Maura Wiser, Founder at Bluewater Bookkeeping Services, was living and working out of her inbox before she discovered how to manage workflow correctly.
She started using a special tool that helped her do it. You’ll hear all about that tool today…

In this episode of the Growing Your Firm Podcast, David Cristello and Maura Wiser discuss:

  • How you can hurt your best clients when your workflow is messed up
  • The #1 tool that got Maura out of her inbox and out of the office earlier
  • How Maura never panics about a deadline again


itunes

ADDITIONAL LINKS: 

What Happens When Your Workflow Isn’t Organized: 

Maura Wiser, a sole proprietor bookkeeper for over 18 years at her own company (Bluewater Bookkeeping Services), was used to how others showed her how to manage workflow. It’s our natural tendency…

We wake up in the morning, put out fires at work, go to bed. Rinse. Repeat. 

Maura did what many of us did to manage workflow…we manage everything in our inbox. We put things on our google calendar and keep moving. We feel like a hamster on a wheel, but we do what needs to be done.

Here’s where Maura realized she needed to do something different.

Because she was dealing with the “squeaky wheel” syndrome. What’s that? It’s when you are only dealing with “emergencies” all the time and never what is actually due. 

Listen…we all have clients that are a bit…ummm….louder than others. And when you’re living in your inbox and putting out those fires, you’re only catering to those clients. 

What about those clients that only call in real emergencies? They are calm, easy to deal with. You actually like them. Why aren’t they getting the same attention? Why are you pushing their work off to take care of the “louder” clients? 

Maura saw this happening again and again.

She needed a solution.

Jetpack Workflow Got Maura Out of the Inbox and Out of the Office: 

If you’ve followed the podcast long enough, you’ve probably heard I’m the CEO of Jetpack Workflow. We are a software built to manage workflow and make sure your clients and deadlines don’t fall through the cracks.

Now, you also know if you’ve been a long-time listener, that we actually rarely talk about Jetpack on the podcasts. However, we’ve worked with Maura for a long time and heard her name for just as long. When she told me informally about how Jetpack how helped her, I had to get her on the show.

I brought her on not to do a pitch, but because most firm owners are going through the same problems she did.

Again, wake up, put out fires, go to bed.

Maura was living this and needed a solution. She found Jetpack Workflow.

She admits the first year was spent simply trying to get her inbox to zero. Meaning, she was moving slowly off of Google calendar and Gmail and into the software.

How Jetpack Workflow Saved Maura From Drowning in Deadlines: 

Today, she’s ‘all-in’ on Jetpack. She schedules deadlines, organizes workflow, sets reminders. She never goes to bed worrying if she forgot something. On top of that, she says she saves around one hour per week. She says for a larger firm with employees, that number would “multiply”. It’s true.

That extra time she gets, she takes off work earlier than she used to. 

Here’s what she recommends for you whether you’re a sole proprietor or not.

Most firm owners would want a 100% transition done before fully implementing new software into the workflow. Maura recommends a steadier move. As a bookkeeper, Maura’s busiest time of year is January.

She decided beginning the move into Jetpack would be best in January because it’ll force her to be efficient plus she’ll be touching most if not all of her clients’ files. Over one weekend, she began the transition of moving clients out of her inbox and into Jetpack.
But, she didn’t do it all at once. She migrated as she went along throughout the year. Doing it this way forces you to take action now and not sit on your hands. Plus, it gives you time to slowly learn the software instead of a crash course.

DAVID’S TIP:As a softwware CEO, I actually recommend not implementing a new software all at once. Do what Maura did and take baby steps. Just do what you need to function and pivot as you go. Play around with new buttons and slowly get familiar with the software. That’s much easier and it becomes muscle memory after awhile. Once you have it done, then move to adding more steps.

Maura highly recommends Jetpack Workflow. She doesn’t believe you need to integrate it fully all at once as mentioned. Get it and do it over time.
She’s happy to give advice to anyone who has questions about how to manage workflow.

Email her at maurabookkeeper @ gmail.com.

RELATED ARTICLES:

  1. Time Saving Applications During Busy Season
  2. 5 Software Applications to Ease the Busy Season Burden

See Jetpack Workflow In Action

Get under the hood of Jetpack Workflow’s accounting workflow and project management platform. See some of the top features and how it helps your firm standardize, automate, and track client work more efficiently.

Heather Smith is the founder of a cloud solutions practice and author of 9 books. She’s made it her mission to’educate accountants and in turn their clients about the cloud ecosystem and choosing between the 750 accounting apps out there.

She knows all the tips and tricks to make sure you pick the right application for your firm. Most owners are overwhelmed with the choices out there, but there’s a way to choose the best one for your firm.

In this episode of the Growing Your Firm Podcast, David Cristello and Heather Smith discuss:

  • The future of accounting tech and how it could drastically change your practice
  • The “team” secret to uncovering the best accounting applications
  • Steps to get your team raving about your application choices

ADDITIONAL LINKS: 

Where is Accounting Software Going in the Next 5 Years: 

Heather Smith, the self-proclaimed “hype girl for the online ecosystem”, is a well-known pro in the accounting application’s space. She advises and mentors clients, but is mostly notorious for her Xero trainings.

In the next few years, she sees big changes coming to the industry as a whole. These are important for you so you don’t implement a software that may not be around next year.

First, she foresees more growing and testing in the space over time. Right now, over 750 accounting applications are sprawled across Xero, Quickbooks, Sage, and others. It’s a lot to sift through. As more money and attention goes to the accounting space, new ideas will be brought in especially as technology advanced.

The biggest piece she sees coming is a lot of buyouts and mergers. Large companies (think Intuit) are going to swoop in and splash money in the pot. If they don’t buy out smaller companies, they will merge or set up deep relationships with them.

This will all happen relatively fast. You’ve probably already felt the whirlwind we’ve seen the past few years in the applications space.

Heather has some tips to adapt to the changing landscape.

How to Uncover the Best Accounting Applications for Your Firm:

If you jump on board with an application, only do so if you plan to stick around for the long haul. Implementing is hard enough without playing leapfrog. That doesn’t mean you’ll have to update your systems every time you switch applications.

Luckily, APIs (the configuration that allows multiple software pieces to communicate with one another and share data) are getting smarter and more efficient. Many solutions now allow you to digitally “unplug” from one application and “plug” back into another.

You probably just want to know how to choose between the various applications.
Here’s an insider tip.

Heather looks at and studies the actual team behind an application she likes. The reason is that she’s looking for longevity. Is the team behind this application aligned with the accounting industry? Or, are they planning to jump into other industries? 

Meaning, are they going to be around the accounting industry for a while, or is this just a stop on the way to trying to branch into other industries? That move alone could severely affect the performance of the application for your accounting needs down the line.

A second major tip to determine the best accounting applications is studying the application’s customer support. Obviously, this isn’t a ton of fun, but, unless you’re so tech savvy you can actually debug software, you’re going to want customer service in your corner. At Jetpack Workflow, we’re a software company so we understand how often clients need help with navigating software and overcoming problems. On top of that, we still buy software to use for the business in addition to our software, so we are needing customer service for ourselves as well.

Heather recommends definitely trying out their customer service before you get into a long commitment contract. Customer service is one of her #1 reasons for purchasing one software over another. There’s nothing worse than having an urgent problem with your software package and customer service is non-responsive.
Even if they have the best features, Heather will turn down a vendor if their customer service isn’t up to snuff.

DAVID’S TIP:Many companies brag about their customer service being the best. In software, you simply can’t take these claims at face value. We were recently choosing new software for our internal needs and one company was well-known for their features. So, we set up a call to demo it. They rescheduled. We set a new time. They didn’t show. I was disappointed as I loved their product, but if they don’t treat you well during the demo phase, what do you think happens later on?

Once you’ve nailed down what accounting applications you want, how do you about implementing in the best way possible?

How to Implement New Accounting Applications and Get the Team Onboard: 

Most firm owners are overwhelmed with the choices out in the marketplace. If that sounds like you, you’re not alone. Here’s the first thing to think about:

Don’t try and implement too many new applications at once. This leads to disorganization and frustration for your team. Get your team onboard first.

Before making any moves to implement, pull out the whiteboard. What I mean is get everyone who will be affected by the new application in a room. Listen to the ideas for what’s working and how future workflow will look with this new application.

Heather recommends getting buy-in from the team. Once the implementation starts, make sure you have a day set aside for training on just this software. After that,

Heather recommends two more follow-up trainings to make sure everyone is comfortable and iron out inconsistencies in the workflow.

Remember, you need to carve out this time. Implementation of a new software can take 6 weeks. After it’s up and running, you need it to go for one full month and then pull data on how well it’s working.

It’s only after the entire team is comfortable with the new application do you dare try and implement another. 

DAVID’S TIP:As the firm owner, it’s your job to train your employees or find the right person to be the go-to expert in the firm on the area. Because as you get more team members, you can spend all your days training new employees on software. You need a go-to expert inside your firm. Even larger teams could have multiple experts.

On top of trainings, if you have features you’d like to see, you can prepare pitches to the application’s team and see if it will make the rollout map.
BONUS: These new applications you implement can also become a new service offering you give to clients. If you believe your clients can benefit from your new application, offer to do a whiteboard training with their team. Could be a whole new revenue stream!

RELATED ARTICLES:

  1. Time Saving Applications During Busy Season
  2. 5 Software Applications to Ease the Busy Season Burden
  3. Create A Tech Ecosystem And Implement New Accounting Applications

See Jetpack Workflow In Action

Get under the hood of Jetpack Workflow’s accounting workflow and project management platform. See some of the top features and how it helps your firm standardize, automate, and track client work more efficiently.

Jackie Meyer, Founder of Meyer Tax Consulting, is back on the show with more advice on creating the ideal accounting firm. Last time, she talked about increasing her revenues 35% adding tax planning services.

This time around, she’s here to reveal how she’s cut her client base from up to 300 to under 100. Yet, she charges 80% more on average per client. At the same time, she takes Friday off from client work to work on her business. You’ll want to hear her ground-breaking strategies.

In this episode of the Growing Your Firm Podcast by Jetpack Workflow Software, David Cristello and Jackie Meyer dive into:

  • How to have a waiting list for clients
  • Creating the ideal accounting firm where you charge 80% more and work 25% less on client work
  • How Jackie and her team only check email 2X per day

ADDITIONAL LINKS: 

How to Have a Waiting List for New Clients: 

Jackie Meyer is one of our rare returning guests because she’s done an incredible job building her firm fast. Today, she averages $10,000/client after cutting down her client base from up to 300. Most firms would be afraid of doing this.

Even better, she only works 4 days per week on client work and takes her Fridays to work ON the business. She uses that time to interface with some of my past guests including Ed Kless and Jeff Philips. If you’re worried about upset clients, wait until you hear about what she does.

First, since she’s chopped her client list over 65%, she’s much pickier about who she takes on as a client. In fact, now she has a waiting list for becoming a client.

That’s unheard of as most firm owners are happy to take who walks through the door.

Jackie did this because she wants customer service to be on a pedestal at her accounting firm. Too many clients could result in bad experiences. To combat this, she’s upgraded some roles to project manager in her firm.

Funny enough…when you tell someone they are on a waiting list, they want to be your client even more. Thus, this maneuver gave her control over who she works with and her time. Jackie recommends letting others in your firm control pieces. Clients may have come into your firm because of you, but you must teach your staff and your clients to work with each other. 

If you remain the focal point, you’ll always be stretched thin.

Currently, her client base revolves around high net worth individuals, wealthy retirees, and those high-up the corporate ladder. If they’re retired, they may typically have board and/or consulting income coming in. Jackie not only helps with normal tax work, she also forms family limited partnerships, management companies, creates structure around investments and much more. Like I mentioned, now her clients average about $10,000 in fees per year.

“Figure out where your value lies,” Jackie says. This is how you can raise your fees. Jackie shows these high net-worth folks visually how her firm is saving them hundreds of thousands per year in taxes with the entities she creates. Because of that, she expects to get her average client billing up to $18,000/year shortly.

Structure Your Time to Work 25% Less on Client Work

Creating the ideal accounting firm is not just about raising fees but also getting your time back.

Jackie is high on time blocking. Here, you create very tight, very specific appointments on your calendar for everything you need done. 2 hours of compliance work, 1 hour for lunch, 1 hour for consulting with her business coach. If you don’t structure your time, it slips away.

Like with new clients, Jackie takes control. She doesn’t let others dictate what she will get done. As mentioned, she blocks Fridays off for more ‘high level’ work. She thinks about how to grow the firm, better herself, plus learn from others.

Now, the question she often gets in the accounting world is “What about all the client fires we deal with every day?” 

Well, clear as day on her website, she says that employees only check emails at 10 am and 2 pm. This gets her employees out of their inbox and focused on tasks on hand. Time gets sucked away when we get pushed and pulled into “emergencies” that are never emergencies.

Jackie’s set up an admin@meyertax.com email to take care of general questions and concerns. This means less emails for her and her team.

She’s of the mindset that if a client pushes back on her email policy, they just might not be a good fit for the firm. You might think that’s selfish, but you’re actually helping your clients. If they get used to asking 20 questions every day, it’s time wasted for everyone. Not to mention, how often does a client email something like an IRS notice, and they’re freaking out.

Most of these events are not emergencies. There are very few actual emergencies in accounting. Tax deadline may be the only one. Jackie doesn’t want her firm to be known for dropping everything for small potatoes.

To help her clients who do worry, she set up a text alert number if they have any immediate problems. In two years, she’s received ZERO texts to that number. It’s because she’s training her clients.

DAVID’S TIP:Never panic when clients reach out with a so-called emergency. Train them by walking them through a protocol to follow. Do it gently but firmly. Make the process easy for clients to follow. They’ll feel taken care of.

One way to cut down on emails clogging up the inbox is releasing weekly videos or posts detailing different events that may be coming up. Maybe it’s the end of the year and clients will be receiving IRS notices for the following year. Send out a message alerting them of this. That saves hours of repeating the same information to each of your clients who calls.

Another idea is to have a system for email subject lines. In the subject, the client/employee can put a (U) which is for urgent. Or, an (E) for emergency. Maybe an emergency means you’ll answer in 24 hours. Urgent could mean in the next few hours. This lets the receiver know if they need to answer and act now or can wait.

How to Start Being More Productive Now: 

Jackie has a business coach to keep her focused and growing.

She’s also formed a Facebook group — Accounting Firm Influencers. Click here to view the group. 

I’m in the group so you can find me there. In the group, ask questions, help others. It’s an awesome way to learn from others and how to implement new ideas into your firm.

Another recommendation that was unsolicited was Jackie recommended Jetpack Workflow. She says having an application keep track of open projects gives her peace of mind and less stress when she wakes up. She likes how easy it is to use and for others too as well.

Lastly, she’s started a coaching business for established firms who are looking to be more profitable and grow. She’s offered listeners a free consultation after you fill out a brief survey. Here’s a link to see it.

RELATED ARTICLES:

  1. [Double Your Firm Book] Ch. 3 Driving Growth in Your Firm

  2. How To Craft A Strategic Vision In Your Accounting Firm

  3. 5 Tools To Improve Your Firm (For Accountants & Bookkeepers)

See Jetpack Workflow In Action

Get under the hood of Jetpack Workflow’s accounting workflow and project management platform. See some of the top features and how it helps your firm standardize, automate, and track client work more efficiently.
retaining top talent

Chapter 6 in my book deals with a growing issue in the industry…recruiting and then retaining top talent.

If you’re just joining us, we’re going front-to-back celebrating the audio release of our best-selling book, Double Your Accounting Firm.
To refresh, here are the first three chapters:

Chapter 1: Increasing Workflow Efficiency and Staff Capacity
Chapter 2: Solving the Pricing Problems in Your Firm
Chapter 3: Driving Growth in Your Firm
Chapter 4: Your Sales Appointment from Start to Close
Chapter 5: Get Referrals and Attract the Clients You Want

In this audiobook chapter, you will discover:

  • The big challenges facing retaining top talent in today’s accounting environment
  • How to create a culture every employee wants
  • The 12 strategies to retain your best employees

ADDITIONAL LINKS: 

The Challenge Today of Retaining Top Talent

If you’re a smaller firm, you know the crunch of keeping your top employees engaged. Bigger firms have more money, more perks, bigger expense accounts, and parties. A common complaint today is how millennials especially don’t stay at a job for longer than 1-2 years. As we know, it’s cheaper to keep old employees than hire and train new ones.

What if I told you most accountants — especially millennials — aren’t leaving just because of money and perks. More and more, employees want to be involved in the mission of your firm as well as find their place in your culture. As a smaller firm, you can offer more opportunities than those at big firms where employees are just a cog in the wheel.

The first key to retaining top talent is looking at your management circle. Are they buying into the vision and mission of the firm? Are they here for the long haul? Partners are the generals leading the troops into battle. The ‘soldiers’ need to know they can count on their leader.

Because when you have a solid core group of long-term employees, you enjoy a host of benefits including:

  • Increased profits as employees become more efficient
  • A steady, enjoyable culture
  • A succession plan in place
  • Happier clients who feel more secure rather than be shuffled around
  • Closer relationships with team members as they know and trust each other more and more

The first hurdle you must get over is financial recruiters.

The Cross-Pollination Scheme of Financial Recruiters

Financial recruiters are relentless today. In the past, they were less aggressive and filled roles as firms needed help. Today, there are new schemes popping up. For example, I’ve found one company that has built multiple recruiting firms. Then, they cross-pollinate employees between the different firms. That way they are collecting “finders fees” with each placement that ultimately ends up all in the same place.

The subsidiaries keep their hands clean and the umbrella company gets more and more fees from recycling candidates. It’s nuts.

Another strategy is scouring Linkedin and simply cold-calling the firm office to talk to the potential job-hopper. They have no shame!

There is a way to defend against this. The secret is to start building a strong culture.

Strong Culture = Retaining Top Talent

In the past, you could get away with a bad culture because folks stayed at their job forever. Not anymore. Younger folks want a culture to go to every morning. There’s a stigma in many older firms that the “longer you have been there, the wiser you are.” In most cases, that will be true. However, younger employees want their ideas heard.

Even if you don’t act on their ideas, make them heard.

The marketplace is always changing. The younger employees who are your future can provide valuable insights you never thought before. Here’s the first: retaining top talent goes far beyond a steady paycheck.

Culture is the first piece. Culture is the reason folks enjoy coming to work. It’s not all fun and games either. Culture is also grounded in your mission and values. There must be a “why” you and your team believe in. That all starts with the top brass. Their example dictates what is important for the firm. What’s important guides the culture and how employees interact and work.

Part of the vision is defining your Unique Value Proposition (USP). We’ve talked about that with your ideal client. But, you also need a USP for your firm.

  • How big do you want to grow?
  • Do you want to expand across state lines?
  • What role should each employee strive for?
  • What does the firm look like in 10-20 years?

Employees may not directly ask these questions, but they want to know. The reason is so they can see if they buy into that USP and vision. If they don’t want to be a part of it, you’ve lost them already.

Your USP must be unique enough to stick out from other firms. Like your marketing message, it must be specific and compelling. That way you attract the right kind of talent.
Lastly, you must have a rock-solid mission behind your company.

  • Why did you start this company?
  • Why does your company exist?

Your vision looks ahead at what you want to be in the future. Your mission dives into why that is important to you. I started Jetpack Workflow because CPA firms weren’t efficiently tracking their work. The processes were dated and broken. Jetpack makes sure every one of your accounting clients gets 100% of the work they paid for.

Think about the personal story of your firm. Start telling that to new hires and see who resonates with it.

That brings us to actually figuring out who to hire. Let’s look at that next.

How to Actually Hire Top Talent

When you understand who you’re looking for and what skills they need, it can be easier to sift through job applications. Before each interview, you need to ask yourself “is this person going to be the future of our firm?” That mindset will keep you sharp in the interview.

Finding the right employee can be tough, so here are a few things to learn about the potential hire:

  • What motivates them? Growth? Autonomy?
  • How do they spend their free time? This gives you a glimpse into their “why” of life
  • How do they solve problems? Does that manner blend with your culture
  • What kind of work culture are they coming from?
  • How do they interact with clients?

Next, you need to understand the employee’s motivation for their compensation. There are many different forms of compensation:

  • Cross-train them in different positions as a bonus so they don’t get bored and broaden their skillset
  • Provide paid training even tickets to conferences
  • Give them autonomy on some projects
  • Provide slight bumps in retirement bonuses for performance

These should lead you to whether the person is a good fit or not. After this, the real work begins.

How to Actually Retain Top Talent

Once the interviews are over, the offer is accepted, the employee starts, that’s when the real work begins. Nothing leaves a sour taste in a new employee’s mouth then thinking their job will look one way and its the opposite. If they thought they’d have more time with one of the partners and they don’t, that’s a bigger problem than you think.

Managing expectations is the name of the game when retaining top talent. Here are 12 suggestions to keep an employee engaged:

  1. Work together at setting goals around their needs
  2. Provide flexible work hours
  3. Encourage them with positive feedback
  4. Create bite-sized, manageable goals
  5. Create interactive games
  6. Take team members out individually
  7. Radiate positivity
  8. Have an open door policy (really do)
  9. Give employees the spotlight at different times
  10. Offer cash bonuses as surprise times
  11. Plan an outdoors day
  12. Give a surprise day or even week off!

Start brainstorming ideas around your vision, mission, culture and how to keep your employees engaged. It doesn’t need to be a chore. You’ll notice an energy in your office going forward. A good energy!

RELATED ARTICLES:

  1. How He Grew from 2-10 Employees in 1 Year…While Working Abroad. The Josh Zweig Interview
  2. How To Manage Your Employees… Even When They Are Remote
  3. 12 Effective & Genuine Techniques to Motivate Accountants

See Jetpack Workflow In Action

Get under the hood of Jetpack Workflow’s accounting workflow and project management platform. See some of the top features and how it helps your firm standardize, automate, and track client work more efficiently.

Chapter 5 might be the most requested chapter we included in the book. It’s all about how to get referrals and attracting the right referrals to your accounting firm.

If you’re just joining us, we’re going front-to-back celebrating the audio release of our best-selling book, Double Your Accounting Firm.
To refresh, here are the first three chapters:

Chapter 1: Increasing Workflow Efficiency and Staff Capacity
Chapter 2: Solving the Pricing Problems in Your Firm
Chapter 3: Driving Growth in Your Firm
Chapter 4: Your Sales Appointment from Start to Close

Referrals may be your sole source of new clients at the moment. That’s okay. The question is whether they are the right clients for your firm.
In this audiobook chapter, you will discover:

  • How to get quality referrals that you actually want
  • Steps to nurture your clients so they want to refer you
  • Actual scripts to have the referrals flood in

ADDITIONAL LINKS: 

Your Unique Selling Proposition Gets The Right Clients:

Referrals are a nice and welcome surprise. Referrals are proven to require less “sales-y” approaches. Plus, they are faster to pull out their wallets. There are, however, two approaches to referrals. You could be passive or active.

Passive = “we get who we get”

Active = “we tell our clients who we want”

It all starts with your Unique Selling Proposition (USP). Think about what value you bring to the marketplace. Be specific. “We do tax returns” is general. You must have a target market in mind so you can craft the right message.

Your market is the type of industry/service you wish to be an expert in. You might want to be the “go-to for construction companies.”

Your message highlights the results you bring to clients. “We help 6-7 figure construction companies automate their bank finances, so they can increase cash flow.”
That’s a USP.

If you’re unsure what your USP is, just ask your clients!

Questions you can ask them:

  • What keeps you coming back every year?
  • What do you enjoy most about working with us?
  • What trouble spots have you found?
  • How does your relationship with us compare to other firms?

Your ideal clients will have similar answers. Those are the ones you want to attract. The good clients attract other good clients and vice-versa.

When you meet with new referrals and clients, it’s these USP signs you want to look out for. “Will this new client have similar answers in 12 months as my top clients?” Obviously, you don’t have a crystal ball to know how a client will act. But it’s good to have these questions in the back of your mind.

Now, that’s the start of a relationship, but how do you actually start generating the referrals? That starts earlier than you think.

Nurturing Your Clients to Prepare for Referrals:

The start of getting referrals begins with how you treat those who will refer…your clients.

Clients don’t just keep coming back for your service. With something as intimate as their finances, they want a firm that connects with them. The way to do that is starting every day with the mindset of “How can I provide value to a client today?” That means going above and beyond your call of duty.

Here’s how to do it in 5 steps:

  1. Do something before a client requests it
  2. Make a special deliverable for them. Maybe it’s a piece of content
  3. Provide something that makes a difference in their personal or professional life
  4. Do something special that’s pro bono for them
  5. Duplicate across clients

The more a client trusts you, the more they open up to you. When you know them better, you can solve more of their problems.
Here are a few different ideas to add value:

  • Invite them out to dinner one-on-one
  • Send them a webinar invite
  • Bring them along for a conference
  • Plan a fun event
  • Ask their opinion
  • Follow and interact with them on social media

A surprise gift, even something like a book, can go a long way.

These are all setting the table for asking for a referral. None of what you’re doing is manipulating your clients. You’re making them more comfortable to recommend you. Everyone loves to give recommendations. How often do you try and get someone to try your favorite restaurant or listen to that up-and-coming musician you love?

It’s the same with referrals for an accountant except more complicated. Remember, finances are personal. Clients want to know you are someone to trust and recommend highly.

How to Ask for Referrals: 

We’ve all heard we should ask for referrals. We dream about a situation where we ask and receive right away. Unfortunately, reality usually goes like this. “Umm…yeah…do you know anyone that needs an accountant? No? Ok, well, see you next time.”

Pretty bad, right?

We also hope clients will just always naturally refer us. You may get that now. But are they the best clients for your firm?

The worse way to approach referrals is directly. That’s a path to awkwardness.

The best way to approach is indirectly. You want to prep a client first. You may say something like “Asking for referrals is a bit uncomfortable for me? And it can be uncomfortable for you. How would you want me to approach asking you for referrals that you feel the most comfortable?” A question like this lowers the tension. Many clients just need to be asked before they freely open up their address book. Here you can ask them in a non-confrontational way.

The Different Referral Sources and How to Get Referrals from Them:

You will probably get referrals from all over the place — not just from clients, but family members, those people from church, etc. Let’s breakdown the type of people you may get a referral from and how to approach:

NON-CLIENT: These aren’t the most powerful referrals, but still possible. You would approach like “I’m working with construction companies helping with their cash flow. Do you recommend any person or company to reach out to?” 

NEW-CLIENT (AGGRESSIVE): When a new client signs on the line, that is when you are aggressive and pounce. It’s bold but can work. “My clients refer me as thanks for the results I get them. For doing business with me, I require 3 referrals after I’ve proven I can give results to your company. That’s an aggressive ask, but that’s how confident I can help you. Will this be a problem for you?” 

NEW-CLIENT (DISCOUNT): In exchange for 1-3 referrals, you offer a discount to a new client. “We can continue with our agreement per usual. If you are able to refer me 3 people, I am happy to chop the price down to $XXXX each month.” 

CLIENT APPROACH #1: Here you have 3 business cards. You tell the client to keep one and give the other 2 to people that could be helped by your services. “If you know someone in the construction niche who needs cash flow help, give them one of my cards. Have them call or send me an email and I’ll get right to them.”

CLIENT APPROACH #2: Here, offer a free service in exchange for referrals. “I will train all your employees on QuickBooks for free if you send me 5 people who might be able to use my help.”

COMPETITOR REFERRAL TRICK: Work with your competitors to develop deals for sending over work. Here you send prospects who aren’t a good fit for another firm.

EMAIL SIGNATURE: Your clients are regularly getting emails from you. Why not add a slight ‘ask’ there? “Our firm is built upon referrals. If you know someone in the construction industry who needs help with their cash flow, we offer free consultations.” 

Try some of these tactics. You’ll be surprised to see the referrals to start flooding in.

RELATED ARTICLES:

  1. The #1 Place to Get Highly Qualified Referrals for Your Bookkeeping Firm

  2. How to Ask a Client for Referrals (Without Feeling Uncomfortable)

  3. 2 simple techniques to get more referrals for accountants and bookkeepers

See Jetpack Workflow In Action

Get under the hood of Jetpack Workflow’s accounting workflow and project management platform. See some of the top features and how it helps your firm standardize, automate, and track client work more efficiently.

writing emails
In most accounting firms, marketing is typically one of the last things on the ‘priority’ list.

We have enough referrals right now, we need to focus on tax returns right now.” 

That may be the past.

But if you’re reading this blog, you most likely want to be a Firm of the Future.  A firm that’s both looking to grow but also adapt to changing conditions in the marketplace.

In the past, referrals were the main way to grow your practice. And that’s still happening today. However, if you’re serious about the long-term growth of the firm (as compared to short-term), it’s important you develop the right habits now for this to happen.

I just wrote a book on how to start doing this now called Double Your Accounting Firm. Click here to get a copy.

One way to immediately stand out from the pack is writing regular emails to your clients.

Now, I’m not talking “invoice due” emails or “send in your bank statement” type stuff. Those will get opened and responded to (hopefully). Those type of emails are expected and part of the job. Every accountant before you sent those to your clients.

Instead, you want to send emails that go beyond the norm. Emails that get opened, read, responded to, and ones that change the perception of your firm in your client’s eyes.

The more touchpoints that connect your firm to your prospect, the more likely they will stay around and want to keep working with you. Not to mention, when you raise your rates, they will not push back.
Here’s some data to feast on thanks to Constant Contact.

  • 91% of adults enjoy receiving promotional emails from ones they do business with
  • Opened emails are 40X more effective than any Facebook post or Linkedin update

You are always going to have your clients top-of-mind. Bad news…that’s not a two-way street. Your clients have their own business to run. That’s why getting an email ping from you can go a long way to strengthen your relationship with them and your brand.
Let’s first look at the types of emails you can send:

What Emails Should I Be Sending to my Clients? 

Writing emails sounds like a chore for many especially if you’re not a writer at heart. I recommend letting multiple people in your office draft emails to keep the content fresh and different.
To start, there are various types of emails to send:

  • Requests for information
  • Content
  • Promotional
  • Entertaining
  • Updates from Firm

Unfortunately, many firms only focus on #1 and maybe #5 at times. After that, there is much left to be desired.

The reason for this, as mentioned, is due to ‘priority’ but perhaps also due to what many might consider ‘dry’ topics. I mean, how many posts about ‘cashflow’ and ‘tax deductions’ do you expect your clients to read, right?

But, this is where you can get creative with what you do.

Let’s brainstorm a minute.

If you service many medical clients, let’s say…they may not want to read about “Section 179” on equipment and things like that. After all, that is why they hired you. Instead, what if you thought about “What do these medical professionals want to read about?”

Maybe — updates to their industry, discussions with what successful doctors are doing, blogs about the recent medical conference you attended. These are topics that would perk their interest because it’s part of their world.

If you service a lot of restaurants, they may not want read about “Cost of Goods Sold” on their inventory.

Instead, think about this — ways to save money on [insert food category], how to hire long-term employees in their restaurants, how their servers can get 10% higher tips, stories about Bobby Flay when he was younger and starting out.

This is what they would click on right away.

As you can imagine, this takes a bit of work to do. Luckily, the internet is a vast place. If you become a ‘curated’ source of information, they will happily open your emails again and again.

Meanwhile, you can sprinkle in updates on your firm, entertaining posts of your Christmas party, and the normal stuff.

Now that you know what to write…

Here’s how to begin writing emails that get opened.

How Do I Get my Clients to Open my Dang Emails?

There are three parts to every email:

  1. Subject line === entices client to click and open the email
  2. Body === the meat and potatoes of the thing
  3. Call-to-Action === what do you want the client to do? Click a link, respond, smile?

First, the subject line.

Think of the subject line as the bullhorn that distracts the client from everything else in their inbox, on their phone and on TV. If it’s something boring like “Depreciation limits are extending this year!”, you will get a supremely low click rate. I bet that subject line would be the lowest in history to be honest.
When you think of a subject line, try and think about a few things to stir up creativity:

  • Any current events you can tie to (topical)
  • What major benefit that matters TO THEM (if it’s depreciation, talk about how much money they’d save)
  • Can we use any specific numbers or names (these always stand out especially if a famous person)
  • Make a reference to a popular movie, TV show, or fad going around (“The one $1,000 tax tip to rule them all” — Lord of the Rings for all the non-nerds out there)

The key to remember with the subject line === It has ONE JOB…GET CLIENT TO OPEN. So say whatever you need to that isn’t a lie or misleading. It can be fun, entertaining, catchy, but make sure it relates to the body of the message.

Never do a subject line that’s like “We have a $5,000 check waiting for you” (kinda spammy) and then inside the email it’s “Just kidding, but now that you opened this email…etc. etc. etc.”.

Pulling stuff like that will get you into the SPAM box no matter how long the client has been with you. Don’t ruin your brand. The subject line is the first thing the client will see, make it memorable.

Next, you have the body of the message.

The body is what you actually say to the viewer. When it comes to the body, there is no perfect way you can write the message. If you put 1,000 writers in a room, they’d all craft a different message.

If you’re curious about what absolutely must be in a message, here are just a few pointers to remember:

  • Make each email about one sole message. Don’t have multiple points to make else the message gets muddled
  • Craft each email with the client in mind. We tend to write focused on what we want to say. Writing emails that get read and responded to is all about thinking “what does my client most want to hear about.”
  • Trim, trim, trim. You don’t need to write one sentence emails. But try and trim where you need to

The most important piece again…make sure the email focuses on what the client wants, not what you want to say. 
Here’s an example of an email for a blog post that could be relevant to your client.

Hi Dan,
We were just at the medical conference in Chicago last week, and I got to sit down with a few of the doctors there.
One of the doctors I asked about how he has kept the same nurses for the past 5 years. I thought this would be something cool for you to see.
I wrote up what he said in this quick post. Click here to see,
David Cristello

Now, this is a pretty short email. You can add more details about the conference, but notice how I’m offering them something of value (information about retaining nurses…important for doctors). Plus, I tease the point so they actually click.

That brings me to the final part about emails.

Make the Call-to-Action enticing.

Every email, no matter what it is, should try and get some response from your clients. Even if it’s something like:

Hi Dr. Andrews,
I’ve talked with a few other clients who are doctors and they were all asking about cashflow help. Is that something you have a question to ask about too?
David

That’s basically a ‘check-in’ email. The point is that it asks for a response. In other instances, you might try and entice them to click a link like the email above. The more action they take with your email, the more attached they become to your brand.

So, end every email with something to get them to respond or click. It can be as simple as asking a question (“What do you think?”) or try and get them to click (“Click here to read this”).

7 Quick Last Minute Tips on Emails:

  1. Please, please have your client name in your CRM. Nothing is worse than “Dear Client” emails…nothing screams mass mailing than that.
  2. Keep the staff update emails to a minimum. Most clients don’t care you had ‘jeans Friday’ last week. Too many of those and your important emails won’t get opened.
  3. Only flag emails as “IMPORTANT” when they really are. No crying wolf.
  4. A P.S. is proven to get more clicks in emails. Try it.
  5. Don’t bunch your paragraphs together. Keep paragraphs to 1-3 sentences. It’s easier to read.
  6. Try and speak (write) casually not all business-like. It’s more interesting to read how people talk, not how robots talk.
  7. The first line in your email is critical…best make it something that entices them to read the next line

RELATED ARTICLES:

  1. Offering Your Service To Business Owners? This is the #1 Thing To Remember

  2. How To Generate Your First 100 Accounting Clients & Building Recurring Revenue

  3. Chapter 5: Get Referrals and Attract the Clients You Want

See Jetpack Workflow In Action

Get under the hood of Jetpack Workflow’s accounting workflow and project management platform. See some of the top features and how it helps your firm standardize, automate, and track client work more efficiently.