Anatomy and
solution of the biggest trap stopping accountancy client acquisition: If you want to get through
the wall of acquiring Accounting clients at will... disagree!
 The
way we think is basically the starting point of any future marketing
project and accountancy client acquisition is no exception to
this rule.
The ability
to obtain new Accounting clients at will is possibly one of the
highest abilities a practitioner can gain in terms of being able
to affect the future of his firm.
The freedom
to decide and control one's own future success is the king-maker
factor that few practitioners are lucky enough to possess.
And yet, luck
has nothing to do with it. Absolutely nothing.
The ability
to obtain clients at will is an acquired skill built from two
vital elements. These two prerequisites ARE the ability to get
clients at will, in fact.
So, let's take
a look.
1. The ability to disagree with the "realities
of life" set forth by the majority of colleagues
The first and
foremost prerequisite is the ability to DISAGREE with anything
(but not everything) that the Accounting industry says about
marketing and selling of Accounting services.
See. The
majority will never gain the ability to obtain clients at will...
and the STRONGEST agreement about marketing within the industry
is that "one cannot get clients at will!"
Bear with me
and I'll explain.
Every practitioner
has started his career at some time. In the beginning, he was
greatly enthusiastic about the prospects of obtaining new clients.
He strongly believed that the superior quality of his service
and his willingness to help business owners would be SEEN and
responded to by the target audience.
He did the
usual rounds — bank manager, networking, you know the drill
— and created a direct mailing letter, sent these letters
and then followed up with a telephone call... used classified
ads, paid for listings in Yellow Pages and other directories...
...and got
basically NOTHING in return. No clients, possibly even
not a single CONTACT.
Unabashed,
he took stock of the failures and possibly found out what seemed
to cause them. He adjusted his marketing, rewrote his sales pitch
and went for it again with vengeance.
He argued with
business owners on the reasons they gave for not being interested.
He pushed his few existing clients and networking contacts to
find him referrals. He went for results with a brave heart and
untiring determination...
...and
STILL got NO RESULTS for all his efforts.
Now, he turns
to his colleagues to find out what he is doing wrong. He seeks
their views on Accounting forums, he networks with colleagues
he has acquainted in life before public practice, and he looks
to more experienced Accounting professionals' experiences to
gain more understanding on finding new clients.
And they
tell him it's NOT POSSIBLE to gain an ability to obtain clients
at will.
They tell him
it's just a myth "borne out of those groundless claims
that snake-oil peddlers make in trying to sell their wares to
practitioners."
They tell him
that there is NO HOPE to control the number of clients he gets...
and that the only way is the slow way of networking for years
and years... and even then, getting a new client is more dependent
on luck than anything else.
Now, if this
practitioner is HUMAN, he will begin to agree with
those views. As human beings, we simply cannot stomach failure
on continuous basis. We cannot bear to fail in something that
we feel is doable and vital to our plans.
And because
we cannot tolerate the idea of being unable to do something no
matter how hard we try, we are very prone to a peculiar phenomenon:
We are keen
to establish that it simply CANNOT be done at all.
See. If it's
impossible, then we didn't really fail at all.
We tried to
reach the stars... and grew up to realise that it was an impractical
hope, a folly... and definitely not possible at all.
Now, we feel
better about it. It wasn't our fault, really... it was simply
a mistake of trying the impossible.
And now
we have locked ourselves into a lifelong prison cell and thrown
away the key... without ever even NOTICING that we're behind
the bars!
Yet all that
really happened was that the person didn't have the RIGHT TOOLS
and KNOWLEDGE to go through those barriers that are always there
when one starts a new project.
That's all
that was proven — that he didn't have the right tools and
in-depth knowledge required to GET THROUGH AT THAT TIME.
And times change,
you know. New things come to be, our experience grows and we
find new ways to conquer previously unconquerable challenges.
But by agreeing
that it is impossible, we cause ourselves to become BLIND to
any future developments.
We STOP
LOOKING for solutions to this problem.
See. Why look
for something you've already decided to be IMPOSSIBLE TO ACHIEVE?
Right. That's
how we become the victim of our decision to AGREE with the (thoroughly
false) "generally accepted accounting reality" of client-acquisition.
Once we do
agree with it, we are in a trap... and this IS the trap
that stops all possibilities of ever solving the problem of client
acquisition.
Luckily, all
you have to do to REGAIN your enthusiasm and REOPEN the door
for the possibility of gaining the ability to obtain clients
at will is...
...to DISAGREE
that it's impossible to get clients!
However, it
can be difficult.
It's actually
quite difficult to disagree with your own industry on ANY subject.
After all, it's your industry formed out of your colleagues who
are the people that you have most in common with.
And in Accounting,
we have a very strong bond in terms of the technical issues of
Accounting as well as the rules of ethical conduct. You HAVE
to agree with generally accepted accounting procedures and with
the rules and regulations governing accounting.
But you need
to differentiate whether the Accounting professional is
speaking about his OWN area of expertise or about marketing
in which he is very much a novice. The training of an
Accountant doesn't include the study of marketing or sales.
And, really,
if your colleagues really KNEW how to obtain clients at will...
do you think they would willingly SHARE that knowledge?
Right. So you
have to make your own conclusions on WHAT SUBJECT you should
trust the conclusions of your colleagues.
Think for yourself
and evaluate things for yourself. It's your practice and your
future you're shaping by your conclusions.
Here's a nifty
little concept to use in evaluating WHAT to agree with and what
not:
Check it from
the viewpoint of "does this help my practice to succeed
better or not?"
Looking at
it from that angle, we instantly see that agreeing with accepted
Accounting procedures and rules of ethical conduct DO help us
succeed better... but that agreeing with competitors on the impossibility
of client-acquisition certaintly WON'T.
NEVER agree
with any message or opinion that CLOSES the door to finding a
way to become more successful and get more (and better) clients.
Always DISAGREE
with any such statement.
Anything short
of that will just act as an invisible trap mechanism, swindling
you out of your chance to GET to where you can obtain clients
at will.
It is also
vital to UNDO any earlier decisions that put you in that trap.
Look at those
times when you tried and failed. When was it? What happened?
Above all... wasn't it really the TOOLS — or the lack thereof
— that failed you?
Sit down, write
up those times you tried getting new clients and analyse each
for the existence of tested and proven tools.
I think you'll
find out that the only thing MISSING — and the only
thing BARRING you from success — was LACK OF PROVEN TOOLS
to achieve a stream of new clients!
Which brings
us nicely to the SECOND vital element of obtaining new clients
at will:
2. A tested, piloted, proven
and applicable SYSTEM to obtain new clients at will
If you KNOW
what stops business owners from changing Accountants,
if you KNOW what they want so much that offering it will remove
those stops, and if you have the ready-to-use tools to bring
it to the attention of business owners...AND had absolute certainty
on that you will succeed if you just keep at it...
...then
how could you fail?
You couldn't
fail even if you TRIED!
A frightening
though, isn't it?
Once you've
climbed out of the "it can't be done" trap, then all
that stands between you and this new opening of possibilities
is the lack of a system that can give you what it takes to succeed.
And now you
can acquire this system within minutes.
It's called
Modern Accountancy Marketing & Sales Course. It's the tested
and proven road out of impossibilities and into a state of existence
where YOU decide your own future success.
CLICK
HERE to read the presentation of Modern Accountancy Marketing
& Sales Course.
If you prefer
the route of consultation and seminars, please view our THEME SEMINARS and consulting services descriptions elsewhere
on this web site.
Best wishes
Harry Kafka
HDK
Consultants Ltd
32 Manning Close
Richmond Square
East Grinstead
West Sussex RH19 2DR
United Kingdom
Tel. (01342) 328 116
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