with just a little advanced marketing, you can get paid year-round and have more satisfied clients.
by frank stitely
the relentless cpa
when i talk with prospective clients in any medium, i lead with tax planning. i don’t care if i’m meeting them, calling them or emailing them. i lead with tax planning. the number one complaint clients have about cpas and tax preparers is a lack of planning. they get tax returns and nothing else.
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the fun part is seeing the reaction when i mention planning. i tell them that they can know the results while there’s still time to change the results. tax season is no longer stressful because they know the answers in advance about refunds and balances due.
i then launch into some specific planning areas we will explore. this part depends on the new client’s situation. note the term “new client” instead of “prospective client.” by now the sale is closed. the rest is just showing off on my part.
i normally start by setting out what i see as the client’s big life priorities, such as retirement and college funding for kids. when you start talking about funding education for their kids, you push parental buttons that are visceral. we might talk about debt reduction as a precursor to taking on their financial priorities.
financial planning must morph beyond asset management. we must view the entirety of a client’s financial situation. that starts with our very first client contact.
you get clients to pay you outside of tax season by giving them something valuable – holistic financial advice, of which tax planning is a big part. i get all emotional over this. i need to take a break and find a box of tissues. i didn’t cry this much when jennifer aniston went on a date with a cpa in “the break-up.”
how do we promote our tax planning services? e-blasts and blog posts for existing clients. we don’t send just one isolated e-blast but at least one per week outside tax season. if i remember correctly, we sent 60 e-blasts last year to existing clients. not all of them explicitly promoted tax planning services, but no one can claim we didn’t offer them planning opportunities. the question is only whether they choose to pay us to do it. that’s on them. we don’t create large balances due. they do, and they can avoid them.