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How to win new clients

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3rd May 2011
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Business development is a perennial challenge, so Finola McManus offers a plan of action to get you heading in the right direction.
 
Many smaller firms of practitioners (between four and 20 employees) talk about marketing and needing to win new business but often think they are too small to have a marketing plan.

They think they can’t afford to fund a marketing campaign like the larger players and therefore approach the whole concept of marketing in a haphazard way. No wonder their results are poor and difficult to measure!

Based on talking with successful firms this year and on personal experience, below is an easy to use list to help you with a plan of action which is proven to be successful and involves minimal cost outlay.The list is merely an overview and is by no means exhaustive.

  • First of all, do you have an ideal client profile of who you actually want to win as a new client? You need to know who you are going to target before you start contacting people. Otherwise, you can end up winning the wrong type of new business client at the wrong margin.
  • Compile a list to include e-mail addresses of all those you would like to have as new clients. Most practitioners can readily collate such a target list from businesses they have quoted for before (what I call “near misses”), good referral contacts and databases which have previously been bought in and edited for telemarketing purposes or similar. Look at local industrial estates and business parks and collate data on those firms you think you would like to look after.
  • Decide what makes you special as an accountant and advisor. The offering of ‘giving excellent service’ or being ‘proactive’ is now past its sell buy date. These terms are often banded around without being clearly defined and prospect clients don’t really know what they mean. What exactly do you mean by excellent client service? It needs to be more than “we get accounts filed on time”. Surely this is essential for any accountant to deliver as a basic offering. Also, it should be a given that every accountant will be proactive and give excellent service - why would a client seek out an advisor who is merely average?
  • Businesses are in dire need of better management information and meetings to discuss business strategy and planning. Cashflow management is also key for many businesses in these times. Make sure your service offering asks what they really need and how you can help. No one is really interested in how well you can complete a set of accounts or tax returns - once again this is a given.
  • When you meet a potential client, listen more and talk less. Business owners will be more impressed by your interest in listening to their issues and learning about their business. Accountants can have a reputation of droning on about how wonderful they are and telling clients what they think they need. This is a real turn off to many potential clients.
  • Have a clear and visible pricing strategy. Offer fixed fees; this is now standard for the more successful firms, as is payment by standing order or direct debit.  This approach is a winner for both client and accountant and manages both parties’ cashflow.
  • Make sure your menu of services is up to date and written in simple language so the prospective client can understand what you can actually help with. Test the menu this on your team and make sure everyone working for you also knows everything you do as a firm.
  • Look at your website. This is your brochure to the outside world. Is it up to date? Do you have a system of inviting people to register on it so you can capture their data and send them regular updates and free newsletters etc?
  • Telemarketing can be effective for those wanting to win new clients with an average annual fee of £1,000 or less. However, if you ideal client profile is for larger clients than this then it may prove more cost effective to have your own marketing campaign. Telemarketing is very cost effective in the current market and it is worth considering as a supplement to your marketing plan - particularly if you haven’t tried it before and are looking to win a higher volume of clients a lower fee level. A word of caution. Many clients who are attracted to the cheap, “low balling” accountant will have little loyalty. They need little more than a basic compliance service and change their accountants frequently. Ask yourself if this is the type of business model you want to build for your firm in the long term?
  • Look to raise your profile in the local community to get your name known. Every area has business publications which will accept contributions and inexpensive “advertorial” articles. These won’t win you new business leads on their own, but will get people used to your face and name.
  • Set up your e-mail system so that you can send out short “soundbite” e-mails to your target list as a minimum every month. People respond better to e-mails as opposed to hard copy these days. Remember, people do not usually read further than the first couple of lines, so simply write a couple of sentences to whet their appetitea and create curiousity about you. E-mail campaigns always work best if they are followed up wth a personal call to ask. “Did you read the recent e-mail and did it strike a chord with you?”
  • If you don’t have the resources internally to make follow up calls, which in itself is a thankless and time consuming task, numerous providers will do this for and gain appointments for you (with briefing notes on the conversation) you for a daily rate. The objective is to get you through the door at prospects on your target list.
  • Nuture your professional contacts. bank managers in particular. Keep them copied on all your marketing e-mails and call them regularly. Many firms report that referrals from banks are still a major source of new business for them.
  • Consider running a small regular seminar. The thought of this may fill you with dread! There are many excellent tools available to help you systematise this process, provide you with a topic and script and a step by step guide on how to run an event. I have met many practitioners (including myself in years gone by!) who believed public speaking was the stuff of nightmares. I have since seen the opposite to be true. Regular small seminars are an excellent way to court potential clients and give them the opportunity to talk to existing clients who come along too. Seminars are an ideal way to win extra work from existing clients and again serve to raise your profile in your area.
  • The real secret to success is a gentle, “drip drip” approach. In this climate businesses are reluctant to change advisors and take time to make the move. Consistent and regular contact is therefore the key. It can take more than a year to win an appointment with someone on your target list and then another year to convert them. Don’t be disheartened - this is simply the way of the world of smaller practitioners.
  • Implement a simple system so you can set a target for new business and monitor what is successful together with conversion rates. You need this system in place so you can see what works best and replicate it.
  • On avarage, a partner responsible for the marketing plan should allow an average of one day a week for marketing and business development and a further day a week for seeing potential new clients. If this looks like an unrealistic target for you to achieve then it poses a raft of different questions about how you are running your business and what your role as owner. There may be issues to be addressed first in this area alone.

I cannot write about winning new clients without mentioning winning additional work from existing clients. Many practitioners fail to realise fee income potential by not using a “windows of opportunity” system with their existing clients bases. This is essential.

The above list is a very basic, simple start guide. I realise there are a wealth of marketing tools, resources and software available on the market - many of which work well and are cost effective. My intention with this article is to provide those with no marketing plan with a little inspiration. It may also be time for those who have a plan in place to review and update it.
 
Recent research amongst smaller firms of practitioners shows that many are winning new business and fee income as a result of offering something different and being more accessible and personal in their approach to servicing clients. I hope that you too can capitalise on this!
 
Please contact me on [email protected]  or via www.practice-perfect.net if you have a specific question.

Finola McManus is a chartered accountant and former senior partner, who now runs her own consultancy service, Practice Perfect.

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Replies (3)

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By Bob Harper
04th May 2011 08:36

Some questions to consider

@Finola - great advice.

Having worked with a few firms myself I thought would highlight a couple of points and add a few of my own because they are often overlooked and cause firms problems.

First, I think it is excellent that you have pointed out that relying on statements like “giving excellent service” or being “proactive” is not enough anymore. The same for things like "fixed fees".

These are bland message because everyone are using them; what firms need to be able to do is demonstrate they can impact a clients bottom line. The uncomfortable truth is that most firms do impact the client’s bottom line but in a negative was with their fees! The only saving grace is tax planning.

Without tax planning many firms would come under intense fee pressure. And, it could be this becomes the norm if tax legislation continues to change. Firms who want to avoid being left exposed should be using this time to develop their value proposition, branding and positioning. Firms who do this will protect themsleves and have the control over their own development.

I recommend firms take a look in the mirror and challenge themselves with a few questions before they take any action:

Are their current service standards really good enough?Why should their ideal client choose them over the competition?Is the services range up to date and well packaged?Are the sales skills in the firm good enough to win added value engagements, not just annual compliance?Does the firm have an effective brand strategy to get the prices they want?Are the reporting systems in place to manage the marketing effectively?Are the resources in place to ensure service standards are not compromised?Is the culture of the firm up for it?

To me, there is no point investing time, money and energy to generating leads if the return is not going to be fully leveraged.

Bob Harper

Portfolio | Marketing for Accountants

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By bigwordsmith
04th May 2011 11:55

Good theory, but...

Two of the biggest challenges the profession still faces are the thought that you actually have to go out and get business, and that accountancy is a service, just the same as office cleaning, marketing or insurance.

To succeed in today's web-led business world you need outstanding and fresh marketing to attract new clients.

Even though it is well understood that 90% of new business leads arise from the person doing web research, you'd be amazed at how many accountants' websites rely on a few pictures of the partners, supported by the same meaningless 'motherhood' phrases, in the hope that visitors will feel all warm and fuzzy and give them a call.

You will also need to develop a service-led mentality, so that if the phone does ring, the caller gets an impressive response. This means that everyone in your organisation needs to be part of the new business acquisition process.

As many lawyers have found, this kind of 'ready-for-your-call-whenever-you-call-me' approach that companies like ours treat as the norm, doesn't sit well with the 'I'm afraid he's in a meeting and won't be free for the next three days' approach that has been the historical approach of the professions.

In the same way that we wouldn't dream of doing our own P60s, end of year returns and all the other paraphernalia that HMRC seems to demand every five minutes, neither accountants nor lawyers, should do their own marketing, but employ a professional.

You may find some of the things we suggest are a bit edgy, creative, uncomfortable even, but then marketeers like us don't much like all the hoops you put us through, yet we still accept that the end result is better than we could achieve for ourselves.

Peter Smith

www.hottotrotmarketing.co.uk 

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Nigel Harris
By Nigel Harris
09th May 2011 20:29

Great advice!

Great advice, thanks Finola. I have just re-read your list of tips and feel exhausted already! I think any firm that's serious about growing needs to be trying to do all of these!

Where do you find the time? Our answer was: you buy it in. Get a marketing professional to produce marketing materials, website content, mailshots, etc. They will make sure you have a standard house style and convey a consistent message in all your marketing media. They will make sure you use the sort of language that grabs attention and gets the right response. They will also make sure you use language that prospective clients will understand (not always our strongest point as seasoned professionals!). It doesn't cost a fortune - and it's certainly cheaper (and more effective) than designating one of your top fee earners the "marketing partner/manager/champion".

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