How well do you know your competitors?

That we actively help accountants to find new clients is a widely-known fact by now. Besides the online accounting environment an office uses, it is equally important for you to be able to quickly explain potential clients why they should use your products or services. Key elements are your proposition and the level of transparency about the kind of value for (which amount of) money you’re offering.

To describe what we do, I use the WHY>HOW>WHAT>WHY principle. First, zoom in on the (latent) pain the potential client is feeling, then explain how this pain will be taken away and with which tools, and finally list the advantages once the pain has gone. It is a good reminder totruly keep things focussed without having to go into‘features and functions’.

In order to get an even clearer picture, knowledge about your competition is very valuable. It gives you that twist, which puts you ahead of your competitors. When analysing the competition , look at different areas like clients, partners and finances. It strikes me again and again how this kind of analysis, when done within Twinfield, refocusses things. In fact, it focusses things so much that last Friday, I was tempted to send out a press release to every accounting firm, stating the cost reduction on licenses and subscription fees alone once a firm starts working with Twinfield. I’ve calmed down now, and we’ve decided to communicate this in a completely different way, through the various channels of communication we’ve established, both online and offline, to both end users and accountants.

What strikes me when talking to accountancy firms and entrepreneurs, is that they are often only partly informed about the supply and activities of their biggest competitors. How often do you analyse your competition? How do they talk about themselves and your company, being the competition? Are they aware of your existence, or are you not even discussed? What are their rates, who do they focus on, who do they collaborate with and what kind of clients do they have? All valuable information that can help you, as entrepreneur or firm, to become even more successful. Do it and you’ll see that it’s an incentive to sharpen up all your communications. Good luck!