The Exuberant Accountant - Scott Heintzelman

This week I had the privilege of attending and speaking at the IGAF Worldwide Marketing Conference.  The conference had emphasis on Web 2.0, which is about having an interactive approach to the web (as opposed to Web 1.0 which was about a static website…an online brochure). 

I had the privilege of speaking as one of the few CPA firm partners in the entire country that have a blog (who knew I was so special…I will need to share this with my wife).  I was able to present with Michelle Golden, who is the founder and President of Golden Practices.  Together we shared why it is important for CPA firms (and all organizations for that matter) to have an interactive approach to your web presence.  People want to do business with those they like and trust and Web 2.0 can speed up this process.

Many businesses are cutting expenses in areas such as: sales, marketing, advertising… all areas that may not have a short term payback, but clearly have a long term return.  But is this the correct strategy?

Why do some individuals seem to always win the business?  Why is your competitor continuing to grow when your business is declining?  Are they better than you? What have they learned that you have not? These are great questions and I believe the answer has a lot to do with Rainmaking and Lead Generation.

I believe anyone can become good at sales and rainmaking if they learn to use their individual strengths and they learn some key skills.  Obviously, if you have woo or relator as a talent, winning people over will become more natural.  Also, if you have the strength of achiever or competition, you will naturally be wired to win.  The key is learning which talents you possess and playing to these strengths.  Another key is learning how to shape your message or storytelling.  This is not about deceiving or tricking someone into buying your service or product.  It is about making an emotional impact.

During normal economic conditions, new revenue is important, but during these challenging times they are critical.  What do most organizations do when the budget is getting stretched?  They cut sales and marketing.  Is that the correct strategy?  What part of revenue generation is about branding and what part is about relationships?

I teach an internal rainmaking course here at McKonly & Asbury and have presented some of this material to other organizations as well.  Clearly, selling a service is different than selling a product.  If you are trying to sell an inferior product, you will struggle during any kind of economic conditions and will probably only be successful if you are the low cost provider.  But assuming you have a superior product or service, how do you win new business? I believe people like to buy from someone they trust and like.  How do you develop trust and like?  It is all about relationships and this takes time and returning value.  In his book Never Eat Alone – And Other Secrets to Success, One Relationship at a Time, Keith Ferrazzi states that the currency of networking is not greed but generosity.  This means that in order to build relationships and ultimately develop like and trust, you need to give to get.  Most sales people misunderstand this key principle.  They tend to be the glad handing, life of the party type, but lack substance and seldom create value.