How Tax Professionals Create More Business with YouTube Link
YouTube Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjCv7OYa6sM
Below are seven simple tips to bring more business to the tax professional’s door.
- Be clear on what you say to attract prospects.
- Stay in contact with your referral resources.
- Hangout where your target market hangs out.
- Develop value-added resources (speaking, articles, and books.)
- Put a proactive approach onto passive marketing tools.
- Find a public way to promote your business (shows, expositions, and industry events.)
- Develop a support system to track your progress.
1. Being clear in your message is important. The easiest way to define this is to determine what your target market wants and needs. Be specific. Look at the concepts and results that they are looking for, rather than your products or services. A house is a great thing to sell, but living in a home to raise a family is the outcome desired. It is true that we buy on emotion. Emotion is based on outcomes, ’the feel, the smell’ the response of our senses. Find those items that stimulate the senses. Then, be consistent. Use them again and again. For the tax professional, security sells.
2. Develop a plan of communication with your referral resources every 30 days. How about a monthly meeting with 10 to 12 of your best referral resources? Meet for coffee. Do you send thank you cards, birthday cards and anniversary cards? When was the last time you called just to say, “Hi?” You will be amazed at the results. Try it! Consistent touches will deliver huge rewards.
3. Understanding who your target market is and where they hang out can be a significant step to success. If you ever say, “everyone can use my product or service” out loud, STOP! As a tax professional you will find your target market hanging out where they are most comfortable. They hang out with their peer group. By example, if your target market is real estate professionals, go where they are. One tax professional client found that getting in front of new real estate professionals could be accomplished by speaking to them at the Small Business Development Center.
4. Value-added resources keep on giving. These resources allow you to invest your time, energy, and creativity once. Books and articles are especially so. What about creating a CD or DVD. Out of your cost range or maybe you think you lack the talent? Nonsense. There are many self-help books in all these areas. Speak to a respected coach or consultant. They can tell you how to get started. Ask enough people and you will find that they know someone who can show you how to develop a speaking presentation (Toastmasters, www.toastmasters.org), write a book, or compose a monthly article.
5. We have been taught to use passive marketing as a ‘wait and see approach’ to the sales process. This is acceptable if you have the time to wait. A proactive approach drives your potential clients to your passive marketing. Our websites are positioned by key words to get website browsers to look us up, and maybe even do some business. One way to get buyers to our website as a proactive approach is to create a value added resource (see #4 above), attaching that to your website. When meeting someone for the first time, who has an interest in your product or service, direct them to your website for a ‘complimentary’ article. While on your website, they can view the services you offer as well as your article. Now you will have a reason to follow-up with this new acquaintance. Check if they have any questions about the article, your website, and your service. This is the start of building relationships.
6. Look for industry specific events where your target markets hang out. Rent booth space. Do a display of your product or service. Create an offer for the show that relates directly to your business. Be sure the offer mainly uses your time, energy, and creativity. Use as little financial reward as possible to attract new contacts. Create prizes that relate directly to your business. Have follow-up scripts created prior to the show congratulating the prospect on their winning. Schedule your follow-up calls prior to the show’s beginning. Some of the big tax companies are doing this exactly. They offer clients who have used tax professionals in the past a reward for bringing in their last tax return to find them additional savings.
7. A colleague of mine always says, “if it’s worth doing, it’s worth measuring.” Are you writing down what you are doing? Is each activity creating the end result you want? What is your return on investment? Is your biggest investment the out-of-pocket dollars for the activity/event or is your greatest investment your time/energy/creativity value? Evaluate daily your time/energy/creativity value. Look at your total investment of time/energy/creativity every 30 days.
Gerry Rose runs INTEGRITY Networking Solutions in Oceanside, CA. He works with people in business who want to attract the right prospects and generate more referrals. More than 10,000 businesses have been presented the INTEGRITY Networking Solutions system in San Diego, Los Angeles, Riverside, and Orange Counties.
Gerry’s stimulating presentation Unlimited Prospects, Unlimited Referrals is ideally suited for small business owners, home-based businesses, and independent professionals who want clearer direction and want to attract more prospects, develop dynamic systems, and strengthen their companies’ accountability. Gerry does one on one consulting, conducts a range of keynote speeches from thirty minutes to full-day education workshops.
His book series, Unlimited Prospects, Unlimited Referrals, are available on the website, www.integritysd.com.
Gerry has more than 20 years’ experience directing business owners how to grow their businesses. He is a networking dynamo. Those who know him will assure you that he does a great job of bringing people together—which is why he started INTEGRITY.
Involved with networking organizations since 1984, Gerry is a Distinguished Toastmaster, a member of Toastmaster International, and has chaired numerous chambers of commerce and non-profit organizations.
Are you truly committed to attracting the right prospects and generate more referrals? If so then contact INTEGRITY Networking Solutions for availability and information, call (888) 584-7073. You can contact Gerry by mail at 2103 Wedgewood Drive, Oceanside, CA 92056. Direct dial (760) 439-4623; e-mail to gerry@integritysd.com. For more information, go to www.integritysd.com
