elevate your service beyond tax prep.
by ed mendlowitz
the 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 practice doctor
what would happen if you set goals at a higher level?
the following is restricted to tax return clients only, and can be exceeded by you if you think this goal is too low.
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1/20th rule: to receive additional revenues, target meetings with 1/20th of your eligible tax preparation clients a year. this is an opportunity to help them and elevate your service beyond the preparation of their tax return. note that you will have to call much more than 1/20th of your clients to get meetings with 5 percent of them, but it will be well worth the effort.
here’s how this works:
1. call your clients after tax season and ask them to come in for a consultation.
2. a suggestion is to call a client in june and tell them you are reviewing their financial situation and feel that they could be helped by a high-value, low-cost consultation to review their asset allocation and goals and make sure they match up – or a fiscal fitness checkup. mention a fixed amount for an hour and half consultative meeting.
3. an eligible client excludes school-age children or clients in nursing homes, and possibly someone just filing bankruptcy. actually, the bankrupt client might really need your help in rehabilitating their credit standing and adjusting their spending habits. if they are a longtime client, you could do this on a pro bono basis – there’s nothing wrong with helping someone every once in a while.
4. tell them what services are available when they come in to provide you with their tax information as you review their information.
5. engage your clients and be interested in them. find out what their long-term, and not just financial, goals are. find out who they know that you know or would like to meet.
6. calling your clients to pass on information creates a bond that you might be able to use later on to help them or yourself.
7. relate what you do to their job and the company they work for:
- if they work for a small manufacturer, distributor or advertising agency, let them know that you have a lot of clients that are small manufacturers, distributors or advertising agencies, and tell them about your consulting services in those areas including cost control, inventory control or exploiting bank finance opportunities.
- if they work for a closely held family business, tell them about your expertise in advising families in succession planning or training younger family members in basic business techniques; or how you can help the owner develop exit strategies including preparing the business for sale; or how you can perform due diligence if they are thinking of expanding by buying a competitor or entering a new market.
- if they are higher-up executives, tell them how you can help with employment contracts or obtaining level perks such as stock options or restricted stock.
8. other areas where you can offer to assist clients are:
- discuss their interest and dividend 1099s to determine why they chose those investments and based on their responses make them aware of possible alternatives, including tax-exempt bonds, annuities or preferred stocks. (note that i am not recommending any of these by this mention.)
- you can discuss goals such as how concerned the client is about their children’s or grandchildren’s educational funding, as well as their own retirement and financial security when the client no longer works.
- if the client is supporting a relative, have they made adequate arrangements should they die prematurely? do they have the right documents such as a will and trusts and guardianship payment or “allowance” arrangements?
- when was the last time a client reviewed their ira, 401k, 403b, pension and similar plan beneficiary designations, if ever? in some cases doing so could be more important than having a will. and you could be the right person for them to speak to, or be the catalyst to have these items put in order so the client can accomplish what they really want.
- clients who are charity-minded can be assisted to make sure adequate funds are left in the right manner to their favorite organizations.
- clients with over- or under-withholding can be assisted to adjust these amounts. also, at that time, the underlying circumstances causing those situations can be reviewed and perhaps beneficially altered.
- clients with household employees and nannies can be walked through the proper requirements for reporting their wages.
- where a marital separation or divorce is contemplated.
9. even if you call someone who cannot or doesn’t want to use these extra services, they will become more aware of your capabilities and your image will be enhanced by this.
this is a short list of the many areas where you can help your clients. once you resolve to adopt the 1/20th rule, and you focus in on your clients, many additional opportunities will be uncovered. remember, the object is to help your clients in areas they really need help, and possibly do not know how to ask for it.