Just think….. if you (+ your team) could do one thing to reach out to clients and targets every day. Or even every week. What difference could this make to your Firm?
All it takes is: Just one thing.
A client touch. An interaction with a target. For example:
- An email invite for coffee – “Hi + coffee”.
- Popping a relevant marketing flyer in the post or out via email.
- A call to say “Hi”. No agenda. No requests. Just thinking about your client.
- Adding contacts via LinkedIn. (+ getting back in touch)
- Registering for a networking event. (+ attending)
- Checking newsfeeds for recent articles on your clients and targets. A reason to get in touch. To say “congratulations” or “disappointed to hear…how can we help?”.
- A quick search through Twitter for mentions of your specialism and (ideally) cries for help. (Use advanced search option to restrict to UK search results.) Tweet with offers of help if you can.
- Picking up the phone to a client for a quick update chat.
- A congratulatory note to a local company that won that recent award.
- Reconnecting with old colleagues or Uni friends – search on LinkedIn.
- Seek feedback from clients on your service so far – where good, seek referrals; where bad, address pronto.
- Ensure you have a coordinated calendar of Firm events – fire out invites (in good time).
- Think of old clients. Ex clients. Near misses on tender lists and proposals. Those that said NO… now it might be a YES.
- Write an article. Something that can demonstrate your expertise and keep your name front of mind with clients and targets – post online or submit to local papers.
- Say Thanks to your long-term clients. Appreciate them. Cherish their loyalty.
Monday Morning Focus: Review the above list. Add to it by all means but make sure that you do a least one thing today and every day. Share with your team. At the very least do one thing every week. Keep it going and enjoy the results.
Remember, all it takes is just one thing.
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Design Thinking brings about a new way of thinking about client interactions and experiences of working with your firm.
Applying design thinking to an accountancy firm might result in:
- First impressions – the look and feel of the office reception. Any nice surprises? e.g. the offer of a lavishly made cup of coffee and freshly made cookies?
- Meeting rooms that inspire creativity and a sense of possibilities – flip charts, colour markers, giant stickies, sharpies, building blocks, play-dough etc
- Reports and correspondence that are sleek, unfussy and easy to understand (+ recycled of course – or the offer that all correspondence can be sent in digital form only)
- An ethos that seeks to (and actually manages to) exceed expectations in terms of timetable for delivery and quality of work. Going the extra mile to achieve a WOW service.
- A Firm that has a social purpose. A social object. Something that binds its team and its clients together for a higher purpose e.g. a proportion of its profits being reinvested in local aspiring companies?
- Constantly reinventing services. Always fresh. Always invigorating. Clients leave an interaction with your Firm feeling that they are at the cutting edge.
- Seeking feedback on a continual loop. Was that report good? Easy to understand? Was the presentation good? Did you like the use of graphics? Was that strategy meeting useful? Any suggested improvements? Note comments – then reinvent.
- Asking better questions. Eliciting new insights. Moving forward with new (potentially game-changing) ideas for clients.
- Flexible one-size-fits-NONE approach to client work. Assume nothing. Possibility seeking. Yet a turn-key system for internal things that work / need doing e.g. adminstration.
- Building a porfolio of clients that turn into fans. Where ideas can cross-pollinate. A support network. A tribe. A community.
Think about it…
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