Neil Barrow

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.

Happy Back to School day for those that celebrate. We are so back

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

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.

@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.

Staying on top of our marketing, and consistently coaching our sales team, is starting to become too much. Thinking it’s about time to hire a marketing manager and head of sales. Know of anyone I should talk to?

@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.

I don't get much traffic or calls from my website or Google anymore. (Not that they were ever that great) Is anyone getting quality leads that way anymore? Should I consider hiring a marketing firm? I write blog posts occasionally and had a new website done a few years ago.

@Tax__Tweets @JoshYoungblood This

@JoshYoungblood Have coffee or lunch with your best clients and ask for referrals from other good clients like themselves.

@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

You don't need to give away free advice. Instead, do this: - Build strong sales skills - Find clients who respect your time - Create a scalable business model Free advice waters down your expertise. Charge for what you're worth.

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@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.

In your opinion, why do accounts struggle with marketing?

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

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

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

Dads of Twitter: I’ve been summoned by my wife to make a meaningful contribution to our baby registry. What is the hands down, most valuable 3 things that helped you as a new parent that I should add?

@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.

@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.

The price increase did what the price increase was supposed to do. I have about 1/3 less clients for tax preparation. #TaxTwitter

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.

@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.

In your opinion, What’s the one skill every accountant should adopt?

@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.

I hired a salesperson that starts in a week. I’ll give it a 1/3 chance she rocks. If so it’ll save me a ton of time and continue to allow us to grow steadily. Most companies hiring their first sales rep have a 1/10 hit rate. A couple years ago I wrote a blog post on this:

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

DoomsDay is hiring for our executive team. I need a CEO, COO, & CIO to hold things down while I focus on the private equity side. Hiring for the Fund Admin side aswell if you are interested DM me.

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!

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

Running a business with a newborn at home (not sleeping) is great because I get a number of opportunities to lay in bed and stare at the ceiling and wonder wtf I’m doing