http:\/\/vconfiles.com\/downloads\/vconcasestudy_threestepap.pdf<\/a><\/p>\nsteps to write up a case study<\/strong><\/p>\n\n- identify a client who has a great story about your service or product.<\/li>\n
- approach them and ask their permission. here\u2019s a sample email you can send:<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
subject: i need a favor re: accountant\u2019s accelerator<\/p>\n
hi,<\/p>\n
i am looking for selected clients who are willing to have me write a case study<\/strong>\u00a0about their experience and results in accountant\u2019s accelerator (and i thought of you). this will help me uplevel our marketing materials\u00a0for future prospects.<\/p>\nif you are interested in this please email me back. i expect it to take less than an hour of your time.<\/strong> i will need to interview you for about \u00bd hour, then i will write it up. then i will need another 15 minutes of your time to review what i have written and make corrections for accuracy. it will be posted on my site and we can make it anonymous or use your name.<\/p>\nfor those of you who have benefited in multiple ways, we will likely just focus on one core idea and develop the case study\u00a0from there rather than cover everything.<\/p>\n
please reply yes to this message if you are willing, and then we\u2019ll set up a mutually convenient time to talk.<\/p>\n
i appreciate your support.<\/p>\n
thanks,<\/p>\n
sandi<\/p>\n
\n- do your homework and decide what questions you will ask them. here are some questions to consider asking.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
\n- what made you decide to select the product or service?<\/li>\n
- describe what it was like before the change.<\/li>\n
- what was that costing you in money? time? stress?<\/li>\n
- what happened during the transformation or project?<\/li>\n
- were there any memorable moments?<\/li>\n
- were there any pitfalls along the way?<\/li>\n
- describe what it was like after the change.<\/li>\n
- how much money or time or stress did you save?<\/li>\n
- how was the company to work with?<\/li>\n
- were there any particular team members who went out of their way?<\/li>\n
- what did you learn?<\/li>\n
- what will you tell friends about?<\/li>\n
- what made a difference, if anything?<\/li>\n
- how do you see that part of your company now?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
\n- hire a writer if you need to.<\/li>\n
- set up the interview. writer should attend. if you want to record it, ask permission first.<\/li>\n
- conduct the interview and take a ton of notes even if you\u2019ve hired a writer.<\/li>\n
- if it was recorded, get it transcribed.<\/li>\n
- write it up or get it written up.<\/li>\n
- send the client a copy for their approval.<\/li>\n
- put it in a nice graphical format.<\/li>\n
- publish it on your website and in your prospect kit. also tweet it out, and consider a mailing to select prospects.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
white papers<\/h3>\n
most professional services firms must educate a prospect and sell to a prospect at the same time. white papers are a great way to build an educational component into your selling process. they are leveraged, too, in that you write it once, and hundreds, if not thousands, of people can read it. that beats having to explain the same thing to every single prospect, one at a time, during each sales call.<\/p>\n
if you are trying to sell an accounting service that\u2019s relatively cutting-edge, such as cloud accounting or even paperless accounting, it\u2019s a good idea to have a white paper\u00a0on it that your prospects can read.<\/p>\n
a typical outline of a white paper\u00a0can be:<\/p>\n
\n- define the idea or concept.<\/li>\n
- list the benefits.<\/li>\n
- list the constraints or weaknesses.<\/li>\n
- list the next steps your prospect should follow to take action.<\/li>\n
- list your contact information.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
your white paper\u00a0should not include so much information that your prospect can end up doing the solution themselves. your white paper should also not list too much how-to information so that your competitors benefit and either get your prospect or steal your process. sticking with the above formula should avoid those pitfalls.<\/p>\n
you want to discuss the \u201cwhat\u201d but not the \u201chow.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
you may also want to refrain from using brand names of solutions. for example, it\u2019s better to describe that you have a technology platform and maybe include a diagram, but not list your specific solutions, such as quickbooks enterprise with advanced inventory and bill.com. let them pay you to get that part. (too many of you give the proposal away! you can be paid for a proposal, but your sales skills need to increase before you can pull it off.)<\/p>\n
the big 4 firms use white papers like crazy, so the best place to see samples is on any of their sites. however, theirs contain convoluted, big-company speak, which you want to avoid. for small business, keeping it basic and simple is the best. we had a polling question in accountant\u2019s accelerator that asked how many of your clients can read a balance sheet, and less than 25 percent could. so keep it simple, and that might make a good white paper\u00a0right there!<\/p>\n
once you get your white paper\u00a0done, you can use it as a lead generation device. that means you can get people to give you their email address in exchange for the white paper. you can also use it as a \u201ctouch\u201d step in your sales process or client communication plan as well as an item in your ever-growing prospect kit.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\npublished articles<\/h3>\n
if you feel comfortable writing or hiring a writer, you can create educational articles related to the services you offer. there is a specific formula to follow that will increase your success.<\/p>\n
start with a problem that you know your clients have. think about the sentence they say when you first answer the phone or read the email. it might be something like \u201ci have a quickbooks problem.\u201d of course, you have to narrow that one down. perhaps they can\u2019t get their invoices out or their file is locked up.<\/p>\n
you can also start with a problem that could potentially cost them money, such as a penalty they need to take action to avoid.<\/p>\n
from there, you can come up with a catchy title, such as \u201c4 ways to avoid a quickbooks file catastrophe in your small business.\u201d think of four ways. (we\u2019re reverse-engineering this article.)<\/p>\n
\n- don\u2019t install software updates without consulting your local proadvisor.<\/li>\n
- have a ready backup to restore to in case of a catastrophe.<\/li>\n
- get training on what to do in case of file emergencies or how to spot the signs of a going-bad quickbooks file (which would be a good article in and of itself).<\/li>\n
- call you instead of waiting on the intuit help line because you have a gold or diamond account.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
start the article\u00a0by describing a scenario: \u201cit\u2019s billing day, and it\u2019s time to get the bills out so you can start getting some cash in to make payroll on friday. you have just a few days\u2019 cash left, so those bills need to get out pronto. you open your quickbooks file, and you get an error you have never seen before. the file won\u2019t open. you have no idea what to do.<\/p>\n
\u201ccould this happen at your company? if you think it could, we have some tips for you on how you can get those bills out on time, make payroll and save your company. here are four ideas:\u201d<\/p>\n
then you can elaborate on the four ideas above (or hopefully some better ones). the really important part of the article\u00a0is the #4 tip, because most small business owners don\u2019t even know you can save them time and money and stress from calling the intuit help line themselves. the small business owner never knows what to say to explain the problem well, and often, the small business owner does not get the right advice to fix the problem. for cpas, there is a similar analogy with the irs.<\/p>\n
so the article\u00a0formula is to start with a client problem, create a catchy title, describe a scenario and provide a bullet list of somewhat vague tips. don\u2019t give it all away in your article. give enough away to demonstrate your expertise but not enough to solve the problem. when they have a problem, they are likely to call you. they are likely to pin the article up next to their computer.<\/p>\n
here are some other title\/topic ideas that you will need to develop and write:<\/p>\n