Relevance and Alternate Approaches to Succeed Traditionally, accounting and financial services organizations have relied on their firms’ partners to “make it rain” or by using their connections, both personal and professional, along with a sprinkling of charisma, to bring in new business and revenue. How effective is this traditional model in a technology driven world where buyers of services can now access ...

Get Clients to Count on Your Accounting Is it the valuation of a small privately held company with three employees? Or a large multi-national with employees in the thousands? Perhaps it is reviewing assets in a highly contested divorce. One way or another, you are trying to reach a decision, an opinion, or a conclusion from the data in front of you. Using big data, you must compose a story and present the d ...

You Can Do It, Too How should a BVFLS practitioner first engage a prospective client? In this article, the author discusses how he engages prospects and the fee questions. It all starts with a phone call and the much-dreaded question: How much would you charge to value ABC Industries, Inc.? I don’t know … would you like me to guess? I mean, how could I possibly know without more details? For more years than ...

New Study Spotlights Five Proven Strategies There is an easy way to identify the most effective strategies for rapid growth. For the fifth year in a row, the Hinge Research Institute conducted a comprehensive study of more than 1,000 professional services firms. Specifically, Hinge looked at what “high-growth” firms (those with at least three years of 20% compound annual growth) do differently than firms th ...

Get New Work at Fees I Can Live With When it comes to getting new work, one of the required steps is writing what amounts to a combined proposal/engagement letter. It’s more of a proposal if you’re assuming what the prospect wants; it’s more of an engagement letter if you spend time finding out what the prospect needs. But semantics aside, preparing these letters is a lot of work. Given that, what is your p ...

Nine Steps to Engage Your Audience Hinge’s latest research on high-growth accounting and financial services firms makes the case that your firm should consider adding educational webinars into your marketing mix. Hinge’s latest research on high-growth accounting and financial services firms makes the case that your firm should consider adding educational webinars into your marketing mix. Why? Well only 34.9 ...

For 2020 and Beyond Merriam-Webster dictionary defines blockchain as a digital database containing information (such as records of financial transactions) that can be simultaneously used and shared within a large decentralized, publicly accessible network. In this article, the author predicts blockchain trends and its impacts of the accounting profession. With a new year comes changes across multiple facets ...

About Your BVFLS Practice? There are three ways to deliver professional services. The benefits and detriments of each are discussed in this article. The author also shares his opinion regarding what model(s) BVFLS practitioners should adopt. We’re supposed to be smart, sophisticated, experienced business appraisers who deliver insights that assess value. Why, then, do most of us operate with a one-dimension ...

Revising Your Firm's Brand As a new decade begins, you may consider the state of your firm’s overall brand and if there are any needed changes. When you conduct such an exercise, one of the first elements to consider revising is your firm’s positioning statement. In this article, we will review the five steps to writing an effective positioning statement which can be a strong foundation for your brand. As a ...

Not For Your DLOM, For Your Proposal Have you read any of the literature addressing value pricing? Ron Baker is the authority in this filed. In this article, Rod Burkert introduces the subject of pricing options, a menu of services and fee choices prospects can consider, so as to remove or mitigate price as an objection to hiring. Have you read any of the literature addressing value pricing? Ron Baker is th ...

In Nine Easy Steps Professionals marketing for their accounting, valuation, and finance already know that case stories can be powerful tools when selling your services. However, most case studies are dry, dull, and deadly. Even case studies built on the old challenge/solution/results model can be made more compelling. In this article, the author suggests several  ways to present a compelling case story. Pro ...

A Risk Reduction Strategy? Being self-employed is no longer code for “recently laid-off” or “fired”. The self-employed professional diversifies risk. It is a privilege for the talented, but it also requires motivation and continual sharpening of the saw. How ready are you to assess your talents? Level of risk tolerance?   As a practice development coach for our industry, I get a ton of questions asking what ...

For Finding Guest Blogging Opportunities Have you considered an article you have written on another website, posting a guest blog? What are the benefits? How hard is it to get or become a guest blogger? In this article, the author discusses the opportunities of posting a guest blog. Have you ever considered writing a guest blog to reach new audiences? If you already post blogs on your own site, guest bloggi ...

Of Your Work? What can a BVFLS professional do to stand out amongst his or her peers? In this article, Rod Burkert shares his thoughts. How do BVFLS professionals like us to demonstrate our analytical skill? How do we exhibit our problem-solving acumen? How do we showcase our report writing talent? I have an idea…turns out it is somewhat controversial…but read on and let me know what you think. All creative ...

Engage the audience! Conducting webinars is a great way to accomplish that goal; however, it is important to understand how the topic selected can have a dramatic effect on its success. Just as a great headline can hook readers, a good webinar topic will bring in more attendees—and the more people who attend, the more opportunities will arise for the speaker and his or her firm to sell services. This articl ...

Technology Expectations This article discusses the importance of adopting the latest technology and software and how to minimize the value gap. Most accountants have struggled to keep up with this new wave of technology and a growing value gap is arising in firms of all sizes. This value gap represents all the lost opportunities by not having the right technology solutions in place. These lost opportunities ...

One Has Traction with Prospects, the Other Does Not Any product/service can almost always be viewed as either a vitamin or a painkiller. Which do you (or your firm) offer? Any product/service can almost always be viewed as either a vitamin or a painkiller. Which do you (or your firm) offer? BVFLS Services Can be Either Vitamins or Painkillers What’s the difference? Kind of obvious, but vitamins: Are conditi ...

an Effective Elevator Pitch Professionals in the accounting, valuation, and finance sectors frequently struggle with a deceptively simple task: describing in a few words what their firm does and how it stands apart from the competition. If you, the reader, have experienced this difficulty, you can make it easier on yourself by having a thoughtful and concise elevator pitch ready to deploy when the opportuni ...

Establish Yourself as a Sought-after Speaker Public speaking offers a range of opportunities—from professional growth, to promotion of you and your business, to breathing new life into your existing network. In addition, by doing a little preparation and research, you will find many excellent opportunities within your reach. In this article, the author helps the reader learn how to find the perfect audience ...

Beyond Keyword Placement—An Illustration for Search Engines to Find You In previous QuickRead articles, the author discussed the role blogging can play when marketing a firm’s services. When relevant articles are written and posted on a website, those articles can be found by prospects who are looking to solve a business challenge. But to ensure that blog posts are discovered, one needs to optimize them by ...