Marrying Quick Actions with Accountable Results
Accountants sometimes tell me that I know them better than they know themselves. Well, I should! I spent five years working inside the consulting division of a regional accounting firm, experiencing firsthand how accountants handle business development.
Many service professionals have at least two jobs. Aside from being accountants or lawyers, partners or managers, they also have the job of bringing new business into the firm. And unless someone happens to be a natural salesperson, that can create a problem.
Until 2007-2008, it was raining clients for CPA firms – law firms, as well. In fact, CPAs were getting so much work that large firms had to outsource some of it to contractors or smaller firms.
Since the recession, that’s all changed. Now everyone is under pressure to bring in new business, tapping into skills they’ve never had to use. We have a whole generation of people, who came on board from the early 1990s on, who have never really been exposed to business development because they didn’t have to be. The old guys, who were natural rainmakers, have the skills but didn’t know how to transfer their skill set to others.
Traditional sales training doesn’t bring the results they hope for, probably because traditional sales training wasn’t designed for accountants and lawyers – it was designed for salespeople! And even when professionals try to apply what they’ve learned, there is no accountability system to make sure they follow through or track their success.
I’ve been a licensed facilitator of the Get Clients Now™ training program almost since its beginning in 1995. One of its key benefits is that it gets you into action right away. You’re not learning cookie-cutter sales methods; you’re coming up with practical strategies that suit your own business, and then you’re implementing them right away. You actually have your basic business development plan written on the first day of training.
My accountability system for professional services firms has been gaining a lot of momentum, and it’s clear that it’s filling a huge need. Because of my experience and knowledge of CPA firms and law firms, more and more of my clients have been asking about how I could help them with business development.
I was curious – they were already doing training in sales and business development, so what was missing?
I recently re-took the Get Clients Now™ program again for myself, and that gave me a huge epiphany for my business. This is a great program, I thought, but something’s missing.
Accountability!
That’s what led to the marriage between Get Clients Now™ and the Accountability Experts, Inc. accountability system, and we call our new program Get More Clients NOW and Forever™.
The Get More Clients NOW and Forever™ program solves professional services firms’ seemingly unsolvable business development problems now and forever.
Here’s what makes this comprehensive sales, marketing and accountability program so unique:
● The I.M.P.A.C.T. system, which stands for Immediate, Measurable, Perpetual, Accountable, Coaching and Training. There are other systems out there that have some or most of these components, but none have it all – until now. From my many years of experience working with accounting and legal professionals, I’ve seen that in order to have sustainable, effective and successful business development in your firm, you must have all six of these pieces. It is the marrying of the Immediate piece (from Get Clients Now™) with the Accountability piece (we call it our “secret sauce”) that really makes it work.
● Un-sales training. Because the professionals we’re working with inside CPA and law firms are lawyers and accountants, not professional salespeople, conventional sales strategies and techniques do not work for them. Most sales programs are taught by sales people. Do you want to be taught by a “salesy” type of person? In the Get More Clients NOW and Forever™ program you’ll be taught by me, Alan M. Dobzinski, someone who understands sales and business development because I’ve been there and I’m still there – bringing in the clients – but I’m not a salesperson. That’s why we call this un-sales training. This is results training, not sales training.
● Industry knowledge and experience. Aside from working inside a professional services firm for over five years, my client experience has been almost exclusively focused on CPAs and law firms, except where I’ve branched out to related industries such as banking, financial and insurance. I’m a Master Certified Coach, one of only 622 in the world. As for accountability, well, I wrote the book on it.
The reaction to this program has been beyond my wildest expectations. I thought 1+1 would equal 2 or maybe 3, but it seems that 1+1 = 11! If you want to see the magic for yourself, click here for more information about the Get More Clients NOW and Forever™ program.
It’s Not Raining Clients Anymore
Up until 2007 and 2008, it was raining clients in professional services firms like public accounting and legal firms. Then with the great recession of 2008, everything changed. All of a sudden we were seeing layoffs in law firms – something that was completely unheard of in the past. Law students were suing their universities because they couldn’t find work.
In 2009, I read an article in the ABA Journal about renowned Washington, DC trial lawyer Mark Levy. Levy was someone who would take the big, well-known cases that would make a name for him and his firm, but wouldn’t necessarily make a lot of money. When the firm made cuts to deal with the economic recession, Levy’s name was on the list. A few days later, he came into work and put a gun to his head.
“Levy loved the practice of law, but he struggled with the business of law. Without a firm stable of paying clients, he grew vulnerable in a world where rainmaking is often valued over skill and judgment.” – Richard B. Schmitt, “A Death in the Office,” ABA Journal
The leadership of legal firms like Levy’s had begun experiencing enormous pressure. Clients were choosing smaller firms – with lower overhead, these firms could do similar work for less money. This anxiety trickled down to all levels.
In the CPA firms, as well, the economic change started a huge turnaround that we’re still seeing today. In fact, a recent 2011 study of the top issues and challenges facing CPA firms today revealed that the top three concerns are:
1. Partner accountability
2. Getting new clients
3. Keeping existing clients
Before the recession, it was raining clients in the CPA firms as well – to the point where there was actually a shortage of qualified CPAs. They had more business than they could handle, and were farming out some of their work to contractors or smaller firms. Much of this business came from doing more work for existing clients, rather than gaining any new clients.
Now things have turned 180 degrees. It’s not raining clients anymore here either. CPA firms must constantly be on their toes and bringing in new business. More and more, firms are tying compensation into business development results, creating pressure at all levels.
At the heart of the problem in all professional services firms is this dynamic: Leaders (managing partners, senior partner group) are telling their people to go out and drum up new business. “We did it, why can’t you do it?” Meanwhile, anyone who came into the firm before this change has rarely had to go to market, so they lacked these business development skills. Even when firms have brought in sales training, those off-the-shelf programs never seem to fit these accountants, lawyers and other financial professionals.
Leaders of the firms and/or the managing partner and partner group of the firms, on the other hand, had little or no experience in holding people accountable for business results. When it was raining clients, there was no need to develop the coaching and accountability skills to be able to transfer their natural business development strategies to the rest of the firm. These managing partners and other rainmakers have always just done it themselves, and that was enough – but it’s not enough anymore.
Everyone is like a fish out of water and no one is getting what they need.
It doesn’t have to be this way!
That’s exactly why I developed my program, Get More Clients NOW and Forever™, which provides:
1) A structure for new business development that is essential for the rookie developers, and helpful to everyone else as well – specially designed for accountants, lawyers and other financial services professionals
2) A firm-wide mentality that makes business development a priority and prevents financial loss during recessions
3) Accountability principles that can be applied to productivity as well as new business development, leading to increased sales, decreased costs and increased profitability.
Click here to learn more about the Get More Clients NOW and Forever™ program.
Stop Blaming the Economy for Your Unproductive Business Development Habits
Are you blaming the economy for your business’s lack of performance? I’ve got news for you: The economy has only exposed the real problems in your business, i.e., poor business development habits and lack of accountability.
Here are the top 10 habits that could be responsible for the business development results you’ve been blaming on the economy (click on the links for more information about these crucial topics):
- You forget that your people aren’t you. You complain when a person or team doesn’t live up to your expectations, yet what you’re really expecting is what YOU would do in the same situation. They’re not you. And that’s not a fault, it’s a fact.
- You overbook yourself. If you’re overbooked with no room in between meetings, you can’t do the problem solving that’s required in the course of a business day. You’ll either have to ignore the fire that’s just cropped up, or tend to it and drop one of your other commitments. It’s one or the other.
- You take too much responsibility for day-to-day operations. If you and/or your key leaders are the only ones who can keep operations going, you’re completely unprepared for the unexpected but inevitable. If half your leadership team were to leave to form a new firm, or even if a few people were out sick at the same time, where would that leave your bottom line?
- Your people are unclear about their job descriptions and responsibilities. Accountability begins with people really understanding what you expect from them. Actually, it begins with you understanding of what you expect from other people. If you don’t know, how can you expect others to know? If you’re not in the habit of clarifying your people’s role and responsibilities, no one is accountable for what needs to be done.
- You let yourself and your people off the hook as soon as you hear the first “no.” Don’t give in to your ego. Instead, work to confidently match your solutions to the client’s problems, and then follow through and solve those problems. Encourage your people to innovate and create new services that will help current and future clients.
- You attack your people when they’ve disappointed you. Attacking tends to shut down creativity. Who can think when they’re being attacked? Who dares submit an idea when it might be mocked or rejected? When it’s time to have a conversation with one of your people-even someone who’s not working up to par-think of it as an approach, not an attack.
- You enable your people to keep depending on you. If, for instance, someone handles a project poorly, and you re-do it yourself, you’re enabling that person to remain unskilled, instead of empowering them to grow, learn, or develop. Turn over the control and develop the talent that’s in front of you.
- You don’t follow through with requests or consequences. You can talk all you want, but in the end talking is a waste of time. Doing and following through is the way. Use proven accountability tools such as regularly scheduled accountability meetings, recapping, upfront agreements, the accountability meeting binder and the 48/24.
- You let simple things stand in your way.Instead of dealing with small frustrations or blocks, you either ignore them and force yourself to walk farther and farther out of your way to get around them, or you let your resentments build up and then explode inappropriately.
And what’s the #1 habit that’s blocking business development and keeping your business stuck and underperforming?
- You don’t put time into developing your people. You either try to bring in all the business yourself, or you put yourself and your people through an endless cycle of demands, disappointments and deflation. Without a foundation of support and development, you’ll continue to invite resistance, rebellion, turnover and a whole host of other people problems.
Do you recognize yourself in any of these unproductive habits? Is it possible that some of these things are what’s really responsible for the state of your business? Here’s the good news: Once you turn around these habits, then you, your people and your business can thrive in any economy.
If you’re looking for a way to combine solid business development practices with proven accountability strategies, stay tuned for a big announcement about my new program. You’ll get the news delivered right to your Inbox if you subscribe to my weekly updates.
If It Works, It Works
Five times a week I go to the trail to walk, hike and bike. It’s my “third place” – the place where I go to think, reflect, plan and get my ideas flowing. In all the time I’ve been doing this, I’ve passed by a local business and noticed a sign outside announcing how long they’ve been in business.
I’ve watched the sign change from 23 years to 24 years, 25, 26 and all the way up to 27 years in business. 27 years is pretty impressive, yet in all this time I never even noticed what the business was. Until last month.
You see, a friend had called me up and asked for my support. She needs to lose weight but didn’t want to go to a weight loss program on her own. I was hesitant, but I wanted to help my friend so I agreed. And the next time I passed by the long-time business near the trail, I saw that it was a weight loss program. Isn’t that something? It’s like when you’re considering a new car and all of a sudden you spot them all over the road.
It looked like this place offered more of a personal, one-on-one approach, and I liked the idea having more privacy during this process. So I called up my friend and asked if she’d like to try it. The minute we walked in the door I could see that not only had the business been around for 27 years, a lot of the furniture and equipment had too! Forget about computerized accounting programs, this office used a one-write system. When my client stepped on the scale, it was a mechanical scale, not a digital one. When she got a photo for the “before” shot, it was taken with a Polaroid camera. You get the idea.
The woman who runs the business didn’t inspire our confidence at first, since she was overweight herself and had obvious related health problems.
At the end of the day, though, when my friend looked through the “before” and “after” photos and heard about the personal approach to the program, she could see that it worked. Even more, it was easy to see how much this lady cares about her clients. We had her full attention, yet she didn’t once try to sell or manipulate us.
And the program is chock full of accountability. Three times a week you visit the office for a one-on-one check-in meeting – an accountability meeting, of sorts – to review what you’ve eaten over the last few days and set up your eating plan for the next few days. She also monitors your blood pressure to make sure you’re healthy.
And she gets results. That’s why her clients are happy and refer their friends. That’s why my friend signed up for the program. That’s why the business has been there for 27 years. It works. It doesn’t matter that the decor is outdated or the record-keeping is on paper instead of the computer. As long as there’s good old-fashioned accountability in the mix, this old business will keep going for many years.
Has your business progressed in terms of systems and procedures, but left behind some good old-fashioned practices for dealing with your people?
If you’re looking for more accountability insights, you can join me live on May 9th, 2012 for The Buck Starts Here: Why Leadership Accountability is The Key to Less Stress, More Time and a Better Bottom Line – Click here to find out more and to register. All proceeds raised will benefit Junior Achievement of Central Maryland. Thank you for your support.
The Hill is Only as Steep As You Make It
Have you ever felt like your problems at work were a mountain you’d never be able to climb? What if that mountain was as easy to scale as a flat path? My recent experience on the hiking trail reminded me just how much power there is in the mindset we’re in when we approach our challenges.
Now that I was on the mend from some back issues I’d been having, one day I decided to try hiking one of my favorite trails. In the past, I’d go up this hill with no sweat (literally). On this day, when I reached the first major incline I was already out of breath and sluggish, and the hill looked like it had doubled in size since the last time I’d been there.
Still, I persisted. It was a beautiful day, and I really wanted to make this climb. After having to take it easy while I was healing, this accomplishment would symbolize that I was back in action. It meant a lot to me.
As I got into more movement and more momentum, I saw myself conquering the hill. The more I moved, the higher I climbed, the more positive I felt. The next thing you know, my heart was pumping, my blood was flowing, my legs felt lighter, my whole body was alive with energy, and my face lit up in a smile.
When my back was bothering me, it felt like my creativity was suppressed. But as I climbed that hill, I experienced a flood of new thoughts and ideas. I grabbed my smartphone and started typing them in.
Since that day on the hill, both my back and my brain have stayed functioning at that higher level. And at least one of those ideas has already resulted in economic gain for me in my business. Every single one of those ideas was inside me, but had been blocked by my back pain and recovery process.
That day, the trail became my third place – the magical location outside of your regular work and home activities where you can dream, plan and prioritize. All leaders need designated time for thinking and planning. Otherwise it’s too easy to get overbooked and just run from action to action with no accountability for the big picture. The third place is where you can do that thinking.
On the trail, I even found my fourth place. The fourth place is where we can shift into a different mindset and way of thinking about things – a new dimension, even. Some people call it being in “the zone;” where we can tap into all that firepower we knew was in there but weren’t able to get out.
Do you know that I went back and made a second trip around the trail that day? Only that time I got to the top and realized I hadn’t even experienced any sense of climbing. It was like the hill had disappeared. I was in the fourth place, and in the fourth place we don’t see hills or obstacles, we see only paths and possibilities.
Where is your third place? When have you experienced being in the fourth place? Where could you go to get energized when you’re stopped and blocked?
Would you like to meet me in person and get an intense blast of accountability insights, all while helping inspire and prepare young people to succeed in a global economy? Join me on May 9th, 2012 for The Buck Starts Here: Why Leadership Accountability is The Key to Less Stress, More Time and a Better Bottom Line – Click here to find out more and to register. All proceeds raised will benefit Junior Achievement of Central Maryland. Thank you for your support.
