Episode 13: Takeaways From My Conversation with David Masefield
“In this very content driven world, we need to start really giving back some of the education to our clients. The more we educate our clients, the more they’re going to come to you…They want to go to people who educate them.”
In this episode, Sam dives into the takeaways from her conversation with David Masefield in Episode 11 (Part 1) and Episode 12 (Part 2). If you haven’t yet, go and listen to those episodes before this one.
Sam looks at how we might take what David taught us about using a knowledge based model (his blog) to educate his market and drive business to gaps in the market outside the sale of the traditional big ticket market and how we can parallel this to think a little differently about how we offer services.
Sam also explores how we can take some of the principles of Start-up and Innovation and how we can apply to our own businesses when we “start up” new products and services, and assist our clients when they “start-up” their own businesses. This episode is brought to you by Blueprint Renovate Program, the program designed to create space in your firm to cultivate mindset change through what you do everyday.
Listen to a snippet
What we cover in this episode
The twist on traditional retail model of sales that David shared and how that might apply in the accounting industry
The benefits of using an information platform to educate potential clients and then monetise that
How we could create information frameworks around common mistakes our clients make or potential clients make
Ways to maximise the content we’re already producing in order to create those education and information platforms without having to take even more time that we don’t have spare
Why accountants need to maintain the big products (EOY Tax + Quarterly BAS) while looking at smaller add-on products and services that fill gaps in the market
The importance of packaging up those new products and services intentionally and making sure they are sustainable and profitable long term
Some ideas for content, products and services that we could add in our industry
The power of listening to clients and believing them when they say what they want (even if our expert minds know it’s not what they need)
What to keep in mind when servicing the startup industry and new businesses
Questions to ask the minimum expectations to have established with new businesses and startups
How to use the startup mindset within our firms with new products and services
What the accounting industry can take from the startup approach of validating products and talking to customers about what they want
Why you should be going to these innovation and startup events
Quotes
“I always like to look at what people are doing in other industries so we can use some of these ideas [in our own industry.]”
“We don't have time to put the content together, and that is very true. But we are actually collating this content all the time. We're constantly writing review notes or emails to our clients asking for data or ringing them and correcting them. If you could just capture that…and then really look at how could to start educating our clients, even if it starts just through monthly newsletters with our clients.”
“In this very content driven world, we need to start really giving back some of the education to our clients. The more we educate our clients, the more they're going to come to you…They want to go to people who educate them.”
“Because the end of the year tax preparation, GST and other compliance areas take up so much space and time, we don't really have the time or the systems and the processes to get into the add-on services or package them up. And if we do, we don't do it effectively enough for it to be profitable to us.”
“People only really go with what they want and our expert tendency sometimes starts going wild here. To be efficient at really servicing your clients and then hopefully, one day, shifting needs to wants, it's really important to listen.”
“If you do have clients who are going into business with other people, it is super, super important to get at least some minimum expectation documents down on [paper].”
“Because a lot of these new developments, like startups, take time to get going, take an education program with the clients. Then also we have to develop different systems and processes and mindset within the firm itself. So it takes a lot of unproductive time, and we're just not used to that.”
Links
Connect with David via ShedBlog.com.au or CanvasCoworking.com.au or StartupToowoomba.com.au.
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