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© UPSTREAM ACADEMY 2013 1
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
© UPSTREAM ACADEMY 2013
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.
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PRESENTATION ROADMAP
1. Strategic thoughts about helping clients
2. Year 3 ELA participants respond to key questions
3. Question and answer session
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STRATEGIC THOUGHTS ABOUT HELPING CLIENTS
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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
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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
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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
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• 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
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• 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
THOUGHTS ABOUT A-LEVEL CLIENTS
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• 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
THOUGHTS ABOUT A-LEVEL CLIENTS
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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YEAR 3 ELA PARTICIPANTS RESPOND TO KEY QUESTIONS
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What would be the value of knowing your clients’ biggest issues? How would you discover these issues?
QUESTION
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What are some marketing/business development mistakes that individuals in our profession make?
QUESTION
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What are some things that every professional could do to become much better at business development?
QUESTION
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What is the best way to ensure you are spending the majority of your business development time with A-level prospects?
QUESTION
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QUESTION AND ANSWER
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