Interesting post Melissa. Fits in nicely with a talk I am giving this year to accountants titled 'How to sell yourself as an accountant through content' which covers what content marketing is, what types of content is relevant for clients of a practice and how to get that content out there and generating cut-through.
Ultimately, your post is about making life easier in a practice, but improving their overall image to clients and beyond.
This is an interesting article with interesting comments. As a supplier to accountancy firms for 12 years I have encountered cancelled meetings a number of times. Some are first initial presentation /creds meetings and others 'sign up' meetings. We confirm each meeting at the time it is scheduled and reconfirm the week before. The partner at the practice has our contact details and each time it happens we have turned up and found the partner out of the office as they have forgotten about the meeting.
Sometimes the meeting was never put in the diary, other times something cropped up like an urgent client meeting or something personal.
Would readers of this post think it unreasonable if I, as a supplier, charged a cancellation fee? My time is finite and expensive. Not only is it the meeting time I have lost but also the travel time and associated costs. That meeting I scheduled for 4 weeks time as my diary was busy could have then been attended sooner.
Most accountants who need to reschedule do so in advance but there are some accountants who think our time is not important. A few months ago I had a new business meeting with a practice in Barry, Wales. The meeting was reconfirmed the week before and I booked my train tickets. On route, out from London, I had to change trains in Cardiff. I rang 30 mins before the meeting, whilst waiting for the connection in Cardiff to let the firm know I was on my way and running to time. I was met with the response - "xxxx is unable to meet you. He has had an urgent meeting to attend.". Furious, I left Cardiff station and got a coffee. I composed an email to the partner in question and explained where I had come from and whether they would like to reimburse me for my train ticket, not even my time. The response was immediate, and it was a No and that I should expect things like this to happen. Suffice to say, with that attitude I did not bother rescheduling that meeting. Whilst I can work anywhere it was a wasted day with hard costs incurred.
On another note, for accountants meeting suppliers, would cancelling a supplier meeting be less likely if the supplier was paying for the accountant's time, in the same way a client would?
Let me address the points above in order...probably the best way.
1) All the content we generate is done inhouse on a weekly basis. We write 12-15 topical items per week for our clients. We do not use any syndicated content. It is all ours. A firms clients are then profiled against some set criteria which drives then content that a recipient gets in their newsletter each period. All the articles sit on the practice website and are accessed there. The inbound hits on the website will assist its ranking on the search engines.
2) I set up Informanagement UK back at the beginning of 2008. We work with over 450 firms all over the UK.
3) I have only just joined AW as I wanted to stay out of commenting on blogs and posts as I am just too busy. One of my clients saw the post and wondered why we were not mentioned. I read the piece and thought I would comment.
4) We are definitely not 'behind the curve'. A lot of what we are offering to accountancy firms cannot be sourced from any of our competitors.
If anyone wishes to find out more then please feel free to get in touch. Only then can a truly conscious decision be made.
A couple of points for practitioners to note....firstly, it is important in today's increasingly mobile environment to make sure your new website is mobile responsive and is kept up to date on an ongoing basis. Secondly, and this is true of practitioners up and down the country, 95% of quality new business comes from referrals and recommendations. It is true that accountants do get new business from their website/people walking past the office/cold call etc but that is not the lions share and typically people looking to buy on price. That is why it is very important to communicate relevant information on an ongoing basis to your clients.
Whilst you highlight the main providers to accountants there is one provider missed off the list - Informanagement. Informanagement works with firms all over the country on practice development and practice marketing offering tools to practices unavailable with any of its competitors. As well as doing websites, the firm offers practices fully bespoke content driven newsletters meaning clients only get communication from their accountant on information specifically relevant to them, whether that is in an email or printed formats. As well as that, the content is also posted on to the practices/practitioners social media profiles. One key issue for practices is keeping a website high enough in the rankings on the search engines. By continually posting to social media unique traffic is continually driven to the practice website ensuring it stays highly ranked whilst generating other consulting opportunities.
Informanagement has a number of other services including a practitioner newsletter for CPD, a document portal with e-signatures and a bulk mailing application.
Worth checking out if you fancy something different from all of your competitors.
My answers
Are you saying that it is acceptable for people to not bother showing up for meetings with suppliers and that suppliers time is not important?
Interesting post Melissa. Fits in nicely with a talk I am giving this year to accountants titled 'How to sell yourself as an accountant through content' which covers what content marketing is, what types of content is relevant for clients of a practice and how to get that content out there and generating cut-through.
Ultimately, your post is about making life easier in a practice, but improving their overall image to clients and beyond.
This is an interesting article with interesting comments. As a supplier to accountancy firms for 12 years I have encountered cancelled meetings a number of times. Some are first initial presentation /creds meetings and others 'sign up' meetings. We confirm each meeting at the time it is scheduled and reconfirm the week before. The partner at the practice has our contact details and each time it happens we have turned up and found the partner out of the office as they have forgotten about the meeting.
Sometimes the meeting was never put in the diary, other times something cropped up like an urgent client meeting or something personal.
Would readers of this post think it unreasonable if I, as a supplier, charged a cancellation fee? My time is finite and expensive. Not only is it the meeting time I have lost but also the travel time and associated costs. That meeting I scheduled for 4 weeks time as my diary was busy could have then been attended sooner.
Most accountants who need to reschedule do so in advance but there are some accountants who think our time is not important. A few months ago I had a new business meeting with a practice in Barry, Wales. The meeting was reconfirmed the week before and I booked my train tickets. On route, out from London, I had to change trains in Cardiff. I rang 30 mins before the meeting, whilst waiting for the connection in Cardiff to let the firm know I was on my way and running to time. I was met with the response - "xxxx is unable to meet you. He has had an urgent meeting to attend.". Furious, I left Cardiff station and got a coffee. I composed an email to the partner in question and explained where I had come from and whether they would like to reimburse me for my train ticket, not even my time. The response was immediate, and it was a No and that I should expect things like this to happen. Suffice to say, with that attitude I did not bother rescheduling that meeting. Whilst I can work anywhere it was a wasted day with hard costs incurred.
On another note, for accountants meeting suppliers, would cancelling a supplier meeting be less likely if the supplier was paying for the accountant's time, in the same way a client would?
Let me address the points above in order...probably the best way.
1) All the content we generate is done inhouse on a weekly basis. We write 12-15 topical items per week for our clients. We do not use any syndicated content. It is all ours. A firms clients are then profiled against some set criteria which drives then content that a recipient gets in their newsletter each period. All the articles sit on the practice website and are accessed there. The inbound hits on the website will assist its ranking on the search engines.
2) I set up Informanagement UK back at the beginning of 2008. We work with over 450 firms all over the UK.
3) I have only just joined AW as I wanted to stay out of commenting on blogs and posts as I am just too busy. One of my clients saw the post and wondered why we were not mentioned. I read the piece and thought I would comment.
4) We are definitely not 'behind the curve'. A lot of what we are offering to accountancy firms cannot be sourced from any of our competitors.
If anyone wishes to find out more then please feel free to get in touch. Only then can a truly conscious decision be made.
Websites for accountants
A very interesting piece.
A couple of points for practitioners to note....firstly, it is important in today's increasingly mobile environment to make sure your new website is mobile responsive and is kept up to date on an ongoing basis. Secondly, and this is true of practitioners up and down the country, 95% of quality new business comes from referrals and recommendations. It is true that accountants do get new business from their website/people walking past the office/cold call etc but that is not the lions share and typically people looking to buy on price. That is why it is very important to communicate relevant information on an ongoing basis to your clients.
Whilst you highlight the main providers to accountants there is one provider missed off the list - Informanagement. Informanagement works with firms all over the country on practice development and practice marketing offering tools to practices unavailable with any of its competitors. As well as doing websites, the firm offers practices fully bespoke content driven newsletters meaning clients only get communication from their accountant on information specifically relevant to them, whether that is in an email or printed formats. As well as that, the content is also posted on to the practices/practitioners social media profiles. One key issue for practices is keeping a website high enough in the rankings on the search engines. By continually posting to social media unique traffic is continually driven to the practice website ensuring it stays highly ranked whilst generating other consulting opportunities.
Informanagement has a number of other services including a practitioner newsletter for CPD, a document portal with e-signatures and a bulk mailing application.
Worth checking out if you fancy something different from all of your competitors.