Posts Tagged ‘CPA Marketing’

In my last blog post, I shared with you a four success strategies I picked up from re-reading an excellent book titled “The Sales Bible” by Jeffrey Gittomer. After I sent made that post, I recieved a ton of emails from CPA practitioners across the country thanking me for the information I shared. If I haven’t yet personally responded to you, I want to say here that I did appreciate your email and I do enjoy hearing from you.

Here are a few more strategies I feel you may want to pay special attention to so you become the “tiger” CPA practice in your market place:

5) Spend more time with figuring out solutions than whining about problems
This is a time to prepare and be your best, and you can’t do that if you’re whining. The good news is, most people will be whining. This leaves plenty of room for you to succeed.
QUESTION TO ASK YOURSELF: What are you whining about? What solutions make you a winner?

6) Study attitude; don’t think you have a good one
Spend 15 minutes a day reading. The best time, in the morning, before you start your day. Read happy, positive thoughts, even if it’s a re-read of a Dr. Seuss book.
QUESTION TO ASK YOURSELF: What are you reading every morning? Or are you just watching TV?

7) Create a REAL (and perceived) difference between you and everyone else
Work on differentiation in new ways. Change EVERYTHING ordinary to memorable. Greetings, literature, proposals, messages and you.
QUESTION TO ASK YOURSELF: What is memorable about you? What is different about you?

Invest, don’t spend (in money, in time, in business, in anything you do)
Now is the time to guard your assets. It’s real easy to put your head in the sand and think that everything will return to the way it was. The reality is, dig in, but use your assets to build a fortress of positive thought, new information, strategic alliance, etc.
QUESTION TO ASK YOURSELF: What is your time investment in yourself each day?

So there you go, between this blog and the prior one, you have in your possession eight important success strategies you can work on to create your dream CPA practice.

I was reading a recent issue of a newsletter by Dan Kennedy (one of the worlds most brilliant marketer and business strategist) when a sentence in his newsletter jumped right out off the page and lodged itself indelibly in my mind. It read:

“Tigers Stave Last In The Jungle!”

Here’s why this observation hit me so hard. For an awful lot of CPA practitioners, times are very tough. There are more people out of work now than there have been a long time. Retail sales are down more than most people can ever remember. People are scared. Outside the US, countries are in a financial panic. And in this global economy, what happens in one county affects what happens in all countries. Heck, I don’t need to dwell on our economic situation. Just reads the newspaper. Or watch the news on TV.

Anyway, it seems to me, if you and I want to survive and prosper in this “storm of change” we are all experiencing, we better set about developing a “Tiger Mindset.” In this blog post and the one to follow, I will talk about several strategies that were shared in a fantastic book I recently re-read. The book was titled “The Sales Bible” by Jeffrey Gittomer.

Here are the top 4 strategies I picked up that I feel you may want to pay special attention to ensure you are the “tiger” CPA firm in your industry:

1) Guard your present clients with your life. Others will be eyeing your clients like a hungry tiger ready to hunt fresh prey. Now is the time to invest more time and money in relationship.
QUESTION TO ASK YOURSELF: What would happen if you lost two of your top 10 clients to your competition? What’s your plan to be CERTAIN that doesn’t happen?

2) It’s the relationship, not the price
When business isn’t expanding, everyone will be trying to steal your clients with a lower fee. Your biggest opportunity is to build relationships with value. Your biggest vulnerability is to ignore your present clients in quest of additional clients.
QUESTION TO ASK YOURSELF: What new ways have you created to build relationships?

3) It’s now time to do the things you didn’t do (or put off) when you were fat and happy
Start here. Train yourself to be the best. Train your people to be the best. Now is the time to invest in your people with the best possible training both in sales and service, and now is the time to encourage your people to invest in their own time to study.
QUESTION TO ASK YOURSELF: What is your training budget? What is your training discipline each week?

4) Review your quality, and eliminate anything that isn’t BEST
Elevate everything you do or have anything to do with to BEST. Take a quality inventory, and compare your services with your competitors and your market. If you’re not in first place, you will lose ground to someone who is. Lexus and Mercedes will continue to sell cars. Lower-quality car dealerships will drop like flies.
QUESTION TO ASK YOURSELF: When was your last internal quality review of everything and everyone? What are you BEST at?

So there you go, you have in your possession four important success strategies to work on.

If you have any thoughts and comments, please do not hesitate to shoot me an email or post a comment on this blog. In my next post, I will share with you a few more of these strategies to help you become the “tiger” in your market place.