How to Become a Student of Other Industries (3 Examples)

Summary

• Public Reviews
• Mixing Personality into our Scripts
• Owning your Relationship

Resources

• The Top 15 Must-Hear Accounting Podcasts of 2022 
• 12 Expert Tips to Create a Thriving Virtual Accounting Firm 
• How This Firm Owner Went from 0-70 Clients in 10 months 
• Defining Your Dream Client

In this solocast, the founder and CEO of Jetpack Workflow, David Cristello, provides three examples that will help you become a student of other industries. These examples aim to assist you with setting your service apart from others. 

By having a large number of good reviews for your firm, personalizing your script, and owning your relationship as you partner with other services, you can change the way potential clients view your business.

1. Public Reviews

When you want to go eat somewhere but can’t think of any restaurants off the top of your head, what do you do? 

You Google “Restaurants in my area.” Just like magic, loads of restaurants pop up. You’re looking at the restaurants and picking some possible candidates. Most important of all, you’re also reading all of the reviews and checking the five-star ratings. 

Public reviews change the way we judge restaurants, stores, firms, and other services. 

Would you rather pick a law firm with an overwhelming amount of negative reviews or positive reviews? Reviews are a great primary source to get people interested in your business.

Now, how do we get that desired surplus of positive reviews? David suggests that, after a conversation or meeting with your client, simply ask them to leave a review for your service. 

Better yet, tell your client that you will also give them a discount, if they write a public review. From a personal experience, David was told he would get 25 dollars off of his service, if he left a review. Writing the review took about two minutes, and he got 25 dollars off as a reward.

David says that the discount shouldn’t hurt your firm. Instead, it will help you create a positive online outlook for your service and become more socially impactful. The more five-star reviews, the more people are interested in your firm.

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2. Mixing Personality into our Scripts

Over time, you get used to talking to your clients and interested individuals. In turn, you produce a standardized script. “Hello! Thank you! You’re welcome! Of course!” may seem like simple phrases, but they have a lot more impact than you think.

David relates this back to an experience he had at Chick-fil-A. When he picked up his food, the workers didn’t say, “You’re welcome.” They said, “It was my pleasure.” 

On the surface, changing how you say “you’re welcome” doesn’t look greatly impactful. However, Chick-fil–A wanted to add personality to the way they served their customers. They intertwined hospitality and comfort, and it is now iconically associated with the fast-food restaurant. 

Wouldn’t you want the personality of your firm to stick around with a client? Sure, you can use the same phrases that everyone else uses. However, will your client really remember any of them? What people will remember is the little bits of personality that you leak into your standardized script. Think about how you could add something interesting to your straightforward processes that will differentiate it from other firms. 

Some questions to ask yourself: 

• How are you presenting yourself when answering calls and emails? 
• What kind of conversation styles are you using when handling inbound clients and/or prospect requests? 

Adding a unique voice to your script will set you apart from other competing services.

3. Owning your Relationship

Sometimes, your firm may not provide all of the services a client may need. What do you do in a situation like this? 

David offers the idea of partnering with other firms who do offer the services. If your client needs other financial support, they might need guidance from CFO services. In this case, form a partnership with a CFO service that will help both you and your client.

You are not giving up anything by partnering with other firms. As David says, it’s important to maintain your position as the person your client will come to when they have questions or comments. You will continue to own the relationship as you provide them with helpful advice and follow up with your client to keep the conversation going.

For example, take Amazon Prime/Amazon Video. They make things easier by allowing their subscribers to upgrade to watch more streaming services, like Stars, Showtime, sports channels, etc. 

Although you’re watching a show on Stars, you’re still using Amazon Video as your main streaming service. In the end, the subscribers will always circle back to Amazon.

Amazon Video has other services for its subscribers to enjoy, but it still owns the relationship between its platform and the viewers. What are some ways to own your relationship?

• Billing
  • You can have the firm bill you and you, in turn, bill the client OR you can have the bill go directly to your client. Either way, you’re controlling the billing process for your client. 
• Circling 
  • As stated before, you should follow up with your client and see if they enjoyed the partnered service you provided them. 

Whatever you do, partnering with other services should not be a disadvantage to you. Instead, this is a way to have a deeper connection with your client, while keeping in charge of the direction of your partnership. 

In a competitive world, everyone has the desire to stand out and be different from the rest. Luckily, David gives you three ways to set your firm at an advantage over others. 

From having highly-rated reviews, adding personality to your firm’s daily regimen, and/or owning the relationship with your partnerships, you are already off to a great start.

Check out the full solocast above to hear David’s advice in full!