© U PSTREAM A CADEMY 20131 W ORLD C LASS T RAINING: G ETTING Y OUR F IRM O N T RACK P RESENTED BY S...

transcript

WORLD CLASS TRAINING:GETTING YOUR FIRM ON TRACK

PRESENTED BY SAM M. ALLRED, FOUNDER & DIRECTOR OF UPSTREAM ACADEMY

BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT: GETTING BETTER EVERY DAY

PRESENTED BY SAM ALLRED

DIRECTOR OF UPSTREAM ACADEMY

The focus of today’s Leadership Training Forum is business development.

There is little doubt that the better a person becomes at business development, the more his/her career opportunities are enhanced.

PRESENTATION ROADMAP

1. Strategic thoughts about helping clients

2. Year 3 ELA participants respond to key questions

3. Question and answer session

STRATEGIC THOUGHTS ABOUT HELPING CLIENTS

Quit thinking of business development as selling and start thinking of it as helping.

How good are you at helping clients and prospective clients?

1. FOCUS ON HELPING NOT SELLING

Commit to becoming a helping expert. Set specific goals to become consistently better at helping clients and prospective clients.

What are some things you can do to become a helping expert?

2. BECOME A HELPING EXPERT

While there are many strategies for building a successful accounting practice, few things will have greater impact than choosing to help the right clients.When all is said and done, the foundation of a world-class practice is selecting and retaining great clients.

3. LEARN TO HELP THE RIGHT CLIENTS

• The only clients for whom you can provide A-level service for any length of time are A-level clients

• Your firm can be no better than its clients allow it to be

• Every firm has some bad clients• Not all difficult clients are bad

clients

THOUGHTS ABOUT A-LEVEL CLIENTS

• Bad clients cost you a fortune• Bad clients seem to live in

Quadrant I• The primary purpose of a client

screening process is to detect as early as possible whether the prospect is A-level or D-level

• The only thing worse than pursuing a D-level client is landing one

• Most individuals have a poor screening process for selecting new clients

• The idea of performing appropriate due diligence with prospective clients is foreign to many professionals

• Most individuals are better talkers than doers when it comes to culling D-level clients

Develop the courage to have direct conversations with clients and prospective clients about services and fee expectations.

Foster a relationship of openness and honesty with those you serve so that they can have absolute trust in your abilities.

4. HAVE THE DIFFICULT DISCUSSIONS

Too many individuals in our profession shy away from difficult, straightforward discussions with clients and prospective clients.

They seem so pleased to get the work that they appear frightened to bring up the issues of fees, invoices, and other critical expectations. 12

Recognize the power of becoming a great speaker/presenter. Speaking and presenting are two of the best ways to create great opportunities with A-level clients and prospects.

5. BECOME A GREAT PRESENTER

Learn the principles of networking and discover the strategy of accomplishing what you want by helping others get what they want.

6. DEVELOP A NETWORK STRATEGY

Get really good at leading meetings and contributing in them, and you will find yourself in a lot of key meetings with clients and prospective clients.

7. BECOME A MEETING GURU

YEAR 3 ELA PARTICIPANTS RESPOND TO KEY QUESTIONS

What would be the value of knowing your clients’ biggest issues? How would you discover these issues?

QUESTION

What are some marketing/business development mistakes that individuals in our profession make?

QUESTION

What are some things that every professional could do to become much better at business development?

QUESTION

What is the best way to ensure you are spending the majority of your business development time with A-level prospects?

QUESTION

QUESTION AND ANSWER

SESSION

Thank You!

sama@upstreamacademy.com

© U PSTREAM A CADEMY 20131 W ORLD C LASS T RAINING: G ETTING Y OUR F IRM O N T RACK P RESENTED BY S...

Documents