flipped referrals, facebook groups, competitor reviews and more.
by hitendra patil
client accounting services: the definitive success guide
among firms offering client accounting services, the chief means for gaining new cas business are proactively seeking referrals and the firm’s website, each at 48 percent. networking at local/regional/national events follows at 35 percent.
more: how to decide on your firm’s cas pricing | cas pricing and the accounting profession | designing your firm’s cas processes | how to create your firm’s cas team | the technology stack you need for cas | communicating cas to clients and prospects
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the other marketing methods deployed by cas firms are:
- search engine optimization: 14 percent
- influencer or social media marketing: 11 percent
- content marketing and thought leadership: 10 percent
- paid advertising in local, regional, national or internet media: 9 percent
- we’ve assigned it to a specific person or team: 8 percent
- webinars, events, or podcasts: 6 percent
- outbound telemarketing and emails: 5 percent
referrals, flipped
referrals have always been the leading source of getting new clients for accounting firms. however, gone are the days when accountants waited for referrals to come in the door.
firms have been proactively seeking referrals. one top 100 firm has a formal process to track how many referrals each client has given over each quarter. if the firm observes that any particular client hasn’t referred any new prospect, the firm reaches out to that client and asks, “we haven’t received any referral from you in a while. we are concerned and want to do everything we can to make sure you are absolutely delighted with our services. tell us what we can do so that you feel confident to refer your friends, industry peers and others to benefit from our services.”
some lesser-used marketing methods hold promise
- get google reviews from your clients: if you haven’t already, get your free business listing on google. then ask your happy clients to post google reviews. it is not necessary to have only 5-star reviews. some recent studies showed that an average of 3.5 to 4.5 is more believable than a perfect 5-star average. when your prospects search for the key-phrases that relate to the services you offer, if you have more reviews, your listing will show up on top of the search results. and because google treats every business listing as a local business, when you are competing for localized search result rankings, your listing can more easily reach the top few results shown. i know of many firms that regularly get new clients who find those firms via google search. for many such firms, it is their largest source of getting new clients!
- start a facebook group: pick a niche (industry or profession) that you serve. maybe two or three niches. create a facebook group for each niche. aim to attract businesses that operate in such niches. start regularly – once a week – posting useful content on such facebook groups. the content could be as simple as the answer you give to common questions your existing clients from such industries/professions ask you. a cpa from salem, in, now has clients in 19 states, almost all of them coming through a couple of niche-specific facebook groups. and he spent nothing on ads.
- make your existing clients heroes to get more referrals: marketing legend jay abraham recommends that you draft a letter for your client to send out to his or her customers and vendors. the letter should state that your client has worked with you and has received exceptional service or received monetarily impactful insights from you. and your client is sponsoring an hour of your time, worth (fill in the blank) xx dollars, for a no-obligation business consulting session that his or her vendors or clients will receive from you. get the letters printed, signed by your clients and mailed by you at your own cost. this makes your client look like a hero for his or her vendors and customers. at the same time, it exponentially increases the possibility of you getting referrals. this is a very nominal cost but a high roi method. please, do not use email. send out physical letters.
- blog: create a blog on your website. you can also publish your blog as your linkedin articles. write content that is useful for your prospects and clients. from your several interactions, take the questions that prospects/clients ask and provide insights on why do such questions arise, what they are about and the brief answers to such questions. it is not difficult to create content regularly. share that content.
- write an epic post: one of the people well known for creating epic content posts is neil patel. read patel’s posts on his website that are self-explanatory on how anyone can write an epic post.
- partner with those who sell to your clients and prospects: your clients do not buy only from you. they buy from multiple service providers the services/products that you do not offer. create strategic partnerships with such service and product providers to exchange possible referrals.
- competitor keywords ranking research: be aware of what your competitors are saying to pitch their services. when it comes to your website, consider strengthening your search engine optimization strategies with tools such as ubersuggest. it can be powerfully useful for you to know how you can express the impact of your services in ways that strongly resonate with your audience.
how to identify your firm’s real marketable value
your firm’s value proposition is not what you say. it is what your clients and prospects perceive. perception is reality. here are some proven ways to identify your firm’s real marketable value.
- ask your clients: it is not so easy to “be in the customers’ shoes.” you will be surprised how you can gain immense insights from your clients – about how they perceive and experience your service and how they feel; what they find of value and what they feel frustrated about. don’t guess, don’t assume, just ask them. it is easy to conduct customer surveys online (e.g., surveymonkey has a free version that allows you to collect 100 responses; google forms are also free to use). identify the most common positives and negatives that emerge from survey data to be able to improve your marketing and customer experience.
- meticulously note down the exact words your clients/prospects use: in the accounting profession, especially for professional accountants, it is easy to fall prey to using accounting jargon. but those are not the words your clients and prospects typically use. identify the words that your clients and prospects use. in every personal (or phone) interaction with them, meticulously note down the exact words they use. once you start seeing the most common lingo used by them, include that lingo in your future interactions, your marketing, your content and so on.
- what your clients are repetitively/regularly asking: the questions your clients ask repetitively/regularly are indicators of their perceptions of the value they do not get or they want to obtain from your services. those also represent what they do not know, or they do not have expertise in. such questions are also representative of what is important to your clients. figure out what do they do once they get the answers to their questions. more often than not, your clients use the answers you give to make some business decisions. keep writing down the questions and answers. once you have 15-20 unique questions and their answers written down, you will find some trends/patterns in them. take those insights and leverage them in your marketing/sales pitches.
- research competitor reviews: one of the best places to learn what clients of other accountants find useful and what makes clients unhappy is their online reviews. identify what makes their clients happy and unhappy. find out what problems were solved by those accountants who made their clients happy, i.e., what made clients feel the value. find out what problems were not addressed by those accountants who made their clients unhappy, i.e., what made clients feel there was no value. analyze whether your services deliver such value or help solve the problems that others couldn’t. it could be as simple as an empathetic customer service factor. it could be technically challenging issues where your knowledge, experience and expertise can make a difference. utilize such insights in your marketing, content, sales and client interactions.
- keep testing your marketing pitches: economy changes. technology changes. competition changes. client expectations change. when you identify unique marketing pitches, do not rest. keep testing what works and what does not. make adjustments. try new versions. state the same thing in different words. nothing is “once done and works forever.”
how to express the marketable value of cas
it is the numbers from which you will find valuable insights to deliver to your clients. but it is the words that convey the insights from those numbers. it is great to be able to convey the insights from the numbers to your clients and it makes your clients see and experience the value you deliver.
but what about leads and prospects? how do you convey your value to your market? you need content to do so. and if you have never/hardly created marketable content, it can feel extremely overwhelming. here is how you can create some powerful content for your marketing:
- survey your clients: ask them questions like what they find the most valuable in your service, what creates anxiety and stress for them, when they hired you what was it that they were looking for, why do they use your service, what would make them go away from your firm, what are their real business goals and so on. carefully note down/compile everything your customers say. this “raw content” will give you two key insights – the problems your customers are looking to solve and what value you deliver. you will use these insights to create your marketing pitches.
- read competitor reviews: read the good reviews but also read the bad reviews. what do competitors’ clients like and dislike? which words do they use to express their delight and frustrations? write down those words. which problems do they mention more frequently in the reviews? which service experiences do they praise?
- create a questions and answers document: which questions do your clients frequently ask? which questions do your prospects generally ask? what are their answers? write down the answers to such questions in as much detail as possible.
- find trends and patterns: once you have collected a reasonable volume of raw content by using the methods mentioned above, find the common trends and patterns in that content and the questions and answers. then create content pieces – like articles, email templates, etc. – using the words that your clients and prospects use. lead some content pieces with the problems they mention. lead other content pieces with the value of accountants the clients express. use this content to update your website. use this content when talking to your prospects. if you can articulate their problems and the benefits they are looking for, in their own words or even better than what they themselves can express, your value will be much clearer to them.
how to know if you are marketing your value correctly: after reading your emails, website, content, etc., if your prospects/clients express, “exactly,” “that is what i need,” “that’s what i was looking for,” “how do you do that?” etc., you know your content is effective.