Our Journey to Xero Platinum Partner

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Our Journey to Xero Platinum Partner
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• The journey to a Xero Platinum Partner is not a
  journey to be taken lightly. To put it in
  perspective, it's a journey that many Accounting
  and Bookkeeping firms aspire to, but few actually
  make it. As of writing this, there are only 6
  bookkeeping businesses in Australia that have
  achieved this coveted status, and iKeep achieved
  this in less than 2 years.

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• The criteria that Xero Partners are assessed on
  takes into account
• How many Xero Certified Advisors we have in our
  business, and
• How many clients we are working on.

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• This means that we need to have a balance between
  our internal training whilst maintaining and
  outward focus and delivering what our clients
  want.
• As a small business owner, one of the most
  important decisions you can make is hiring the
  right bookkeeper. As well as being experienced,
  your bookkeeper needs to be highly personable and
  easy for you to relate to.

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• When I thought through, What do we do
  differently to other firms? What helped them
  reach Gold Partner status with Xero? I jotted
  down into Evernote ideas as they came to me, and
  it resulted in a list of 10 things.
• Then I thought, Hey, I should blog that list.
  (Gotta practice what we preach!)

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• So I have.
• And here it is.
• For Xero newbies
• Forge a strong relationship with your local Xero
  Account Manager. Youll need a partner and
  on-call resource on this journey. Dont try to go
  it alone. Your Xero Account Manager has the best
  knowledge and best price point (free!) for
  helping you along your learning journey with
  Xero. (Plus Xero recruit very well. Youll find
  your Account Manager can add a lot of value to
  your firm, through their general tech savvy
  advice.)

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• Understand the big picture WHY of cloud, single
  ledger, Xero Bookkeeping and the Add-on Partner
  app ecosystem. Its crucial to not just
  understand this, but to live and breathe this
  vision. Teaching your clients about this
  positions you as a Thought Leader. With only 10
  of SMEs in Australia, for example, having heard
  of Xero (I was floored when I heard this during
  Rod Drurys CEO address at Xerocon this morning)
  there is still huge growth ahead for them, andby
  extensionfor you.

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• If youre a new Xero bookkeeper, quickly get the
  basic product knowledge Dont dabble. Dive in,
  learn Xero, use itget hands-onget really
  familiar with it in a practical sense. You can
  only effectively sell what you believe in, and
  you can only believe in what you understand.

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• Embrace it Fully implement Xero in your own
  business. You need to 100 walk your talk if
  youre recommending Xero to your clients.

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• Investigate and totally understand the software
  applications provided by the Xero Add-on Partners
  network. Focus in on those that are relevant to
  your clients. Document your recommended list of
  apps. Then master them. Many of these apps are
  truly mind-blowing. Its an exciting time to be
  in business. You can add massive value to your
  clients here by guiding them and putting them on
  a fast-track to transforming their business
  processes. Its about more than accounting. As
  Rod Drury says, Accounting is the core data, but
  it is just the beginning.

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• Start blogging, tweeting, and doing eNewsletter
  articles about aspects of Xero. Get your
  marketing material and your website looking great
  too. Use a web developer who understands
  accounting businesses, understands the cloud, and
  who truly gets how important the design aspects
  are on websites.

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• Start running your own webinars and client
  workshops. Youll achieve a big impact, quickly.
  Modern marketing is largely about education, not
  traditional promotion.

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• Decide on and commit to your new modus operandi
  of If you want to work with us, well move you
  across to Xero. There might be some rare
  exceptions amongst your clientbase due to legacy
  or custom in-house systems they are using, but in
  the small and medium business space, adopt this
  as your standard approach with new clients.

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• Up the ante and really become active in online
  marketing including blogging, social media,
  webinars, screencasts, SEO, landing pages and
  other modern marketing tools. This will allow you
  to effectively and time-efficiently educate your
  clients about the benefits of cloud computing,
  cloud accounting, single ledger, social
  accounting/ collaboration and Xero.

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• Clearly Platinum Partners dont bring 500 clients
  across to Xero by accident. It takes focus,
  follow-through, execution. If you are looking to
  move you bookkeeping and payroll to an expert,
  speak to one of our experts today!