experience doesn’t mean what you think it does

how to increase lead generation, conversion and retention.

by rob nixon

most accounting practices have a zero-based lead generation (or new inquiries) strategy, which means they do nothing. new clients just “appear,” typically via referral.

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nothing wrong with getting referrals from existing clients. in fact they are the best quality leads you can get – free and credible.

the challenge with referrals is that they are typically reactive and you have no control of how many you will get and when. so just having a “referral only” strategy is a path to slow growth. to be proactive in lead generation you need multiple methods to attract the clients you want to attract. it starts with a database of your target market (niche, geographic, service focus) and then with proactive and persistent marketing (with the focus on generating leads) you attract potential clients to your firm.

here are some examples of proactive marketing tactics that you can apply:

• direct mail and email
• e-newsletters
• paper newsletter/magazine
• seminars and workshops
• boardroom briefings
• teleseminars and webinars
• referrals from clients or spheres of influence
• host beneficiary relationships
• advertising

people buy from people and if you want to get my attention as a business owner (assuming that’s your target market) then you have to remember one word – experience. not your years of experience but the ways that i experience your smarts. you need to create multiple points of experience in your marketing campaigns. mix it up with voice, video, meetings, presentation, words written, tools downloaded, etc.

as you start your journey into proactive marketing you need to remember “rob’s rule of 27.”

in technical marketing terms it takes nine times of hearing or seeing the same thing before your target market “gets it.” however, with the volume of marketing noise coming from all sources, your clients or prospects only get to see or hear around every third one. hence, the rule of 27. that means you need multiple lead generation methods because the first few campaigns may have gone unnoticed.

conversion rate

if lead generation is about getting people to come to you and make an inquiry, then conversion rate is about converting that inquiry into business. typically the conversion rate from quality referrals is relatively high. however, when you start proactive marketing (using additional lead generation methods), your conversion rate may drop.

you need to know what your current conversion rate is over a reasonable time frame (we call this the “opportunity open days”) and you need to acquire new skills and methods to increase your conversion rate.

here is a list of skills, techniques and tactics you can apply to increase your conversion rate:

• your conviction, self-belief and self-esteem
• finding your prospects’/clients’ objectives and motivation
• follow up, follow up
• activity levels – number of calls, number of meetings
• nurturing during sales – points of experience
• time- and scarcity-based offers
• sales aides – collateral
• scripts/dialogues/language
• needs analysis
• role-plays and practice
• presentation style
• educating prospects
• closing techniques
• consultative selling
• “what if”-based selling
• testimonial and case studies
• objections and answer list
• asking for the business

with new skills (in this sales area) you will reduce the days the opportunity is open, increase your conversion rate, increase your average project value, increase the number of projects each of your clients buy from you and you will also increase the margin (average hourly rate recovered) on each project as well.

retention rate

the retention rate of clients of existing clients is typically very high. it is high because you have the clients “bluffed” that it’s hard to change accountants. by the time the client gets to leaving the firm you have completed most of this year’s work. when you start pricing up front you will lose some clients. it’s an out for them.

that’s a good thing because typically you will lose the types of clients you wanted to lose.

increasing (or maintaining) retention rate is about building closer relationships with clients and increasing the customer service levels.

following our theme, here is a checklist of tactics you can apply to improve retention rate:

• client nurturing program
• outstanding client service
• call them and ask, “how’s it going?”
• visit clients at their place of business
• invite them to social and business events/seminars
• send them cards, letters, emails and items of interest
• build a community of clients
• run client advisory boards
• refer business to them
• offer additional and new services
• send newsletters and updates
• ask the client how they want to be served

increasing loyalty and relationships is about being proactive and communicating more.

posted on july 24, 2017