Not Too Many Accountants Are Salespeople

The license arrived and I put it up on the wall of my new office. That was 1979. OK, now what do I do? It is interesting that there wasn't a single class that ever addressed the challenge of finding clients.

And, let's face it, how many accountants, lawyers or engineers go into their field because they want to be salespeople? One percent? No percent? I'll bet you agree with me that the basic make up of the vast majority of accountants causes them a degree of discomfort at the thought of self-promotion. And the reality is that there isn't much help available.

It is exceptionally difficult for the firm's big rainmaker to teach an associate how to land engagements. It will only work if their overall styles, values, egos, etc. are relatively similar, and even then differences in age, experience, gender, connections, professional status, etc. often make it virtually impossible for the junior person to adopt the same modus operandi.

Nevertheless, if you aspire to have your own book of business, at some point you have to step into the world of self-promotion. That can be really, really scary for most accountants. Unfortunately, many never really figure it out.

My name is Craig Weeks and for the past ten+ years I've been teaching accountants how to a) find more work and/or, b) upgrade their practices so they can get more revenue for each hour of billable time. I've found you can't effectively teach these skills to large groups, so I almost always work with individuals or small groups within client firms. I'm proud to say that my methodology works, but I know there are a lot of accountants out there who will never hear about these techniques that can help them achieve their revenue, margin, income and lifestyle goals.

I'm at a point in my life where I'm beginning to feel I want to give something back, so the purpose of this blog is to periodically write about what I've learned. Mostly about what has been empirically proven to work and also that which is ineffective.

If you are interested in the insights I've gained, my plan is to talk about them on this blog in a direct, practical and hopefully helpful manner.