You may wonder why I’m focusing on New Year’s resolutions in February. Or perhaps, if you are attempting to recover after the January deadline it makes sense to you.
Well as in most things in life, timing is key in accountancy marketing and marketing to accountants. From experience, I know many firms and partners start to think about their marketing, and the year ahead, once January is behind them.
Whilst there’s no crystal ball, I haven’t heard too many economic forecasts predicting an improved outlook in 2012. Of course, the effects of the recession vary enormously in different parts of the UK and Ireland. Some practices specialising in specific industry sectors have been shielded from the worst, whilst others have been decimated.
Over the last 18-months, partners have told me repeatedly that fee income, that had grown reasonably year-on-year without marketing, has started to decline. So now, for the first time they are getting in touch asking for help.
What to do when the Phone Stops Ringing?
Before you consider targeting potential clients you have to decide the following:
1) Who are your ideal clients? Don’t try to be all things to all people. Identify the best clients you have and target your efforts at businesses with a similar profile.
2) What’s so special about your firm’s work? In what areas are you stronger than your competition? If you can’t differentiate your work from your rivals, don’t expect potential clients to be able to.
When there’s no real difference in your service the deciding factor will always be the fee. Do you want to compete in a crowded market where the lowest fee always wins?
3) Work out the lifetime value and profit of your average client. Once you know the revenue and profit of your average client decide how much you are prepare to pay, in marketing costs, for every £1 of first year fees you generate.
4) The most successful and fastest growing firms aren’t those offering the greatest service or the lowest fees. Their growth comes from effective marketing.
Their partners don’t pay lip service to new business they dedicate themselves to it. Their
firms are structured in a way that allows them to spend the majority of their time targeting and winning new business. They are curious and pro-active in learning what works for them.
Once you have the basics in place forget marketing, focus on winning new business. That means lead generation, actually selling your accountancy services. Don’t blow your budget on pretty brochures or sponsorship.
Stick to activity that allows you to forecast and measure your Return on Investment. Above all, if you are looking for improved results – new business revenue - from your investment in 2012 don’t repeat what you did in 2011.
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It doesn’t matter what you buy, if all the options look the same, then price is the only difference. Perhaps that explains why fees are so often the issue when accountants present service proposals.
That said, some business owners view accountancy support as a commodity: all they want is the lowest price possible. They don’t appreciate value, just cost. Sometimes that’s because they have never had value. They don’t know how an accountancy service can ease their workload and help improve profitability.
Don’t price your services to beat the lowest quote. Explain how you can make the greatest difference, and how much it will cost; then offer your basic service. In the end, if they can't see the value in your work, do you really want them as a client?
Here are some effective ways to avoid the Price-Trap:
1 ) Avoid Fees Until you Understand the Issues
Don’t quote a fee until you fully understand the issues and concerns involved in making the decision.
If pushed explain your fees are based on the support needed to help them achieve their goals. So first, you need to understand where there’re trying to take the business to see if you can help them get their quicker.
2) Are Fees Really the Issue?
Requests to “sharpen your pencil” or “what’s your best possible price” are becoming increasingly common when presenting proposals. You need to know if this is just a tactic or are your fees the only issue? Try asking:
“If we take fees out of the equation for a moment, would you be ready to appoint my firm? If the answer is no you can then ask what the other deciding factors are.
3) Only Negotiate when they're Ready to buy
You might sometimes be asked to reduce your fees by a specific amount, maybe to match the current fees. Even if you’ve made allowances for a small reduction in your proposal, be careful. Before you move an inch make sure they are ready to buy. Ask them: “If I could, are you ready to accept the proposal?”
It’s an awful feeling to drop your price, thinking you’ve got the work, to be told “we’ve got more firms to see, we’ll let you know.”
If you’re involved in selling accounting services you need clarity in your discussions. Accountants are business advisers, prospective clients will be impressed not put off by effective communicators.
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You can find out more about A4G's accountants telemarketing services by clicking on the link below:
Trust is the key to prospective clients to instructing an accountant.
As Charles H. Green of Trusted Advisor Services puts it, “We are (usually) both seller and deliverer, and always the "expert." The buyer buys us as well as the service. Our services are expensive, have high risk / return ratios, and results aren't guaranteed. These factors are a recipe for complex psychodynamics.”
Trust is the key to accountancy marketing. If you can’t establish trust in your communications with potential new clients you are wasting your time marketing your services. Below are 15, short and actionable, steps to establish and build trust.
No doubt, you will be familiar with some of the advice; but are you practicing it?
15 Steps to Establish and Build Trust in your Marketing
1) Do your research about the business and the owner/s before you meet. Where appropriate drop that knowledge into your questions / conversations.
2) Always be on time and start meetings with a clear explanation of what the meeting will cover and what you hope to achieve.
3) Take a genuine interest in the concerns and goals explained to you. It’s vital that those you meet believe you have their best interests at heart. If they can’t see your concern, they will never trust you.
4) Under promise and Over deliver. Make lots of small promises and deliver on them. Reinforce the message in all your communications: “As promised, please find attached..”
5) Explain in detail what’s special about your firm and how you work. Be it your processes or your experience; relate it to how that benefits those you’re talking to.
6) Try to call people by their name more often in your conversations. It helps to focus and builds intimacy.
7) Build your profile locally and across your areas of expertise. Make sure all your marketing communications feature your name, not just the firm's. Write blogs, send articles to the local and relevant media. Let your personality come across and include a picture of yourself.
8) Find something you like or appreciate about those you meet and tell them.
9) Create Transparency in all your communications. Make everything as easy to understand as possible.
10) Listen with empathy and ask the all the questions you need to understand their concerns and issues.
11) Avoid the temptation to interrupt, correct or criticise. Focus on understanding what’s important to them.
12) Adapt your behaviour to mirror the people you meet. Use their terminology and repeat their words when asking for confirmation of your understanding.
13) Summarise and confirm your understanding again and again. “So from what you’re saying am I right in thinking ……” At the end of the meeting, summarise their key issues.
14) Think of where you have made the biggest difference in a client’s fortunes, the work you are most proud of. Write about it up in case studies or better still, film a 2-minute video testimonial with the client. Make sure prospective new clients have easy access to this information it will reduce their perception of the risk of working with you.
15) Change brings risk. But you can reduce the risk of working with you by offering a strong Guarantee. One of my most successful clients offers the guarantee “If you don’t value the work we do, don’t pay for it.” There is no small print; it’s as simple as that. The stronger the guarantee the more effective it will be.
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You can find out more about A4G's accountants telemarketing services by clicking on the link below:
Over 6 out of 10 partners I talk to turn down the offer of a free monthly “Practice Growth Tips Newsletter”. The fact is the vast majority of accountants either “don’t do marketing” or aren’t very good at it.
Lucky you! How many of your clients work in such an uncompetitive marketplace? Marketing is no different to any other discipline: good marketing works, bad marketing doesn’t.
The firms that grow the quickest, organically, share the same approach to marketing accountancy services. They test and measure what they do. They learn from every failure and constantly strive to improve their returns.
The return from your first activity be it direct mail, telemarketing, SEO whatever, is only the start. The more activity you carry out the better a return you should get.
Try different methods, improve your performance and above all continually measure and test. It’s not unusual to double the effectiveness / returns of your original performance over time.
The Rules
1) Think of marketing as an investment that must deliver the best possible return, not as a budget or expense.
2) Only invest in marketing that can deliver a clear measurable return in fee income (Leave “building the brand” or “increasing awareness” to the major firms).
3) Find out the average lifetime value of a client and the profit they generate for you.
4) Once you know the profit your average client delivers, you can decide how much you’re prepared to pay to generate a client.
5) The amount you spend on generating new business is dictated by how much and how quickly you want to grow.
6) Try a variety of lead generation marketing. Measure the value in new fee income from every £1 you spend.
7) Persevere with activity that delivers the best return. Continually test and refine what works best and see how far you can reduce the percentage cost of new revenue generated.
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You can find out more about A4G's accountants telemarketing services by clicking on the link below: