Thank you to William Shakespeare for the above title (sorry I just couldn’t help myself). In an earlier post on the The Pulse I banged on about the importance of asking questions when meeting and discussing issues with clients and pitching for new business. Now we visit the other side of the communication coin – listening.
Listening is perhaps the most important skill any accountant or professional adviser can bring to a discussion with a client, potential client, staff member, government department, supplier and so on. When you listen … really listen … to the other party some quite amazing things begin to happen. Here are just three to think about: Read more
With the busy lives that we lead it can be so easy to fall into the trap of going hell for leather at work and simply not paying complete attention to what we are doing.
Here’s an example of what can happen when you don’t concentrate properly when replying to emails at work…
Minutes ago, I sent a quick note out to my database to advise when tickets would be on sale for an upcoming event. Read more
One of my favourite maxims is – “If you want a better answer … ask a better question.” I love it so much it appears in the header graphic of my own blog . If you don’t believe me, just look up whatdoclientsreallywant.com.
Clients are impressed by accountants and advisers that ask questions they weren’t expecting or that they haven’t been asked before. It shows preparedness on the part of the questioner that he/she has invested time and effort in understanding the clients business and circumstances.
One of the best questions one can ask is “why?” If asked in the right way, the question of “why” can uncover a treasure trove of insights. There is a school of thought that claims that asking “why” at least 3 times in the one meeting or conversation can uncover the root cause or motivation behind any aspect of business activity undertaken by people both internal and external to an organisation. Read more
I’m assuming, if you’re reading this article, that you’re an accountant or at least working in the industry in some capacity. Let me ask you a question … “As an accountant what is the most important thing you do for your clients?” Over the years I’ve been given any number of responses to this question.
Some say, “Keep my clients safe & compliant”.
Others say, “Make their lives easier”.
While many say, “Get them a big tax refund”.
However, the most common response I receive to this fundamental question is, “to add value”. Read more
Happy Super Bowl Monday! (or Sunday, if you’re in the US)
Much like the AFL Grand Final in Australia and the Rugby World Cup Final in New Zealand, the match that stops a nation is currently playing out in lounge rooms and bars across North America.
Last year, a global audience of 111 million people tuned in to watch the Green Bay Packers storm home over the Pittsburgh Steelers, with an estimated 10% of those watching from outside of the US. (and the preliminary figures for this year indicate that we might be on track to reach the 120 million mark.)
Read more
Call them what you like, web watchers, social stalkers or plain and simple voyeurs; they are all doing the same thing, watching you online.
That’s not meant to sound creepy, I refer to those people that are quite happy cruising around the web and watching what is being said and what others are up to in either a business sense or social sense, it really doesn’t matter. Read more
Smart business resolutions for all SME’s.
There’s a New Zealand online business I came across the other day, which may as well have had a photo of me pinned to their mood board when they conceptualised it.
From the moment I spotted an ad for it on another blog, to the moment I followed them on their Facebook page. Read more
Smart business resolutions for all SME’s.
There’s a New Zealand online business I came across the other day, which may as well have had a photo of me pinned to their mood board when they conceptualised it.
From the moment I spotted an ad for it on another blog, to the moment I followed them on their Facebook page. Read more
It’s only a hop, skip and jump until Christmas day. End of year parties colour our calendars and employees around the country are booking their leave.
Many businesses either shut down or fall back to a skeleton crew over the holidays so it’s important to include your social media monitoring and engagement into this roster.
If your customers could have operational, service or purchasing issues over this time ensure whoever is on duty is trained up and familiar with your processes to address and answer tweets or Facebook questions. Read more
Part Six in our series on business blogging.
There’s been a pretty common theme of questions coming from those of you following our business blog series. How the heck do I find the time to run my business and get a successful blog going on the side?
Like all things, great blog content takes time and effort to generate, and you’ll need to put some thought into planning to ensure you maintain your post schedule, whatever frequency that might be. Straight from Tim Ferris himself, an uninspiring blog is more of a liability than no blog at all. Think about it from your own perspective – if you were researching a company and found an abandoned blog on their site, it would probably make you question their ability to see a project through to completion, right? Read more
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