What Are CPAs Doing Online?

How many CPAs are blogging and twittering? Do they attend webinars? Text message? Are they LinkedIn or on Facebook? Rick Telberg, Bay Street Group LLC, is conducting research to find out. Complete the survey and receive a free Executive Preview.

Impact of Struggling Economy on Marketing Budgets

MarketingSherpa, an excellent resource for articles, case studies, and marketing research, looks at some trends in marketing budgets, and the impact of these trends. This initial Chart of the Week reflects on the results of their research into the impact of the struggling economy on marketing.

Best Ideas From Winning Is Everything #2

More ideas! Enjoy!

Best Ideas From Winning Is Everything #1

What I've learned to so far is to share ideas with colleagues. Enjoy this first of two videos about the best ideas heard at last month's Winning Is Everything conference.

Crafting and Delivering Winning Presentations

Rebecca Ryan, 2EO, Next Generation Consulting, shared her thoughts on crafting and delivering winning presentations at last week's Winning Is Everything conference:

• What do you want your audience to think, feel and do as a result of your presentation?
• Stories rule, stats rot. Stories that work are hilarious, share failure, or are poignant.
• Show, don't tell. Use effective images.
• When sh!t happens, improvise.

Resources include:

• www.presentationzen.com
• www.istockphoto.com
• www.many-eyes.com (takes words in a document mentioned the most in larger fonts)
• www.polleverywhere.com (live audience polling, participants text answers using cell phones, free for up to 30 people)

Eight Principles of Winning Teams

I am back from Las Vegas having attending the 8th Annual Winning is Everything Conference sponsored by The Advisory Board. The opening speaker, Pat Williams, Senior VP, Orlando Magic was fabulous! He spoke for 90 minutes without referring to any notes, including stories and quotes, and even impersonated several U.S. leaders! Here are his thoughts on the Eight Principles of Winning Teams.

#1 - Talent

• Must be coachable and teachable.
• Do they understand and accept their role?
• Is the talent going to be a good teammate?
• Hire very slowly. You can never do enough interviewing, background checks, etc.
• Fire quickly. What should be done eventually probably should be done immediately.

#2 - Seven Sides of Great Leadership

• Vision, is the heart and soul of leadership.
• Communicating your vision: communicate optimism; hope; inspiration and motivation (have these qualities yourself, is caught rather than taught); talk about it (fight through the fear of public speaking).
• People skills - empathy, care
• Character counts
• Competense: Be a lifelong teacher and lifelong learner.
• Boldness: Make decisions
• A serving heart.

#3 - Committed

• To each other.
• To excellence.
• To competition: Welcome it. Competition makes us better.
• To winning. What are you doing right now to produce more wins for your firm?

#4 - Passionate About What They Do

• You've got to love what you do - energy, enthusiasm.
• It's OK to have fun.

#5 - Always Thinking TEAMS - You can accomplish more together.

#6 - Empower Each Other - Uplift, edify, exhort.

#7 - Respect Each Other - This leads to trust, which leads to loyalty, which leads to love, which leads to friendship.

#8 - Men and Women of Character

• Honest
• Integrity - "walk the walk"
• Take responsibility
• Work hard
• Perserverence
• Humility
• Courage

Closing Deals by Hosting Seminars

Chris Perrino, Principal, Business Development, Barnes Dennig & Co., recently presented this program at the AICPA Accounting Firm Marketing Forum. He knows what he's talking about since Barnes Dennig hosts about 18 events per year. Their seminars are free. The goal of these events is to make client/prospect relationship development easier.

The three critical parts of seminar success - topic, topic, topic. The title needs to be honed, the speaker needs to be honed, and the topic choices should demonstrate your firm's industry expertise. Here are a few sample winning topics:

• Economic Reality for Manufacturers
• Rich Contractor, Poor Contractor: Pricing for Profits & What Makes a Good Contractor
• Building and Engaging Your Dream Board
• Tax Reduction Strategies for Developers

Here are a few other tips for seminar success:

• Entertaining speakers outscore those with better content.
• Send a "Save the Date" 6-8 weeks prior.
• Send weekly e-mail reminders starting one month prior.
• Expect 20% to 30% no shows.
• Consider holding seminars at not-for-profit client locations, e.g., museum.
• Do not hold seminars on Mondays or Fridays.
• Barnes Dennig's contractor seminars are hold at lunchtime, all others at breakfast.
• Consider co-sponsoring your seminar with a law firm or bank. Barnes Dennig hosts four seminars featuring "celebrity" speakers that are co-sponsored.
• Invite clients to have lunch with the celebrity speaker after the seminar.
• Follow up consistently.

What I've learned so far is that seminars can be an excellent source of new business. It is a face-to-face marketing tactic that demonstrates your firm's knowledge and expertise. Chris' final thought was that hosting seminars takes a lot of time, money, and patience. He's right, and that investment can deliver quite a return for your firm when implemented correctly.