Welcome to the “Rainmaker Series” portion of my blog. If you’ve checked us out, you’ll notice that I’m dedicating Fridays to tips for accounting and financial professionals in the art of rainmaking. We’ve discussed that driving home revenue (or rainmaking) is not necessarily magic, but is essential to growing your service based/consulting practice. Last week, we talked about defining your target market and determining where to find them.
This week (and next), we’ll distinguish between two strategies – the direct s indirect strategies that we can employ in order to put ourselves in front of the perfect potential client to begin building a relationship that might ultimately lead to business.
Direct Strategies
How often do you go to a networking event, buy a glass or two of your favorite beverage, hand out 15 business cards and expect to turn any (or all) of them into business that night? And how’s that working for you? We are all, hopefully, lucky enough to be at the right event, with the right people, and meet just the right person that needs our services today. We exchange business cards that night and by the next week, the prospect signs us up for a large consulting project. If this happens to you often, quit reading this article, and instead, check out my recent blog on California Tax Conformity! But seriously, if this were a regular occurrence, you wouldn’t be wondering how to drum up business and implement some new strategies. The truth is that in selling services, our clients need to trust us first. And that generally takes some time. In fact, in general, the larger the project you are trying to sell, the more time it will take to win that trust.
So, how do you do it? The easy answer is to build a relationship. I’m in a business development group called ProVisors. Our motto is “Know, Like, Trust, Refer”. The premise is that we meet each other monthly in a group setting, then meet in smaller groups during the month, and in the process get to know each other and understand each other’s business offerings. We also transition to liking each other and then trusting each other. Finally, we identify opportunities to bring our fellow members into business situations and refer them to provide value to our clients. It’s a great process that takes some time. Participating in a group like this is something I call a “direct” strategy. I’m actively building relationships with fellow professionals who are likely to have clients in my “perfect client” space. Once I’ve gained their trust through our interactions, they will hopefully refer me when their client begins to do business across state lines and requires a nexus or taxability review.
What are some other direct strategies?
- Live public speaking on technical topics (your specialty) to qualified audiences
- Public speaking on some webinars (if somewhat interactive and a qualified audience)
- Attending or sponsoring trade shows or conferences where your ideal client hangs out
- Becoming a member of industry networking groups and regularly attending or becoming a member of the board of your local chapter
- Engaging in breakfast or lunch meetings with current clients and/or referral partners that can help open the door to future relationships.
I view a direct strategy as one that involves interaction with people where both parties are present at the same time. And to me, in my business, these are the most powerful.
Everything else is an indirect strategy – good information out there about you that people can view at their leisure – like this blog, your website, webinar recordings, etc. I hope you will return at your leisure (or next Friday) to read more about how a good indirect strategy, coupled with your direct strategies, can provide a well-rounded foundation for moving your rainmaking plan forward.
In the meantime, I wish you happy direct (and directed) networking!
Interested in learning more? Check out our 3 part webinar series – “Jumpstart Your Rainmaking”, starting November 9th!
Monika Miles is President of Miles Consulting Group, a firm specializing in multi-state tax consulting for middle market businesses. Clients include technology, manufacturing, software and SaaS based companies doing businesses across state lines. Miles Consulting Group assist them in determining the sales tax and income tax ramifications of creating a taxable presence in a state and how to address these issues with the various states. When she’s not assisting clients with multi-state tax issues, she passionately shares Rainmaker strategies with other professional services firms.
