5 Simple Steps to Get More Clients

Transcription

1 Accountant s Accelerator Accountants, CPAs, Bookkeepers, Tax Preparers, QuickBooks Consultants, and Accounting Software Resellers 5 Simple Steps to Get More Clients A Special Report by Sandi Smith Leyva

2 If you dislike the part of your business that requires you to market and sell, you re not alone. For most accountants, sales and marketing are unpredictable, expensive, time-consuming, full of rejection, and just plain painful with no clear results. The good news is there are concrete steps you can take to attract more profitable clients with less effort and little or no budget, right now, in your practice. And you don't have to be salesy or pushy or a cold-caller or a stalker! Here are five simple steps you can follow to get more accounting clients. Once you ve studied this information, you can write a persona so you can get to know that person better. Here s a big tip: A lot of accountants skip this step frankly speaking, because they are too afraid to turn anyone down. If you consciously choose to skip this step, it s your decision, of course. Our hope for you is that after a few months of marketing harder, longer, and with more expense, you ll re-visit this step and give it a try. It s the key to making this process the 5 Simple Steps that it truly is. 1 GET CLEAR ON THE SERVICE YOU OFFER. 3 GET CLEAR ON WHERE TO FIND CLIENTS AND PROSPECTS. This is the easiest step: most of you know you are offering tax preparation, bookkeeping, QuickBooks consulting, or outsourced controller services. Now you can go further by defining the scope of your offering. What industries will you cover? What accounting systems will you be proficient in? What geographical territory will you serve? These question will help you describe what you do and don t offer in your practice. 2 GET CLEAR ON WHO YOU SERVE. A common mistake when starting your business or when marketing in general is to try to reach everyone. It doesn t work to do that anymore; that s marketing money and time down the drain. Decide on who your ideal client will be. This means taking a look at the demographics, psychographics, socialgraphics, and timeographics of the type of person you want to serve. There are 22 marketing channels that are commonly used in the accounting industry to find clients. About 6 of them provide the highest payback for accountants looking to grow their practices. As an example, one of these the most effective -- is referrals. It used to be that for most accountants, the number of referrals that came in as new clients dictated the amount of revenue they could make for that year. For CPAs, marketing was illegal until the 1970s, so there were few choices. Fast forward to today, and most accountants would starve if they relied only on referrals. Times have changed! And so have the proliferation of marketing channels. Finding the right set of channels for the services you offer, the ideal client type you serve, and your specific set of natural and learned skills is a selection process that we recommend you consciously make. Only in this way can you reduce your marketing costs and use the most effective marketing channels and processes for the specific needs of your practice. page 1 of 5

3 Here s one more big tip: In many cases, the fewer the marketing channels, the better. Often accountants use marketing channels without going as deep as they should, or worse, without any knowledge at all. A common mistake is slapping a website up there, and then coming to the conclusion that they can t get website leads. The truth is, plenty of accounting firms are getting quality leads from their websites. They spent time learning the channel and made it work for their market. The good news is you don t have to use all 22 marketing channels to fill your practice. Just use the few that generate the numbers you need and use them intelligently -- to make your revenue goals. 4 CREATE YOUR MESSAGING. It doesn t matter how awesome your service is if no one knows about you. Today, you first have to get your prospect s attention. Then you can share your message. It depends on which of the 22 marketing channels you selected as to what materials and messaging you need to develop next. Some of the more common ones include a great elevator speech and the right online presence. These materials should announce to your ideal clients that you can help them with their accounting and tax challenges. Without a doubt, there are millions of small business owners who can t read a balance sheet, struggle with cash flow, and really need your expertise! Crafting a great message will allow you to be heard above the noise. You have all the pieces to put together into a marketing plan for your accounting practice. Now all you have to do is build out your task list, get it scheduled and assigned, and you re ready to get more clients, more profits, and more free time. I hope you enjoyed this free special report. This is a brief overview of what s covered in the Marketing Clarity for Accountants: Fill Your Accounting Practice, Step by Step, Every Time product that we offer that s written especially for accountants. If you d like to find out more about this product, click here: Marketing Clarity. I hope you ll stay subscribed to our complimentary newsletter. You ll receive a weekly article full of tips for your practice, and we ll also keep you informed of new offers we have available. If you have any questions for us about how we can help you, please feel free to support@sandismith.com anytime. About the Author: Sandi Smith Leyva, CPA, is the founder of the Accountant s Accelerator practice growth program, which helps CPAs, accountants, tax preparers, bookkeepers, and accounting software consultants and resellers grow their practices, work less, and serve their clients better. 5 PUT IT ALL TOGETHER IN A PLAN. You know your service, you ve described your ideal client, you ve chosen your marketing channels, and you ve crafted your message. page 2 of 5

4 Clients Say The Results/Responses have been great. Since getting involved with your program, we are charging 3 to 4 times NOW and GUESS WHAT, the CLIENTS are Paying and NOT Complaining. Words cannot describe the success rate in just a couple of months. Sandi Smith YOU ROCK! -Hubert Mcintosh, We ve made sales and saved a monthly residual that was making us approximately $2000 per month. I ve become more focused on doing a better job with my clients rather than taking on everyone. I feel more organized and caught up and we re earning more revenue. Carrie Kahn, CPA, ISP, Advanced Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor, Complete Business Solutions, I got great information that helped me define who I wanted to serve and my message and my practice grew. Within a week after implementing some simple guidance from her first call I was able to sign up a high 4 figure client that I had been trying to bring on for a while. Because of Sandi s help I was able to triple my gross revenues from and expect to do the same in Sandi s CPA and QuickBooks background, degree in neuroscience, and experience in the accounting field are a rare combination and makes her uniquely qualified to help accountants start and/or grow their business beyond what they think is possible. I highly recommend her. Suzanne Conrad, Owner, Suzanne W. Conrad, CPA, I joined Sandi Smith s Accountant $ Accelerator program about 1/2 way through. Since each session is recorded and downloadable (along with the materials), I really didn t miss out. I have learned so much from the program and have received more value from the course than it cost me. Sandi understands accountants, how we re made up, and the nature of our industry. She uses this understanding us to approach us in effective ways, enabling and guiding us to achieve greater success in areas that we are typically not comfortable in: sales, marketing, and pricing; developing our value in new ways. Each session, Sandi was very generous with specific, immediately useful information that I implemented to quickly affect change in my company. This program covers a very complete spectrum of what accountants need to start a new practice or to develop their existing one. I highly recommend the Accountant $ Accelerator program. I ll be referring back to this material for year to come. Jeff Cecchini, CEO, QBPros, Inc. Thanks so much for your 2011 Accountant Accelerator class. I learned so much that I immediately signed up for the 2012 class. Not only did you provide great content, you were accessible for questions, gave us homework to complete and actually critiqued it, and presented the class to us in a way that made it easy for us to choose our personal way to market. Cherri Rapp, Certified Advanced QuickBooks ProAdvisor, Cherri Rapp and Associates, page 3 of 5

5 I implemented four ideas from Sandi s Accountant s Accelerator program: One brought a 23% increase in revenue over last year from my top 10 clients. The second increased overall revenue by 10%, the third idea helped me land a $2400 project, and the fourth one brought in a $3600 client. Cindy Hovig, Advanced Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor, Beyond Balanced Books, Your ideas and wording are very helpful. It is truly amazing how quickly you come up with such great wording. I really feel your program has been a great motivator for me and my practice. Cheryl J. McCarthy, E.A., Advanced Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor, The Accounting Advisor, After listening to your materials I have increased my rates by 50% which has resulted in increased profit. Cindy Schroeder, Bright Bookkeeping, When I first heard Sandi mention Offer packages to your clients, I was a little skeptical. My first thought was I m going to lose my shirt that way. Doesn t she know that the economy is bad? Nevertheless, I decided to give it the old college try and began offering packages last month. Today, I signed up another new client for QuickBooks setup and training. During our phone conversation, I asked How did you hear about us? What made you decide to choose our services? She responded that I was the only one that offered packages with detailed explanations of the services provided. Everyone else responded with the traditional one sentence answer I charge X dollars and hour. This really made my day! In just a short time, I feel like I ve gained so much momentum by following this program. Alana Bryant, CPA, Advanced Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor, SB Consulting LLC, Legal Disclaimer: Every effort has been made to accurately represent our program and its potential. The testimonials and examples used are not intended to guarantee that anyone will achieve the same or similar results. These results are not an average. Each individual s success depends on his or her background, dedication, desire and motivation. As with any business endeavor, there is an inherent risk of loss of capital and there is no guarantee that you will earn any money. Please visit /testimonials to read more testimonials. page 4 of 5

6 Are you ready for a step-by-step, simple-to-follow guide that is custom-designed for accountants just like you who want to get more accounting clients, make more money, and spend less time marketing your accounting business? Find out more here: page 5 of 5