Business Development Strategies to Improve the Value of Your Practice

We recently surveyed more than 1000 accountants on issues such as economic pressures, client relationship management, business development and marketing activities. Over our next several blogs, we will discuss some of our findings along with related tips to leverage tax season to increase the value of your firm.

More than 40% of the respondents in our survey said that their team was responsible for business development activities and only 25% disagreed with that statement. To leverage tax season and the face time with clients to expand the business, a team effort is essential, yet only 24% of our respondents report that their team is trained in business development. Taking the time to work with your team on a business development strategy will increase profitability, more sales per client, and potential referrals.

So what is a business development strategy? A business development strategy is used to support your main business plan and effectively it sets out a methodology for developing new opportunities, either from existing clients or by actively targeting new client prospects to develop new business.

Here are examples of steps you might take to develop a strategy to increase the value of your firm:

• First step is a thorough firm evaluation. A SWOT analysis to identify and analyze the Strengths and Weaknesses of your firm can be used to formulate actions and strategies.
• Determine your annual revenue goals. Analyze your revenues. Ask yourself questions such as:
  • Where were they earned?
  • How much of your revenue is earned from January to April?
  • How much business from May to December comes from the same client base?
  • What services are you providing for them?
  • How do you expand this to the rest of your client base?
• Take a look at the issues that your clients are facing.
• Develop a mindset in your firm of client relationship management strategy involving your entire organization. Important aspects:
  • Communication: Listening and understanding the client
  • Consider up-sell and cross-sell opportunities for additional services that you may provide to them.
  • Grow your referral network
  • Utilizing social networking and other technologies

We’ll address many of the elements above in more detail in blogs to come.