As someone who spends most of his life selling to accountants, I have grown accustomed to long silences followed by sceptical questions around what might be wrong with my products and services. Then, “I need to think about this but meanwhile give me detailed evidence that it 100% works”. I’ve even been asked for contact details of all our partners’ end users.

It’s generally a British thing I find and more particularly an accountant thing.

But when I speak to American accountants about what we have developed at Runagood® I hear “wow if you want to bring that to the USA, I’ll be first!”

Which gets me wondering, why such a cultural difference?

So here is my theory…

Europe was the most developed part of the world in the Middle Ages which gathered serious pace during the Industrial Revolution. It was a powerhouse of inventiveness especially in the UK. And that raised the ambitions of ordinary people who saw possibilities beyond what was happening here and thought of a new world in which the potential to use new tools and knowledge was limited only by ambition.

The brave (and the desperate) got on boats, whole families and individuals, and sailed to the New World. Once there, they faced hardship and challenges which they had to overcome with ingenuity and courage, and often failed, heading west in wagon trains to who knows what. They built railways, roads, farms, factories, took immense risks and many prospered as America became the world’s richest nation, land of opportunity.

And once there, the sons and daughters of these pioneers married and shared the entrepreneurial DNA which carried into their own children who were brought up to love their country, to do their best in life, to see opportunities in everything and be not afraid of failure.

Today, the West Coast of the USA is home to an immense string of trillion-dollar innovators driven by descendants of the brave souls who set off across the Atlantic 500 years ago. California alone is one of the world’s biggest economies.

Meanwhile, back in Europe the more cautious ones stayed at home and accepted their lot, not fancying the risk that things may not work out across the pond.

I generalise of course.

I exclude from that the brave folk who have become Runagood® partners, betting that what we have developed will enable them to upgrade their practices into a new world of opportunity. And they are united in that not one of them asked for evidence that it works or for guarantees of new client acquisition. They simply looked, understood and used their imagination to see that this is the Great Leap Forward those entrepreneurial accountants need. And it’s working.

None have found the Runagood® Business journey easy and 20% have abandoned along the way. But 80% have persevered and within 12 months have seen payback. From now on it’s pure ROI for them. And we have learned from this. We now say no when we hear “let me into the software first to poke around” or “I’ll give it 3 months” or “I don’t think it’s for my clients but I don’t mind taking a punt on trying to attract new ones with it” or “I want a free trial and don’t bother with the training. We now know very well that such practices will be unsuccessful because they don’t have a new world vision. They are not driven by the urge to really help business owners solve problems and realise ambitions.

So now, our selling time is taken up with finding out from prospects what is driving them, what are their expectations, appetite for hard work and risk. 80% fall short but there is a magical 20%. Which is about right, because we need 2000 UK accountant practices to join us and reach out to six million small / medium business owners with practical, affordable solutions that bond them forever. And given there are more than 10,000 practices Mr Pareto is about right!

So what of the USA opportunity? Well, Brandy from Dallas Fort Worth got in touch to say “hey guys I found you on Capterra, can I get this from you?” and we said “well it’s UK orientated” she said “no worries Honey just change those £ signs to $ and we’re in business”.

See what I mean?

Book a 20 minute discovery call here to see if we can make this work for you and therefore UL PLC.

By Duncan Collins

Founder of Runagood.com Ltd

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