Inspiration for a brighter future is in short supply it seems sometimes.

Which is why I subscribe to the Wizard’s blog – sometimes he shares genius of the simplest and highest order.

Like this…

According to the wizard the 4 keys to your rainbow future are these:

1. Relevance

2. Credibility

3. Speak to a felt need

4. Be what you say

As a TRUSTED ADVISOR ACCOUNTANT here’s how this works:

1. Relevance: Be irrelevant and you’ll lose trusted advisor status in your clients mind.

Demonstrate the relevance of your message, relevance of your services and relevance of your firm and you’ll be seen as a genuine trusted advisor. A message has relevance to the degree it speaks to a felt need.

2. Credibility: Be incredible (unbelievable) and trust will, like a faltering glider, stutter, stall and crash to earth. Credibility is king in the world of a trusted adviser. Be believable through understatement and by delivering on the next two…

3. Speak to a felt need: What is it your clients want? What is it your prospective customers want? What is the desire in the heart of your customer? To speak to an unfelt need is to answer a question that no one was asking – wasting time, energy and resources – yours and your clients.

Here’s what I reckon… Your clients and prospects want CERTAINTY, they want REASSURANCE and they want CONFIDENCE all is well with their business and personal finances. Provide offers and use language to appeal to these felt needs and you will be on the right track.

4. Be what you say: Simply deliver on your promises. And yes I know this is simple to say and harder to follow through. It is why your firm’s processes and people are at the core of your authentic, genuine, transparent delivery so you can hold your head up high and know you are what you say you are.

Every meeting with every partner in every firm we work with has at its core these four factors. Four factors contributing to their bamboo roots of success. Four factors guiding the implementation of processes to improve the performance of their firm.

I hope this article stimulates some thought, some ideas and some frustration (or even anger). Why so? So you are driven to take some action at improving your firm in 2011 on one or more of these four powerful concepts.

Wishing you a remarkable and starlight-bright 2011

Paul Shrimpling

PS To read the wizard’s piece which stimulated this article go here

PPS For a comprehensive learning programme to help stimulate action to improve your firm read about ‘Bamboo Marketing For Accountants’

Author of ‘Bamboo Marketing For Accountants’ – the route map to marketing success for accountants in practice

Creator of ‘WHAT’S POSSIBLE in your business’ – cultivating a greater flow of new clients for your accountancy firm through profitable word-of-mouth…

And let’s get LinkedIn  http://www.linkedin.com/in/paulshrimpling

The scale of Ebay’s success is self evident.

(Can you believe I refused to take a punt on ebay shares back in 2002 despite some serious hint dropping by the head of the New York Stock Exchange who I was sharing a course with!? No worse than the record company exec who turned down the Beatles I guess!)

So. Ebay reportedly have 9 principles on which their success is based.

Here they are for your consideration with my thoughts on how they might apply to your accountancy firm…

1.         Know your user

- Categorize your clients (clear criteria that segment your clients into Gold, Silver, Bronze, etc) and use these categories to dictate your work-flow, your priorities, and your customer care programmes

2.         Keep the main thing the main thing

- Beware of being side-tracked by the next bright shiny object. Your core business pays the bills, pays your people and is responsible for your personal earnings too. Give it 80% of your attention and time.

3.         Keep it simple

- Complexity confuses people. It confuses your people, it also confuses your clients. Plain English. Plain speaking. Crystal clear benefits of what you do will stand you in good stead.

4.         Don’t make the user work

- Imagine trying to suck a milkshake up a straw that’s partly blocked! It’s hard enough with a clear straw. So it is in business – you need to allow your clients and prospects the cleanest, easiest, quickest way of doing business with you – remove any and all blockages.

- If your competition insist on putting hurdles up for clients to jump over you’ll win every time if you have removed them and your clients can sprint to your door unencumbered.

5.         Be consistent

- Inconsistency of customer care or speed of delivery or quality of final accounts packs tells a story about your firm. It tells your clients that you have not got your act together. This does not inspire confidence in a so-called trusted advisor.

- Systems should be a fundamental part of your customer care AND your technical accounts work.

6.         Provide a well lit path

- A bit like point 4. This is a pointer to using pointers. Direct your clients what to do next, make it obvious what is needed so that you can do a great job for them

7.         Optimise for the 80%

- Whatever you do, make sure your firm is remarkable at looking after the 20% of clients that provide you with 80% of your profits.

- Never ever ever let the 20% of clients that generate 80% of the hassle and grief sidetrack you from those that are both profitable and enjoyable to work with.

- Become world-class at providing the 20% of services that generate 80% of your profits. The worlds fastest. The worlds most useful. The worlds best value for money.

8.         Make it personal

- Accountants have a tendency to want to focus on the technical work of accountancy. This is necessary but not at the expense of the personal relationship. If anything the personal relationship is MORE IMPORTANT than the technical work you do.

- Whatever you do, do not be seen to provide a mass-produced service to your biggest and best clients. Make it personal.

9.         Help should be helpful, but not necessary

- Design your services and processes so that you minimise the need for clients to ask for help. For example if clients are regularly ringing in to enquire about the filing of their company tax returnor the status of their P11D’s then you should improve your communications to remove these calls – become pro-active rather than reactive – make these calls ‘not necessary’

Not surprisingly there is no rocket science here.

You are aware of EBay’s phenomenal success, so you could do worse than build your firms strategy around these nine principles. They might not be an accountancy firm but these principles seem well suited to improving the focus, the management and the results of most of the accountancy firms that I have worked with.

Wishing you remarkable success

Paul

Author of ‘Bamboo Marketing For Accountants’ – the route map to marketing success for accountants in practice

Creator of ‘WHAT’S POSSIBLE in your business’ – cultivating a greater flow of new clients for your accountancy firm through profitable word-of-mouth…

And let’s get LinkedIn  http://www.linkedin.com/in/paulshrimpling

Hi there,

It’s clear, thanks to several recent conversations with owners of accountancy firms, how getting stuff done on time, to a high standard, and to hit billings targets can prove to be illusive.

And yet a weekly process which sets the goals for the week, allocates time to do the work and holds people to account is now proving very successful in several firms. In this article you’ll hear of just one firm’s experience…

Following on from my last article’s theme of ‘games’ (refresh your memory here) the marbles and test tubes are proving to be the catalyst for action.

Let me explain…

…Elinor has installed a weekly process (a weekly game) and within two weeks of starting the ‘game’ is enjoying the fruits of her labours. Stuff is getting done. On time. To a high standard.

Here’s Elinor’s email to me:

“We moved 54 BIG ROCKS last week…

…out of a possible maximum of 64, please see the attached picture (must admit to not being keen on being in the picture but Taz said I had to hold the marbles!!)

We have today reached the first 200 marker, so the treat is lunch tomorrow.

Thanks so much Paul for the marbles and funnel and more so for the excellent idea to help with workflow, it has been really well received by the team and will have a positive outcome for the clients”

At the beginning of the week each team member agrees their ten big rocks – the ten lumpy chunks of work for their week – one morning, one afternoon times five days = ten big rocks.

Every time one of the team gets a big rock done they drop a marble in the tube.

You can see both marbles and the oversized test-tube (in the middle of the pic) and you can see the flip chart process they use to track and show results – team accountability at work!

Does it work?

54 rocks out of 64 is good. And they are all building the habit of getting stuff done every day, every week.

52 productive weeks gets your firm a productive year.

Last week’s blog was about test tubes and marble games!

Games to engage your people and get your firm the results you want.

Yes they are fun but with a serious intent… it’s about getting stuff done, fully executed, completed. Just like Elinor is doing.

Remember the Michael Gerber quote:

“How do you get your people to do what you want them to do?”

He answers his own question with

“You can’t!”

“You can only create a game they want to play.”

Elinor is playing a game – it’s fun – it has a serious intent – it is working!

How can you use a game to transform your firms abilities to plough through work?

I’d love to know…

Paul

Simon used the test tube first and he shared his idea with me.

A simple game.

Put a marble in the test tube each time you win.

What’s the definition of a win?

It doesn’t matter.

Of the accountancy firms I work with here’s three ideas now in full swing with the test tube and the marbles:

- a referral request is made = a marble goes in.

This firm is increasing the number of referrals they get so they grow their firm

- a tax return is done = marble goes in.

This firm is reducing the January glut of tax returns

- a big rock is achieved = marble goes in (I’ll explain big rocks in my next blog next week)

When the test tube reaches quarter full it’s open-the-quality-street-tin time! 

Half full and its pizza time!

Three-quarter full it’s a 4pm finish and straight to the pub. 

Completely full and we’re having the afternoon off!

Make up the rules of your game…

Your rules depend on the one focus you want from your team and how generous the reward/recognition should be (NB avoid cash – if you want to know why read chapter 7 of Sway by Ori and Rom Brafman).

You could avoid the game and simply track performance as a personal or team KPI – hopefully you can already see or sense this (normal approach) is short of energy, passion or fun.

It pays off to play a game!

So what’s going on to make these marbles and test tube games work?

And they do work – I’ll prove it in the next blog…

1. It’s a game and people (your people) like games. They like games because it’s a chance to score goals and win – both as individuals and as a team. And most people prefer winning to losing!

2. Marbles in test tubes are noisy – it’s blatantly obvious to all present when a marble goes into the tube! The game is visual, it’s physical it’s not just mental

3. The tube is huge! The working environment has changed to accommodate the tube and the marbles. And with environment change often comes stronger performance towards the results you want

4. Team scepticism is soon dashed when the game starts

5. A weekly check in on game progress provides a way of performance managing the issue in focus – the problem you want fixing – the opportunity you want to realise

When Michael Gerber (of E-Myth fame) asks his audiences

“How do you get your people to do what you want them to do?”

He answers his own question with

“You can’t! You can only create a game they want to play.”

Get yourself some marbles and a test tube and create a game for your firm! And read the next blog…

Paul Shrimpling

PS If you have examples of other games working in your firm please share them by commenting on this blog

PPS If you want to buy a test tube to kick-start a game in your firm go here

The garish cartoon below reminded me of Aristotle!

It was Aristotle who suggested:

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”

So the quote below – “excellence in excellence” (see pic) – is about installing great habits in your firm.

And because this hints at raising the bar habitually in your firm, it hints at raising standards. And raising standards is suggested as a source of up 40% improvement in bottom-line results according to a comprehensive study by David Maister in his book ‘Practice What You Preach’

Every step you take towards raising the bar in your firm improves the likelihood of you raising your profits and profit growth. Which of course improves the capital value of your firm. 

How big an improvement in your team’s perception of standards should you aim for?

Only 10-15%.

Maister’s research suggests a 10-15% improvement will generate the 40% gain in financial performance.

How can that be?

Because when you raise your standards, employee satisfaction will increase and your firm’s performance on quality and client relationships will improve too (according to Maister’s findings). And these two issues help drive the results in your firm (according to Maister and according to common sense too!)

“Excellence in excellence” is a worthwhile goal it seems?

And it seems a relatively small gain (10-15%) will generate a relatively large upside (40%).

Go for it!

Paul Shrimpling

PS if you want to learn more about the artist of the cartoon go here

Author of the free report ‘the 7 big mistakes accountants make and how you can avoid them’

I’m obsessed with helping firms of accountants run a better business – this means growing your firm’s profits. This means keeping all your valuable clients and winning new valuable clients.

Are you serious about growing profits?

Let’s see…

Back in 2008 I ran a workshop for all the partners in the firms of accountants I consult with. The workshop  – held in a lovely little hotel by the river Derwent – was focussed on challenging these firms on the way they deliver value for money for their business owner customers.

Looking back, what stood out as the shining insight of the day was the need to establish crystal clarity on what your business owner customers’ expectations are. It still occupies my mind to this day because there’s so much to be gained from this important insight if you only put it to work in your firm. It’s worth revisiting now…

This blog is about your firm’s processes for capturing, recording and exceeding your clients’ expectations.
Why are expectations so important?

1. Because only your clients can determine whether they receive value for money or not
2. The value they receive is determined by the expectations they have before you start

Whether your client’s expectations are high or low, if you under-perform then value is below their expectations. This situation will prompt your client to question whether your price is too high and maybe even choose another accountant.

If their expectations are met (not exceeded, just met) then they might feel OK about the value received. They may not question the price, they may not consider other accountancy offers. But they might! They might consider alternative firm’s because you only just delivered on their expectations. You were nothing special. However…

…when you exceed their expectations (whether they are high or low)they feel as though they received a wonderful deal and happily use you again and even recommend you to others. It’s unlikely other firms will get a look in and so you’ll secure their business for another year and lock in the GRF and their goodwill value to your firm. You keep them. You also increase the chances of them recommending you to other business owners and as a result grow your firms fees and profits.

Jan Carlson in his book (moments of truth) about his transformation of Scandinavian Airlines captured this insight best when he described three customer experiences:

1. Miserable – expectations were not met
2. Neutral – expectations were met
3. Magical – expectations were exceeded

IMPORTANT: Jan Carlson took over the reins of Scandinavian Air at a time when the airline was suffering an $8 million loss and turned it around to a $71 million profit within one year. You interested in expectations now?

Here’s the rub…

If you don’t know what your clients’ expectations are how can you even think you can give them a magical experience?

So what is your firm’s process for identifying, capturing and recording your clients’ expectations every year?
Focussing on your A-class clients first, does this help?

1. Add ‘expectations for next year’ to your pre-year-end client meeting agenda (add it to your post year-end meeting if you aren’t having pre-year end meetings)

2. And then have a discussion about the 9 things David Maister et al suggests you talk about in the book ‘The Trusted Advisor’ in your pre-year-end meetings

   a. Clearly articulate what you will and will not do
   b. Clearly articulate what the client will and will not do
   c.  Define the boundaries of the analyses you will perform
   d. Check with the client about areas and people with whom the client does not want you to be involved
   e. Identify precise working arrangements
   f. Agree on methods and frequency of communicating
   g. Decide who should get which reports, how often those reports will be delivered and how they will be used
   h. Decide what milestones and progress reviews are needed
   i. Decide how success will be measured, both during and at the end of the process

OK I know this looks onerous, but…

…continue with no expectations processes and you’ll continue to run the risk of losing valuable clients because you do not exceed their expectations. You’ll also continue to be challenged on price. And you’ll be missing out on positive word-of-mouth recommendations to grow your firm.

Decisions, decisions!

IMPORTANT: According to Jan Carlson, Moments of Truth are those critical times when a customer forms an impression of you, deciding whether your offerings and their standards see eye-to-eye.  The moment you start discussing expectations is a jugular moment of truth don’t you think?

Time to install your ‘expectations for next year’ processes?

Let me know your reaction and thoughts on this important subject will you?

Paul Shrimpling

www.remarkablepractice.com

Hello,

INSPIRING you is the goal of this page… and this very short video can’t not inspire you!

Staying on top of your game is an important, if not jugular, part of leading a firm of accountants, don’t you think?

Drop off top-form and you will negatively influence your team, your customers and even your family.

Such a negative influence can and will have an impact on your results, your profits. At it’s worse you can set off on a downward spiral. A spiral that’s hard to break, so do you…

…accept that your self-belief, your confidence, your enthusiasm helps determine your future success?

I think so too. 

Because it’s your job to lead, it’s your job to inspire those around you to perform.

Sometimes it is hard to inspire. Sometimes it’s very hard. Particularly when you yourself are less than inspired yourself. And when it’s hard you need what the NLP experts call a pattern interupt.

I received just such a pattern interupt last night from one of my team (thanks Karen) – an inspirational pattern interupt.

And you know what? Inspiration comes in all shapes and sizes – wait till you see this one!

As a business leader in your community it’s vitally important you stay inspired, wired, up-for-the-cup.

This 4 minute youtube video dragged me out of the frustrataion, impatience and dissapointment I was feeling about some technology issues, some project frustrations and a cock-up I made!

I’ll be revisiting this four minute video often when I’m feeling less than top-form.

What about you?

Enjoy the next 4 minutes

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gc4HGQHgeFE

Paul Shrimpling

You and I both know there’s power in setting goals…

There’s clarity in setting goals.

There’s focus in setting goals.

But what sort of goals?

There’s a very strong argument to suggest financial (money) goals are self-defeating. They undermine your future performance. Sounds weird I know…

I recently read a wonderful piece by Roy H Williams (AKA the Wizard Of Ads). Here’s Roy’s argument against money/cash/profit targets or goals or objectives:

“Money fails as a compass because it can be found in every direction. Guiding directives and unifying principles are never merely financial.” 

If stacks of cash is your only goal you’re likely to be distracted at every turn. As Roy puts it:

“You can’t navigate a ship by studying the wind and waves. Fix your gaze on your goal, a non-negotiable, fixed position that can never change. Let that be your lighthouse, your reference point, your North Star.”

At just short of 460 words Roy’s article is well worth the reading time. IT’S HERE.

Certainly if you leave port without a fixed port of call to aim for you’ll be at the beck and call of the wind and sea. By definition monetary targets alone are not a good compass.

So…

Achieving crystal clarity on your firm’s future (vision) and your firm’s operating principles (values) provides an ADDITIONAL and powerful compass to guide your firm. Getting the buy-in from your key players also has a big part to play.

How would you describe your lighthouse guiding your behaviour and your team’s behaviour? What are the ‘directives and unifying principles’ steering your ship?

…then look at raising the eyebrows of your clients!

It’s not surprising to discover the three most effective ways of getting new clients (based on the successes I’ve seen across 19 firms in 2009) are:

1. Referrals from existing clients

2. Referrals from influencers (bankers, solicitors, IFA’s etc)

3. Events

The number one source being referrals from existing clients. And if it’s not the number one source in your firm it should be!

Why?

Because only when you get referrals from your clients do you know they are truly happy – and a very well researched article at wikipedia agrees. The article suggests the willingness of your clients to refer is the only true judge of client loyalty!

Also…

When you do everything possible to encourage client loyalty they are more likely to stay – and I’m guessing the last thing you want is to be finding new clients whilst watching old established clients leave your firm?

So how do you raise the eyebrows of your clients (in a good way)?

Simply exceed your clients’ expectations!

The better you get at managing client expectations and exceeding their expectations the more likely you’ll see them raise their eyebrows. And the more likely you are to keep all your clients and all your existing fees. Plus your clients are more likely to refer you to others they know.

No rocket science here I’m afraid – BUT WHY IS IT RARELY APPLIED BY ACCOUNTANCY FIRMS?

Mainly because their definition of accountancy does not clearly focus on the expectations of clients. Instead firms focus on getting the technical work done.

And yes the technical work must get done, and get done well.

However the stuff your A-class clients value the most is the interaction they have with you, their accountant. The quality of the relationship you have with your clients makes a massive difference! Have you ever asked them what their expectations are around speed of response, speed of delivery, interpretation and guidance, how often they’d like to hear from you?

Interpretation, explanation, guidance and support is what matters most to your clients – not the technical detail of a set of accounts.

OK, I know!…

                  …you’ve heard it all before…

                                                           …It’s just that I’m stunned by the lack of commitment towards processes that manage, improve and stimulate the relationship between most accountancy firms and their clients.

Whenever the firms I work with apply some science to staying in touch with their most valuable clients they amazingly hang on to clients they would otherwise have lost. PLUS they start a flow of referrals that previously seemed unlikely (if not impossible)! A conversation yesterday included this comment from a managing partner we’ve been working with:

“One of my clients now realises I am serious about getting new business through recommendations from him (because I’ve asked him several times in the last 6 months). He has recently introduced me to two valuable and very warm prospects.”

You don’t say!

What am I advocating?

Create processes to manage, improve and stimulate a better relationship between you and your clients (including one linked to client expectations). Coupled with processes asking for referrals and recommendations. Simple stuff.

Vive la revolution!!!

1. The starting point I suggest is improve the relationship – improve your conversations:

Work out what matters most to your clients and then deliver on it.

1. Ask them what matters most. And I suggest you work on discussing three aspects of their experience of working with your firm – timing expectations – and technical work expectations – and relationship expectations

2. Capture client expectaions. Yes write them down! And then share them with your team and work out how you at least deliver on their expectations – although you might be wise to do what you can to exceed their expectations slightly (start by only focussing on your top 20% clients to make this project more achievable)

3. Do the work necessary to exceed their expectations

No rocket science. Just simple, solid process improvement aimed at raising your clients’ eyebrows (in a good way).

2. Next. Work out several (at least five) processes to capture recommendations from your clients and put them to work systematically  

Customer feedback processes should be a source of recommendations. Events too can generate leads (we got 17 from a recent event in Lancashire). LinkedIn can be tool that generates referrals too. Your client contact programme can and should also generate referrals. What about a wow process for new clients with a focus on getting referrals early. And what about joint lunches with clients and bank managers? More on referrals processes in a future article.

How else can accountants ‘raise the eybrows’ of their clients? Feel free to comment on this article and ask any questions that bug you or you want to resolve.

Happy hunting!

Paul Shrimpling

PS You can see this article on AccountingWeb http://www.accountingweb.co.uk/topic/practice/how-grow-your-fees-2010/399281

The latter half of 2009 had me experimenting with twitter, facebook and linkedin to see what it can do to support the marketing efforts of accountants.

LinkedIn seems to have the most potential and given it has become one of the most successful sources for recruiting team members in the states – chances are the same will happen here.

And twitter has given me this brilliant little article on ten technologies to watch in 2010 - an article you might want to share with your list of customers too?

I’m still formulating my thoughts and on the hunt for sites, info and materials to help reach my conclusions – just reading a brilliant book ‘six pixels of seperation’ which is providing some powerful insights – I’ll be reporting back on this stuff during 2010 and suggesting ways you fold these into the ideal marketing model for accountants.

Good hunting in 2010

Paul Shrimpling