Neil Barrow

Founder @ EnabledBD | Helping professional service firms generate conversations that matter

[Neil Barrow @nillbearoh]

Hello 👋

Let me introduce myself: After 15 years in sales and business development roles, I started RevOps Advisors to reimagine business development for professional, financial, and consulting services firms.

[Neil Barrow @nillbearoh]

Happy Back to School day for those that celebrate.

We are so back

[Neil Barrow @nillbearoh]

If you managed your relationships like your fantasy football team, would you be in last place or first?

[Neil Barrow @nillbearoh]

Stop thinking business development is more than coming up with activities to do with and for your professional connections and asking them who you should know.

[Neil Barrow @nillbearoh]

@bhallcpa Man...a topic that comes up daily. Love that you are exploring this. Happy to make some recs on what I have seen that is successful since you want to hire in house.

[Neil Barrow @nillbearoh]

@JoshYoungblood A lot of good answers have already been posted, but before you do anything, I would just talk with your best clients with best margins. Tell them you are growing your company and would like their help. Ask which of their friends/colleagues you should know.

[Neil Barrow @nillbearoh]

@Tax__Tweets @JoshYoungblood This

[Neil Barrow @nillbearoh]

@bhallcpa Sales skills include a strong sales process. Know what to give away and what to charge for.

My process:

Free: 30-45 minute discovery call -> 1 hour whiteboard session
Paid: 3 hour workshop -> 2 month retainer -> 6-12 month engagement

[Neil Barrow @nillbearoh]

⚾️

[Neil Barrow @nillbearoh]

@bhallcpa I think because the doer/seller model only works if you have entrepreneur/growth minded partners that can originate and build referral relationships or you have sales enablement to support each partner with individual and group strategy and execution.

[Neil Barrow @nillbearoh]

Instead of checking in on your bracket, how's your list of prospects doing?

[Neil Barrow @nillbearoh]

Who needs business development when you have a steady stream of referrals from clients who just can't get enough of tax season?

[Neil Barrow @nillbearoh]

@BrockHBriggs slumberpod for trips
amazon photos for zillions of pics to store on the cloud and easy sharing

[Neil Barrow @nillbearoh]

@chrisxmunn @girdley @Sam_Rosati @RegZeller @kelceylehrich @jacubwilliamson @ChandlerReedSMB @guessworkinvest @jayvas @bentigg Depends on goals. If you need 2 new clients, this works great. If you need 100, not so great. Incentivize the activity that leads to the right meetings with the right people, not the outcome.

[Neil Barrow @nillbearoh]

@wifemomcpa100 just curious - do provide an off-ramp to clients you want to move on from? other smaller or startup tax CPAs? Even though it's standard practice at accounting firms to just raise prices for self selection, this is as a big opportunity to refer business.

[Brandon Hall @bhallcpa]

Business development/sales - @nillbearoh & @LoganGrafTax

Landing new clients is easy because there's a shortage of accountants.

Learning sales may not feel important.

But, the highest-paid people are those who can bring in business.

They are called rainmakers for a reason.

[Neil Barrow @nillbearoh]

@bhallcpa Business Development

This is different than sales, which has been mentioned, and more likely to be adopted by someone who thinks sales is a dirty four letter word.

[Neil Barrow @nillbearoh]

@patrickdichter This is exactly why I created my fractional business development group. Tough to hire that first salesperson and you typically don't need someone 40 hrs a week.

[Neil Barrow @nillbearoh]

@PresidntDelbani Can help here with introductions if interested in fractional COO and fund admin suggestions.

[Neil Barrow @nillbearoh]

Did a 25 targeted industry manual email messaging campaign with A/B testing. Came back with 7 responses with most being 'unsubscribe'.

You can learn alot about where to fish if you do this first.

Switching channels to physical mail and calls!

[Neil Barrow @nillbearoh]

@ShowMeYourCIM Since you were going to do that anyway, at least you can block time on your calendar at 2am for it.