During my 17 years running an accounting firm, particularly in the last five years when I was quoting for 100% of the work I did, I had hundreds of BFOs (Blinding Flashes of the Obvious).  Let me share four of them, relating to proposals and winning new work:

About 10 years ago I was having lunch with a friend (let’s call her Jane) when she asked, 'why should I come to you as a client Mark?'.  I started my usual and practised patter about quality, professionalism, great team, great service…   Jane basically then told me to shut up.  I’m sure that if we weren’t having lunch, she would have walked off to find someone else to talk to!  Instead she...

We often refer to the three essential tools in business as ‘The Business Development Trifecta’.  We’re Kiwis after all.

There’s a proverb about a young man walking down the street.  He comes across an older man sitting on his porch, with a dog lying next to him, whining in pain.  The young man asks the dog’s owner ‘What’s wrong with your dog?’. The owner replies ‘He’s lying on a nail’.  The man asks ‘Lying on a nail? Why doesn’t he move?’.  The owner replies ‘Because it’s not hurting bad enough'.

Having just attended Xerocon Brisbane, I’ve had a solid dose of ‘Advisory Rhetoric’. 

You know how it goes - the compliance world is dying, technology and AI will make many services redundant, and the advice for accountants is they just need to rely on their Trusted Advisor status and do more advisory work.  Enough.  I call time out for two reasons: