track six figures to test your marketing

it’s time to break out the spreadsheets. hurray!

by sandi leyva
the complete guide to marketing for tax & accounting firms

one way to help accountants embrace marketing is to fill training sessions with spreadsheets and numbers, things that most accountants love working on. there’s a lot of insecurity around learning marketing, but when accountants hear they need to do some spreadsheets first, they dive right in.

more: five ways to acquire more clients | get your name in the news | five ideas for more summer revenue | four ways small firms can beat large ones | why you need a link-in-bio tool | five emotional skills for entrepreneurs | transform your marketing with crm
goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

here are six numbers we suggest you track:

1. closing ratio

as qualified leads come from your marketing efforts into your sales funnel, it’s a good idea to track how many of these leads you’re able to close into business. your closing ratio is the percentage of successes divided by the total number of qualified leads you make proposals to.
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five ways to acquire more clients

laughing businesswoman talking on the phone in office in front of four monitorsbut don’t bother with #5 if you don’t do #1, #2, #3 and #4 first.

by sandi leyva
the complete guide to marketing for tax & accounting firms

if getting new clients is a bit of a struggle for your business and you’re not reaching the revenue levels you desire because of too few clients, then the first step is to find out where the process is breaking down.

more: get your name in the news | when you don’t know what you don’t know | eight things to give new clients | put your linkedin profile to work | what’s in a (domain) name? plenty | four tips for tough times | nine thoughts on self-marketing for the introvert | three questions for the new year
goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

there are five main places:

1. client retention

are you keeping the clients you acquire, or are you experiencing too much churn in your client base? you can measure your retention rate year after year by computing the percent of total annual revenues that is due to repeat clients. if it’s less than 80 percent, then you are either in your first year of business or you have a problem.
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get your name in the news

10 triggers for free publicity.

by sandi leyva
the complete guide to marketing for tax & accounting firms

as a marketing channel, public relations is one of my personal favorites. it includes getting mentioned in news or trade media and publications, having an article you wrote published or reprinted, applying for and winning awards, or otherwise being in the public eye for one reason or another.

more: when you don’t know what you don’t know | five stages of any business | five ideas for summer focus | leverage your client list today | need leads? try a quiz | now’s the time to clean up your email list
goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

when i started a photography studio several years ago, i sent sample photos of my work along with a letter explaining my business to several news outlets. it was july, and in august, the sunday magazine supplement to the dallas morning news picked up the story and published my samples. they were portraits of cats and dogs, and my phone rang for days. within a week, i was booked through christmas, and my business broke even a year ahead of time because of that one piece of publicity.
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when you don’t know what you don’t know

blindfolded at computerhazards at every stage.

by sandi leyva
the complete guide to marketing for tax & accounting firms

early in my career, one of my favorite things to teach was maslow’s four stages of learning. i still think it’s one of the most valuable and profound pieces of information i have come across in my learning.

more: five stages of any business | five ideas for more summer revenue | eight things to give new clients | five ideas for summer focus | four ways small firms can beat large ones | put your linkedin profile to work | leverage your client list today | why you need a link-in-bio tool | what’s in a (domain) name? plenty | need leads? try a quiz | five emotional skills for entrepreneurs
goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

maybe you recall, too:

  1. unconscious incompetence
  2. conscious incompetence
  3. conscious competence
  4. unconscious competence

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five stages of any business

growing stacks of blocks with an arrow tracing upwardevolve from running a practice to leading a business.

by sandi leyva
the complete guide to marketing for tax & accounting firms

technology has allowed just about everyone to start their own businesses. we can do something part time, full time or in between. we can start and stop our businesses. we can be successful at lots of different business models. and we can go through stages of our business.

more: five ideas for more summer revenue | eight things to give new clients | five ideas for summer focus | four ways small firms can beat large ones | put your linkedin profile to work | leverage your client list today | why you need a link-in-bio tool | what’s in a (domain) name? plenty | need leads? try a quiz | five emotional skills for entrepreneurs | four tips for tough times
goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

if you want to grow exponentially, or even linearly, you’ll need to progress. and before you can do that, it makes sense to figure out where you are now. here are five stages of business so you can see where you are now and where you want to go.
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five ideas for more summer revenue

number 5 drawn in sandbonus: you could make busy season easier.

by sandi leyva
the complete guide to marketing for tax & accounting firms

for some of you, summer can be a slow time in your business. if you do taxes, all the action is during busy season and in september if you have a lot of extensions. if you’re a bookkeeper, your busiest month is january. and if you do software consulting or training, it slows down in july and august.

more: eight things to give new clients | five ideas for summer focus | leverage your client list today | need leads? try a quiz | now’s the time to clean up your email list | don’t let prospects fall through the cracks | five lessons my clients taught me | how to fire a client | five tips for virtual team member happiness
goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

if you have a good relationship with your clients, you might be able to move some of your busy season work to off season. and if you have clients who are ready to take advantage of new technologies, there are lots of opportunities in the cloud. here are five quick ideas to stir up some revenue in the slower summer months.
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eight things to give new clients

woman and man shaking hands across a deskset expectations early.

by sandi leyva
the complete guide to marketing for tax & accounting firms

how you welcome your new client can set the tone for a relationship that could last for years or in the worst of cases, just days. start out on the right foot by looking super-organized (because that’s part of why we get hired anyway) and making it super-easy for a client to get on board with you.

more: five ideas for summer focus | four ways small firms can beat large ones | why you need a link-in-bio tool | five emotional skills for entrepreneurs | transform your marketing with crm
goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

the best vehicle for this is a welcome kit. here are eight things that should be in your kit at a minimum:
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five ideas for summer focus

calm balanced businessman sitting outdoors on bench in yoga lotus pose meditating, with office building and blue sky in backgroundwhat do you need to rock out … if anything?

by sandi leyva
the complete guide to marketing for tax & accounting firms

with so much to do as business owners, we can get pretty overwhelmed at times. we can start believing that we have a “time” problem, but because all of us have 24/7, there really is no such thing as a time problem.

more: four ways small firms can beat large ones | put your linkedin profile to work | five emotional skills for entrepreneurs | transform your marketing with crm | five kinds of small thinking | five tests: how open are you to change?
goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

what you might have is a “focus” problem. here are five ideas to find your focus so that you can actually get something done this summer that you’ll benefit from.
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four ways small firms can beat large ones

two partners celebrating business success outsidethink like an entrepreneur, not a technician.

by sandi leyva
the complete guide to marketing for tax & accounting

when i look through accounting today’s top 100 leaders list and the comments they have made about what they perceive to be the challenges in our profession, many of the answers are the same: change, talent and relevance are a few you’ll see. and they are all right to some extent, but there is a deeper systemic problem that i think could fix quite a few of these in one swipe. i’m not saying it will be easy, but it is a fairly straightforward problem once diagnosed.

more: put your linkedin profile to work | leverage your client list today | why you need a link-in-bio tool | what’s in a (domain) name? plenty | need leads? try a quiz | four tips for tough times | now’s the time to clean up your email list | transform your marketing with crm | nine thoughts on self-marketing for the introvert
goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

the most interesting part is that the smallest firms are getting better at solving this than the larger firms.
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put your linkedin profile to work

official_logo_linkedin

five ways to improve it today.

by sandi leyva
the complete guide to marketing for tax & accounting firms

your linkedin profile is just as important as your website these days. it’s not uncommon at all for small business owners to check out your profile before contacting you. if your profile doesn’t measure up, then you might not get the lead. here are five ideas to get the most out of your linkedin profile.

more: leverage your client list today | why you need a link-in-bio tool | five emotional skills for entrepreneurs | transform your marketing with crm | five kinds of small thinking
goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

1. write a friendly, keyword-filled background. 

on linkedin, the best backgrounds are less formal, more friendly and conversational in style. let people know what drives you from a business standpoint, what you’re passionate about and who the ideal client is for you.
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leverage your client list today

smiling woman using smartphonedon’t wait for that clever newsletter to be finished. (started?)

by sandi leyva
the complete guide to marketing for tax & accounting firms

one of the most valuable assets i have is my list of clients. i wouldn’t be in business if it weren’t for my clients, and i am grateful for each of you every day.

more: five skills for emotional mastery | why you need a link-in-bio tool | transform your marketing with crm | five kinds of small thinking | five tests: how open are you to change? | maybe price isn’t the problem | three thoughts for a quiet morning
goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

keeping a formal list of clients and subscribers in a list management system is often overlooked and frequently underutilized, especially in our industry. there are a couple of reasons for this. one is that some accountants are just beginning to understand the five big revenue-building reasons to understand the power of email marketing.
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five skills for emotional mastery

two partners celebrating business success outsideevery successful practice owner needs them.

by sandi leyva
the complete guide to marketing for tax & accounting firms

there are courses and conferences to help you build the technical skills you need to succeed in accounting. but if you think about it, there is no cpe to help you with the emotional side of your business, and there are plenty of times on a daily basis that the emotional side of business comes into play:

more: why you need a link-in-bio tool | what’s in a (domain) name? plenty | four tips for tough times | nine thoughts on self-marketing for the introvert | 13 reasons to master consumption marketing | when to talk about fees | take a moment for appreciation | beyond compliance: what more you can provide  | the biggest seo secret of all: google business listings
goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

1) making a price increase or setting your prices in the first place

2) firing a client from you-know-where
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why you need a link-in-bio tool

get around limitations.

by sandi leyva
the complete guide to marketing for tax & accounting firms

what the heck is a link-in-bio tool? and do i need one? yes, you do! but first, an explanation is in order.

more: what’s in a (domain) name? plenty | need leads? try a quiz | now’s the time to clean up your email list | don’t let prospects fall through the cracks | how to fire a client | five tips for virtual team member happiness | boost your cross-selling in two easy steps | beyond bookkeeping: five value-add service areas | 11 kinds of wealth
goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

when you complete a social media profile page, you’ll notice that some have the limit of being able to include only one link. the question becomes, what link is best to add? should you link to your website? your linkedin profile? a free report you offer? or something else?
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