rod burkert

Turn the practice you have into the practice you want!

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“Slide” the practice you have into the practice you want

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Before we get going: A sincere request. I’d like to grow this newsletter to 1,000.

I am >this close<

So here’s my ask: Will you forward this issue to one other colleague who shares our interest in practice development shenanigans (I do try and keep it fun) … and suggest that they subscribe through (copy and paste) this link. When you do, hit ‘Reply’ to this newsletter and let me know how great your practice is doing! I’ll write back. I always do.

In case you missed my last post: Every diner has them. Why don’t you? I know some practitioners are having a good year … if not an outright banner year. Others, not so much. And before we can say goodbye to 2020, we have 3 months to go. Do you have a plan for your quarter? Likely, you don’t. I have something that can help, and I call it The Planner PlacematTM.

On to this week: It’s an “interesting” time to be a BVFLS professional! 2020 has offered up many lessons about the demand for our services … how we sell and prospects buy our services … and certainly how we deliver our services. So based on lessons you learned from 2020, how will you position yourself for success in 2021? But before we can consider tactics, we first need to look at the overall strategy for our practice. And I have a framework that can help with that.

My coaching tagline is: Turn the practice you have into the practice you wantTM. And frankly, I tell my coaching clients that I don’t give a rat’s ass about what their “want” is as long as it is what they want and that they are brave enough to go after it.

And your version of success is going to be different from someone else’s … that’s a given. One of my clients said his version of success is not having to work in October-November … I think that’s pretty cool!

But what does the vehicle (your practice) need to look like to create the success that you want? Is it built to achieve the success you want? Does it need to change, say in 2021, given your “facts and circumstances” (we love to say that, right?) … whatever they are.

Enter The Practice-You-Want Mixing DeskTM. As the caption says, think of your options like an equalizer and adjust the sliders to the practice mix that works for you.

I preloaded this example with eight options:

1 – Business valuation vs Litigation support
2 – Generalist vs Specialist
3 – Compliance work vs Creative work
4 – Solo practitioner vs Firm
5 – Local presence vs National presence
6 – Work from home vs Work from office
7 – Services performed in-house vs Outsourcing
8 – Services delivered 1:1 vs 1:many

Two observations: first, you can label your sliders whatever the hell you want … as long as they get you to the practice you want. Second, your sliders are not all or nothing … they slide … to the level of equilibrium that gets you the kind of success you want.

Print this framework out or draw your own. Take the time to work ON your practice (we love to say that, too, right?). But will you do it? Can you do it this quarter to position yourself for next year?

What adjustments in/to your practice will you make for 2021?

* * *

 Next INSIDER webinar

Join me on Friday, November 6 at 1pm ET on Practice Development INSIDER for my interview with Greg Caruso and Zach Sharkey. These “everyday, ordinary” practitioners will talk about the nuts and bolts and the agony and ecstasy of writing the books they wrote.

The root word of Authority is Author … if you are thinking of writing a book, this interview is for you!

* * *

Where I will be Zooming in

Oct 22: NACVA Massachusetts State Chapter
Oct 29: California Society of CPAs FVS Group

* * *

Thanks for reading this far.
And for your kindness and generosity.

I’ll be back on Nov 4!

 

 

 

 

 

PS – Whenever you are ready, here are 4 ways I can help you build/grow your BVFLS practice:

1. Join Practice Development ROUNDTABLE
It’s a Facebook community for BVFLS professionals who are collaborating on how to turn the practices they have into the practices they want.

2. Download this Find Your Niche infographic
The riches are in the niches, as they say. But what’s missing is a process that can help you identify your niche. This infographic is the missing process.

3. Take a free Practice Self-Assessment
I have 10 quick questions, and your answers will help you get a sense of how well your practice is working for you.

4. Work with me privately
If you’ve hit a time and income ceiling and want to level up, email me and tell me a little about your practice and what you’d like to work on together. Then we’ll talk.

Every diner has them. Why don’t you?

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In case you missed my last post: The Titanic ran into one. You should, too! I’m talking about an iceberg, of course. But in this case, the iceberg is a model you can use to sell BVFLS services to prospects by showing them the different levels of value they will get by working with you (and only with you), which makes the price of your services less relevant to the prospects’ hiring decision. Of course, you have to be able to articulate those different levels for your work.

On to this week: I know some BVFLS practitioners are having a good year … if not an outright banner year. Others, not so much. Still, on the whole, I believe most of us will be happy to say goodbye to 2020. But before we can do that, we have one more calendar quarter to go. Do you have a WRITTEN plan for your quarter? Likely, you don’t … because who has time to write out a quarterly plan? I have something (shorter) that can help, and I call it The Planner PlacematTM.

Above is a blank Placemat that I provide to coaching clients … feel free to print it out and adopt it in/for your practice. (I use the word Placemat because it sits like one underneath my laptop.)

The Placemat has four parts.

It starts with one specific Goal for the quarter. That goal could be improving the number of leads you generate or improving the efficiency of your report preparation process.

Next is a place to list up to three Projects that you need to accomplish that one goal, in order of priority. How do I prioritize my projects? For me, it is looking at the combination of “ease of completion” and “impact of completion.”

Underneath this is a place to list the Actions you must take to move you forward on your projects. There is also space for Projects on Deck … this is a someday/maybe place to record projects/ideas for future quarters.

Last, many practitioners have a revenue goal they are trying to hit. The Placemat has a tracking tool for that, too. I really like this last box this because it tells you ‘exactly’ how many new clients you need to add during each week of the quarter. If you stay on track, you’ll hit your revenue goal.

But it also highlights the treadmill of reaching your revenue goal without monthly recurring revenue, i.e., each once-and-done client will need to be re-found this time next year for that quarter’s revenue goal … plus a few more if you want to increase your revenue. What can you do about creating monthly recurring revenue in 2021?

The Placemat is meant to be printed out and updated every week.

That’s because research shows that analog tools like this are more effective in helping people reach their goals than people who use digital tools.

A word about the word “sprint” I use in the Placemat.

I work in a 12-week cycle within every calendar quarter, i.e., 12 weeks “sprinting” and 1 week “cooling down.” Hence, all of the references you see to the number 12. But I encourage all of my coaching clients to adopt a cadence that works for them.

Most people feel a quarter makes sense because it’s what we’ve been taught or abused into all of our professional lives. But a quarter makes for a long-assed sprint … it can feel like a marathon (from personal experience) … which is why some people in my coaching group adopt something shorter, like 6 weeks.

The length of your sprint doesn’t matter.
It’s what you do in the sprint during that time.

For example, with my 12-week sprint there is, frankly, a lot of room for procrastination and a lot of time to make it up. In a 6-week sprint, there is not a lot of time to screw around, but still enough time to get some serious work done.

So that’s it. Will a tool like this bring focus and action to your quarterly planning?

* * *

Where I will be Zooming in

Oct 22: NACVA Massachusetts State Chapter
Oct 29: California Society of CPAs FVS Group

* * *

Don’t be good. Be great.

 

 

 

 

 

PS – Whenever you are ready, here are 4 ways I can help you build/grow your BVFLS practice:

1. Join Practice Development ROUNDTABLE
It’s a Facebook community for BVFLS professionals who are collaborating on how to turn the practices they have into the practices they want.

2. Download this Find Your Niche infographic
The riches are in the niches, as they say. But what’s missing is a process that can help you identify your niche. This infographic is the missing process.

3. Take a free Practice Self-Assessment
I have 10 quick questions, and your answers will help you get a sense of how well your practice is working for you.

4. Work with me privately
If you’ve hit a time and income ceiling and want to level up, email me and tell me a little about your practice and what you’d like to work on together. Then we’ll talk.

The Titanic ran into one; you should, too!

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In case you missed my last post: Why are we on LinkedIn? Because that is where the audience is! But which audience? When asked why he robbed banks, Willie Sutton is said to have replied, “Because that’s where the money is.” And social media is where our audience of leads, prospects, clients, and referral sources is. But that audience is split among different platforms, and there is little crossover between them. So who are you trying to reach? Whose money are you after?

Onto this week: Imagine a world in which you were prohibited from saying anything in your marketing that your competitors currently say.

None of the common platitudes like:
– Our service is better.
– Our people are better.
– Our reports are better.
– We care about our clients.
– We are committed to excellence.

(By the way, how do you prove any of those statements?)

You can’t say this stuff on your website.
Or in your speaking, writing, networking, or social media accounts.
Not even on your email trailer.
Nowhere.

Now what?

BVFLS marketing tends to be uniform … and painfully dull. There is no personality in it or to it. In fact, our last bit of personality was likely driven out of us by people who told us we needed to suppress it in order to be ‘professional.’

(By the way, if you don’t create the personality of your practice, your audience will assign one to it.)

Marketing is intended to create awareness and attract leads. But if we all say the same things the same way using the same font, we make it impossible for leads to become aware of us and be attracted to us!

When I talk about this to BVFLS professionals, they tell me that there’s nothing unique or special or different about their practice compared to other professionals with their practices.

They tell me they essentially do the same things in the same ways as everyone else they know so they have little/no choice but to say the same things as everyone else they know.

Well, here’s one question you can answer that will make you stand out: What do I get by hiring you that I can’t/don’t/won’t get from hiring someone else?

Can you articulate that?
Because if you can’t, you’re SOL!
Be prepared not to get hired or get hired for a commoditized fee that you’ll lament about to your colleagues.

But if you want to articulate that, there is an ‘iceberg’ model I learned that can help.
A model that I’ve not seen any practitioner in our industry using.
A model that I am teaching to my coaching clients.
Here it is.

The idea behind the model is that prospects expect:
– A price that is fair
– Service that is courteous and efficient
– A quality report that meets the relevant standards
– Results that will stand up
– A relationship with you that may last beyond the engagement

But all of these things are above the water line … part of the Obvious Value in the model above. If that is all you are offering – the tip of the iceberg – you are providing the bare minimum of what a prospect expects. And the commodity pricing you’re experiencing reflects that.

But if you can explain the Hidden or Unexpected Value that someone gets from hiring you, well, that’s a game-changer. And at the Hidden or Unexpected Value levels, price becomes less relevant.

(By the way, I want you to literally draw this model out for your client – use a napkin or your tablet – so you can draw them into your conversation).

In my world, I tell coaching prospects that my Obvious Value would be to get them more clients; they expect I will offer that. But my Hidden Value is that I help them get better clients. And if they are interested, my Unexpected Value is that I can help them get clients at scale, using proven, non-sleazy, time-saving automation tools and tactics.

If you don’t know the Hidden or Unexpected Value in what you create, make that your focus for the next quarter! And if you can’t figure it out for the work you’re doing now, it may be time to switch to a practice area or industry niche where you can.

NEW RULE

(with attribution to Bill Maher, host of the HBO political talk show Real Time)

From this point on, you are prohibited from saying anything in your marketing that your competitors can also say. You may need some help with your new messaging … either from clients you’ve already served, referral sources you work with frequently, or friends outside the BVFLS profession who know what you do and admire you for how you do it.

Because being able to articulate the Hidden or Unexpected Value you deliver is powerful. It amps up your marketing … it helps prospects make good choices about alternative service providers … and it delivers the kind of business (better clients) you deserve.

Don’t be the best. Be the only.

 

 

 

 

 

PS – Whenever you are ready, here are 4 ways I can help you build/grow your BVFLS practice:

1. Join Practice Development ROUNDTABLE
It’s a Facebook community for BVFLS professionals who are collaborating on how to turn the practices they have into the practices they want.

2. Download this Find Your Niche infographic
The riches are in the niches, as they say. But what’s missing is a process that can help you identify your niche. This infographic is the missing process.

3. Take a free Practice Self-Assessment
I have 10 quick questions, and your answers will help you get a sense of how well your practice is working for you.

4. Work with me privately
If you’ve hit a time and income ceiling and want to level up, email me and tell me a little about your practice and what you’d like to work on together. Then we’ll talk.

Why are we on LinkedIn? Because that’s where our audience is! But which audience?

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In case you missed my last post: The Five Ones … or The Five 1s … or The 5 Ones. Do you sometimes feel like your business model is too complex? The more stuff you have going on, the more scattered your energy. And the harder it is to build your practice … and the longer it will take to grow it. On the other hand, a simple(r) business model requires a similar amount of energy, but has a focused direction. As a result, your efforts multiply your results faster.

 On to this week: When asked why he robbed banks, Willie Sutton is said to have replied, “Because that’s where the money is.” And social media is where our audience of leads, prospects, clients, and referral sources is. But oftentimes, that audience is split among different platforms, and there is little crossover between them. So who are you trying to reach? Whose money are you after?

Some BVFLS practitioners won’t touch social media marketing with a 10-foot pole. For others, it’s the be all, end all for attracting people who need our services. Either extreme will allow you to win friends and influence people (you’ll find your tribe). But neither extreme will likely serve you well.

When it comes to social media, it’s crucial to select one platform (maybe two) to focus on. Because creating, running, and following up on campaigns on multiple platforms—and making them equally effective—is almost impossible, at least without help.

For many years, most of us have chosen LinkedIn as the one (and only) platform to focus on. So let’s look at that first.

LinkedIn is where all of our referral sources hang out. But at the end of the day, we are tripping over each other on LinkedIn … trying to win the same audience of accountants, attorneys, bankers, insurance people, wealth planners, etc. We’re like a band of Hare Krishnas surrounding a lone street pedestrian. They see us coming and duck or hide.

An alternative tactic would be to play in a sandbox that few other BVFLS professionals are in. So consider Facebook. Or Instagram.

Business owners are obviously prime candidates for our services … if we can get to them. They are likely to have a LinkedIn profile. But if you scour your LinkedIn feed … how many business owners do you REGULARLY see posting on LinkedIn? My experience is hardly ever.

But they are likely to have Facebook and Instagram pages for their businesses. And they hang out there … a lot … or have someone at the company hang out on behalf of the business and monitor the traffic.

So why not use LinkedIn to go after referral sources?
And try Facebook or Instagram to attract business owners?

Just one word of advice. Regardless of which platform(s) you choose as your weapon, you want to be authentic. The best way to do that is to be you. And the authentic you is the one that traditional business manners told you to suppress under the guise of “professionalism.” Be mint chocolate chip, not plain vanilla … and people will appreciate you for that!

Don’t be good. Be great.

 

 

 

 

 

PS – Whenever you are ready, here are 4 ways I can help you build/grow your BVFLS practice:

1. Join Practice Development ROUNDTABLE
It’s a Facebook community for BVFLS professionals who are collaborating on how to turn the practices they have into the practices they want.

2. Download this Find Your Niche infographic
The riches are in the niches, as they say. But what’s missing is a process that can help you identify your niche. This infographic is the missing process.

3. Take a free Practice Self-Assessment
I have 10 quick questions, and your answers will help you get a sense of how well your practice is working for you.

4. Work with me privately
If you’ve hit a time and income ceiling and want to level up, email me and tell me a little about your practice and what you’d like to work on together. Then we’ll talk.

The Five Ones … or The Five 1s … or The 5 Ones

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In case you missed my last post: Exactly when do buyers buy? You probably have a segment of people in your Outlook/Gmail contacts and LI connections who you hear from on a regular basis. And another, likely much larger, segment of people who you rarely or never hear from. Would you still consider this latter group to be a potential source of new business? You probably guessed the correct/logical answer is “Perhaps,” but are not sure why. Read why.

On to this week: Do you sometimes feel like your business model is too complex? And your calendar—the days, the weeks, the months—is crazy busy full? The more stuff you have going on, the more scattered your energy. And the harder it is to build your practice … and the longer it will take to grow your practice. On the other hand, a simple(r) business model requires a similar amount of energy, but has a focused direction. As a result, your efforts can multiply your results faster.

We constantly hear that the world is getting more complicated.
And, of course, we need to conform to that greater level of complexity … or do we?

If you’ve been on that path, and stressing out, are you ready for a reset?
Here are five actions you can take … to simplify … in order to multiply.

#1 – Pursue ONE target market.

You can’t be everything to everyone, not successfully anyway. Figure out the clients you like serving—and that’s your one target market to go after.

#2 – Aim for ONE service.

That target market (e.g., automobile dealerships or family law attorneys) is likely to have a similar problem set. Figure out the work you like doing best—and that’s your one service to sell that delivers results.

#3 – Have ONE traffic source to attract leads.

It doesn’t do you any good to be an expert if no one knows you exist. You can attract traffic to your conversion tool organically (e.g., free newsletter), paid (e.g., LI or FB ads), or via an affiliate partnership (e.g., NACVA teaching).

#4 – Use ONE tool to convert prospects into clients.

You can speak or write or broadcast … what are you best at. Use that messaging platform to educate leads about who you are, what you do, and why they should hire you.

#5 – Give it ONE year.

Whatever metric you are trying to get to, e.g., practice revenue, implement the above … test, tweak, and improve as needed. Then give yourself one year to get there.

That’s it.
What about your practice is too complicated?
How can I help?

Don’t be good. Be great.

 

 

 

 

 

PS – Whenever you are ready, here are 4 ways I can help you build/grow your BVFLS practice:

1. Join Practice Development ROUNDTABLE
It’s a new Facebook community for BVFLS professionals who are collaborating on how to turn the practices they have into the practices they want.

2. Download this Find Your Niche infographic
The riches are in the niches, as they say. But what’s missing is a process that can help you identify your niche. This infographic is the missing process.

3. Take a free Practice Self-Assessment
I have 10 quick questions, and your answers will help you get a sense of how well your practice is working for you.

4. Work with me privately
If you’ve hit a time and income ceiling and want to level up, email me and tell me a little about your practice and what you’d like to work on together. Then we’ll talk.