show people what they stand to lose without your expertise.
by august j. aquila
price it right: how to value accounting services
in my last post i provided you with four basic practice-building strategies that don’t cost you anything other than your time.
more: four strategies for building your practice | eight areas to cover for personal goals | service quality: the key to client retention | how life cycle changes your marketing | clients buy solutions, not features | make sure you know what you will get from your marketing | three pillars support a successful accounting firm | clients have six reasons for needing you | six ways to market your technology consulting practice
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they were (1) keep in touch with former clients, (2) call existing clients, (3) ask for help and (4) get out and be seen. here are three more strategies for you to consider:
- make presentations, speeches and seminars. the effective way to promote yourself is to give presentations, speeches and seminars. to do so effectively, you may first need to take a course in public speaking or join toastmasters. think of a presentation or seminar as your opportunity to get in front of 10, 20 or more qualified prospects. you don’t need to show the audience how much you know, what you need to do is show them how much they can lose, either personally or businesswise, if they don’t pay attention to your story. for example, you can inform them of how complex and costly a death and probate can be if the business or high-net-worth individual does not have the proper trusts in place.
- write articles. you may want to find someone to help you write the articles, especially if you think you are not a good writer. the firm’s marketing director would be the first person to contact. getting articles published is extremely helpful in getting clients, especially clients in niche industries. once an article is published its value is in the reprints. these can be posted to the firm’s website or in your blog and handed out at seminars or presentations.
start by getting published in a local newspaper. there are many small publications or online newsletters that would welcome your contributions. contact national industry or trade publications to determine what types of articles they would publish. published articles give you a certain amount of credibility because the publication is putting their stamp of approval behind you.
- cultivate referrals. check your referral database. you don’t need a lot of referral sources; you need active ones who will send you business. remember a referral is not a referral if they don’t send you business. of course, you need to send business to your referrals as well. find out why you are not getting referrals and what you need to do to obtain them.
you can also contact clients for referrals. just ask the client how they are doing and whether they need referrals. they will be grateful that you asked. at the same time, you can ask them if they know of any other business that might benefit from your services.
do the marketing activities you enjoy.