All posts by John Ezell

Most firms are looking at tax season as a stepping stone for 2010. New business development should always start with your current clients. Your current clients are the targets for other firms looking for more business, so maintaining your relationships is a crucial first step.  Improving that relationship and treating clients favorably, will lead to loyalty, repeat business, and referrals to additional clients.

Client relationship management is an indispensable part of business development especially with regard to existing clients. We have a saying in our office that clients don’t care how much we know until they know how much we care. Client relationship management is all about showing that you care about them both professionally and personally.   

Here are some key techniques that will help you to maintain strong client relationships:

Communication: Keep in touch with your clients.  Use tax season as a way to re-connect and build a better relationship. Plan to keep in touch throughout the year.

Appreciation: Listen to your clients. Find out what is happening in their lives and businesses. Show a genuine appreciation of who they are and what they are experiencing, in addition to what their current tax needs are. Let them know you care and appreciate their business.

Reinforcement: Educate your clients on the areas of tax and finance that affect them, as well as strategies that may benefit them. Reinforce your ability to HELP them.

Endorsement: Building a highly successful business is all about referrals. After you have taken the time to show how much you care, it is time to have a discussion of referrals, in this order:

• Think of someone you know that may need the services your client provides. Provide the referral to your client.
• Think of someone you know that may provide a needed service for your client that you do not provide. Refer your client to them.
• Remind your client of all the various services that you provide. Let them know how much you value their referrals. Reciprocating interest in each others businesses will strengthen the relationship.

Although important, client relationships are only one facet of business development. We will cover other business development issues in greater detail in our blog during the weeks to come.

Comments (0) • Posted December 8th, 2009 at 2:50pm

With the 2009 practice ownership transfers wrapping up, our upcoming blogs will be addressing methods of increasing value and developing business.  To start, I would like to highlight several key areas a practice owner should focus on to increase the value of their practice.  First though, I would like to make it clear that this is a seller’s market for the sales of tax and accounting practices.  However, it is ultimately buyers in your market that set the value of each individual practice.  Just like the old quote “beauty is in the eye of the beholder” the value of the practice is in the eye of the buyer(s). Therefore, practice owners should take a long hard look at their practice, years in advance, to increase revenues, profitability, efficiency and value before listing the practice for sale.

Here are three steps you can take to help increase the value of your firm:

• Implement a new business development process
• Stop discounting and selling your services on price
• Train your staff to become more profitable

Implement a business development process

High quality practices do not become successful by accident. They are built by prudently developed plans to create as much value as possible for the practice, both now and over the long-run. Successful practices develop a culture of practice development, or rainmaking.

Stop discounting and selling your services on price

Most buyers base their decision process on factors other than price.  Only a small percentage of buyers make their decision based on price alone, and those clients will be the least loyal and most likely to move to another firm with lower rates. Furthermore, the economic factors that are creating more price pressure mean that it’s more important than ever for accountants to utilize a business development process. There are only three things you can offer a client, quality, service and price, but you can only provide two of these.  Which would you choose?

Train your staff to become more profitable

While it may seem counter-productive to take people away from billable work or sales calls, the return on investment can be valuable. At a minimum, ensure that your team understands and can articulate the value of your services. Training in the business development process enables your team to focus the customer’s attention away from price and onto value.

If you are serious in your desire to increase value of your practice, implement these steps and watch the potential impact to your bottom line.

Comments (2) • Posted November 25th, 2009 at 8:38am