YouTube does, but YouTube itself is now a very good high quality video hosting platform.

And let’s not forget too, that YouTube is the second largest search engine after Google. You can’t ignore it.

So from a business and online marketing perspective, it pays to be on YouTube. It can drive a lot of traffic to your firm’s website.

But what do you put on YouTube? Like any platform (including websites, email marketing and social media) it is just a content channel. Without good engaging content to put into it, there’s no point using it.

Here are some examples …

We teach accounting and advisory firms how to create screencasts of software tips, slide presentations as well as ‘talking head’ videos where the presenter speaks to camera. These are all remarkably easy to create. That is, once you learn the tools (software and hardware) and the basics of how to use them.

This video by Newcastle accounting firm Growthwise was created from start to finish at one of our Masterclasses on how to use video in marketing:

A great effort by first-timers! (Growthwise are a talented and innovative firm really going places. In fact, they won the Xero Partner of the Year 2012 in Australia recently. Quite an accolade considering the calibre of savvy firms they were up against.)

But what if you want to step it up to the next level, and get a professionally scripted, storyboarded, filmed and produced video?

This video produced by Eponine for Sydney firm Interactive Accounting certainly has the ‘wow factor’ (and the ‘cool factor’!):

Keep in mind, that a great video cannot be ‘stuck on’ to an ordinary firm. You need to BE a remarkable firm first, in order to have a great story to tell in such a video. This is why we hammer this (with love, of course) in Module 1 of the Modern Marketing Academy and guide firms in getting crystal clear on their focus, their strategy and–as Simon Sinek puts it–their WHY in terms of what the firm is all about, what is driving them and what is the change they want to bring about in their clients lives and the world generally.

An effective video tells a story. Check out this brilliant video by Zendesk:

That is certainly ‘Hollywood production levels’, in terms of how it was shot, the lighting, the music, the talent and the overall story telling. Its genius is in its simplicity.

Inspiration for your own firm’s video perhaps?

There is a growing genre of videos using animation, humour, quirky voiceovers and an informal style. Watch this video for Gaudium by Grumo Media:

This style of video avoids needing ‘talent’ to put in front of the camera and involves no on location (and therefore time consuming and costly) video shoots. This style of video has its pro’s and con’s. It suits explanatory videos, rather than inspirational videos.

Another quirky and talented animated video production company is Epipheo. Here’s a video they created for StockTwits:

Warning: Don’t put the cart before the horse!

Your next step is not to run out and get a video produced. Your next step is to get clear on your firm’s strategy, its positioning compared with other firms, its target market and its message.

This is precisely what we’ll teach you in Module 1 of the Modern Marketing Academy. (There are 10 Modules)

Then, you’re in a position to create a great video, because you’ll have a compelling story to tell.

Our Next Members-Only Webinar: The Winning Mix: Building Your Team With The Right Mix Of Minders, Grinders, Finders And Reminders

Tue, 14 Aug 2012 14:00:00 GMT

Our next member-only webinar for firms in our Modern Marketing Academy program is on Wednesday 22 August at 11:30am to 12:30pm Australian Eastern Time.

To register, log in to the membership area here then click the Register For This Webinar button at the top of the Home page.

If you are considering membership to the Academy and would like to join in time for this webinar, view our Quick Tour here.

TOPICS IN THIS MEMBERS-ONLY WEBINAR

Why should someone  join your firm?
What is a great team?
Is your firm 'Grinder Heavy' or 'Advisor Rich'?
Is your team full of 'Human Vending Machines'?
What is your ideal team?
Where are the gaps in your current team?
What is The Winning Mix?
How do you achieve it?
What will that mean for you?
Two things you need  as an advisor
What is 'The Rainmaking Zone' mix of personality profiles?
Should your firm offer multiple career paths?
Why the very definition of the accounting profession is holding it back from adding more value

BOTTOM LINE

You'll have clarity on the ideal mix of people you need to on your team, and how to build that team.

Does Your Accounting Firm’s Website Suck? Or Rock? 8 Things To Check.

Wed, 01 Aug 2012 14:00:00 GMT

We are well past the era where firms could afford to think, "We've got to have a website," and think that simply having a website was sufficient. A case of, "tick that box".

Well, here are a number of other things your firm needs to tick, if you expect your website to work for you ...

8 Things That Make Your Firm’s Website Suck:

Poor design: A website that looks like a cheap suit. First impressions count.
Static content: Content that doesn’t change often.
Boring content: ‘Brochurespeak’ about how good you think you are, written in a style that sounds like a brochure, not a person’s voice.
Stock photos: Photos of models pretending to be your team.
No social: Lack of ways to connect with the firm via Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube, Flickr, etc.
No education: A site that doesn’t add value and teach the reader something.
Poor SEO: No conscious effort to make your website Search Engine Optimised (‘SEO-friendly’) so that it ranks well in Google for your target phrases.
No reason to subscribe: A website that doesn’t convert visitors into subscribers to your eNewsletter.

Conversely then …

8 Things That Make A Firm’s Website Rock

Great design: Modern, fresh, edgey design. Professional designers used. Not family members who dabble in design. Not the work experience kid. Not a cookie-cutter design from one of the low-cost website factories who spit out generic websites like they’re serving fast food meals.
Fresh content: Your website should not only have and blog, it should primarly be a blog. This makes it easy for you and your team to add new content (and keep the site organised, among many other benefits).
Engaging content: Content that speaks to the reader so that they feel like you are having a one-on-one conversation with them, about timely and interesting topics … not about compliance and the latest tax rulings!
Real people: Photos of your actual team members and clients. People connect with people. Real ones. Not fake ones.
Social: Icons linking to your Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook Page, YouTube Channel and so on. This of course assumes you are active in your use of these and are publishing good engaging content into these social networks.
Education: A site that teaches people useful stuff. And … wait for it … even inspires them to make changes in their lives.
Traffic: Lots of visitors because, due to smart SEO work, your site ranks in the first few listings on Page 1 of Google when people search on the terms and phrases you are targeting.
Conversion Machine: A site that gives visitors clear incentives to subscribe to your eNewletter and other updates; incentives like reports, white papers, videos, surveys, diagnostic tools and other engagement tools. Do this, and your marketing database grows daily and automatically.

Fail to tick the boxes on those 8 items above and you’ll have a website like 99% of firms’ sites: boring, static, and providing no ROI to the business and no value to readers.

Tick the boxes on those items and your site becomes a valuable cog in a Marketing Machine that will deliver a steady stream of pre-educated, warm enquires to your firm.

Keep in mind too, that a great website will not only help you attract new clients, but also new team members.

Make yours rock. Not suck.

Is Your Accounting Firm A Dinosaur?

Tue, 24 Jul 2012 14:00:00 GMT

How to be a dinosaur:

Hire accountants based solely on their technical skills
Put Grinders in front of clients
Fail to balance your team with Minders and Finders
Ignore that the Grinding skillset is being commoditised
Ignore the global out-sourcing phenomenon
Ignore (or be slow to embrace) cloud computing
Do only what clients ask
Be afraid to suggest additional services to clients
Assume your clients know about your optional services
Remain ‘sensible and corporate’ with your marketing
Think your business is about ‘crunching numbers’
Think that being a ‘trusted advisor’ is enough to succeed
Accept a wide variety of client types
Try to be all things to all people
Price based on time taken to complete a job
Continue to ignore the importance of design
Let clients use whatever accounting system they choose
Fail to invest in marketing as a core competence
Think your clients purchase based on facts
Fail to take steps to improve your communication skills
Ignore the client experience your firm delivers

Firms that do the opposite of the above are a joy to behold.

And they love what they do.

So do their clients.

Your Firm's Sales Process - No-One Likes To Be Sold To, But Everyone Loves To Buy

Mon, 16 Jul 2012 14:00:00 GMT

Interesting. A firm shared with me this morning the following series of events.

Prospective client telephones the firm. She asks to speak with the Principal of the firm. She was referred by a friend.
The Principal is away at a conference. The receptionist emails the Principal regarding the enquiry.
He emails the receptionist back and asks her to set up an appointment with another accountant (in his absence), plus the firm’s in-house financial planner.
The receptionist calls the prospective client back to make that appointment.
The prospective client backs out, letting the receptionist know that “she didn’t like the assumption she wanted to meet with a Financial Planner as she just wanted to get her tax done and she felt we were trying to sell her something”
The receptionist then offered an appointment with just the accountant, and the prospective client replied that if she wanted that option (the financial planning services) she would have asked for it and she is still thinking about what course of action she wants to take.

Ouch.

So much of marketing and selling is about ‘gradient’. We hammer this concept repeatedly to members of the Modern Marketing Academy as we teach them how to market and how to sell.

There is an art and a science to it. It’s all founded on psychology. Break the princples, and your sales process breaks down.

This prospective client in the above real-world scenario:

Felt like she was being sold to
Felt like she was railroaded into something she didn’t ask for
Felt like it was all too much, too soon
Felt unheard

Key take home points here:

Your firm needs a defined sales process.
The first conversation over the telephone with a prospective client is crucial. It’s not just about ‘making an appointment’. It’s about selling the sales process. That’s ‘the sale’ that needs to be made on that call.
The person handling the first enquiry does not need to be an accountant or advisor. In fact, it is best if they are not. A mature receptionist, Client Services Coordinator or Marketing Coordinator is ideal.
The person handling the first enquiry must be trained in the objective and the structure of the call. That is, it is to explain the evaluation process and the next two steps in the process. Making the appointment is just a detail, not the main objective.
The person handling the call needs prompts (a ‘cheat sheet’) to put on the wall in front of them as a reminder during the calls, and they need a training script for practising how to handle these calls.

We advise that the ‘evaluation process’ of getting to know each other (that is, the firm’s sales process) is explained to a prospective client as a 3-step process:

Step 1, they will read the information that they’ll be sent after the call. That way they arrive at the meeting up-to-speed with what the firm is about and what it can provide, which makes for a much more productive meeting that can focus on answering questions, not just conveying ‘brochure information’;
Step 2, the prospective client will meet with the appropriate advisor—based on what was discussed during the call—and we’ll explore what the client wants and whether there’s a fit with what the firm provides; and
Step 3, the firm will then provide them with an Agreed Price (a.k.a. fixed price) ‘no surprises’ proposal outlining their options.

In the course of this first call, the following is also achieved:

The reason for them wanting to change accountants or advisors is discovered (and noted in the firm’s CRM)
What the prospective client is looking for in a new accountant or advisor is clarified
The prospective client is screened regarding their pricing/fee expectations. The person handling the call explains that the firm is not the cheapest in town, and nor is it the most expensive, and that if low price is the main objective, then there’s probably not a fit and that other firms are probably more suitable (i.e. price sensitive tyre kickers are screened out)
The advisor that the prospective client will be meeting with is edified and their credibility is established (which is easier for someone else to do, rather than an advisor ‘talk themselves up’.)
The prospective client learns that the firm charges by the end result, not by a ‘ticking clock’ where the firm would be rewarded for being slow and inefficient, as most firms are.
The prospective client is educated in a crystal clear way, what the 3 steps will be, and that the meeting with the advisor is not one where advice will be given, but rather where the scope and the fit is established.

At the end of the call, the prospective client is totally impressed by the professionalism of the call and is looking forward to their meeting with the advisor.

They have felt listened to and cared for.

And they are enthusiastic about your firm.

They have not at all felt ‘sold to’.

But they have loved the process. (We all love to buy!)

In the Modern Marketing Academy we go into depth with a procedure, script, checklist and other supporting systems to enable you to develop a finely tuned ‘sales system’. One that works for you and for your prospective new clients.

The front-end of your sales process–that initial telephone or email enquiry–is so crucial to setting up the meeting and pre-selling the proposal.

Ask yourself:

Does your firm have a defined sales process?
Do you have non-advisors trained in handling the front end of the process?
Have all your advisors been formally trained in how to sell? (After all, being an advisor is simply selling courses of action.)

If you answered ‘No’ to any of those question, your firm is missing out.

So are your clients.

Why? Because you’re probably stuck doing mainly tax and compliance work with your clients which, whilst important, is viewed as a necessary evil.

Your optional, future-focused, planning-related services, however, will change your clients’ lives for the better.

But note the word ‘optional’.

They are optional.

Which means they need to be sold.

But … do you buy that?

If you don’t, your clients never will.

Xero Acceleration: How To Accelerate (And Automate) Your Marketing and Selling Process Of Bringing On More Xero Clients To Your Accounting Or Bookkeeping Firm

Tue, 10 Jul 2012 14:00:00 GMT

I was having a look at my LinkedIn feed this afternoon, and I noticed an update linking to a blog article an accounting firm had written about the online accounting software Xero.

The article was about how great Xero is and how clients tell this firm how simple they find Xero to use and how “it just works”.

High praise. And there’s no doubting Xero is a superb piece of technology, on all fronts. We use it ourselves at PARADOX.

However, at the end of the article I was disappointed for the firm because I saw something that kills the sales process.

And that’s a call-to-action that is too high in ‘gradient’.

It was the typical call-to-action we see on websites, on brochures, in ads, and in marketing material in general.

The “Call us on _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _”.

It doesn’t work.

It’s as ineffective as the old, “Call us for your complimentary initial consultation.” Save me.

“Call us” is a steep gradient for someone who doesn’t even know you, to go from seeing an update in LinkedIn (or Twitter, Facebook, or other online media), to reading an article, to picking up the phone andactually speaking with you.

That is too daunting a step. Too much, too soon. It’s like an inappropriate, ill-timed move on a first date! Your goal is to get a second date! (Assuming you’re interested in pursuing the relationship!) Don’t blow it.

So the reader, when they see “Call us”, doesn’t take that step. They don’t take any step, because no other steps were suggested.

And the process ends.

Prospect gone. Ta ta. Or, as my wife’s extended family says, “Ciao ciao.”

And after all that effort to write a good blog article in the first place.

What a waste of time and effort.

An effective call-to-action is one that is easy for the reader to take, and that takes them one step closer to getting to know, like and trust you. (Sales 101 says you need all 3 of those in place before someone will buy from you: they need to know, like and trust you.)

That’s especially true in professional services.

In the Modern Marketing Academy, we teach firms how to build a ‘Conveyor Belt’ which is one of the 10 components of what we call their ‘Marketing Machine’.

The Conveyor Belt is an exciting and powerful concept.

Why?

Because apart from that fact it works (for reasons based in psychology and influence principles that we won’t go into here), it is an automated system.

Once you set it up, it works while you sleep. Literally.

Build it once, and then have it work for you again and again and again.

That’s leverage. Achieving more but with less effort.

What do I mean by that?

Let’s look at example Conveyor Belt series of small steps that could be designed to link directly from an article about Xero (or any recommended piece of technology)…

Call-to-action at end of article: Watch our 2 minute ‘Quick Tour’ of Xero. (By the way, we teach how to record effective screencasts within The Academy. Going into practical ‘how to’ depth on this stuff is our forte.)
Next step prospect is invited to take after watching the video: Complete our 5 question diagnostic, “Is Xero Right For Your Business?”. This could be a series of questions like, “Do you find you spend too much time on data entry with your bookkeeping?”; “Do you wish you could see a consolidated real-time cash position for your business, on your phone or iPad, at any time?” etc. Build that diagnostic using a web survey tool. (We teach how to do this, too.)
Next step on Conveyor Belt: Download our ‘10 Reasons We Think Xero Rocks’ (or whatever headline is apt, based on the content, brand positioning of the firm, desired tone depending on who you are targeting, etc.)
Next step: Register for our next Xero Briefing (in-house info session) or Xero Explained webinar.

By the time a prospect takes this series of steps—each of which was a relatively easy, low gradient step to take compared with the previous step in the process—they are ready to speak with you.

But the conversation is so much better than the occasional one that might result from the one-step “Call us” process. With a multi-step Conveyor Belt education^^ system in place, the prospect arrives to you pre-sold and ready to take action.

It’s a beautiful thing when you experience this on the end of your own Conveyor Belt.

^^The approach we teach with marketing, is to view it as education. For a professional services firm, that really is what marketing is all about.

And here is the key point…

You will get many times more people take Step 1 on a well-designed Conveyor Belt (e.g. watch the 2 minute video), than you will get people to call you as a first step. That then flows into many more people in ‘Your Hopper’ (our term for your marketing database), and ultimately, a steady stream of new, pre-educated clients.

Remember: A call-to-action that is too high of a gradient, isn’t a minor problem in your marketing.

It’s a killer flaw.

If you’d like to actually build a Conveyor Belt for your firm, click here to gain access to our Quick Tour video (see, we practice what we preach!) that explains the Modern Marketing Academy online training and support program, and also gives you a Sneak Peek inside the student platform.

Modern Marketing for Advisors - A key component of your firm's Marketing Machine

Wed, 13 Jun 2012 14:00:00 GMT

Register now for Part 3 of the Modern Marketing for Advisors webinar series.

Marketing remains a mystery for many firms. Yet those firms who grasp modern marketing techniques easily differentiate themselves in the marketplace, because most firms do very little marketing. And many that do, do it poorly.

But marketing has changed in recent years.

A great deal.

There are now a whole raft of free or near-free marketing tools such as social media that allow firms to market themselves extremely cost-effectively.

But ... you need to know the why, the what and the HOW regarding these modern marketing tools and strategies.

In this webinar presented by Michael 'MC' Carter who specializes solely in marketing for accounting and advisory firms, you'll discover what the most progressive firms are doing in their marketing.

Specifically, MC will share 5 marketing strategies that progressive accounting firms have used in the past year, to grow dramatically.

For example ...

How did a sole practitioner grow 247% in 12 months, with ZERO MARKETING BUDGET? (Tip: She applied 2 of the 5 strategies you will learn in this webinar.)

How did an accounting firm that had not grown at all for 5 years straight, turn that around within the space of 3 months to now have a 'Marketing Machine' that consistently produces fee growth each and every month since the changes?

How did a new firm go from 'nowhere' to the top of Page 1 of Google (in the free listings, not the ads) within one and half weeks of applying one of the 5 strategies?

How are firms generating a steady stream of enquires from prospective clients that are actually better in quality than typical client referrals?

MC will also share with you how Practice Paradox teaches modern marketing strategies and technologies to advisory firms just like yours.

We look forward to 'seeing you' online for this webinar - click here to register now.

Modern Marketing for Advisors - Why traditional marketing is dead

Wed, 30 May 2012 14:00:00 GMT

Register now for Part 2 in the Modern Marketing for Advisors webinar series.

Marketing has changed a great deal in recent years. Modern marketing is an powerful tool for any firm that has a clear strategy.

We covered fundamental marketing strategy in Part 1 of this 3-part webinar series.

In Part 2 of this series, you will learn Strategies #2 and #3 that progressive firms are using to attract new clients and to strongly differentiate themselves in the market place.

Marketing is not what you think it is.

At least not on the front-end.

Strategy #2 will show you why the "complimentary consultations" for prospective clients is one of the worst moves you can ever do in your marketing. For two very good reasons.

A simple but profound concept we call 'gradient' will make all of your marketing and advertising more effective (and far easier).

Strategy #3 is about whether you D.A.R.E. to do modern marketing? You'll learn why traditional marketing advertising is dead, what the new way of marketing now requires, and why it takes a little courage.

We recently ran this workshop on a 5-city tour of New Zealand and a senior advisor from a 2nd tier firm who attended said this on his feedback form: “Attend. It will open your eyes to a whole new perspective for your practice.”

Register now for Part 2 of this Modern Marketing webinar series.

We look forward to 'seeing you' online for this webinar.

Modern Marketing for Advisors - Getting Clear on Your Firm's Strategy

Wed, 16 May 2012 14:00:00 GMT

Register now for the Modern Marketing for Advisor webinar.

Marketing remains a mystery for many firms. Yet those firms who grasp modern marketing techniques easily differentiate themselves in the marketplace, because most firms do very little marketing. And many that do, do it poorly.

But marketing has changed in recent years.

A great deal.

But ... you need to know the why, the what and the HOW regarding these modern marketing tools and strategies.

In this webinar series presented by marketing specialist Michael 'MC' Carter, you'll discover what the most progressive firms are doing in their marketing.

Specifically, MC will share 5 marketing strategies that progressive firms have used in the past year, to grow dramatically.

MC will share with you case studies, examples and specifics that will show you:

How did a sole practitioner grow 247% in 12 months, with ZERO MARKETING BUDGET? (Tip: She applied 2 of the 5 strategies you will learn in this webinar series.)

How did an accounting firm that had not grown at all for 5 years straight, turn that around within the space of 3 months to now have a 'Marketing Machine' that consistently produces fee growth each and every month since the changes?

How did a new firm go from 'nowhere' to the top of Page 1 of Google (in the free listings, not the ads) within one and half weeks of applying one of the 5 strategies?

In Part 1 of this series, you will learn the first of the 5 strategies: This is the most important decision in your marketing (and your overall business strategy).

This decision will be pivotal in you knowing where to focus your marketing activities and all your firm's marketing material will revolve around this one decision.

Did you know that any business, including yours, has a choice of only 4 strategies for their business?

Do you know what your firm's strategy is? If not, your marketing (and your business) will struggle.

Register now for Part 1 in this Modern Marketing webinar series.

We look forward to 'seeing you' online for this webinar.

The Marketing Coordinator Role: Focus, KPIs, Tasks & Routines

Fri, 30 Mar 2012 01:22:00 GMT

Why does a firm need a Marketing Coordinator?

Have you ever wondered, what's the difference between a ...

Marketing Coordinator
Marketing Manager
Marketing Director

These are questions many firms struggle to find the answer - at our upcoming members-only webinar, we'll explain the difference and delve further into the Marketing Coordinator Role and what it could be in your firm including:

Should the Marketing Coordinator role be in-house, out-sourced, or a combination?
What KPIs should apply to a Marketing Coordinator?
What is a typical Position Description for a Marketing Coordinator?
What should a Marketing Coordinator do?

Each day?
Each week?
Each month?

How big does a firm need to be before hiring a Marketing Coordinator?
Tips on recruiting a Marketing Coordinator

So, join us for this #paradoxlive webinar.

Here are the details:

Date: Wed 4 April 2012
Time: 11:30 QLD AEST time. Click here for other time zones.
Duration: 1 hour
How to Register: Only for Members of The Clientshare Academy Members only register here: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/577657920
Format: 40 minute presentation followed by 20 minute live Q&A
Cost: Included as part of membership of The Clientshare Academy
Value of the information: Quite literally, many thousands of dollars

How to join the webinar:

10 minutes prior to the webinar start time, click the unique link you will receive after registering.

If you’re not yet a member of the Academy, as one member advised a practitioner recently, “Get with the program.” Seriously though, you are missing out on tremendous high value, high ROI knowledge by not being a member of The Clientshare Academy. No other consultants and coaches to the industry (1) cover the specialist marketing and selling topics that we cover, or (2) go to the depth we we do in these areas. We are specialists. By definition, generalist practice management consultants and coaches cannot, do not and will never get into the practical ‘how to’ depth we, as marketing specialists, do in these areas.

As David Cartwright of Cartwright Brown & Company in Sydney said to us, “In 20 years of subscribing to all the IP and business gurus going around, Practice Paradox is specific advice. By comparison, all the others are vague.”

If you’re tired of hearing consultants and coaches tell you WHAT to do to grow your firm, and you’re ready to learn specifically HOW to implement marketing and selling strategies and systems, get in touch with us.

To find out more about Academy membership contact us and we’ll arrange a web meeting to explain the program to you. As part of that process, we’ll perform a Marketing Diagnostic to assess your firm’s current level of marketing competence. The score out of 100 is always an eye opener for practitioners.

SEO Tips: How To Have Your Website Rank Well In Google With Better Search Engine Optimisation

Tue, 13 Mar 2012 14:00:00 GMT

Why is SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) so important for your business?

A website that ranks on page 1 of Google will get around 20 times more traffic than a website on page 2 of Google, and 50 times more traffic than a site on page 3 of Google.

If you are on page 4 … you may as well be on page 100.

A study by iProspect, found that 49% of us change our search terms and/or search engine after not finding our desired result on the first page.

For an accounting or advisory firm, does it matter if your website ranks well in Google?

Absolutely it does.

The ROI is tremendous, especially if you are applying the marketing strategies we teach in Module 2 ‘Your Hopper’ in The Clientshare Academy where you focus on incentivising visitors to your website to opt-in to your email list through great quality downloads and other interactive marketing approaches. This is called ‘Conversion’ … converting website visitors into subscribers to your email list, and also having them become followers and connections in Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and other social media platforms.

There is no point generating lots of traffic to your website if you are not converting them into subscribers. Understand, too, that your marketing database is a balance sheet asset for your firm. It matters, for lots of reasons. (But more about that in Module 2 …)

So, given you understand WHY you want your website to rank at the top of Page 1 in Google, HOW do you achieve it?

SEO.

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is about knowing how Google^^ ranks websites in its search results, and then putting in place ‘on page’ and ‘off page’ SEO strategies and tactics so that Google sees your website as highly relevant and high quality content, in relation to specific search terms.

In this members-only webinar we’ll teach you a 5 step process for improving your SEO.

We’ll show you examples of members’ websites where they now rank No.1 and No.2 in Google for their targeted search terms.

We’ll also show you a ‘super cool tool’ for analysing your website’s current SEO effectiveness.

The value of being No.1 in Google is worth many tens of thousands of dollars for most firms. That’s why there is an entire industry of SEO consultants who specialise in this area.

It’s big ROI stuff.

And guess what?

From what we’ve noticed, many providers of websites to firms are almost negligent in their lack of attention to SEO for the sites they build. We have seen many cases where not even the most basic of basic of SEO techniques have been applied to a site’s ‘Title Tag’. (You’ll learn more about this in the webinar …)

So, join us for this #paradoxlive webinar.

Here are the details:

Date: Wed 21 March 2012
Time: 11:30 QLD AEST time. Click here for other time zones.
Duration: 1 hour
How to Register: Only for Members of The Clientshare Academy
Members only register here: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/364681609
Format: 40 minute presentation followed by 20 minute live Q&A
Cost: Included as part of membership of The Clientshare Academy
Value of the information: Quite literally, many thousands of dollars

How to join the webinar:

10 minutes prior to the webinar start time, click the unique link you will receive after registering.

If you’re not yet a member of the Academy, as one member advised a practitioner recently, “Get with the program.” Seriously though, you are missing out on tremendous high value, high ROI knowledge by not being a member of The Clientshare Academy. No other consultants and coaches to the industry (1) cover the specialist marketing and selling topics that we cover, or (2) go to the depth we we do in these areas. We are specialists. By definition, generalist practice management consultants and coaches cannot, do not and will never get into the practical ‘how to’ depth we, as marketing specialists, do in these areas.

As David Cartwright of Cartwright Brown & Company in Sydney said to us, “In 20 years of subscribing to all the IP and business gurus going around, Practice Paradox is specific advice. By comparison, all the others are vague.”

If you’re tired of hearing consultants and coaches tell you WHAT to do to grow your firm, and you’re ready to learn specifically HOW to implement marketing and selling strategies and systems, get in touch with us.

To find out more about Academy membership contact us and we’ll arrange a web meeting to explain the program to you. As part of that process, we’ll perform a Marketing Diagnostic to assess your firm’s current level of marketing competence. The score out of 100 is always an eye opener for practitioners.

^^ SEO obviously also applies to other search engines, but with Google having 72.11% of Search Engine Market Share (as at Feb 2012), most SEO advice is in relation to Google, not Yahoo!, Bing or others.

The True Advisor - Why Accounting Practices Keep Hiring People Who Will Never Help Grow A Firm

Tue, 06 Mar 2012 14:00:00 GMT

Picture this …

A high school student goes to see their career guidance counsellor. After a couple of discussions, some testing as well as profiling of the student’s natural aptitudes, the guidance counsellor says to the student, “You’re a great communicator. You connect with people. I really get a sense of you being present and truly listening to me when we speak. You’re engaging and enthusiastic when you speak with people. You’re confident and you like helping others. Basically, you’re a great ‘people person’. You know what? I have just the career for you …

“You should be an accountant.”

It doesn’t happen, does it?

The usual conversation would be more like this …

“You’re good at maths. You’re good with numbers. Very logical and analytical. I have just the career for you …

“You should be an accountant.”

“Number crunchers,” as the saying goes.

Indeed.

Even some accounting professional bodies’ promotional tag lines reinforce this ‘number cruncher’ perception.

But this is unhelpful.

Why?

Because this approach means that the profession continues to attract mainly Analyticals or ‘Grinders’. These are essential roles, of course, to perform the technical work of the business. But they really are ‘back office’ roles, not client-facing roles.

Why do I say that?

People with a strong Analytical profile prefer to look at a spreadsheet rather than at a client. They tend to be more task-focused and less people-focused.

They also have lower Assertiveness and therefore tend to prefer to be told what to do, rather than to tell or suggest to others what to do.

For a firm to grow, it needs what we call ‘True Advisors’.

These are people who make suggestions to clients. They grow the firm’s Clientshare™ and actively cross-sell additional services to clients. (Clientshare is a measure for how many services your firm provides per client group.)

They take an active interest in clients as people, as families, and find out what their challenges and aspirations are. They then help them address these. They sell ideas.

They truly advise.

This personality profile, in the Merrill-Reid social styles model we use, is called Expressive. They have moderate to high levels of Responsiveness (people focus over task focus) and Assertiveness (able to tell, not just ask.)

You cannot advise without at least a moderate level of Assertiveness.

The accounting profession attracts very few Expressives. But these are what many clients of firms want.

Clients want an accountant who makes suggestions. They want someone who cares about what they want to achieve in life.

They want proactive advice.

How do we know?

We survey clients of accounting firms all the time. (We provide this as a market research service to firms.)

You are not a True Advisor if you only ever do what a client asks for. If you do that, you are merely an order taker.

A human vending machine.

Understand this: Order takers are eventually replaced by technology. It’s happened in many industries. Think online retail. Think online travel bookings.

It’s starting to happen in the accounting industry.

In the Minder/Grinder/Finder/Reminder model we’ve evolved (we added ‘Reminder’ to the model) and which we overlay on the 4 profiles of the Merrill-Reid social styles model, the Expressives are the ‘Minders’. They like people and ‘Minding’ (that is, caring for) relationships. They like sharing their ideas and their enthusiasm with people.

Minders love client meetings.

Grinders loathe them.

Grinders consider client meetings and telephone calls to be interruptions to their work!

To Minders, their client meetings and conversations are their work.

Many successful practitioners in public practice (that is, the owners of firms) have at least a moderate level of ‘Expressive’ in their social style. Obviously you cannot successfully build a firm without being at least reasonably good with clients.

But then what happens as the firm evolves?

Because the profession keeps attracting ‘number crunching’ Analytical Grinders, the available labour pool has within it a very small percentage of people who have a moderate to high level of ‘Expressive’ in their natural social style.

So over time a practitioner gradually surrounds him or herself with a team of Grinders, and then eventually grows frustrated when it’s realised that no-one else in the firm is truly advising clients and making suggestions for other services the firm could provide.

The next big mistake firms can make?

Firms bring in someone to train their team in ‘how to sell’, or worse, arm their Grinders with a ‘cross-selling checklist’.

That is a recipe for failure.

Without a conscious change management initiative to first address ‘Mindset’ issues regarding the motives and reasons for selling, so that team members are 100% on board with the realisation and core belief that it is in the client’s best interests for the advisor to make suggestions to them, Grinders will continue to resent being told to have a focus on cross-selling.

And even if a person with a strong Grinder profile tries to use, for example, a cross-selling checklist or equivalent piece of software in a client meeting, without at least a moderate level of Expressive ‘soft skills’, the client interview process is more likely to resemble an interrogation, rather than a conversation.

So what are the actionable ‘take home’ points here?

The accounting profession (public practice) needs to re-focus its recruiting message on what a wonderful advisory career accounting is; that it is a role advising people (not numbers) about something crucial in their life (that is, money) and how an advisor can make major positive differences in peoples’ lives by helping them secure and achieve their financial future. That message will start to attract more Expressives to the profession.
At the firm level, the recruiting message in advertisements, on firms’ About Us and Careers web pages, as well as in the conversations during interviews with candidates needs to focus on the advisory and people skills aspects of the role. Firms that wish to grow need to attract to them what few Expressives are available in the labour pool.

By the way, are we suggesting that Expressives are somehow ‘better’ than Grinders?

Absolutely not!

Having top quality, productive Grinders to do the analytical accounting and compliance work is clearly crucial in any firm. It’s a given that the work of a Grinder is very important and central to a firm.

Every firm needs a balanced team, with a mix of natural strengths across Minders, Grinders, Finders and Reminders.

Your next steps? 1. Know thyself. 2. Know your team.

You can complete (at no cost) our “What’s Your Profile?” questionnaire to find out your scores across Analytical, Amiable, Expressive and Driver attributes. The email you will receive with your scores includes links to articles explaining more about the Merrill-Reid social styles model and how to interpret your scores.

Once you complete your profile, then invite your team to do the same.

The exercise might confirm your gut feel on your existing team, or it might be an eye opener for you. It might show you have a balanced mix of profiles, or it might show that your firm is indicative of the profession as a whole and is ‘Grinder-heavy’.

Understand this: If your firm is putting Grinders in front of clients you are (1) not providing an ideal client experience, and (2) not reaching your firm’s potential for growing Clientshare.

In such cases, everyone loses. The firm, the advisor, the client.

The good news is, there’s a very pragmatic, structured path we teach that addresses these issues, and in the process, transforms your firm and gives your clients what they have been waiting for …

… advice.

If you’d like to discuss with us our team workshops, training and consulting service that identify and develop the advisory and selling talent of your team, drop us a line.

Social Media For Time-Poor Accountants & Advisors

Mon, 27 Feb 2012 14:00:00 GMT

Social Media is not the be all and end all of marketing. It is, however, an important string to your modern marketing bow. It cannot be ignored, especially by professional services and advisory firms that want to do content-driven, interactive marketing.

But for a time-poor practitioner in a professional services firm, how can you "do social media", so to speak, with a minimum of time input each day.

This webinar will show you how.

To be time efficient with social media you need two things:

1. A social media dashboard app; and
2. A 'tweet' (update) queuing tool.

In this webinar for members of The Clientshare Academy, we'll show you a routine that you can, quite literally, do over your morning coffee and in the process turn your 'morning read of the newspapers' into a leveraged marketing activity.

We used to recommend Tweet Deck as our preferred Social Media Dashboard tool. We now recommend Sprout Social. You'll find out why in this webinar.

A relatively new social media tool is Buffer. We'll show you how to 'queue up' a whole string of 'tweets' (updates) and have your Buffer account gradually publish them across the week or month. This makes 'content curation' (where you tweet links to 3rd party content) extremely time efficient for you, and it also makes it more effective because you won't swamp your followers with too many tweets in quick succession (which is a big no-no).

I look forward to seeing you online for this live webinar.

If you're not yet a member of The Clientshare Academy and you want to plug into a education and training system for marketing your firm effectively, click here to contact us and we'll make a time to step you through a Marketing Diagnostic where your answers will rate you firm's current marketing out of 100. It's a real eye opener.

How to ask questions in the lead-up

You can ask your questions on this blog post. Enter your questions at the bottom of that web page.

This webinar go for one hour and will begin at the following time, taking into account time zone and daylight savings differences:

8:30am WA time (WST)
10:00am NT time (CST)
10:30am QLD time (EST)
11:00am SA (CDT)
11:30am NSW, VIC, ACT and TAS time (EDT)
1:30pm NZ time (NZDT)

So how will you join the sessions?

Just log into the members area for The Clientshare Academy and click on the link beneath the heading 'How to Access a Live Q&A Webinar'.

That takes you to the web page where you will view (and listen to) the sessions. Easy!

You will need speakers attached to your computer, as telephone dial-in is not possible.

We'll see you online live for the session ...

5 Signs Your Business is Suffering Because You Haven't Effectively Documented Your Business Processes

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 14:00:00 GMT

Great systems are a hallmark of all successful businesses.

You know that.

Without good systems, a business is not scalable . It's difficult to grow.

You've experienced that.

It's also more labour-intensive and stressful to manage a business with poor systems.

You've felt that pain.

You also know first hand that even though systems will set you free, it's easier said than done to document your processes and systemise your business.

So what's the solution?

Understand this much ...

Traditional methods of documenting business processes are dead.

Documenting procedures in Microsoft Word is 'last century', old thinking. Procedures that are simply text-based descriptions are almost useless. Very low value. They take too long to create and to update and are ineffective for training purposes.

On March 27th 2012, we are hosting an 'encore' webinar presented by Greg DeVore, President & CEO of Blue Mango Learning Systems based in the U.S., you'll learn 5 signs your business is suffering because you haven't effectively documented your business processes.

Blue Mango have developed what we believe is one of the two most powerful business process documentation tools we have seen in the past 20 years. You'll get a sneak peek at this amazing software tool during the webinar.

You'll learn why your business' lack of effective process documentation is costing you money, productivity and focus, and is holding back the growth of your business.

Greg will outline a 3-step Document-Standardise-Optimise process and will give you specifics on turning each of these 5 symptoms into strengths.

At Practice Paradox, we've been blown away by the effectiveness of Blue Mango's 'ScreenSteps' tool for documenting processes. We've combined it into an approach we call The Lightning Method, which also uses screencasting (video) to rapidly capture 'how to' knowledge within a business.

The combination and technology and methodology is 20 TIMES FASTER than anything you will have ever seen for documenting your business processes.

We'll also let you know about an upcoming workshop where you can learn The Lightning Method, hands-on.

These skills, quite literally, transform a business.

Special Webinar - Tuesday, March 27th 2012

Click here to register (no cost to attend)
Start time: 12pm SYD/MEL time
Click 'Show in my Time Zone' beneath heading, top of registration page for other times.
1 hour webinar
40 minute presentation
5 minute explanation of upcoming workshop, 'The Lightning Method'
15 minutes of Question Time
Intended for Partners/Principals/Directors, Managers & Support Team Members

By popular demand from Clientshare Academy members we're teaching firms how to use the latest technologies and a new methodology (The Lightning Method) to free up capacity in their firm, so they can do more marketing and more business development activities, rather than being forever stuck in the 'busyness' of the day-to-day operations of their firm. This webinar is part of that process.

We've been asked if this webinar is appropriate for firms to invite their SME business clients to. Absolutely. Send them the link to the registration page and invite them to join you. The Lightning Method also offers firms an opportunity to add Process Documentation as a service that can (at last) be profitably delivered to SME clients.

Selling Professional Services | 3 Things You Might Not Know That You Might Not Know

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 14:00:00 GMT

For many professional services firms, selling is a blind spot. For some, especially in the accounting industry, selling is a dirty word. For others it’s a mystery or at the very best an elusive art form only mastered after decades of experience.

The good news is that selling is a combination of art and science.

It is something that anyone can learn, although it’s important to acknowledge there are natural aptitude considerations as well. (See our free “What’s Your Profile?” online diagnostic tool.)

And selling skills can be learned quickly. Within one year an advisor can transform their ability to sell additional services. It doesn’t have to take decades.

In my experience dealing with many dozens of accounting and advisory firms over the past two decades, firms that have someone who can sell, prosper.

Those that don’t, struggle.

That’s a missed opportunity for the firm to do more with their existing clients. Apart from growing the firm’s revenue, providing more services to existing clients also gives advisors on your team more interesting and varied work, and strengthens client relationships.

That’s why we have such a strong focus at Practice Paradox on helping firms grow what we term their ‘Clientshare’. This is a measure of how many services a firm is providing per client group.

Growing Clientshare is good for everyone: Good for your firm,good for your team, good for your clients.

But you cannot grow Clientshare if you do not have selling ability–and a clear sales process–within your firm.

Selling is, in many ways, more important than marketing.

Why?

In an established firm there are always up-selling and cross-selling opportunities available. Always.

There is not much point focusing on finding new clients when your existing clients are under-serviced.

Yet time and time again, Principals of firms think that ‘getting more clients’ will be the cure for all their ills.

It won’t.

Why bring on more clients and under-service them as well?

With every client relationship comes an overhead in managing that relationship. A financial and an emotional overhead. Relationships take work to maintain. If you could have half the number of clients with double the average fees per client, I’m sure you’d take it. (Unless of course you only have a handful of clients and already have too many eggs in too few baskets.)

In our surveys of the accounting profession, for example, 77% of those surveyed have not been formally trained in how to sell.

That is a clear indication that most accounting firms just don’t take selling seriously. They don’t treat it as a profession, as a core competency to be mastered.

And selling is a profession. There’s a skill-set, a framework and a mindset to selling effectively. It is based on a deep understanding of human nature and how to communicate. It’s a form of psychology.

It’s a fascinating area and, perhaps more importantly if you’re reading this as a Principal of a firm, it’s probably the highest Return On Investment skill-set you could invest in this year.

Or any year.

We see effective sales training have an immediate effect. Often resulting in hundreds of thousands of dollars in additional fees simply through cross-selling additional services to existing clients.

This can be achieved with no additional staff, no additional client meetings, no additional marketing budget. Just with additional focus and new skills.

Here are 3 things we find that members of our Clientshare Academy training program realise once they start to learn about professional selling skills:

Selling skills development needs to start with mindset and attitude, not skills training. If you don’t successfully address these issues first, then sales skills training will not only be a waste of time and money for the firm, it will actually have a negative effect on the team. They will ‘nod and smile’ through the training, then go straight back to their desks and keep working the way they always have. Reactively. Time sheet and WIP focused. That’s why we spend a lot of time on–and have great success with–addressing selling mindset first, before selling skills.
You need to have a defined sales process, with clear stages or milestones, along with supporting checklists and forms to use before, during and after client meetings. Scripts are important too, but only as a training and role playing tool. They are never used ‘live’! Selling can be systemised just like any other process with your firm. There is a structure to it.
There is a BIG difference between selling and ‘sales management’. They are as different as being an advisor in your firm and being the practice manager or workflow manager. They involve a completely different skill-set, different focus, different metrics. If firms by and large do not take selling seriously as a profession, then it is fair to say that most firms are not even aware of ‘sales management’ as a profession and responsibility that needs to be designated within their firm. Sales management is about managing the sales or ‘opportunity’ pipeline in an objective, systematic way so that no opportunities fall through the cracks and statistics can be gathered on conversion rates, usual sales cycle time (elapsed days) and so that reliable sales (‘new fees’) forecasts can be easily generated.

What you can measure you can manage, and sales process effectivess is readily measured if you have a clear methodology and know which technology to use.

A hugely important aspect of sales management is the coaching and mentoring of the ‘sales people’; the advisors who have selling KPIs to achieve. This mentoring is vital in keeping them focused on the selling objectives. Otherwise they’ll get sucked back into the urgent, reactive day-to-day of delivering services, and not be active in selling more services.

Selling is such an important topic, we devote 5 of the 10 Foundation Modules in The Clientshare Academy to it. The first 5 modules address marketing and strategy, then we address selling. Marketing and selling are two sides of the one coin, and it’s important that your sales process flows smoothly from your marketing processes and is totally congruent with your marketing message.

What's your view?

Tell me, what is your number one challenge with selling additional services to your existing clients? Enter your comment below. You can answer either from our own personal perspective, or from the perspective of managing others who have a selling and advisory role.

Capacity To DO More Marketing | How Knowledge Capture Technologies Can Free Up Capacity In Your Accounting Firm

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 07:55:00 GMT

Before you can get really active with marketing your accounting or advisory firm, you need spare capacity.

At our last Marketing Masterclass I asked the accountants and advisors in the room which topics they’d like covered in future Masterclasses. Chris B., a principal in a regional firm asked, “MC, we love all these marketing and social media strategies, but seeing as you’re up with the latest in technology, can you show us ways we can free up time in managing our practices so we can actually DO more marketing?”

In my head these thoughts quickly ticked over: “Creating capacity is a topic upstream of marketing (our core focus at Paradox), but if practitioners want help it his area and it will flow through to help them do more marketing, then I’m open to it.”

I put it to the room, “If I showed you all how to use the latest technologies for documenting, streamlining and automating processes in your firm, so you could free up capacity and delegate and out-source more, who’d be interested in that?”

Whoosh. A sea of hands went straight up.

“What specifically do you mean by latest technologies, MC?” came the next question.

I explained that the days of ‘procedures’ as a way of codifying your business' processes and for inducting and training staff are over. Using Microsoft Word documents (or even text-based wiki pages), for example, to describe processes with a series of numbered paragraphs is very out-dated thinking.

It is ‘last century thinking’, in my opinion.

Think about it.

If you were with a team member at their desk and they asked you how to do something in your practice management, workflow, accounting or tax software, you wouldn’t just hand them a text-based document (a.k.a. “a sea of text”) and say, “Here. Read this. That explains it.”

No. Of course not.

You’d SHOW them on screen. If you had the time.

The team member could then SEE how to do it. Not just read about it and then try to imagine it.

Ideally, you’d also then ask the team member to do the task themselves, to check they understood how to do it.

If you had the time.

But you don’t often have the time, do you?

Especially not over and over again, to explain the same thing, repeatedly, with various team members.

So what’s the alternative?

Knowledge capture.

Knowledge re-use.

In a visual, multimedia way. Using the latest tools.

We live in exciting times. There are now inexpensive software tools for not only creating videos (called ‘screencasts’) of what’s happening on a computer screen along with audio of the trainer’s voice explaining what they are doing, but recently we’ve discovered an even more powerful software for creating ‘visual procedures’.

In many ways these visual procedures are more useful than screencasts. But they work hand in hand with them in an overall methodology we have developed.

What’s brilliant is that not only are these visual procedures incredibly effective as communication and training tools, they are lightning fast to create.

I’ve consulted in business systemisation and creating ‘operations manuals’ and later the on-screen equivalent in intranets since the mid-1990s.

I love business systems because they are a hallmark of all great businesses.

They are, in effect, a pre-requisite for business success.

Thirough business systems documentation is also a pre-requisite for franchising or successful growth and expansion in any business model.

So not only does great business process documentation make your business easier to manage and to grow, but it becomes an intellectual property (IP) asset on your balance sheet.

Yet most business owners flounder when it comes to documenting their processes.

Or, even if they do succeed in getting their core processes documented and up-to-date after a concerted push, they struggle with the never-ending maintenance of keeping the processes up to date as things inside and outside of the business change.

And so their systems gradually date and become less useful each month.

Why does this happen to business systems?

Traditional approaches, frankly, are just TOO DAMN HARD AND TOO DAMN SLOW.

If they were easy and fast, then businesses by and large would have their systems documentation up to date.

But it’s not just about process DOCUMENTATION.

Where possible, it’s also about process AUTOMATION.

Over the past decade I have developed a hierarchy of correct thinking regarding streamlining, documenting and automating your business' processes.

Of the 13 steps in the methodology, the first is Discriminate, followed by Eliminate, then Automate.

Interestingly, the ‘Delegate’ step (delegation being a perennial challenge for many practitioners and managers) is not until step 10.

Note that: Step 10

With great systems in place, it is less necessary to be highly skilled at delegation. (Go on. Breathe a sigh of relief.)

The Discriminate step is about evaluating each step in a process to see if it actually adds any value to the client, or are done simply because “that’s the way we’ve always done it”.

Then, the no-value or low-value steps are eliminated from the process.

After all, there’s no point documenting unnecessary steps!

The next step is to see what can be automated. What can be done by technology. What can be done in a ZERO labour way?

You know, one of the great things I love about the world we live in, is that if you can ask a question, there IS an answer. The most important thing isn’t finding an answer. Answers are usually easy. The key is to be consistently asking the right QUESTIONS. Asking BETTER questions.

So, if you keep asking yourself and your colleagues, “Which processes can we automate in the business?”, do you know what will happen? You’ll start to see opportunities to do that. You’ll start to discover tools that make that automation possible.

And you’ll meet people who can teach you the overall methodology and best approach for using these tools.

And that’s where our next Masterclass can play a role …

We’ll announce more about the event later this week.

For now, pencil in the dates April 27 and 28 for this Innovation Masterclass. The location is Twin Waters on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast north of Brisbane. If you can’t attend in person, we’ll also be making available Live Video Streaming tickets where you can watch and participate live over the internet.

More to be unveiled soon …

Twitter For Accountants & Advisors - Webinar: A Hands-On Guide To The Why, What And How Of This Powerful Social Media Tool

Sun, 29 Jan 2012 14:00:00 GMT

This Wednesday our member-only #paradoxlive webinar is on the topic, Twitter For Accountants & Advisors - A Hands-On Guide To The Why, What And How Of This Powerful Social Media Tool.

It's a one hour webinar beginning at 11:30am SYDNEY TIME, which is this time in other locations.

We've been using Twitter for a number of years now. I recall that back then, prominent consultants to the accounting profession were either publicly saying Twitter is a waste of time for professional services firms such as accounting practices and financial planning firms.

How times have changed.

It seems every consultant and his or her dog have jumped on the social media bandwagon over the past year, some even flying in experts from the U.S. to 'talk' about social media. (Why you'd have to ship in expertise, I don't know. And note, 'talk'. Talk is a waste of time. What is needed is 'how to' training and specific guidance in the strategies and the tools.)

Meanwhile, a year prior at our first Marketing Masterclass in 2010 we had hands-on, laptops-out, full-internet-connection-in-the-room training sessions taught by people who were successfully using Twitter to grow their firms. Practitioners were, as one person put it, 'losing their Twitter virginity', live during the session. They were actually 'tweeting' (publishing their updates) and learning how it's done, and why to do it.

Nothing beats learning by doing.

And that's what you will be doing in this webinar and with the training videos afterwards.

Designed for complete newbies to Twitter and social media, and only for members of The Clientshare Academy we'll explain:

The myths and the facts about Twitter
Why your firm cannot afford to ignore Twitter
The benefits your firm will see from effective use of Twitter
The biggest mistakes people -- and firms -- make in their use of Twitter
Why your firm's marketing strategy is crucial for guiding your 'conversations' on Twitter
Who in your firm should actually use Twitter?
Why you personally should use Twitter as a learning resource
How Twitter fits into your firm's Marketing Machine model as taught in The Clientshare Academy - especially the 'Hopper', 'Fuel' and 'Conveyor Belt' elements of your Marketing Machine
What Twitter is - The basics of how it works
Twitter terminology demystified - What's a follower? What's a Twitter stream? What's a retweet? What is an '@ reply' versus an '@ mention'? What's a DM? A hashtag? What does 'trending' mean? What does it mean to 'Favourite' a tweet?
What is link shortening? And click tracking? And why use it?
Why most people don't use the Twitter.com website when they use Twitter, and what some alternatives are
Why you and your firm needs a Social Media Dashboard tool for managing Twitter (and LinkedIn, Facebook, Google+ and others ...)
What are the different types of 'tweeps' (people using Twitter):
- Conversationalist
- Content Curator
- Shouter
- Lazy Quoter
- Lurker
- Automaton
Why the concept of out-sourcing your social media makes about as much sense as out-sourcing your conversation at a dinner party.
How to choose a Twitter handle (i.e. username)
How to decide who to follow. How to discover good people to follow.
Why branding your Twitter page matters
Some new tools for making your use of Twitter as time efficient as possible

How to join the webinar

10 minutes prior to the start time, log into the members' area for The Clientshare Academy and click the link 'Click here to go to The Clientshare Academy Live Q&A Marketing Webinar page' beneath the Quick Tour video on the page you see when you first log in.

Ensure you have your speakers on and sound up. We'll be taking live questions throughout the session.

Who should attend?

This session is highly relevant to each person in your 'Golden Triangle':

We look forward to seeing you online for the session.

If you're not yet a member ...

If you're not yet a member of The Clientshare Academy and would like to tap into our educational and implementation support program for accounting and advisory firms who want to learn the modern approaches to how to market and how to sell, get in touch with us and we'll explain how the Academy works, what you receive, how little it costs, and how easy it is to get started.

Cross-selling additional services: Are Accountants “#%*%ed up” about selling?

Tue, 25 Oct 2011 08:46:00 GMT

I’ve had some very interesting conversations with accounting and financial planning practitioners this week.

Specifically about selling additional services and generating internal referrals between accounting and financial planning.

The discussions were part of my preparation in facilitating a ‘How To Market Your Practice’ discussion panel this week at a conference in Sydney. It's the Count Financial ‘Stars Conference’ for the top 60 firms in the Count Wealth Accountants group.

In the lead up I have interviewed the four panelists who are from four different states of Australia.

The conversations were fascinating and one in particular was quite ‘colourful’.

I always enjoy interviewing high performing practitioners, which I've done since my days as a Co-Founder of Business Fitness where (as one of the hats I wore) I helped analyse the data from the annual benchmarking study 'The Good, the Bad & the Ugly of the Accounting Profession'. The process involved identifying the most profitable or fastest growing firms out of the data, then interviewing them and writing case studies about what it is that these firms do differently from the rest.

And there are always clear differences.

They are usually contrarian in one or more areas.

It's important to note that there is no 'one recipe' for building a successful firm. It's not quite as formulaic or simplistic as some coaches to the profession would have you believe.

And that's great. It means you can mould your firm around you, your values, your preferences, your team.

Which leads to the colourful quote of the week ...

One of the practitioners I interviewed has a very forthright way of saying things. (So forthright, in fact, that I won’t mention him or his firm by name here.)

He’s a Director of a firm that provides accounting and financial planning services, and they do very well at it. Their firm is, in Practice Paradox lingo, what we call a High Clientshare™ Firm.

High Clientshare means that on average they provide a high average number of services to each client.

In other words, they are great at cross-selling their optional services. They are not mere 'order takers'. They are 'advisors' in the true sense of the word.

There are a number of elements to this firm’s success in cross-selling additional services. These include:

strong leadership and culture around the fact that not only does the firm feel that they owe it to clients to make sure they educate them on a whole range (this practitioner terms it "a natural progression") of different services to help clients build and protect their wealth; and also
the firm has very clear systems that ensure the cross-selling processes happen on every job.

Note, that's every job. Not some. Not when an accountant feels like it.

As Michael Gerber, author of the E-Myth, says, all great business have strong "This is how we do it here" systems and cultures.

For this firm, cross-selling is not a ‘should do it’ activity. It is embedded into their processes and checklists for each and every job.

This was music to my ears, as this is precisely what we teach firms in our training program, The Clientshare Academy.

Another important aspect of success in cross-selling of additional services that we teach our members is "Don't teach elephants to dance".

This means don't expect all of your existing advisors and accountants to be good or naturally suited to selling.

Selling can be learned, yet it still is a matter of "nature and nurture". It's a combination of both. Some personality styles are better suited to dealing with clients, communicating and influencing. Others are best left to focus on technical work, not client relationship management or selling.

You are far better off directing your efforts at training those who have the natural raw talent to communicate well.

Otherwise you will be training elephants, so to speak.

Don't do it. It wastes your time.

And it annoys the elephants.

This is why we have all our clients complete our What’s Your Profile questionnaire to profile each team member (including admin/support and management, not just advisors) as to whether their strengths lie primarily in Grinding, Minding, Finding or Reminding.

Some people are all-rounders and have an even spread across the four quadrants, but usually people have one or two primary strengths out of the four areas.

This is a model we have evolved from David Maister's 'Grinding, Minding, Finding' model, by overlaying this on the Merrill-Reid Social Styles model which assesses people on two aspects: Assertiveness and Responsiveness.

We have added an all-important fourth category we call 'Reminders'. (More about this another time. Profiling is obviously a whole topic in itself.)

When I asked this practitioner his view on this 'train the right people' aspect, his response was the most black and white I have heard:

"Accountants are #%*%ed up about selling.
We don't let them near it."

As I said, he’s not one to mince his words.

He went on to describe how they have designed their client communication and cross-selling systems around their financial planners, not their accountants.

He explained his view that, "Accountants tend to pre-judge clients' needs and therefore tend not to suggest things to clients. Our process is based on simple demographic data, in terms of who we target and approach within our accounting client database.

"Our planners then drive the meetings. They have much stronger relationships with clients compared with the accountants because they are making suggestions and being proactive in helping clients, whereas accountants tend only to be reactive, around compliance deadlines."

Is the moral of the story to cut your accountants out of the selling process?

No. Not necessarily. I know plenty of accountants who are very good at selling.

Remember, there is no one recipe for a successful firm.

But I would say this ...

In my experience in dealing with hundreds of accounting firms around Australia and New Zealand, the vast majority of accounting firms:

Do not have a documented and systemised sales process (in fact, in smaller and medium sized firms, most have not even been exposed to such a process);
Have not identified the right team members to have drive that process; and
Do not train and mentor these staff members in how to succeed in their cross-selling.

For your firm to succeed in cross-selling, you must do all three. Those firms who understand how to design, systemise, manage and resource a sales system, build for themselves a 'sales machine' that makes cross-selling of additional services virtually a daily occurrence.

But it's about more than growing revenues.

It’s about serving clients well.

It’s about strengthening client loyalty.

It's about playing a more meaningful and more valuable role in your clients' lives. This doesn't just grow your firm's revenues, it improves client relationships and adds much more meaning to what it is your firm does.

As this practitioner commented, "We sometimes lose a client's accounting work to a cheaper provider, because clients perceive compliance as a commodity, and in many ways it is. However, we have never lost a client's work on the financial planning side of things because the relationship and perceived value is so strong."

Ask yourself ...

What is your firm's sales process? Do you have one?
Where is that embodied in your processes and checklists? Where can someone see evidence of such a process?
Have you identified who will drive your sales process?
Does your management system have metrics for this?
Are team members held accountable on these metrics?
When was the last time you got training (for yourself and for your team) in how to sell?

If you answered 'No' or 'Don't know' to any of those questions, odds are you are a low Clientshare Firm with a low average fee (relative to the potential fee) per client, and your clients perceive your services as a commodity.

That puts your firm at risk.

It's only a matter of time before you either lose clients, or lose parts of their work, to other firms who are effective in communicating value.

And that is all selling and marketing is ...

... communicating value.

On the flip-side, once you identify that your firm is relatively low on its Clientshare™ score, that’s an exciting opportunity for growing your firm. In our Clientshare Academy program, most members when they complete the gap analysis using our Clientshare Matrix tool, they typically identify somewhere between 30% to 60% revenue growth potential within their existing clientbase.

It is then a matter of following our systematic marketing and sales process to educate your clients and gradually develop more and more High Clientshare clients within your firm.

An easy next step for you ...

To learn how to build a 'Marketing Machine' to transform your practice into a High Clientshare Firm, click here and register for our next Clientshare Academy Briefing.

This is a free webinar where we explain 11 Reasons Most Accounting Firms Struggle With Marketing, and how to break through these barriers. We step you through how our marketing training and implementation program (the Academy) works, what you get, and how you can plug into the system for a low monthly subscription that is, for many, less than what they spend in coffees and eating out each month.

We've designed the Academy so it is affordable for firms of any size so that is within every firm's reach to become a High Clientshare Firm.

Ask your questions below for upcoming 'Modern Marketing Academy Live Q&A' marketing webinars

Tue, 20 Sep 2011 14:00:00 GMT

As a member of The Modern Marketing™ Academy you can log in to a live online Q&A session on the first and third Wednesday of each month***, where you can have your questions answered about any aspect of marketing and growing your accounting or advisory firm.

This is a brilliant opportunity to ensure you maintain your momentum in implementing the 10 modules of the Marketing Machine model in your firm.

Make sure you plug into the system and attend most 'Modern Marketing Academy Live Q&A' marketing webinars.

If you're a member of The Modern Marketing Academy, please ask your question in the comments box below. Only questions that are asked below at least 48 hours prior to the live session can be addressed in a Q&A session. (We like to prepare for the sessions so we maximise the value for members.)

Depending on how many questions are asked, it may not be possible to address all questions during the live session. We'll do our best though. Some questions will result in the creation of extra videos and screencasts which you can access in the Modern Marketing Academy member login area.

Ask and you shall receive!

You will need to log in to the commenting system (Livefyre) in order to enter a question. After you click the 'Post comment as' button beneath the comments box, you can log in using the same username and password you use in Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or Google (or propeller heads can use their OpenID credentials); or if you have none of those ... you can simply click the 'Create New Account' link in the window that pops up, to create a Livefyre account. Just enter your name, email address and set a password. It's easy. And free. (You will start to see Livefyre on lots of other websites, and your account will work across all sites using it. It's a great tool and it helps your website rankings and social media visibility if you're smart in how you use it.)

After you log into Livefyre all you need to do is enter your comment in the box and then click the 'Post comment' button.

Feel free to add comments or further questions to other members' questions. You will see that replies to comments are threaded (indented) beneath the relevant comment. (Neat, hey? It creates a conversation that's easy to follow.)

if you're not yet a member, click here to learn more about The Modern Marketing Academy program.

These 'Modern Marketing Academy Live Q&A' marketing webinars begin at the following time, taking into account time zone and daylight savings differences as at October 2012:

9:30am WA time (WST)
11:00am NT time (CST)
11:30am QLD time (EST)
12:00am SA (CDT)
12:30am NSW, VIC, ACT and TAS time (EDT)
2:30pm NZ time (NZDT)

The Q&A sessions will go for 30 to 60 minutes, depending on the questions that have been asked.

***In some months the timing or frequency of these live Q&A sessions will change if they clash with Masterclasses or other events at which Practice Paradox is presenting.

So scroll down, and ... ask away!

The Myth of Differentiation in Marketing an Accounting Firm - Why It's A Pipe Dream

Sun, 21 Aug 2011 14:00:00 GMT

Many marketers will try to tell you that a core part of your firm's marketing strategy is differentiation.

In my view differentiation is nothing but a pipe dream.

When most marketing consultants and business owners talk about differentiation they are really talking about claims that fall into one of The Three B’s:

Better
Best
Blah, blah, blah

'Better' refers to claims firms make in their marketing material, such as websites and brochures, that they are 'better' than their competition. More experienced. More committed. More caring. Better value. Better service.

'Best' takes it to the next level, making the claims even more unbelievable.

Does anyone really believe that your firm is *the* best firm in a particular aspect or service offering? It may be true. It's unlikely though. But even if it is true, don't *tell* me how good you are, *show* me how good you are. Talking about how good you are is tiring at best. It is corporate chest beating.

And It adds no value to the reader. It teaches them nothing. (Other than you think you're pretty hot.)

Did you know that only 18% of people place any credence whatsoever in claims made in advertising? (That's another reason that social media, thought leadership strategies and the educational marketing approach we teach in The Clientshare Academy is so powerful.)

So why make grandiose claims that tend to lack credibility?

You know the sort of 'About Us' website wording I'm referring to ... “We at [XYZ and Associates] pride ourselves in our professionalism and dedication to high levels of client of service. We have combined experience exceeding [xx] years and truly value partnering with clients to add value in a proactive and … "

... and the BLAH BLAH BLAH continues!

Most firms' website have this BLAH BLAH BLAH wording on it. Very few people read it, and if they do, no-one believes it.

It's meaningless.

Try this exercise with your team.

Have a brainstorming session on the whiteboard or flip chart and list out all the reasons you think you are the better than your competition. The ideas are likely to include:

better service
better quality
better value
more professional
more caring
more experience

The next step in the exercise is to go through that list and cross out any items that your competition would also claim.

Note, I said 'claim'. This is not a matter of whether you agree with them or not, but whether other firms would also claim these things.

I guarantee that you will cross out most if not all of them because they are saying you are 'better' or the 'best' in various aspects. Your competitors would claim the same sorts of things.

It's time to wake up and smell the coffee.

Rather than being deluded about differentiation, a far more useful marketing concept is positioning.

Positioning is not about saying you are better or you are the best.

It is about taking a unique position in the market which inherently *makes* you 'different', but not by claiming you are better or the best.

In my view, the best way to achieve clear positioning in an accounting or professional services firm is through a niche marketing strategy. In Module 1 of The Clientshare Academy we go into great depth about why there are only three basic strategies available to any business, including an accounting firm.

Michael Porter famously outlined three generic strategies that can be combined into only four possible options.

In my experience only one of those options is viable for most accounting firms.

We explain why in Module 1 of the Academy.

A true 'differentiation' strategy is only available to businesses that have some unique technology (patents, trade secrets) or a sustainable competitive advantage in the way they do business. That is, the way they do business *is* actually different and superior than their competition.

This does not apply to most accounting firms.

Firms have similar business models, use similar processes, are drawing from the same labour pool, using the same type of software and hardware ...

... which is why differentiation is a pipe dream for most.

So, stop basing your marketing around The Three B’s and start thinking about a unique position in the market you can claim through a niche marketing strategy focusing on, for example:

a specific industry or business type,
a specific occupation type,
a specific demographic (e.g. age, lifestyle, income) of the type of client you are targeting, or
a specific service area.

For each Partner/Director in the firm, (excluding Partners/Directors who are 100% in management and working 'on' the business), focus on one or two niches, maximum.

Until you focus your marketing strategy on clear target markets and specific service offerings, your firm will continue to be lost in the ‘blah blah blah’ marketing noise made by most firms.

In the Comments area below, share your thoughts and experiences around 'differentiating' (that is, uniquely positioning) your firm. What challenges do you see in adopting a niche marketing strategy? What successes have you experienced, or perhaps observed?

Cloud Computing for Accountants: What do you love, loathe, fear or doubt? Enter your comments below.

Tue, 16 Aug 2011 14:00:00 GMT

We know many accounting firms who are embracing cloud computing, both in their firm and in advising clients. On the other hand, we also know many firms who have their fears and doubts about aspects of cloud computing. And in between, plenty of firms are putting a toe in the water by using some cloud apps, whilst keeping their core practice management, tax and workflow software server and desktop based.

Which way should your firm go? And why?

We have our Beerstorming series fast approaching in September. (Book here for Sydney, here for Melbourne, here for Brisbane if you haven't already.)

To help our stellar line up of panelists prepare, enter in the Comments section below your questions and comments, whether you are pro-cloud, anti-cloud or neutral, tell us what you like, what you dislike, what concerns you, what you're still wondering about regarding the benefits or side-effects of using the cloud.

In other words, let rip.

Also share with us and your fellow Beerstormers which cloud-based apps you use and love.

By the way, if you've never entered a comment in a blog before, don't be put off by the web form asking your details. This won't subscribe you to any list and your email address is not displayed on your comment. You'll see those fields are optional. But here's a marketing tip for you: Completing the 'Website' field when you make a blog comment (on any site) creates backlinks to your site, which helps improve your website's ranking in Google and other search engines. Creating backlinks from other wesbites, especially from 'Authority Sites' that have high page rankings in Google does wonders for your website's own ranking. But that's another topic for another day.

For now, let us know your thoughts and questions about Cloud Computing for Accountants, the topic for our next Beerstorming series.

Marketing for Accountants: 3 Strategies for Making It Happen ... 'Plug in' to a Switched-On Community! (Part 3 of Article)

Mon, 15 Aug 2011 14:00:00 GMT

In Part 1 of this article series we explored how, in marketing for accountants, you can use deadlines to help make your firm's marketing happen. In Part 2 of the series we looked at the importance of structure in your educational process, as you learn how to market your firm properly.

A third strategy that supports you in achieving competency in marketing your accounting and advisory firm, is to be part of a community of like-minded practitioners who you can share with, learn from, and be inspired by.

Because one of the strengths of the generic accounting firm's business model also often leads to a weakness in marketing (as we covered in this post), only a very small percentage of accounting firms are good at marketing.

In fact, the vast majority of firms, in my observations of the industry over the past 20-plus years, stink at marketing.

They are at the Unconscious Incompetence stage where they don't know what they don't know. Marketing is a huge blind spot for them.

So, a key in becoming good at marketing your firm, is to find that tiny percentage of accounting firms who are very good at marketing their firms. Then hang out with them. Learn from them. Engage with them and add value back to them.

Importantly, find out who they are learning from. Model them.

Adopt the belief that if it's possible for other firms to be effective marketers, then it's possible for your firm. Just find out how they did it, then do the same.

By 'hang out with them', we mean online and offline. By 'online' we mean social media.

I learn so much from who I have chosen to follow in Twitter and who I have connected with on LinkedIn. Members often tell us too, that they pick up a lot of valuable tips and information from following us on Twitter (@practiceparadox and my personal twitter @michaelmccarter). Often in one of our live online Marketing FAQ Webinars, someone will mention a piece of software or technology they are really benefiting from, and I'll add, "Yes. I love using [that tool] too. Tell me, how did you find out about it?" Often the answer is, "From you MC. From one of your tweets." (I can't help myself with technology. I am always tweeting out links to cool (and useful!) apps for business and marketing.)

Beyond social media, there are online forums. For example, within The Clientshare Academy our online member forum is a place for progressive practitioners to share ideas, swap notes and generally ask questions of each other. It's great to see the friendships and alliances forming between practitioners, often interstate from each other.

But life is not lived online. (Well, not entirely!)

In addition to smart use of Twitter and LinkedIn to learn from others, you can also learn so much through smart networking. Find some Interest Groups and networking functions where you can mix with practitioners who also want to learn about the latest in marketing and business strategy. Be judicious with your time though. There are a lot of lame networking functions out there, where it's not worth your time to spend a few hours.

These are the functions where you feel like everyone else is learning from you, and that there's not enough value coming back your way. That's not meant to sound arrogant, just honest. When you know your stuff in a certain area, it is so crucial to network and associate with people who can lift you up.

For example, we've developed a series of events we call 'Beerstorming' Sessions where we get together a group of progressive, innovative accounting firm practitioners, form a discussion panel, have a few drinks, and brainstorm ideas on a certain topic. For example, the Beerstorming series this coming September is on the topic, 'Cloud Computing: Leading Edge and Now, or Bleeding Edge and Too Soon?'

For starters, only progressive practitioners would be interested in such a topic. That helps. Secondly, it helps to have a forum that encourages discussion between peers. When a 'presenter' is on stage imparting knowledge to a group, their knowledge is obviously only a fraction of the sum total of knowledge in the room. What a wasted opportunity to share and exchange knowledge and tips with each other.

To accelerate your learning and development, look for interactive forums and communities where the average calibre of the practitioners in the room is well above the norm.

It is said that in 5 years time you will be exactly the same person you are today, except for 3 things: The books you read, the seminars and audio you listen to, and the people you associate with.

Choose all three carefully, strategically, and you'll find your personal and professional development will embark on a steady upward climb.

Marketing for Accountants: 3 Strategies for Making It Happen ... Structured Learning! (Part 2 of Article)

Thu, 11 Aug 2011 09:28:00 GMT

In Part 1 of this article series I gave you some tips on the types of deadlines that help (and don't help) you get active with your firm's marketing. After all, marketing is so very easy to postpone.

This second tip is crucial. Whenever I think of it, I'm reminded of this ...

Years ago, up late one night channel surfing, I stumbled across a Michael Parkinson chat show interview with Woody Allen. Allen was, at one point, giving his views on the benefits of structured, formal learning, versus self-education where you pick and choose books to read. He said that structured learning, like degrees and diplomas, are good because they give you something clear to work towards so you are more likely to stick at it; and they also introduce you to subjects that you otherwise probably wouldn't have gravitated towards.

Allen recounted that at one stage in his life, he decided he wanted to expand his vocabulary and really improve his mastery of the English language. He figured that he didn't need to sign up to a formal course for this because he had all he needed ... the dictionary. He started at 'A' and set about going through until he came across a word he didn't know. He'd read the definition, think about it, learn it off by heart, work out how he could use it in a sentence, and then he spent the next day or so using that word whenever the opportunity arose. Once he felt he'd mastered the use of that word, he'd move onto the next word. Allen said he kept at this quite diligently until he got half-way through 'D'. Then he stopped doing it. He ran out of steam with it. Then he said something to Parkinson, in true Woody Allen style, along the lines of, "And you know what? To this day, I still have an amazing vocabulary across A, B and C and I'm pretty good with D words too. The rest of the alphabet, I'm pretty average. Never got there. Probably never will." He then reeled off a very funny and verbose sentence using very long and obscure words beginning with A, B and C. The guy cracks me up.

The point of the story?

The same applies 100% to learning how to market your accounting or advisory firm.

These days, the equivalent of Allen's dictionary is the internet. There is a plethora of information freely available on the web, and whilst most, like most content on the self-publishing world of the web is pretty ordinary, much of this information is terrific.

But ... it's fragmented.

You can pick up bits and pieces of information here and there, and (if you're in a minority) then apply the strategies, tips and techniques. However, without a structured program with a clear end point, you might—like Allen—lose steam 'halfway through D' and give up on it.

And because marketing is one of the highest ROI activities you can do in business, losing steam, not making progress, is costly. Massively costly in terms of the opportunity cost to your business.

Even in the days before the web, the fragmented nature of self-education applied.

Think about the business and self-development books you gravitate towards when you walk into a bookstore (or if you no longer walk into book stores (I know I don't anymore), think about the books you gravitate towards on Amazon.com or Audible.com). Typically, you will gravitate either towards authors you like, and/or subject matter that you enjoy and in which you already have a certain level of proficiency. Or ... you will choose subjects that you know will help you address a challenge you know you have in front of you.

But what about subject areas where you "don't even know what you don't know". These are the 'blind spots' in your knowledge that you are not even aware that you have.

Not yet.

In my own experience, I recall when I was doing my MBA in Entrepreneurship and New Venture Management (a.k.a. Start Ups) that there were subjects I was forced to do as core subjects and I was dreading them. I'd trudge along to these subjects and then, more often than not, find that I found them fascinating and really valuable in the workplace. In my case, these were finance subjects. I ended up enjoying them so much I did lots of them and ended up with one of my majors in Finance.

This never would have happened outside of a structured learning program. Never. There is no way I would have picked up the finance books in the bookstore. No way in the world.

I didn't know what I didn't know in this area.

And so it is with you and your team's education about marketing.

You may not know, what you don't yet know.

You might be self-educating on the topic, reading a book here and there, going to a conference presentation here and there. If so, your education about marketing is likely to be fragmented, incomplete, unstructured.

And structure really matters. So do clear end points and actions.

Knowing these principles, we've designed our marketing training and implementation support program, The Clientshare Academy, to have a very clear structure. It starts out with 10 modules: The first 5 modules are about marketing, the second 5 modules are about selling.

We define marketing as the one-to-many communication of value, and selling as the one-to-one communication of value. There's an art and a science to it (and these days, plenty of technology and tools too), and we specialise in teaching accounting and advisory firms all about marketing and selling.

Each module in the Academy program also has a clear structure. There's a Class video, a list of Next Actions (Tasks) to complete, 2 weeks later a Nuts & Bolts video, then a Test to complete, as well as reporting in on your completion of the Next Actions.

Education + Action = Results.

Education on its own is just a theoretical exercise, and makes very little difference in the world (including in your firm). Action (especially in the area of marketing) not based on a solid, structured education is likely to be ineffective and wasteful, both in terms of your time and money.

In Part 3 of this article we'll explore another strategy that supports you in achieving competency in marketing your accounting and advisory firm.

Marketing for Accountants: 3 Strategies for Making It Happen ... Deadlines! (Part 1 of Article)

Thu, 16 Jun 2011 04:54:00 GMT

If marketing your accounting or advisory firm is such an easy thing to postpone (see previous blog post here), how can you introduce some urgency to your marketing?

Much of what an accounting firm does is driven by deadlines. We all know that. So, ask yourself ... what type of deadlines do you tend to keep? Or, on the flip side, which deadlines tend to slide on by, without any (immediate) consequences?

I know which deadlines and commitments tend *not* to be kept, for many people.

Those we make to ourselves.

And that's tragic, in the truest sense of that word.

Why? Each time we make a commitment to ourselves and we don't keep it, we erode a little bit of self-trust. This is the trust we place in ourselves to do what we say we'll do, to follow through on our decisions.

Each time our self-trust diminishes, our power to achieve diminishes.

The good news is this self-trust can be regained, re-built, one step at a time, one action at a time ... until we form our habits.

Our habits shape us. Each of us is the sum of our habits, in every area of our life: health, relationships, money, business.

In light of that, in terms of marketing your firm ... how can you start to form some habits that will shape your firm and get your growth rate on the up and up?

Following are 3 strategies I use, and which I also embed into how we work with clients in our Clientshare™ Academy program ...

Strategy 1: Go Public: Public deadlines where you lose face with clients

The key here is to make the deadline one that matters. I'll give you one that doesn't. I see it time and time again on websites of firms: The "Monthly" Newsletter.

Now, hats off to you if you do consistently achieve the publishing of a monthly newsletter to your clients. That is brilliant, and please share (via the Comments link below) how you resource that and make it happen. There are a few options for achieving that. (And by the way, <shock>, your clients do not care to read the generic 'copy and paste' newsletter articles full of jargon and TLA's** that proliferate the accounting industry. You need to produce 'authentic content', but that's another topic for another day.)

For the vast majority of firms the Monthly Newsletter is 'monthly' in name only. In speaking with firms who have touted a regular newsletter and then not achieved it, their initial thinking is typically, "I figured that promising it monthly and promoting that to clients would help to make it happen."

That's good thinking on one level, but it is missing a vital ingredient ...

If you miss a deadline to get a newsletter out, your clients won't be put out. They won't complain. You won't lose face.

This deadline has no leverage on you.

It can slide on by with an, "Oh well." And that's precisely what happens for firms where I see on their website a section headed something along the lines of "Past Newsletters" and the most recent one was over a year ago. Ouch. One type of deadline that has enormous 'you-will-make-it-happen-no-matter-what' leverage on you is live events for your clients (and for 'your hopper' in general***).

Traditionally these types of client education events have been at a boardroom briefing, workshop or seminar level where the presenter or presenters are together in a room with a group of people in the same room. And that's nice. Do that.

But do you know what's even easier, and just as (if not more) effective for live events?

Webinars.

We've all attended them. But have you presented one?

They are far easier than traditional events for a number of reasons: No venue cost or organising hassle, no catering, no stress about 'filling the room', only one (but preferably two) staff members are required to deliver the event, easier to record to create a permanent resource (video) for later replay, more interactive through the use of live polls, registration surveys, 'hands up' function, live chat and Q&A via the keyboard, ability to 'unmute' specific attendees (kind of like talk back radio!) to discuss their questions, and so on.

You don't even have to do your hair.

In short, webinars rock. (Hey, I'm over 40. Am I allowed to use words like that? Oh well, I just did.)

And here's a key point: If you have done the preparation for a traditional event and put together some slides to support your presentation (note, I said to "support", not to *be* your presentation) you have pretty much done everything you need in order to run a webinar as well.

Keep in mind that there will be plenty of people who are interested in attending a traditional event who simply can't get to it, for a variety of family, business, timing and sheer convenience reasons. Webinars give them a simple option.

At Practice Paradox we have trialled many webinar platforms over the years. We recommend GoToWebinar. Strongly.

I have conducted many dozens of webinars that, combined, comprise over one thousand slides (I realised that number only recently). I have sold over $1.25 million in services and technology using webinars. All without leaving my desk. Last year Citrix Online (the GoToWebinar, GoToMeeting people) flew me to Santa Barbara, California to be one of 6 clients globally to sit on the Customer Feedback Panel at their annual team summit. I tell you these things only to emphasise that I have been around the block a few times with webinars.

And they work wonderfully well ... *if* you use them well.

Why they work as a brilliant deadline for you with your marketing is that all you need to do is:

Pick a date and time for the webinar,
Decide on the topic based on a service or issue you want to educate your clients about (Academy members refer to your Clientshare Matrix),
Come up with a good title for the event (Use the 'F.B.I. Formula' for headlines for that if you're in the Academy -- that's in the class for Module 3 - Your Fuel),
Come up with half a dozen dot points of the sub-topics you will cover,
Be crystal clear on the call-to-action (what you will invite people to do) at the end of the webinar (Academy members and Masterclassers, think 'gradient'!),
Load that information up into GoToWebinar (get a free 30 day trial -- it's then USD $99/month), and
Promote the webinar via email to your clients and 'hopper'.

Tip: Give yourself a 4 week lead time from when you promote it, to the date of the webinar. This gives you enough time to pull all the slides together, and you can be fairly sure that peoples' calendars are clear a month out.

As that date approaches, the leverage (a.k.a. pressure to deliver it) will build, and you will make it happen.

You cannot just 'not turn up' to your own webinar!

There's no, "Oh well," about it! You won't want to lose face. So you'll do it.

And do you know what will happen as a result of delivering your webinar? You will have educated your clients, you will have grown in confidence by presenting the information, and you will have moved a number of the webinar attendees one step closer to an engagement with you, regarding the service you explained.

One final tip to crank up the leverage that webinars give you even further ... promote to your clients a series of webinars on a regular basis. Start with at least quarterly intervals. If you can manage bi-monthly, even better. For most firms, monthly webinars would be a stretch, unless you have a 100% dedicated Marketing Director who can drive it.

So that's only 4 to 6 webinar topics you need to come up with for an entire year. Easy. Just think of 4 to 6 optional services that you know many of your clients would benefit from -- think about "What's in it for them" and how the services will improve their life.

In the next blog post, I'll explore 2 other strategies for making your marketing happen.

Please post your comments and questions below regarding any aspect of using deadlines or webinars in your firm's marketing.

**Three Letter Acronyms!
***Your Hopper is a module of The Clientshare Academy program where we teach firms to change the front end of their marketing activities *away* from client acquisition, to something much simpler and more effective.

Accountants and Marketing: Why A Strength Of Accounting Firms Creates A Weakness In Marketing

Wed, 15 Jun 2011 03:47:00 GMT

The strength of the accounting firm's business model is what creates its weakness.

Imagine a business where even if you do a mediocre job looking after customers or clients, they keep coming back. Year after year. Restaurant owners don't have that luxury. Nor do hairdressers, dentists, motor mechanics, bakeries, physiotherapists ... the list goes on.

The recurring nature of compliance work in accounting, combined with 'sticky clients' has lead to many firms becoming lazy (and dare I say it, lacking in competency) in certain areas. Areas like client service, innovation and marketing. Firms haven't *had to* invest in these areas. So most firms haven't.

By 'sticky clients', I'm referring to what in 'MBAspeak' is called 'perceived buyer switching costs'. In other words, clients believe the cost of switching accountants is equal to or greater than the benefits of switching accountants, so they conclude, "Why bother?"

We do a lot of surveying (formal and ad hoc) of peoples' perceptions of their accountants. "Better the devil you know," sums up a common attitude. Whilst everyone knows they of course *could* switch accountants, they figure the next one will be no different and no better to their existing one.

What a wonderful opportunity for the innovative marketers within the accounting industry!

But there aren't many of those. And, most likely, nor will there ever be. (Again, what a *wonderful* opportunity for what we call The Innovative 5% of firms.) This means you don't have to innovate all that much in relative terms to what other industries need to, in order to stand out from the crowd within the accounting industry.

So why don't most firms innovate? Why don't most firms market?

There are a number of reasons, but the main one is that they haven't *had* to. Most people only do what they perceive they have to do. They deal with the Urgent and the Important. And usually both in combination.

In Time (or Priority) Management lingo, authors and trainers speak of Four Quadrants, based on two axes of Importance and Urgency. Most people live their lives in Quadrant 1, where matters are both Urgent and Important. Most accounting firms live solely in Quadrant 1. Deadlines, deadlines, deadlines. Lodgement deadlines, payment deadlines, penalties. Quadrant 2, on the other hand, is where matters are Not Urgent but they are Important.

In Stephen Covey's excellent books 'The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People' and 'First Things First' he talks about the fact that the most important things in life, those things that lead to a happy, healthy and prosperous life reside in Quadrant 2. They never seem Urgent, until one day crisis point is reached and the matter moves into Quadrant 1.

Looking after our health. Our mind and spirit. Nurturing our relationships. Spending time with our loved ones. Taking some 'me time'. Planning for the future! No-one can argue these are not important, but many neglect them because they are not shouting, "Urgent, urgent!" at us, with the accompanying pop-up reminders, chimes and figurative taps on the shoulder.

Quadrant 1 is like a vortex, sucking us in, time and time again. (By the way, in case you're wondering, Quadrant 3 is Urgent but Not Important, and Quadrant 4 activities are Not Urgent and Not Important.)

So, what has this to do with marketing and innovation?

Clearly, these are Quadrant 2 activities. They never appear urgent, do they? A client will not call up, complaining the firm hasn't promoted a service to them, or hasn't let them know when the next workshop or webinar is on, or hasn't implemented the latest cloud-based software or paperless office technologies.

Nothing is easier to postpone and procrastinate on than marketing.

I find that one of the fascinating paradoxes in business, because the two most important functions in a business are Marketing and Innovation.

The renowned grandfather of management education, one of the first people to look on the management of a business or organisation as a discipline and profession, Peter F. Drucker wrote this: "Because the purpose of business is to create a customer, the business enterprise has two—and only two—basic functions: marketing and innovation. Marketing and innovation produce results; all the rest are costs. Marketing is the distinguishing, unique function of the business."

I love that quote, not only because I know it to be true through my experience in founding and growing a number of businesses over the past 20-plus years, but because I know it 'rattles the cage', so to speak, of the typical accountant.

Marketing is, without a doubt, the highest Return On Investment (ROI) activity for any business.

Why? Because it multiplies revenues. Often without increasing costs.

Why else? The best product (or service) doesn't win automatically.

"Build it and they will come," is rubbish. Ask any failed entrepreneur. The B-class product with the A-class marketing will beat the A-class product with the B-class marketing, every time. You can argue with that, be upset with it ... or accept it.

In my previous business venture, software company Business Fitness (of which I am still a shareholder), I was reminded of the power and leverage of marketing, first hand. For the first 5 years of the venture, my role was General Manager of Innovation. In other words, making sure we had an A-class product. Then, 5 years in, when one of my co-founders exited the venture to start a coaching business, I moved over to head up Marketing, which he had been managing.

Just by applying the exact same principles we now teach accounting and advisory firms, we tripled revenues in the next 12 months and with far less expense.

We used modern marketing approaches combined with the latest technologies. (It was fun, too!)

Keeping expenses lean is important, but that approach does not offer the leverage that marketing does. Effective marketing will literally multiply your firm's top line revenue.

Just like a member of The Clientshare™ Academy (our structured training and implementation program), Newcastle firm Growthwise who in the past 11 months (as at June 2011) has grown revenues by 220.93% compared to last year. And this growth has been at improved margins.

Founder of the firm, Steph Hinds, attributes half of that growth to what Practice Paradox taught her about marketing strategy and focus.

To quote Steph, "This has been phenomenal for us." (And, by the way, that's just one part of 'Module 1 - Your Radar' within the 10 modules of the Academy program.)

And guess what Steph proudly tells people when she's asked what her marketing budget is?

Zero. That's $0.00.

Now that's leverage!

But ... it's easy to procrastinate, isn't it? Is it time you took action? Time you stopped ignoring the highest ROI activity available to your business?

Next article we'll discuss ways to make your marketing happen by creating and imposing some urgency ...

Marketing Tip in 60 Seconds: Use an Email Marketing System

Wed, 02 Mar 2011 14:00:00 GMT

When you send your client newsletter via email, don’t simply send it as a PDF attachment to the email, but instead use a proper email marketing system such as MailChimp.com.

The purpose of using an email marketing system is firstly to be sending your emails with a far more professional presentation, but also to be able to track statistics on what percentage of people are opening and not opening your email newsletter, and which articles are popular in terms of who is clicking on the links for more information.

Once you start using a tool like MailChimp, it’s also important that your articles don’t simply live in your email newsletter, but also in your blog, among other places.

We will talk in the next Marketing Tip in 60 Seconds where else you need to put your articles so that they have a life that long outlives the life span of your email newsletter.

More Marketing Tips

Our website is loaded with tips and advice to help you with your firm's marketing. Check out our free resources at www.practiceparadox.com.au/resources
Want a more 'hands on' help with your firms marketing? Check out our Training and Implementation Support program, The Clientshare™ Academy at www.practiceparadox.com.au/clientshareacademy

The Golden Triangle. How to achieve marketing competency (and growth) in your firm.

Wed, 19 Jan 2011 14:00:00 GMT

Effective marketing skills and selling skills are keys to business growth. There is no disputing this.

Yet, our industry surveys have found that two-thirds to three quarters of the Australian accounting industry is uneducated in the latest marketing and selling skills and technologies.

For example, 41% of our survey respondents have never been trained in marketing and 14% haven't received training in marketing for over 5 years. That's 55% of respondents who have either never been trained or are way out of date.

The statistics are slightly worse for selling skills. 48% of survey respondents have never been trained in selling skills and 16% have not receiving training in over 5 years. So that's a total of 64%, almost two-thirds, of the accounting profession, as surveyed, pays little credence to marketing and selling as skills.

No wonder most firms cite growth as the number one challenge facing them at the moment.

Achieving competence in anything doesn't happen by accident. For a business, there needs to be a clear and focused commitment to acquire a competency across the organisation.

When it comes to marketing, competency can only be achieved by ensuring comprehensive training across three areas. We call this The Golden Triangle:

This applies to any business, not just accounting firms. To develop marketing as a core competence in your business, you need to ensure that three levels of people are trained in the mindset, skills and systems for effective modern marketing:

Number 1 - Leadership. Marketing is strategic. The leader of the firm must understand marketing in order to drive the firm's overall business strategy. Renowned and pioneering business management author Peter F. Drucker asserted, "Because the purpose of a business is to create a customer, the business enterprise has only two functions: marketing and innovation. These produce results. Everything else is a cost."

Number 2 - The Client Manager level. Anyone who meets face-to-face with clients needs to be trained in marketing and professional selling skills. They must understand the psychology of influence. If not, your firm is missing opportunities virtually every day.

Number 3 - The Marketing Coordinator level. This is someone in your administration or support team who is actively involved in the marketing of your firm at the 'keyboard level'. This is about logistical support in making marketing campaigns and events happen.

Unless you have team members trained in each of these three different areas, you will not achieve effective marketing for your accounting business.

So think about this ...

When was the last time you had marketing training for your directors and partners? What about for your accountants and advisors who meet with clients? And have you had one or two team members trained up specifically in how to be an effective Marketing Coordinator?

If you're serious about your marketing, you need to spend at least 5% of revenues on internal marketing resources, that is, in salaries of people in marketing and business development roles; and you should also allocate an additional 3% of revenue for external marketing resources such as training, education, technology and services.

If your firm intends to grow this year, ensure your business plan includes a budget and a plan for developing marketing and selling competencies across these three levels of your organisation.

Otherwise growth will continue to be an elusive goal and marketing will remain a mystery to you and your team.

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Part Three: Why a Lack of Marketing Skills Holds Back the Growth of Australian Accounting Firms

Wed, 22 Dec 2010 14:00:00 GMT

Following is an excerpt from an article written by Michael 'MC' Carter for the accounting benchmarking publication ‘The Good, the Bad and the Ugly® of the Accounting Profession’, 2010 edition. The online report will be available for purchase in the coming weeks on this page of the businessfitness™ website.

This is Third and final Part of this series. Click here to read Part One, and click here to read Part Two.

3 ‘Blind Spots’ Holding Back the Growth of Australian Accounting Firms, and the Obvious Solution Many Firms Fear - continued... 

“But do I really have to market and sell in order to grow?”

Yes. Here’s why.

Most firms provide predominantly tax and compliance services to their clients. This is because their clients ask for them. They ask for them because they know they need them. The government makes sure of that.

Firms, by and large, are full of ‘order takers’ not ‘advisors’. Order takers do whatever the client asks. Advisers make clients aware of things they don’t know about, and make proactive suggestions on courses of action for the client.

Order takers add very little value.
Advisers change lives.

The additional services that a firm can provide—such as tax planning, asset protection, wills and estate planning, succession planning and so on—are not mandatory. Other than compulsory superannuation, the government does not require people to plan for their future.

Therefore all these additional services are optional.

If they are optional, they need to be sold. That’s the logical fact of the matter.

It doesn’t matter if you feel a client needs these services, if a clients doesn’t want them. The only way a client moves from you feeling they need these services, to the client wanting them, is through your communication of the value of these services.

That is, through marketing and selling.

If you have a strong stigma attached to these words, replace marketing with ‘education’ and selling with ‘helping’, because in essence, that is all they are.

Why doing more for your clients, results in you becoming more for your clients

Your clients want you to help them build a better future. They just don’t know how to ask. They don’t know about all the wonderful things you can advise them on, to give them a more secure and financially prosperous life.

How can they, until you educate them?

This requires you to take responsibility for communicating these services and their benefits to your clients, and to move from the mediocre career and business path of being a low value ‘order taker’, and move to truly being a life changing advisor for your clients.

“Great theory, but give me some evidence. Does this actually produce results and grow a firm?”

Two days prior to writing this article, a client who is half-way through our Clientshare™ Academy course that teaches marketing and selling skills to accounting firms, emailed through to us a spreadsheet they called, “CLIENTSHARE INCOME TRACKER 2011”.

Clientshare™, by the way, is a word we have coined for a Key Performance Indicator (KPI) that firms tend not to measure: Average Number of Services Provided Per Client Group Per Year. In other words, how many different services the firm is providing to each client. This is a far more useful KPI than ‘average fee’.

The spreadsheet told an interesting story.

The first 11 clients they stepped through the Clientshare™ Growth Process resulted in $58,890 in additional fees for the firm in Year 1 and an estimated predictable $400,469 in additional fees in the first 10 years. This is over and above the fees the firm was generating by default, through ‘order taking’.

These are new fees generated through truly advising and educating their clients around strategies such as borrowing to invest through Self-Managed Super Funds.

Earlier in the article I referred to the new top 10 challenge of ‘Client Relationships’ and how this is directly affected by the growth-related challenges.

The following quote encapsulates why I am so passionate about educational marketing and selling for accounting firms, and why it is something where everyone wins; the firm, the adviser and the client.

The client who sent through the spreadsheet said to us, “These 11 clients are paying us more, and our relationship with them is also strengthened because we are no longer ‘just doing their tax’.”

A simple quote with a profound message.

If you would like to find out how you rate as a ‘rainmaker’ (marketer) for your firm, visit out site at practiceparadox.com.au and click on the ‘How Do You Rate?’ link on the right-hand side of the screen. Answer the 20 questions and you are then emailed your score out of 100.

It might mark the start of you progressing onto an exciting new path of growth and development, both personally and for your firm.

Michael Carter 
Founder & Director 
Practice Paradox Pty Ltd 
1300 PARADOX (1300 727 236) 
www.practiceparadox.com.au

Part Two: Why a Lack of Marketing Skills Holds Back the Growth of Australian Accounting Firms

Wed, 15 Dec 2010 14:00:00 GMT

Following is an excerpt from an article written by Michael 'MC' Carter for the accounting benchmarking publication ‘The Good, the Bad and the Ugly® of the Accounting Profession’, 2010 edition. The online report will be available for purchase in the coming weeks on this page of the businessfitness™ website.

This is Part Two of a Three Part series. Click here to read Part One.

3 ‘Blind Spots’ Holding Back the Growth of Australian Accounting Firms, and the Obvious Solution Many Firms Fear - continued... 

Industry surveys and statistics

In our free online survey on our practiceparadox.com.au website called ‘How Do You Rate As a Rainmaker?’, we score respondents out of 100 based on their answers to 20 questions. The first two questions are:

When did you last undergo formal training in marketing skills?
When did you last undergo formal training in face-to-face selling skills?

Each of these skill-sets have been proven as accelerators to business growth. It is well known that the ‘B-class Product’ with the ‘A-class Marketing’ will beat the ‘A-class Product’ with the ‘B-class Marketing’, every time.

So what do accounting industry practitioners invest in developing these skills?

Very little.

Marketing training statistics:

41% of respondents have never been trained in marketing
14% haven’t received training in marketing for over 5 years
6% haven’t received training within the past 2 years
That’s 61% of respondents who are unaware of, or out-of-date in, marketing know-how

It’s even worse for selling skills:

48% of respondents have never been trained in selling skills
16% haven’t received training in selling skills for over 5 years
13% haven’t received training within the past 2 years
That’s 77% of respondents who are unaware of, or out-of-date in, selling skills

Keeping in mind that the above statistics are already biased upwards due to the fact the respondents have had the initiative to seek out information on marketing and selling skills for accounting firms by visiting our website in the first place, it’s clear that two-thirds to three-quarters of the Australian accounting industry are uneducated in the latest marketing and selling skills and technologies.

That is an indictment on the profession, but for those who realise and accept this skill gap in their firm, it is a wonderful opportunity to grow.

The low attendance at ‘soft skills’ sessions at industry conferences

I speak at various industry conferences each year for The Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia and the National Institute of Accountants. The professional bodies have long identified ‘soft skills’ training in areas such as communication and leadership as a key focus for professional development of their members, and they provide these sessions at the conferences.

But guess what happens?

The technical sessions on core technical accounting and compliance topics pull very large numbers of attendees, whilst the sessions on soft skills attract a handful of only the most progressively-minded practitioners.

The profession continues to “vote with its feet” (to quote Prime Minister Julia Gillard of late), and there couldn’t be any clearer indication of Unconscious Incompetence being endemic in the Australian accounting industry, than poor attendance at these conference sessions.

The opportunity here for you, is that once your firm starts to develop stronger communication skills in the areas of marketing, selling and client relationship management, your firm grows. Growth is the predictable flow-on effect.

The structure of most small and medium accounting firms

Think about your business clients. A generic structure for a business might be something like this:

Yet the typical accounting firm looks more like this:

In other words, there are the ‘Fee Producers’ (the professional staff) and everyone else! A “them and us” culture is not uncommon, based on this typical division.

There’s an important box missing from that organisation chart, isn’t there?

If an accounting firm considers itself to be a ‘business’ and not a ‘practice’, it must treat Sales & Marketing as an important business function and look to develop it as a core competence.

Does this mean that adding a box to the firm’s organisation chart will fix the problem? Obviously not. The Sales & Marketing ‘box’ signifies 3 things:

The leadership of the firm acknowledges marketing as a core function,
Team members have been designated selling and marketing roles, and
The firm allocates resources to the function, both internal resources and external tools and resources.

So if developing marketing a selling skills is an antidote for firms who want to achieve higher growth rates, what is holding firms back from doing this?

Assuming a firm has progressed from Unconscious Incompetence to Conscious Incompetence, and is therefore aware and ready to learn, the main thing holding firms back is fear.

Fear of the unknown. Fear of failure. Fear of looking bad. Fear of rejection.

One of the strengths of the accounting industry has also led to its current weakness and main challenge—that is, firms haven’t HAD TO market. Growth was happening by default, and firms have inherently ‘sticky’ clients who keep coming back each year. They are wonderful business conditions in which to operate, but they have led to firms having ‘flabby marketing muscles’.

...

Stay tuned for Part Three of this article excerpt, which comes out next week.

Article excerpt from The Good, the Bad and the Ugly® of the Accounting Profession, 2010 benchmarking report

Wed, 08 Dec 2010 14:00:00 GMT

3 ‘Blind Spots’ Holding Back the Growth of Australian Accounting Firms, and the Obvious Solution Many Firms Fear

2008 marked the first year in the history of the Good Bad Ugly® survey that ‘Growth’ ranked as the most frequent response to the question, “Please rate your Top 3 current challenges”, with one in every four firms citing it as a Top 3 challenge.

That marked a significant shift in the accounting industry because in the decade prior firms were prospering simply by focusing on ‘getting through the work’ in the wake of the Goods and Services Tax introduction in Australia.

Since 2008, the trend towards a growth orientation has continued at a record rate, with 31% of firms in 2009 and 37% of firms in the recent 2010 survey identifying Growth as one of their Top 3 challenges.

That’s a 6% increase year on year.

No challenge has ever grown in importance as much in such a short period of time.

Growth is clearly THE issue facing the accounting profession in Australia.

Looking at the 10 most commonly cited Top 3 challenges in the table below, another two items also relate to growth, with ‘Introducing New Services’ and ‘Getting New Clients’ ranking 5th and 8th respectively.

Notice there’s a new entrant in the Top 10, with ‘Client Relationships’ increasingly becoming a concern. (Later in this article we’ll discuss how this is directly affected by the 3 growth-related challenges.)

When most business owners—accounting firm principals included—think of growth, most tend to think “we need more customers/clients”. That is the most difficult and most expensive way to grow a business.

It’s a natural tendency to overlook the growth potential in the firm’s existing clientbase. Even if a firm does acknowledge that it makes logical sense to look at growing their own clients first before looking for new clients, many practitioners don’t know where to start.
What do we mean by ‘marketing’ and ‘selling’ in the context of an accounting firm?

We define marketing as the one-to-many communication of value to clients, and selling as the one-to-one communication of value to clients.

Note that both are about communication.

In our experience, the key differentiator between firms who stagnate and firms who grow strongly, is in their ability to communicate value to clients.

When you consider that

Value = Benefits ÷ Price

... it quickly becomes obvious that the key element in that equation is Benefits.

Benefits are the results that a client perceives. In light of that, no firm ever truly has ‘fee disputes’ (that is, ‘price disputes’). They only have ‘value disputes’. This is where the client has not perceived that the benefits they received warranted the price they were charged.
There was another crucial word in that previous sentence: ‘Perceived’

Marketing and selling—and indeed, managing client relationships—is about managing client perceptions.

The only way to do that is through effective communication, which is what marketing and selling are all about.

But for many practitioners, ‘marketing’ and ‘selling’ are not only foreign to them, they are stigmatised words, beneath them as professionals.

“I don’t sell anything to anyone,” is a phrase I have heard over the years, spoken proudly by accounting firm practitioners.

This phrase is symptomatic of three factors holding back the growth of the accounting profession:

A lack of education and training in marketing,
A lack of education and training in selling, and
A lack of awareness that items 1 and 2 above even matter!

There are 4 levels of mastery when learning any new skill. The first level is called Unconscious Incompetence. This is the stage where “you don’t know that there are things you don’t know”.

Think back to the first time you were taught how to hold a golf club, or a tennis racquet or perhaps a musical instrument. There are very important aspects of such a skill that at first seem strange and totally unnatural.

And this is when the learning begins, when you move to the next stage of mastery called Conscious Incompetence. This is where “you know you don’t know”, but it is this realisation that makes it possible to learn and grow.

When it comes to marketing and selling skills, the accounting profession as a whole is at the level of Unconscious Incompetence. Most practitioners “don’t know what they don’t know.” There is a very low level of awareness of these crucial business skills, let alone competence in them.

If this seems a sweeping generalisation, consider these 3 areas of evidence:

Industry surveys and statistics;
The low attendance at ‘soft skills’ sessions at industry conferences, and
The structure of most small and medium accounting firms.

...

Stay tuned for Part Two and Three of this article (updated each week), which will delve deeper into the three areas of evidence and what you can do to ensure you’re not holding back the growth of your accounting firm.

Marketing, Sales Process and Selling Skills for Accounting Firms – Marketing Machine Webinar Part 3

Sat, 04 Sep 2010 01:14:00 GMT

On Wednesday we presented Part 3 of our 3-part webinar series, ’10 Steps to Building a Marketing Machine for Growing Your Accounting Firm.’

We addressed components 7 to 10 in the Marketing Machine model:

Component #7: Your Packaging: Does 'bunding' services into packages work? When doesn't it? What are the pro's and con's? How can you make Service Level Agreements (SLAs) work in your firm's favour in your selling process? How can SLAs be designed so that your clients are comforted by the structure and certainty they can provide?
Component #8: Your Pipeline: What is Opportunity Management? And what's an Opportunity Pipeline and why does your firm need one? What are Sales Milestones? How do you use them? What tools are available for tracking the progress of your firm's opportunities with existing and prospective clients? What advantages could your firm be missing out on right now?
Component #9: Your Oil: What can cause the best marketing systems to fail to bring about the intended results? Why the 'soft skills' involved in 'selling' are crucial to your firm's growth. How should a meeting with a client be structured? What is a Client Experience Cycle diagram and how does one help your sales process? Tips on questioning techniques and objection handling.
Component #10: Your Control Panel: What are the crucial marketing KPIs your firm needs to track? How and how often to measure your marketing KPIs. Engaging your team in KPI tracking - How to lift their awareness of ‘the numbers’ and get them to care about and focus upon their improvement.

Below you will see the slides of the presentation as well as the video recording above.

Feel free to add your comments and ask questions in the ‘Leave a Reply’ area below

Marketing, Sales Process and Selling Skills for Accounting Firms – Marketing Machine Webinar Part 3

View more presentations from Practice Paradox.

Marketing Tip in 60 Seconds - How to Use Your Email Signatures for Viral Marketing

Sat, 24 Jul 2010 23:58:00 GMT

60 Second Summary:

Include a link to something of value in your firm's standard email signature
Word the link as a specific call-to-action
Vary the link and call-to-action each month

Just think about how many emails leave your business each day.

Does your firm's standard email signature include a link to something of value, such as a special report, complimentary white paper on a topic relating to your primary market niche; a link to your email newsletter sign-up form; a link to your blog or Twitter page or LinkedIn profile or Facebook page?

If not, you're missing out on opportunities every day.

Word the link as a 'call-to-action'. This means tell people specifically what to do. For example, a link worded 'Download our special report "3 Steps to Smart Investing Through Super" is better than a blandly worded, 'Special Report on SMSFs'.

Specific calls-to-action work best.

The opportunities don't just lie within your existing clientbase. Think about the bank managers, lawyers, brokers, suppliers, government agencies and all the other 'non-clients' you and your team interact with each day.

By including a link to something of value, the many emails leaving your business each day will occasionally pique the interest of people ... which will lead to referrals, new subscribers to your email newsletter, alliances and other business opportunities.

Each month, change your firm's standard email signature to keep it fresh, as the brain is designed to cancel out constant stimuli, and people wil stop noticing the link after they have seen it a number of times.

Have a question about marketing or selling?

Just post a Comment below and we'll answer your question in a future 'Marketing Tip in 60 Seconds' article. Ask us anything. Don't hold back.

Purpose of our Marketing Tip in 60 Seconds

To give you quick, easy, actionable marketing tips. Often they will be very simple, at the tactical rather than strategic level.

Marketing Tip in 60 Seconds - Is Your Web Site's Home Page Missing This Vital Element?

Sat, 24 Jul 2010 14:00:00 GMT

60 Second Summary:

It is a mistake to have 'Call us for an obligation-f.r.e.e consultation' as the call-to-action on your web site
This is too 'high gradient' for many prospects
Include a simple 'Sign Up for our Free Newsletter' web form on your home page and make it prominent
Give your newsletter an appealing name with implied benefits - e.g. 'Tax Hints & Tips', or 'Business Building Hints & Tips', not just 'Client Newsletter'

When someone is dissatisfied with their existing accountant, they think about changing accountants long before they do it.

After all, for many, it's like breaking up (and breaking up is never never easy, I know).

If your web site asks a prospective client to 'Call us for an obligation-f.r.e.e consultation' (or words to that effect), that's like asking them out on a first date when they are perhaps just in the early stages of 'shopping around' to see what else is on offer.

In sales process design, this type of call-to-action is 'too high gradient' as a next step. In other words, it's too daunting for many. You want the first step to be an easy non-threatening step, such as signing up for your newsletter or downloading a special report or white paper (and in that process, signing up for your e-newsletter).

From a marketing perspective, one of the main objectives of your web site is to have a high conversion rate of visitors to people who join your newsletter list. That means for every 10 people who find your web site, you want to know how many are signing-up to your list. Then you need to test and measure changes to your site, to improve that conversion rate.

In our Marketing Machine™ model that we teach firms in The Clientshare Academy™ course, we call this 'grow your list' aspect 'The Hopper' - a hopper being the part of a machine that you tip the raw materials into at the start of the process.

The front-end of your marketing should have a Subscriber Acquisition Focus, not a Client Acquisition Focus.

That's counter-intuitive, I know.

Your newsletter needs to be written with not just your clients in mind, but your referral partners, prospective clients, prospective team members, and so on.

Have a look at your web site's home page now. If it doesn't have a prominent sign-up form for a well-named newsletter or special report, call your web developer now and request that this be implemented.

Have a question about marketing or selling?

Just post a Comment below and we'll answer your question in a future 'Marketing Tip in 60 Seconds' article. Ask us anything. Don't hold back.

Purpose of our Marketing Tip in 60 Seconds articles

To give you quick, easy, actionable marketing tips. Often they will be very simple, at the tactical rather than strategic level.

Inspiration for deciding on your firm's market niche - How to attract people who believe what you believe

Wed, 21 Jul 2010 14:00:00 GMT

This morning an update in Facebook from my former employer and ongoing mentor, Paul Dunn, caught my attention. Paul recently interviewed Simon Sinek, author of Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action.

In Paul's blog post he highlighted a few key quotes from the interview with Simon:

"People don't buy WHAT you do they buy WHY you do it."
"The goal is not to do business with everyone who needs what you have;  it’s to do business with those who believe what you believe."
“When you talk about what you believe then you will  attract those who believe what you believe.”

You can read Paul's full blog post here and you'll see a link to listen to the recording of the interview. It's brilliant stuff. Below I have also embedded a video of Simon presenting at TED.

So what does this all have to do with marketing an accounting practice, selling additional services and growing your firm's Clientshare™?

The first step in the marketing process we teach accounting firms is to choose a market niche. Within our 'Marketing Machine' model, we call this 'The Radar'. Most firms fail to focus in their strategy and their marketing. They take on all comers. Anyone with a heartbeat and a chequebook.

That is a sure-fire formula for mediocrity.

How can you and your team possibly be great at serving all types of people? You can't. They can't.

In a recent class in The Clientshare Academy program, we discussed the thinking behind a Focus Strategy (one of Porter's Generic Strategies) and the process of selecting a niche to dominate. There are all sorts of fears around adopting a niche strategy, such as "You mean I have to turn away business?!" David's Maister's brilliant article, Strategy Means Saying No (which is now an article in his latest book, Strategy and the Fat Smoker) addresses this issue well.

While there are objective and commercial market demographic criteria you can apply in the process, Simon Sinek hits on a far more important, and bigger picture, criterion: What is it you truly believe in? WHY do you do what you do? Why do you feel you can help your chosen market niche better than any other firm?

I'll give you a personal example: Why does Practice Paradox focus on helping accounting firms when the marketing and selling principles apply to many different types of business? Simple. I firmly believe that accounting firms are in a wonderful position to make a big difference to their clients' lives, to help them improve their financial position and to achieve their wealth-related goals. It is tragic, in my view, that so many firms do not do this. They "just do my tax", we hear clients of accounting firms say in our market research. A very small percentage of firms—the innovative 5%—actually discuss with their clients where the client is now, where they want to be in the future, what the best strategies are for getting there, what the steps to take along the way are, and then help the client implement these steps and stay on track.

THAT is adding value to clients. THAT is changing lives.

In choosing your niche, examine your beliefs, the 'WHY' that is driving you.

Project yourself forward 10 or 20 years and imagine the difference you'd like to make in your clients' lives. Think about HOW you'd help them achieve a better position in life, and think about WHO you'd like to work with.

The WHO is your target niche. The HOW is your service offering.

More important than either though, is your WHY.

The first sale is to yourself - How sold are your team on the value of your accounting firm's additional services?

Tue, 20 Jul 2010 11:58:00 GMT

In the process of learning professional selling skills, the first sale is to yourself. This means that you need to believe in—have absolute conviction in—what it is you are selling.

This is often easier for the Partners and Principals of accounting firms, but this belief and conviction level is not always so easy to pass on to associates and client managers. The Partners and Principals of an accounting practice have the experience and expertise to know, to their very core, that the additional services they are proposing to clients will be of great benefit to the clients, and that these benefits will outweigh the costs.

The first step in believing in what you sell is knowing what it is you are selling.

By that I mean, knowing in great depth the features and benefits of the additional services; knowing these services 'like the back of your hand' so that you are absolutely confident you can answer any question a client might ask when you are proposing the service to them.

In sales training this is called 'product knowledge'. Leading companies conduct product knowledge training for their sales staff at least every month. It is a constant ongoing focus.

What is your accounting firm doing on the product knowledge front?

How much do your client-facing team members actually know, for example, about what cash flow planning and working capital budget entails? Do they understand the benefits of doing it properly, and perhaps more importantly, the consequences for clients of not doing it well? What about Self-Managed Super Funds and related borrowing strategies? Succession planning? Management reporting and KPI control panels? Even something as seemingly basic as tax planning?

Do not assume your team members understand the ins and outs of all your firms services. In fact, it is safer to assume the opposite, and to institute an ongoing training process to address product knowledge of your key services.

Above I mentioned features and benefits. It is crucial that your product knowledge training covers both aspects.

Features are the facts, the description of what the service is, how it is delivered, what it costs and what the outputs are.

Benefits are the emotions, what it is that the service helps the client to gain or to avoid. Human nature is driven more by the desire to avoid pain that to gain pleasure, but always think about both aspects for each service as different clients will be motivated by different factors. Benefits include reducing risk, providing for family, retiring comfortably, making money, saving time, achieving recognition or status, and so on.

Here is a 10 step process you can follow to increase your team's product knowledge and ultimately their confidence and belief levels in suggesting additional services to clients.

In a spreadsheet, list out every service your firm delivers - one per column.
Enter into the spreadsheet the name of the 'No.1 Guru' and 'No.2 Guru' in your firm at selling each service.
Ask the 'Gurus' to document into the spreadsheet the features and benefits they emphasise to clients for each service.
For each service, video a selling guru in a role play situation, explaining the service to a client. Video is a powerful knowledge capture tool, not just because it is so quick and easy to use, but because it is a powerful communication medium covering not just the content (the words to say) but the visual and non-verbal aspects such as tone, pace, facial expressions and body language. We recommend that each firm have a pocket HD camera such as a Kodak Zi8, as well as a simple lapel microphone to capture better audio quality. Videos capture the knowledge, whereas although live verbal training is of value, that value is fleeting. It fades quickly.
Write down the name of the 'No.1 Guru' and 'No.2 Guru' in your firm at delivering each service.
For each service, video a delivery guru explaining the service from a technical perspective. This is not information that would be explained to a client, but it is information that many accountants and advisors want and need to know before they feel can confident that they understand enough about the service in order to recommend it.
Store the spreadsheet and videos in your firm's intranet/knowledgebase.
Instruct all relevant team members to read and view the appropriate documents and videos prior to a product knowledge session regarding a specific service. This gets everyone up to speed prior to the next step ...
Conduct a team training workshop involving role plays of explaining and selling the service to a client where one team member pretends to be the client and the other team member explains the service. Involve your 'selling gurus' and 'delivery gurus' heavily in the session—have them drive the session.
Conclude the workshop with an open forum discussing what participants have learned about the service and what questions they asked in their role as client. Document all questions and the answers and add these as FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions) to the product knowledge documentation in your intranet/knowledgebase.

Keep in mind that it only takes one small doubt in the mind of a team member—a team member you may be expecting to sell additional services to clients—about what a service entails or what the benefits are, for them to not want to discuss it with a client. No advisor wants to look bad. All advisors want to look like (and be!) the expert on what they are discussing.

Put the processes in place to give your team members the expert product knowledge they need ...

... and soon you'll start to see them discuss (and, dare we say it, sell!) these additional services to your clients.

4 Modern Marketing Strategies for Accounting Practices - Free Webinar

Tue, 20 Jul 2010 10:30:00 GMT

Our next free webinar is coming up in two weeks:

Your Marketing Machine: 10 Steps to Building a Marketing Machine for Growing Your Accounting Firm (Part 3 of 3)
Wednesday 4 August 2010
12:00pm QLD/NSW/VIC/ACT/TAS time
11:30am SA/NT time
10:00am WA time
Click here to see webinar start time in other time zones
1 hour format: 45min presentation, 5min plug, 10min Q&A
Click here to register. It's free.

In Parts 1 and 2 of this 3-Part webinar series in June and July we covered the first 6 components of building your firm's 'Marketing Machine':

#1: Have a Radar (niche marketing focus),
#2: Have a Hopper (subscriber acquisition focus), and
#3: Have plenty of Fuel (great educational content for subscribers).
#4: Use an Engine (one-to-many content publishing tools)
#5: Build a Conveyor Belt (series of small increasing-gradient steps for prospective clients to take)
#6: Apply a Filter (structured 3-step sales process)

In Part 3 of this series we'll be covering the final 4 components of the Marketing Machine model:

#7: Your Packaging: Does 'bunding' services into packages work? When doesn't it? What are the pro's and con's? How can you make Service Level Agreements (SLAs) work in your firm's favour in your selling process? How can SLAs be designed so that your clients are comforted by the structure and certainty they can provide? 
#8: Your Pipeline: What is Opportunity Management? And what's an Opportunity Pipeline and why does your firm need one? What are Sales Milestones? How do you use them? What tools are available for tracking the progress of your firm's opportunities with existing and prospective clients? What advantages could your firm be missing out on right now? 
#9: Your Oil: What can cause the best marketing systems to fail to bring about the intended results? Why the 'soft skills' involved in 'selling' are crucial to your firm's growth. How should a meeting with a client be structured? What is a Client Experience Cycle diagram and how does one help your sales process? Tips on questioning techniques and objection handling. 
#10: Your Control Panel: What are the crucial marketing KPIs your firm needs to track? How and how often to measure your marketing KPIs. Engaging your team in KPI tracking - How to lift their awareness of ‘the numbers’ and get them to care about and focus upon their improvement.

Some of the feedback form comments from accounting firm practitioners who attended our webinar last month:

"It certainly exceeded my expectations of the value I thought would be delivered from a free webinar. It delivered a range of very specific, usable strategies that will help us continue to define our Business Development/Marketing process. Great investment of time!" C.W. - Director - 50+ Person Firm, Sydney, NSW 
"The webinar stimulated our thinking about the sales process and how to effectively use social media." D.M. - Director - 6-10 Person Firm, Sydney, NSW 
"The information and tools discussed in the webinar were so invaluable to what I wish to do in our firm. I am committed to building a marketing machine for my firm, and Paradox Practice makes this seem so achievable." Erin Roche - Marketing Manager - Accounting Focus - 11-20 Person Firm, Perth WA

Our webinars are always interactive, including live polls, quizzes and Q&A at the end of the session.

Hope you can join us. Register here now. There's no charge to attend.

Marketing and Social Media Strategies for Accounting Firms – Marketing Machine Webinar Part 2

Mon, 12 Jul 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Last Wednesday we presented Part 2 of our 3-part webinar series, ’10 Steps to Building a Marketing Machine for Growing Your Accounting Firm.’

We addressed components 4, 5 and 6 in the Marketing Machine model:

Component #4: Use an Engine (one-to-many content publishing platforms, including social media tools)
Component #5: Build a Conveyor Belt (series of small increasing-gradient steps for prospective clients to take)
Component #6: Apply a Filter (structured 3-step sales process)

Below you will see the slides of the presentation as well as the video recording.

Feel free to add your comments and ask questions in the ‘Leave a Reply’ area below.

The final webinar in the 3-part series is on 4 August 2010. You can register for free here: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/471120889

Marketing growth strategies for accounting firms marketing machine webinar part 2 – slides

View more presentations from Practice Paradox.

Marketing Machine Part 2 – 10 Steps to Building a Marketing Machine for Growing Your Accounting Firm from Michael ‘MC’ Carter on Vimeo.

Recording of our webinar presented on 7 July 2010, Part 2 of our 3-part webinar series, ’10 Steps to Building a Marketing Machine for Growing Your Accounting Firm.’

We addressed components 4, 5 and 6 in the Marketing Machine model:

Component #4: Use an Engine (one-to-many content publishing platforms, including social media tools)

Component #5: Build a Conveyor Belt (series of small increasing-gradient steps for prospective clients to take)

Component #6: Apply a Filter (structured 3-step sales process)

Marketing for Accountants – New Online Marketing Training, Sales Training and Implementation Program for Accounting Firms

Thu, 24 Jun 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Yesterday saw the launch of The Clientshare™ Academy, a 10-month marketing training program we’ve developed for accounting firms. You can view the recording of the 1-hour webinar by clicking on the video image below or on the Vimeo site here.

Practice Paradox – Clientshare Academy Launch – Including Foundation Member Offer from Michael ‘MC’ Carter on Vimeo.

Marketing Course for Accounting Firms: Recording of 23 June 2010 webinar where we covered the unique aspects of the course, benefits of the program, the course curriculum, the format and delivery of the course, pricing, as well as a special Foundation Member offer for the first intake of firms into the program.

You can also view the slides below or on Slideshare or box.net.

Practice Paradox Clientshare Academy Launch – Including Foundation Member Offer – Slides

View more presentations from Practice Paradox.

The Clientshare™ Academy program is a first for the accounting profession in that it is the most in-depth marketing training ever offered for accounting firms, taking advantage of the latest technology available regarding social media and direct marketing as well as addressing selling skills and sales processes.

During the webinar we covered the unique aspects of the course, benefits of the program, the course curriculum, the format and delivery of the course, pricing, as well as a special Foundation Member offer for the first intake of firms into the program.

The program is delivered 80% live online and 20% through two 3-day workshops. Students also have access to Member Only online resources such as training videos and a Discussion Forum for asking questions, discussing challenges and sharing wins.

If you would like a detailed Course Curriculum (20 page PDF) emailed to you or have any questions about the program please contact us via this web form.

At the end of the webinar we had a Question & Answer session where we answered a number of questions. This Q&A session is included in the video recording which you can play by clicking on it, on the right of the screen or on the Vimeo site.

Marketing Growth Strategies for Accounting Firms – Marketing Machine Webinar Part 1

Fri, 11 Jun 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Wednesday saw us present Part 1 in a 3-part webinar series, 10 Steps to Building a Marketing Machine for Growing Your Accounting Firm.

The webinar included a 20 minute interview with Steph Hinds, Director of Growthwise, a Newcastle accounting practice. Growthwise has been experiencing terrific results from applying the marketing strategies and ideas we outline in this webinar, which are the first 3 of the 10 steps to building a Marketing Machine:

Have a Radar (niche marketing focus),
Have a Hopper (subscriber acquisition focus), and
Have plenty of Fuel (great educational content for your subscribers).

Steph has acquired 6 clients in the past couple of weeks by applying this innovative marketing approach.

In fact, Steph ‘tweeted’ us after the webinar to let us know she acquired yet another client that afternoon. So that’s 7 new clients in the past fortnight.

Steph tells us Growthwise has experienced more growth in the past 3 months than they have in the prior 9 months.

This pragmatic approach to marketing clearly works.

That’s why we refer to it is a machine: There’s a structure and process to it, it’s predictable, it’s scalable, and you and your team can learn how to run it. It’s not based on ‘creative flair’. It’s very systematic.

Below is a link to the recording of the webinar in which we covered:

Why your firm desperately needs a marketing radar
The only 3 strategic options for your accounting business
Why businesses that ‘go an inch wide and a mile deep’ with their marketing focus tend to flourish
Common fears practitioners have about niche marketing
What is a ‘subscriber acquisition’ approach to marketing?
Why subscriber acquisition is a more effective focus than client acquisition
What is ‘engagement marketing’ and why does your firm need to do it?
What does ‘content is king’ mean and what to do about it

Below are the slides from the webinar …

Marketing Growth Strategies for Accounting Firms – Marketing Machine Webinar – Part 1 of 3

View more presentations from Practice Paradox.

You can watch the video below or on the Vimeo site here.

Marketing Machine Part 1 – 10 Steps to Building a Marketing Machine for Growing Your Accounting Firm from Michael ‘MC’ Carter on Vimeo.

During the webinar we also announced a special webinar happening on 23 June 2010 where we will launch an exciting new initiative to address what we believe is the No.1 skill gap in the accounting profession: The Clientshare™ Academy is a 10 month course that will teach accounting firm practitioners the skills required to build their very own Marketing Machine, and in the process move towards being a High Clientshare™ Accounting Firm.

We’d love to hear your comments below in the ‘Leave a Reply’ area. Let us know your thoughts. For example, what are your concerns or fears about adopting a niche marketing focus for your accounting firm?

Why marketing is not a ‘creative’ pursuit – It’s so pragmatic you can build a ‘marketing machine’ for your accounting firm

Wed, 02 Jun 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Many people believe that marketing is the domain of ‘the creative types’ in advertising agencies and innovative companies like Apple and Google.

Not so. Whilst creativity is certainly a valuable attribute in any business field, marketing included, for most businesses marketing needs to be a pragmatic, systematic, measurable, predictable process.

Thankfully it can be. There’s no mystery to the process, but there are important principles that need to be adhered to.

On 9 June 2010 we’re presenting the first webinar in a 3-part series, “Your Marketing Machine, Part One: 10 Steps to Building a Marketing Machine for Growing Your Accounting Firm”. (We specialise in helping accounting firms in their marketing and selling processes, though these principles apply to any service-based or knowledge-based business.)

You can register for free here.

It’s interesting. Accounting firms have for years been in the enviable position of having to do little (if any) marketing. “All my business comes via referral,” we hear practitioners say.

However, with Australian Treasurer Wayne Swan’s impending ‘tick and flick’ changes regarding self-assessment of income tax returns (as has been done in other countries already), the accounting profession in Australia is headed for a new era where only the progressive will survive.

This means marketing is shifting from optional to mandatory for growth oriented firms.

We firmly believe you need to make marketing a core competency in your business.

In this free 3-part webinar series you will learn:

What is a ‘High Clientshare™ Accounting Firm’?
Why is a High Clientshare accounting firm a more profitable (and enjoyable) model?
Practical everyday examples of opportunities (that many firms miss) for growing fees with existing clients
5 reasons we call this marketing approach a ‘marketing machine’
Why your firm needs to build its own marketing machine
10 steps to building a marketing machine for your accounting firm
Marketing Machine Component #1: Your Radar
Component #2: Your Hopper
Component #3: Your Fuel
Component #4: Your Engine
Component #5: Your Conveyor Belt
Component #6: Your Filter
Component #7: Your Packaging
Component #8: Your Pipeline
Component #9: Your Oil
Component #10: Your Control Panel

In this first webinar in the 3-Part series, we will focus on the first 3 components of your marketing machine.

You and your team will learn:

Why your firm desperately needs a marketing radar
The only 3 strategic options for your accounting business
Why businesses that ‘go an inch wide and a mile deep’ with their marketing focus tend to flourish
Common fears practitioners have about niche marketing
What is a ‘subscriber acquisition’ approach to marketing?
Why subscriber acquisition is a more effective focus than client acquisition
What is ‘engagement marketing’ and why does your firm need to do it?
What does ‘content is king’ mean and what to do about it

We hope you can join us for this free live event: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/337115032

Feel free to make any comments below regarding any questions you have that you’d like addressed during the Q&A session at the end of the webinar.

Elements of Influence – Marketing and Selling Tips for Accounting Firms

Sun, 11 Apr 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Last Thursday we conducted our monthly free webinar, this one entitled, “Elements of Influence – What Leads to a Client Saying ‘Yes’.” You can view the video of the recorded webinar here. We looked at how Robert B. Cialdini’s 6 influence principles (as outlined in his brilliant book, “Influence – The Psychology of Persuasion“) can be applied by accounting firms in their marketing and selling.

You can also download a PDF of the webinar slides here.

We also covered 4 additional elements of influence that we have noticed over the past two decades of consulting and marketing, make a significant difference when marketing professional services and other ‘intangibles’.

In next month’s webinar we discuss ‘How to Build a Marketing Machine’ for an accounting firm. If you’re on our free email newsletter list, you’ll receive an invitation. If you’re not on our list yet, you can subscribe for free here.

Feel free to Leave a Reply below if you have any questions or comments about the webinar, or any requests for topics to be covered in future webinars.

Advice on choosing a name for an accounting firm

Sun, 11 Apr 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Over lunch today I was reading some news via Feedly in my web browser, when I came across this blog topic on AccountingWeb.co.uk:

I am about to set up my practice and am in two minds as to whether to use my own name eg Fred Smith Accountants or be a bit more creative. I have no ambitions to grow a huge practice just a small office with 2 or 3 staff eventually providing traditional accounting and taxation services to small local businesses. At the same time I dont want to be seen as an old fashioned.

You can see the various replies to this question on the AccountingWeb (UK) site here.

This is a topic where people have widely differing opinions. Here’s a copy of my reply that you can see on that page:

The answer to this question all depends on your overall business plan, eventual exit/succession strategy, and how you intend to position your firm within your market.

From the perspective of creating value on your balance sheet (as one day, you will sell your business, unless you have discovered the fountain of eternal youth), in my opinion go with something for which you can register a trademark (as that obviously becomes a balance sheet asset, albeit an intangible asset, for the firm).

I personally lean towards the use of brand names, but not ‘tacky’ ones (the ‘R US’ example was, I hope, clearly made in jest!). However … do ensure you include the descriptive words (accountant/accountants/accountancy/business advisors) in the business name, or at least in the tag line that follows every instance of the firm name.

A surname is ok to use, but I personally would avoid the use of your first name, unless you want to position yourself as a tiny ‘micro’ firm. Using your first name and last name in your firm name can end up being a noose around your neck, in that it can tend to set up an expectation for new clients that they will be dealing directly with you, “Fred”. (Plus it can lead to the future owner wanting to change the name, after your exit. What a waste of building up the brand name value over the years!)

Clearly there are plenty of examples of successful accounting and consulting firms that have the founder’s last name as the brand name, and there’s nothing wrong with that. At the end of the day though, don’t spend too much time or energy on the decision regarding the name, as it’s not a make or break decision for the future success of your firm. Your brand/firm name will come to have associated with it those qualities that your clients experience and value, and therefore tell others about — that is, your firm’s eventual reputation.

If your surname is already in use within your market by established firms, then you won’t succeed in getting a trade mark registered. In that case, you might need to consider a ‘brand name’ for your firm. It is crucial, in my opinion (as was suggested above by Adrian) to get your logo professionally designed. The ‘homemade/DIY’ logos (some look they are done by the work experience kid or a son or daughter still at school!) send a message of amateur/cheap/dodgy. If your logo design is distinctive enough, you can get a registered trademark for the ‘MARK’ (graphic), if you don’t (also) succeed in getting a registered ‘WORD’ trademark.

So do speak with a trade mark attorney and have a search on which of the name on your shortlist would be available to register (and in parallel, see what domain names are available, but the trademark is more important from an IP value perspective — you can always do a slight variation on the domain name such as adding a word at the start or end of it); and do use a professional graphic designer to have your logo designed. (By the way, the graphic designer I use is excellent and tremendous value for money — see our firm’s site at practiceparadox.com.au — I can refer you on to her if you drop me a line.) Hope that helps. Feel to log into our free webinars each month that are about marketing for accounting firms. Cheers, MC

What are your thoughts on the topic? Enter them in the ‘Leave a Reply’ comments area below.

Play to Your Strengths: Why Some Accountants Can Sell, While Most Can’t, and How to Assess Your Own Potential

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 00:00:00 GMT

You can click here to view a recording of this webinar

Our webinar last Thursday was entitled, Play to Your Strengths: Why Some Accountants Can Sell, Most Can’t, and How to Assess Your Own Potential. We covered a model which overlays the DiSC® profiling system regarding communication styles with the Minding, Grinding, Finding and Reminding concepts.

We each have our own strengths and weaknesses. This means (1) we should focus on those tasks we are naturally suited to, and (2) we should not expect ourselves (or our team members) to perform roles that they “are not cut out for” – why teach elephants to dance, as the saying goes? Sadly, this often happens in the area of rainmaking (marketing and selling) where team members are expected to perform a role (e.g. finding new clients and/or up-selling existing clients onto additional services) that they are neither suited for, nor trained in. This sets everyone up for stress and disappointment.

DiSC profiling is a useful tool for working out who within your firm should focus on Minding, Grinding, Finding or Reminding. It’s common for people to be good at two of these roles. Rarely do you find someone who is good at three of them. No-one is good at all four of them.

You need to know your communication profile (DiSC is one of a variety of tools of this type), and you need to know your team members’ profiles. Know thyself. Know your team.

Is the message that accountants cannot sell? Absolutely not! Many can. The point is, identify who in your firm has potential to be good at it, then get them training in professional selling skills … and do this on an ongoing basis.

You can click here to view a recording of this webinar

Going for Growth: Webinar about the New No.1 Challenge Facing the Accounting Profession

Sun, 07 Feb 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Last Thursday we presented our first ever webinar. It was entitled, Going for Growth: The New No.1 Challenge Facing the Accounting Profession and How to Address It. Hundreds of accounting firms from around Australia, as well as firms from the U.S., U.K., New Zealand and Zimbabwe logged in to learn why it is that many accounting firms struggle with growth, marketing, business development, rainmaking and whatever other euphemisms you choose to use to refer to “selling” additional services to existing clients. Feedback from attendees rated the webinar 4.1 out of 5 (83%). To view a recording of this webinar (1 hour 7 mins) click on the video to the right (if you’re reading this on our site), or click here (if you’re reading this article via your RSS reader). Please add your Comment below if you’d like to discuss the contents of the webinar, or feel free to email us via the Contact page (link at top of page).

Why Negative Perceptions of ‘Selling’ are Holding You Back

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 00:00:00 GMT

In my experience in dealing with hundreds of accounting firms around Australia over the years, I have noticed that those firms that have one or more effective ‘rainmakers’ who are great at finding new clients for the firm and effective at up-selling existing clients onto additional services, prosper and grow well above the industry average growth rate.

Of course that’s not surprising.

Sadly, however, the vast majority of firms are not very good at rainmaking and they tend to potter along, growing by default at a slow rate through the occasional client or 3^rd party referral.

There can be various reasons for this lack of rainmaking ability including never having been formally trained in the art and science (and psychology) of selling, but there is generally one root cause of a firm’s failure to be good at rainmaking: Negative beliefs about ‘selling’

This is a severely limiting belief for a business owner or principal.

Imagine if the owner of a small or medium business had a similar belief? Their success is likely to be modest at best.

This ‘selling is bad’ belief is not the sole domain of accounting firms. It happens in many businesses.

Following is an excerpt from a case study in my upcoming book, The Practice Paradox – Why Most Accounting Firms Don’t Help Their Clients More. It’s about a client of mine in the travel industry who faced this exact same issue in her business. (For a full version of the case study, you can email BookPreview [at] practiceparadox.com.au to be sent a free 50-page PDF of the book preview.)

Changing peoples’ behaviour is hard. If you focus solely at the behaviour level you will most likely fail. Here’s why:

To change behaviours, often it's ineffective to address the Behaviours directly as your first step. You need to drill deeper to the underlying Beliefs, and sometimes to the underlying Values.

A person’s behaviours stem from their beliefs and their beliefs from their values.

Shifting a person’s values is also very difficult. You need to employ people who share the appropriate and compatible values in the first place.

Values are like the tree trunk, beliefs are the branches and behaviours are the leaves. If you address a person’s behaviours without attempting to first understand their underlying beliefs, you are merely ‘hacking at the leaves’ of behaviour. This is futile. You might bring about, at best, a short-term change in behaviour, but in the medium and long term, a person’s behaviour will shift back into alignment with their beliefs and values. At worst, if you address only a person’s behaviours you will bring about resentment and resistance.

Beliefs, on the other hand, can often be shifted as long as a new belief is compatible with the person’s values.

A common value of business owners is ‘service’; providing service to and helping others. They like helping their customers/clients; that’s one of the reasons they got into business in the first place.

In a business, team members also often share this same service value. However, often the beliefs stemming from that value differ from the business owner’s.

Do you have team members who believe it is good service to only provide clients with what they ask for? They don’t like to ‘hard sell’?

You, on the other hand might believe that good service is ensuring clients’ needs are fully met and that this often involves educating clients about their options.

Let’s look at an example from a travel agency where we discovered that the travel consultants were merely “selling the flights” to clients and were not even selling important options like travel insurance.

Different Beliefs can stem from the same Values, resulting in entirely different Behaviours. This is an example from a selling scenario.

Once we discussed this as a group with the business owner and her travel consultants, the team agreed that if a person did end up requiring medical attention or hospitalisation whilst overseas, that it is likely to be a financial disaster for the client. They also agreed that the client, in hindsight, would think that the travel consultant should have explained this risk to them and offered them the option of the insurance.

The problem was, the young travel consultants had never experienced that; they had never had a client actually require medical treatment whilst overseas. The business owner, on the other hand, had seen the financial hardship that a lack of travel insurance can bring.

So I asked the business owner, “How do you discuss the travel insurance option with a client?”

“It’s easy. I just share with them a couple of horror stories about where uninsured travellers ended up incurring many tens of thousands of dollars in medical expenses just because they didn’t have any travel insurance. In fact, I have a couple of news clippings about this.”

After first ensuring we shifted the travel consultants’ limiting belief we then built a system to support the desired behaviour. Soon the travel consultants started to consistently discuss the topic of travel insurance—and other options such as accommodation, car hire, shows and stopovers—with clients.

Sales of options such as travel insurance began to rise.

In fact, the average number of items per booking increased from a paltry 1.1 to over 3 items per booking.

The effect on the business was enormous, especially when combined with a dramatic improvement in conversion rates of enquiries to bookings. (You can read more about that in the Book Preview.).

This means that not only did we more than triple the business’ revenue, profitability increased by a greater magnitude because the optional products provided greater margins than the core product, the flights.

Next time you aim to bring about a change in your team’s behaviour, remember to first ‘go upstream’ and consider your underlying beliefs that support that behaviour. Discuss these beliefs with your team and ask them about their beliefs.

Once you feel you have achieved an alignment of beliefs, then you can address the skills and systems required to support the desired behaviours.

I’d be very interested to hear of your own experiences with your team members’ (and your own) beliefs regarding selling and how you have addressed that issue and brought about change, or not.

Please post your comment below. I look forward to the discussion.

3 Ways to Grow Your Accounting Firm – But Where’s the Leverage?

Thu, 06 Aug 2009 00:00:00 GMT

The ’3 Ways to Grow Your Business’ formula explains that to grow revenue, you can either find more clients, sell to them more often, and/or increase the average transaction value. It’s a simple formula but it’s very useful when analysing where the leverage points are for growing your business.

For example, if your accounting business has 300 clients, and on average a client ‘purchases’ from you once a year, with an average fee of $3,000, the formula reads 300 x 1.0 x $3,000 = $900,000 revenue.

You’ll know that the magic of compounding means that a 10% increase in each of the 3 areas produces not a 10% increase but a 33% increase in revenue: 330 x 1.1 x $3,300 = $1.2 million.

A nice improvement; and a 10% increase in each is usually very achievable.

For many accounting firm practitioners (and small business owners in general), when they think ‘marketing’ they think ‘find more clients’. Whilst a steady stream of new clients is obviously a healthy thing, acquiring new clients is the most difficult, most costly and least leveraged of the 3 options. When you consider that many accounting firms find it difficult to create additional capacity, the last thing many firms need is yet more client relationships to manage.

Increasing prices by 10%, appears on the surface to be the easiest change to implement. However, competitive forces may limit your scope to increase fees. Do carefully consider this option, however. (You might be more price sensitive than your clients.)

It’s quite difficult to increase client numbers by 50% in a year (excluding acquiring fees/firms).

It’s unlikely you can increase your prices by 50%.

The greatest leverage typically lies in increasing the number of times clients ‘buy from you’ in a year: Increasing the ’1.0′ in the middle of the equation. This also offers the greatest opportunity for helping your clients to a more meaningful level, strengthening client relationships in the process.

It’s easy to calculate your average fee per client, and it’s important to know and track that figure. (The 2008 benchmarking survey of Australian accounting firms, The Good, the Bad & the Ugly of the Accounting Profession by businessfitness™, found the median fee per client across the 356 firms to be $3,500 with upper quartile $4,250.)

But that’s a fairly gross measure of limited value for directing management and effecting change.

Drilling deeper, you need to know this: The Average Number of Services Provided Per Client Per Year.

Growing your Clientshare enables you to grow your firm without growing client numbers. Having fewer, more meaningful client relationships makes for a simpler and richer professional life—and a more profitable and manageable business.

It’s likely you don’t know your firm’s current Clientshare. Don’t be too hard on yourself. You’re not alone.

Measuring your firm’s Clientshare entails a series of steps.

We’ll be covering these in future posts …

Accounting firms’ challenge of selling additional services

Sun, 02 Aug 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Over the past 18 years I have worked in and around professional service firms, including industrial design firms, business and marketing consultancies, a medical device research and development start-up, a business software development consultancy, and accounting firms. Each of these businesses has had one thing in common: ‘selling the intangible’; they are ‘knowledge firms’ employing, as Peter Drucker coined it many years ago, ‘knowledge workers’ who create, develop and use intellectual property (IP) to create value for clients.

Knowledge-based businesses are faced with a unique set of challenges including (among many others) finding and retaining talent, building knowledge management systems, and persuading clients to invest in ‘the invisible’; that is, services that are intangible and therefore impossible to evaluate in advance of experiencing them.

Out of all these businesses, however, one type in particular struggles with selling the value of what they do—or rather, what they could do—for clients, and that is accounting firms.

How have I come to notice this?

In 2001 I co-founded businessfitness™, a firm that specialises in improving the performance of accounting firms. Each year we’d conduct an exhaustive benchmarking study of the accounting profession in Australia and publish a report called The Good, the Bad & the Ugly® of the Accounting Profession. We’d survey hundreds of firms, analyse the data, identify the high-performing firms, interview them about the way they lead, structure and manage their businesses, then write about these ‘best practices’. I was fortunate enough to be intimately involved in this process and I had the privilege of interviewing and spending time with many practitioners from high performing progressive firms around Australia.

In the process I learnt a lot.

Over the 8 years from 2001 to 2009 I encountered hundreds of accounting firms in my work with businessfitness. This built on my prior experience working with the accounting industry when back in the mid-1990′s where I was with The Results Corporation when we ran the very first Accountants Boot Camp, and later with Paul Dunn-led spin-off company Results Accountants Systems where I was in charge of Systems Research & Development (that is, developing and ‘productising’ the firm’s intellectual property).

15 years on, I see that many accounting firms are still coming to grips with the challenge of providing higher value optional services to their clients.

So what is holding firms back?

It’s a combination of lacking the right psychology, the right skills and the right systems for ‘selling the intangible’ to clients.

Not until a firm can sell additional value, can they add additional value to clients.

This blog, my books, our webinars and consulting services will teach accounting firm practitioners and staff how to do just that.

I look forward to sharing this journey with you …

The services that most accounting firms would love to provide to their clients, and which are of great benefit to their clients, accounting firms don’t know how to sell.