Back in 2013, Ben Walker attended a sales seminar for accountants where they introduced this concept called BAMFAM, short for “Book A Meeting From A Meeting.”

When you BAMFAM, it puts you in the driver’s seat of both sales and deliverables. 

It sets clear expectations for clients about when the next formal touchpoint will be.

Managing your client meetings and strategy calls can be a juggling act. Coordinating schedules, sending emails back and forth, and playing phone tag can be time-consuming and frustrating.

Calendly simplifies scheduling. It sets your availability and syncs with your calendar to ensure you’re never double-booked. 👍

In a world where people often expect free services, giving away valuable work can be tough. While it’s noble to share your skills and resources, it does come with challenges.

Common challenges when providing free valuable services:

Perceived Value

The concept of “you get what you pay for” can lead some people to undervalue or question the quality of free services. Overcoming this perception and demonstrating the true value of your work can be a constant battle. 

Sustainability and Scalability

Free services can attract a large audience, but maintaining and scaling such services without proper funding or support can be unsustainable in the long run. This can lead to burnout or service discontinuation. 

Balancing Generosity and Self-Worth

There’s a fine line between being generous and undervaluing your own worth. Striking a balance between giving freely and valuing your contributions can be a personal and psychological challenge.

Despite the difficulties, many still offer free valuable work out of a desire to help and make a positive impact. The satisfaction of contributing to the greater good often outweighs the challenges.

Have a listen to Ben’s talk on “Training Your Team To Identify Great Clients”, here’s what he said –

The kind of clients we attract can differ based on how they come across our services.

Oftentimes, when our top-notch clients suggest someone similar to themselves, the referrals tend to be of high quality.

We also took a look at the services that our top clients prefer. It turns out they’ve chosen a mix of services from us—things like the usual tax and compliance work, additional structures, investments, and SMSFs.

During this exploration, we spotted some common themes. Relationship statuses seemed quite alike, and even the general industries they’re in shared similarities.

The whole point of this exercise is to figure out who our fantastic clients are and how we can attract more of them. Where do they hang out? Who do they interact with?

After that, it’s all about training your team to recognise your ideal client. This helps them identify who’s a great fit and who might not align perfectly with us. This is especially important if your team is just starting to handle initial inquiries at your accounting firm.

During the “Pricing & Profitability CPD Workshops” tour in Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane, Ben Walker, the Founder of Inspire Accountants and High-Performance Accountants, took the stage as a keynote speaker. The event, organized by Chartered Accountants and Ignition, provided a platform for Ben to share his valuable insights. 

Check out Ben’s talk about “The True Essence Of Sales For Accountants”, here’s what he said – 

I have heard from quite a few accountants that they don’t associate with the word “Sales”. And I just want to encourage you, it is a function of the business to sell. Even a waiter at the restaurant, the process of them saying, would you like another margarita? And me saying, “Yes”, that’s a function of sales.

We need to think that this is a serious function of our business and that selling is caring. If you struggle with that association or that engagement towards the idea of sales, then this book by Daniel Pink, “To Sell Is Human”, is a good perspective changer on sales.

I just want to start with that because I don’t want to talk about sales when maybe you’re sitting there going, “Ah, it’s not me, I don’t like it”. It’s really not a bad thing. It took me a lot of work to understand that it’s a great thing because the client wins, we win and maybe the tax office does or doesn’t.

B1G1 is a global giving initiative by Paul Dunn. There’s a way in ignition that allows us to incorporate various actions into our business operations.

For example, when a client accepts a proposal through Ignition, we can use Zapier to connect and integrate different giving impacts. We have decided that each time an Ignition proposal is accepted, we contribute a day’s worth of access to education, shelter, and a school meal for a child in need in Kenya. The cost for this impactful  is just 0.95 USD.

The best part is that the automation takes care of all the calculations and tallying for us, thanks to the Zapier integration.  It’s a cool addition to our giving process, making it effortless and meaningful at the same time.