Self-reflection and the Engagement Process The buying process begins when a prospect or a referral source considers you for a new engagement, or when a client considers you for a repeat performance. In this article, Rod Burkert reflects on this aspect of the engagement process. The buying process begins when a prospect or a referral source considers you for a new engagement, or when a client considers you f ...

Take Up an Informed Contrarian View to Disrupt the Business Valuation Profession What frustrates you about our industry? Do you think your prospects, clients, and referral sources might feel the same way? What if you took a stand? What if you stood out by promising something different than the standard operating procedures your competitors follow? What frustrates you about our industry? There must be someth ...

Strategies to Limit Digital Risk and Liability In this article, the author looks back at predictions made in the 2014 Pew Research. Reflecting on this study, it becomes self-evident that we understand what the problems are, and, perhaps, we even have good ideas of how to tackle these problems. Therefore, the issue is not necessarily “finding a solution” but rather, having the will and desire to implement a ...

You are not Limiting Yourself There is a lot of disruption going on in the BVFLS industry and you should give niching a fair shot if you have more of a generalist-type practice. In this article, Rod Bukert shares his views on how to overcome the fears of specialization. There is a lot of disruption going on in our industry; from accounting/business valuation firm mergers to big data valuation solutions to f ...

Recognize Ethical and Professional Standards of Using AI AI is pervasive and promises to fundamentally transform business operations, education, and daily life. However, functional insights bridging the gap between AI and our industry have been lacking. The authors share their views on the ethical and professional standards implicated from the use of AI in forensics and valuation engagements. This article e ...

What Do I Write About? Writing is an effective way to convey expertise and also a marketing devise. In this article, Rod Burkert shares who he writes for and answers the big unanswered question: how he decides what to write about. I talk about how much I write, who I write for, and when I get it all done. But apparently, I left this big question unanswered: How do I decide what to write about? Deciding What ...

Look at the Numbers and Exercise Skepticism Often, business owners will inadvertently present a biased account of their company’s success. Is there a similarity between the bias of business owner’s and crime scene victims? In this article, the author answers this question. Imagine this: you are at the scene of a crime. Witnesses are canvassed, each with their own version of events. One witness is adamant th ...

You Need Better Clients A frequent question that newly minted and experienced valuation practitioners raise, is how one gets more clients. The question that should be asked is how one gets better clients. The author shares his thoughts on why the latter is the better question and source of focus. Surprise, the most frequent practice development questions I get primarily have this theme: How do I get more cl ...

Marketing Tips for Professional Service Professionals Marc Kohler, an estate planning expert, may offer other professional services professionals a template to follow to secure additional engagement. The article describes how Marc Kohler has marketed his services. In the field of tax law and estate planning (where online engagement can be difficult, if not impossible to obtain), Mark J. Kohler (”Kohler”) ha ...

Beyond Just Updating on the Progress of the Project An informed client is usually a better client. In this article, Rod Burkert shares five reasons calling a client on a Friday is a worthy practice. The phone rings. You recognize the number on caller ID. It’s. THAT. Client. The one you took a retainer from a few weeks ago and who hasn’t heard from you in a while. You know the conversation is going to be awk ...

Assessing the Engagement Prospect In this article, the author shares how he crafted an engagement letter that enabled him to earn far more than a fee he was prepared to accept. Understanding a prospect’s motivation and the underlying facts enabled him to craft an engagement letter that worked for both and earned him $10,000 more. By listening to my prospect and understanding the pain he was in, I crafted an ...

Turn Clients into Your Advocates Existing clients can be your advocates and a source for future work. In this article, Rod Burkert discusses how to cultivate this under used referral source. I started my solo valuation practice in July 2000. Because I specialized in estate/gift valuations, most of my work was once and done. Looking back, my biggest regret was not cultivating more of those clients—who were a ...

Rethinking How to Connect Effectively on LinkedIn While LinkedIn provides professionals an opportunity to connect, not all connections are desirable. In this article, Rod Bukert shares his views on how to effectively connect. I imagine you count many business valuation (BV) colleagues among your LinkedIn (LI) connections. But unless they’re sending you work, it’s not your best move. You see, if you are conn ...

Memoirs of a CPA on Getting Started in the Valuation and Forensics Fields Edward Mendlowitz considers himself the last of the “expert generalists”. He published Memoirs of a CPA wherein he relates his story and the lessons learned. Over the years, the author has witnessed the trend towards specialization and proliferation of professional credentials. Mr. Mendlowitz started moonlighting almost immediately af ...

A Call to Action E-mail is our front line of communication. And because of that, everyone’s inbox is overloaded. Of course, your e-mail is brilliant/critical/urgent/important. So how do you write an e-mail that gets opened and read? And if you read to the end, there’s a bonus e-mail tip you will want to try out. E-mail is our front line of communication. And because of that, everyone’s inbox is overloaded. ...

What is the #1 thing on your website that will convince a prospect that your firm is the right choice for a project? Rod Burkert shares his views on what is needed to go from zero to hero and land that engagement. Imagine I am a prospect for getting your BVFLS services. I found you on Google or LinkedIn. Or maybe I saw an article you wrote. Maybe heard a presentation you gave. Or maybe I got a recommendatio ...

Marketing is difficult. Yet, there are ways one can make more effective inroads. In this article, the author makes four suggestions to make your marketing efforts more effective. If the ultimate goal of your marketing effort is to increase the number of leads/prospects in your pipeline, the article includes some metrics one can measure to assess success. Do you know what is working and what is not with your ...

A Call to Opportunity (and Survival) As the use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools continues to become mainstream, it is no wonder that so many professional services are becoming even more commoditized than they were pre-AI. Many professional service providers, including valuation practitioners, are feeling the combined impact of price compression from clients and higher expectations of service quality a ...

As readers know, the holy grail of a firm’s success is the professional stream and practices that sustain the referral stream. In the author’s view “it does not have to be an endless stream, just a manageable one.” The author shares his views on how to make this happen. As you know, the holy grail of your successful professional practices is a stream of referrals. But it does not have to be an endless strea ...

Principles, Tasks, and Tools for Success This article is based on the presentation given by Andreas Creutzmann at the NACVA and the CTI’s BVFL Super Conference in Fort Lauderdale, FL, on December 14, 2023, and on his book, Soft Skills for the Professional Services Industry: Principles, Tasks, and Tools for Success, published by Wiley. It aims to present the principles, tasks, and tools that are essential fo ...