don’t let marketing be an afterthought.
by jassen bowman
in an ideal world, every business day would feel like the movie “groundhog day.”
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the same things would happen at the same times, day in and day out. your business would run like a well-oiled machine that simply puts out marketing, takes in clients and cashes checks.
while this will obviously never actually happen, the most profitable tax firms put systems in place to get as close as they can. much of this has to do with prioritization and time blocking – both of which can be driven by your overarching daily or weekly tax firm checklist.
in addition, many procedures required for running an efficient tax office don’t necessarily fall into a particular work flow. they are items that occur at either infrequent or unscheduled intervals. however, they are still items that require a written process. these are processes that your staff should all know exist, even if they are outside the scope of their particular job description.
tax practice daily checklist
use the following as a starting point for drilling down into more detailed checklists:
- goals checklist
- daily marketing checklist
- tax resolution sales checklist
- tax resolution client intake checklist
- tax debt resolution checklists
- tax resolution case management checklist
- manage and grow your dream team
- business management checklist
- includes marketing setup checklists. many of you will start here.
upon returning from lunch
use the following sub checklist when you return from lunch:
- affirmations
- additional marketing and followup
- check progress toward daily activity metrics
- resume where you left off from the tax resolution daily checklist
at the end of the day
use the following sub checklist when you end your day (either at the end of the workday or just before bed):
- affirmations
- check progress on metrics
- review calendar for following day
- brain dump any concerns, client issues, marketing ideas to test, etc. to paper before leaving office, rather than taking them home with you
tax practice daily checklist overview
the tax resolution goals checklist is where we “begin with the end in mind” (first of stephen covey’s “seven habits”). it is important to start every day by reviewing your goals for a number of reasons:
- it provides motivation for doing what we do by reminding us what we’re working toward.
- it puts us in the right mindset for working with others.
- it guides in making better choices regarding the use of our time throughout the day.
the tax resolution daily marketing checklist is there to ensure that we accomplish the single most important thing we can do all day: marketing to obtain new leads. it reminds us that we are not really in the accounting, legal or tax business, but rather in the business of marketing tax services. all of our training, university education, certifications, etc., are utterly worthless if we have no clients to service. in addition, by focusing on marketing at the start of each day, we ensure that it gets done, rather than us realizing it’s 8 p.m. and we haven’t done marketing for the day. placing this priority on marketing also eliminates the boom and bust cycles that most practitioners experience.
the daily marketing checklist also serves one other very important function: long-term prospect and client followup. when we generate a lead that doesn’t hire us immediately, that lead is approximately six times more valuable to us than a cold tax lien on a raw mailing list. we implement a long-term touch program to nurture this lead into a client, and we also do the same thing with existing clients to keep them coming back for our additional services.
there are five more related checklists that we’ll discuss:
- the tax resolution sales checklist helps us to close sales and get paid. this checklist not only guides us through the sales closing process, but ensures that we obtain all the necessary starting paperwork we need in order to move on to our client intake process
- the new client intake checklist, when applicable, is very closely related to the daily casework checklist. the primary difference is that the first two weeks of working with a new client are particularly time-sensitive, and much of the actual billable time associated with working on a client case is front-loaded during the first two weeks.
- the tax debt resolution checklists provide the steps for doing actual collections representation, including installment agreements, offers in compromise, levy releases, etc.
- the tax resolution case management checklist is what keeps us on track of our casework. by following a written, prioritized system with our casework, we ensure that we are providing 5-star service to our clients. this means maintaining exceptional communication with both our clients and the taxing authorities, meeting deadlines, attending all hearings and completing all necessary case actions in a timely manner.
- as tax professionals, we do not work in a vacuum. whether you are a solo practitioner or a partner in a large firm, successfully resolving tax debt cases requires several different skill sets, and you may choose to outsource some services. the tax resolution dream team checklist provides us with a system for maintaining and growing our professional relationships, including service providers and referral sources to help us grow our practice.
- because we are running a business, there are certain general business management items that we need to regularly address, just like any other business. the business management checklist allows us to complete those necessary tasks without having to put significant thought into it, allowing us to put our time and energy more into marketing and casework. it also includes the business setup checklist to use when you’re first getting started and setting-up your tax resolution practice.