ACADEMY
FOR BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT
WORLD
CLASS TRAINING:
PROGRAM
GETTING
YOURINTRODUCTION
FIRM ON TRACK
PRESENTED
BY ALLRED,
PRESENTED
BY SAM M.
ANDO
GFRAHAM
WILSON
FOUNDER
& ADLLRED
IRECTOR
UPSTREAM
ACADEMY
©SUAM
PSTREAM
ACADEMY
2011
1
Before the recession, aggressively waiting
for the phone to ring actually worked as a
business development strategy.
Times have certainly changed.
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CHANGES IN OUR PROFESSION
Firm leaders are focused now more than ever
before on business development efforts, and
for good reason. Change is sweeping our
profession in the following ways:
• Senior partners highly skilled in business
development—along with their key client
contacts and best referral sources—are
retiring in ever-greater numbers.
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CHANGES IN OUR PROFESSION
• Business leaders are requesting fewer
services as they hunker down to ride out
the recession.
• Escalating client attrition rates mean more
and more new work needs to come in the
door each year just to hold top line revenue
steady.
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CHANGES IN OUR PROFESSION
• Competition for client dollars is intense,
bringing a new wave of price cutting.
• Newer partners and senior managers (who
have never sold during a recession) are
being asked to bring in increasing amounts
of new business.
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So what should be your plan of action?
We believe one very wise course of action
is to make sure your best future business
developers have the opportunity to develop
the skills, confidence and discipline needed
to consistently bring high quality new
work opportunities into the firm.
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The Academy for
Business Development
is an intensive 18month program for
teaching vital business
development skills to
new partners and
senior managers.
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PRESENTATION ROADMAP
1. What makes this program unique?
2. Overview of the Academy for Business
Development
3. Key dates
4. Questions and answers
Email questions to sallred@azworld.com
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 WHAT MAKES THIS PROGRAM UNIQUE?
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DELIBERATE DESIGN
Our sole objective is to
ensure your future business
developers have the skills,
confidence, and discipline
required to consistently
bring high quality new
work into your firm from
new and existing clients.
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The Academy is a work
program. We believe in
being appropriately
demanding of
participants to ensure
they achieve their
business development
goals.
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Training is delivered
in digestible doses
throughout the 18month program.
Individuals must be
able to apply what
they learn on a daily
basis. Learning is
continuous.
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Our undeviating focus
on principles and
processes helps
participants develop
the skills and
confidence necessary
to grow the firm’s top
line revenue.
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The Academy helps
participants recognize
the very best prospects
and successfully engage
them as firm clients.
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PRACTICAL ACCOUNTABILITY
Knowing that poor
follow-through is the
number one complaint
about almost all
programs, we’ve built
multiple levels of
accountability into the
Academy for Business
Development.
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The Academy requires
a high level of
accountability between
participants and their
guides and between
participants and
Academy faculty.
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DEMONSTRATED EXPERTISE
Our instructors, Graham Wilson and Sam
Allred, have significantly impacted the
development and
growth of hundreds
of public accounting
firms around the
world for nearly
two decades.
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 OVERVIEW OF THE ACADEMY FOR
BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT
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1. PERSONAL GUIDES
Each ABD participant needs to have a
guide.
The guide should be a
respected stakeholder
in the firm. A partner
may guide more than
one participant.
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Guides will work with participants
throughout the program and will hold them
accountable for follow-through on their
Personal Business Development Plans.
Upstream Academy will
provide guidance and
support for ABD
guides.
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The guide will meet with the participant
each month to review the most recent
SkillBuilding Forum and to track progress
on the Personal Business Development
Plan.
The guide will communicate monthly with
the managing partner regarding the
participant’s progress.
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2. BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT WORKSHOPS
We believe many vital business development
skills need to be taught face-to-face in an
interactive group environment.
Three 8-hour workshops will be held
throughout the 18-month period (June 2011,
January 2012, and June 2012).
The workshops will begin at 2:00pm and
conclude at noon the next day.
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In addition to learning
vital business
development skills,
participants will spend
time at each workshop
developing their 6-month
Personal Business
Development Plan.
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WORKSHOP #1 - AGENDA
• Overview of 18-month program
• Compilation of first Personal Business
Development Plan (6-month period)
• The selling and buying cycles
• The psychology of selling professional services
• Completion of a behavioral style inventory
• Cross servicing – increasing net revenue per
client
• Essential time management skills
• Call to action – next steps for this marketing
period
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WORKSHOP #2 - AGENDA
• Review of progress with cross-servicing clients
• Prospecting – how to fill the pipeline with
qualified prospects
• How to ask relevant questions – based on SPIN
Selling®
• Improving your listening skills
• Review of Personal Business Development Plan
for next marketing period
• Call to action – next steps for this marketing
period
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WORKSHOP #3 - AGENDA
• Building a strong referral base
• Learning when to say no
• Generalist versus specialist: the advantages of
being an expert
• Advanced networking: it’s the small things
that count
• Review of Personal Business Development
Plan for next marketing period
• Call to action – next steps for this marketing
period
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3. SKILLBUILDING FORUMS
During the program, 14 one-hour
conference calls led by Graham Wilson and
Sam Allred will provide a forum for
discussing vital business development skills.
This helps participants broaden
their knowledge incrementally
and consistently over the full
18 months.
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We will record each SkillBuilding
Forum and participants will
receive an audio CD after
the conference call.
The following slide
lists the topics that will be
covered. There will be no
SkillBuilding forums in
March and April.
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SKILLBUILDING FORUM TOPICS
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Great Service, More Work: Connecting the Dots
Recognizing the Best Prospects – And Why It Matters
Asking Clients for Additional Business
Positioning Yourself As a Consultant, Not a Vendor
Preparing to Meet with a Prospect
Differentiating Your Firm in the Marketplace
Developing C-Level Clients into A-Level Clients
The Art and Science of Effective Sales Negotiation
Getting the Business (Closing Effectively)
Making Persuasive Presentations
Networking: Becoming an Expert
Overcoming Setbacks and Learning from Failures
Dealing Strategically with D-level Clients
Proposals: When to Use them and When Not to Use Them
Graduation: Discipline for the Rest of Your Career
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4. PERSONAL BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT PLAN
All participants will set specific business
development goals they are accountable to
achieve.
Plans will be
fine-tuned with new
goals for each
six-month business
development period.
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5. ACCOUNTABILITY CHECK-INS
Accountability check-ins will happen at
the following levels:
• Participants will meet with their guide
each month to report progress on their
Personal Business Development Plan.
• Guides will report participant’s progress
to managing partners on a monthly
basis.
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• Academy faculty will hold bi-monthly
group conference calls with groups of
ten or fewer participants.
• Academy faculty will schedule a personal
phone call with managing partners every
six months.
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6. CPE
Upstream Academy will
recommend CPE credit
based on the level of
participation in this
program.
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7. UNCONDITIONAL GUARANTEE
Like everything we do at Upstream
Academy, this program is unconditionally
guaranteed to your full satisfaction.
If you are not completely satisfied, we
will, at your option, either waive your fee
or accept that portion of the fee that
reflects your level of satisfaction.
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8. INVESTMENT
The investment for each participant is
$9,000 ($7,500 for UAN members). This
fee represents the total 18-month cost of
the program, including the participant’s
registration at each workshop.
The only additional cost will be travel,
lodging and meals at the events.
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 KEY DATES
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KEY 2010-2011 DATES
Deadline to Register — June 1
ABD Business Development Workshops
June 23-24, 2011 — ABD Workshop #1 - Las Vegas, Nevada
January 10-11, 2012 — ABD Workshop #2, Las Vegas, Nevada
June 19-20, 2012 — ABD Workshop #3, Park City, Utah
Guide Calls (10am Mountain)
July 20, 2011
January 19, 2012
July 18, 2012
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KEY 2011-2012 DATES
ABD SkillBuilding Forums
2011
2012
July 21
August 25
September 22
October 20
November 17
December 15
January 26
February 24
May 24
July 26
August 8
September 20
October 16
November 20
December 18, 2012
ABD Graduation
Class of 2012
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 QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
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Thank You!
sama@upstreamacademy.com
grahamw@upstreamacademy.com
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