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.

Sometimes we only get one shot at a prospect.

You know this to be true because you’ve been in the situation as the ‘prospect’ yourself.

When you’re surfing the web, on social media, wherever, and you suddenly see an article or ad that perks your interest.

You click on the ad, maybe it’s interesting, maybe not. Chances are unless provoked, you’ll read the content and then click back to the website you were at before.

What may have been an interesting experience for you has turned into a ‘loss’ for the website you were on. Because, since you consumed a piece of content, and enjoyed it…chances are, there are other pieces of content on that same website that would be interesting to you.

Unfortunately, the website didn’t pull you into more of their content, then capture your information, and perhaps sell you a product right then and there.

Instead, you have *poofed* and will probably never return to that website again.

Lost opportunity for them. Lost profits too.

If that sounds like it’s never happened to you, chances are, you didn’t realize it until later.

But, it’s happening on your website as you read this. 

Prospects — potentially ones worth millions over the next few years — are browsing your website, poking around, then leaving.

Never to return again.

Today, we are going to discuss how to capture prospects when they hit your firm’s page. That way, we can follow up with them later and perhaps turn them into a long-term client.

The ONE Page You Need to Capture Prospects and Get Their Information:

When someone hits your accounting website, our main goal is to get their information in some fashion. Typically, nowadays, that means a valid email address. The reason is we can follow up that prospect whenever we want.

After all, everyone checks their email.

It’s estimated it takes 8-12 touchpoints before a prospect remembers and cares about you — the business.

Go back to my initial example in the intro. Touchpoint #1 needs to work on getting them into a position where you can contact them again and again.

The best way to do that is through a LANDING PAGE.

A LANDING PAGE has two main components:

  1. It has a distinct, clear offer for what the prospect gets for handing over their email
  2. It specifically asks for an identification for the prospect (email, phone number, social media)

The most common landing page does this.

  1. Gives away something for free
  2. Gets prospects into your CRM

At Jetpack, we’ve offered free reports in exchange for emails. Our most popular lead generation tool is our free trial.
(Check it out here —> https://app.jetpackworkflow.com/users/sign_up)
capture prospects
Here, our offer is to give away 14 free days use of our software (Jetpack Workflow) in exchange for name and email. If they don’t continue with us after the trial, we have their information and can follow up them as needed.

Other common giveaway items are:

  1. Short ebooks/report/guide
  2. Recordings of a talk or presentation
  3. Discount on a product

Thus, before you put together a page to start capturing prospects, think about:

  • What kind of information does my client want?
  • What information would shock the prospect?
  • What ‘secret’s do I have that would really help the client?

In marketing, these questions have been forgotten. But they are the key to hooking prospects into your firm, not others.

Have a piece of information your clients are begging for. To get this info, talk to your prospects, do some deep research. You’ll find some of your ‘free gift’ ideas in the unlikely places.

Tools You Need on Your Website: 

Getting a LANDING PAGE set up can be super easy. All you need are the right tools.

First, you can download a plugin like OptimizePress (for WordPress sites) that has built-in landing pages.

If you’re more ambitious, sites like ClickFunnels puts together complex methods to set up funnels, landing pages and much more.
I’d recommend starting out with something that’s not complex.

For a LANDING PAGE, you could simply open up a new ‘page’ on your site and create it from scratch like a blog post. You just need to design it properly.

The second piece you need is an email provider who collects, stores, and sends mass emails.

The options out there continue to expand. There is MailChimp, ConvertKit, InfusionSoft, and others.

All do similar jobs with a few small tweaks between them. An email provider is important so you can actually capture prospects emails from the get-go.
That’s it for tools.

Next, it’s just a matter of ‘selling’ your free gift to the viewer.

How to Set Up Your Landing Page for Maximum Conversions: 

When we say “conversions”, we mean the percentage of people who hit your LANDING PAGE and put in their email.

For a free offer, we’re shooting between 20-50%. Meaning, for every 100 people to hit our site, we want to get 20-50 emails.

If you can get higher than 50%, you’re in incredible shape. But, 20% is about as low as we want to go for conversions.

You can calculate your conversions by looking at the traffic that hits your page and comparing visitors vs. actual email addresses captured and stored in your email provider that you chose.

To actually set up your LANDING PAGE, there are a variety of routes you can go.

It’s short and punchy, or
It’s got longer copy to sell.

Longer copy LANDING PAGES work best for long-term conversions. Short and punchy can get you more email addresses faster. The only way to figure out what works for your firm is to test, test, test. Test multiple LANDING PAGES at once if possible.

To get the gist of a basic LANDING PAGE, here’s what you need:

  1. A compelling headline
  2. An interesting offer
  3. Short bullets about what they get
  4. Proof of your authority

Let’s look at a few quick examples from well-known info marketers around the web.

I don’t want to use examples from the accounting niche because I don’t want you to be influenced by other firms out there. Do the work and research yourself.

First, Derek Halpern from Social Triggers. His popular blog helps people start and grow a profitable online business.

Check out the top headline of his LANDING PAGE.

capturing prospects

Now, his LP (landing page lingo) is longer than most folks if you look at it. But, that’s because he believes it will convert more subscribers, but also prep new prospects to know, like and trust him more. In turn, they will buy more.
When you scroll down the page, you’ll see his compelling offer “Get 5,000 email subscribers.”
capturing prospects
Imagine 5,000 new prospects on your list right now? That feels pretty good.
As the last point, he builds proof on his page with a lot of stats and data backing up his claims. Dig deep and find stats that can back up your offer and the ‘sale’ becomes much easier.

Next, we will look at Neil Patel. He helps online businesses increase traffic to their sites.
capture prospects
His LANDING PAGE follows similarly to the framework I shared above. He has a compelling headline. He reveals he will send you a cheat sheet of how to rank for competitive keywords. And then he has bullet points teasing what is inside the free gift.
capture prospects
If you’re wondering where the “proof” is here, it’s hidden in plain sight. The exact number “1,702,148” subconsciously tells us that he knows what he is talking about. It’s specific not to mention a huge number.
Most websites don’t see one million visits over 10 years! He promises that in a month.
Huge claim and offer.

Last, here is a bit different of an offer. It’s from Tim Sykes, the most notorious penny stock trader online.
Here he is offering actually a free ebook about “how I did it.” It’s more a story than a ‘step-by-step’ strategy.
capture prospects

Notice, at the top, it’s immediate proof. A quote about the book along with a “5-star” from Amazon.
Again, compelling headline === check.
If you scroll down, you’ll see bullet points teasing what’s in the book.
capture prospects
Sykes did something interesting as he added a personal video to the LP. This is a great way to connect to the audience, plus Sykes has a magnetic personality that draws you in. If there’s a way to use you or someone on your team in a short video, try it out.


To close out this post, what you want to remember is that it’s important to capture prospects when they hit your site.
The best way to do that is to get their email. The easiest path to an email is a LANDING PAGE.
It’s not hard to set up, but it could explode the amount of prospects that walk through your door this month.
Try it now.

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Jeff Brandeis, Chief Revenue Officer of QuickFee, says “cash is king” in any business, not just accounting firms. Unfortunately, it was reported that firms under $3 million in billing had around 30% of their accounts receivable outstanding for over 90 days!

That means you have less money to pay the bills, employees, and grow your company. It’s time to change that.

In this episode of the Growing Your Firm Podcast, David Cristello and Jeff Brandeis discuss:

  • What you’re doing wrong with your billing (it’s causing a loss of cash)
  • How team members can get involved
  • The #1 way to begin cutting down your receivables in the next 30 days

ADDITIONAL LINKS: 

“Cash is King”: 

Jeff Brandeis works at QuickFee — a payment portal for businesses to collect revenues — helping businesses and firms cut down on accounts receivable.

“Cash is King”, Jeff says. It’s an old saying, but it’s worth repeating when you think about it. Cash pays the bills. You can’t pay your employees with accounts receivable. Not to mention, having more cash in the bank means you have more “soldiers” for growth, as you can deploy your capital into marketing.

Unfortunately, accounting firm owners have resigned themselves to waiting for 90 days to pass before collecting. Your business can’t grow this way.

Inside Public Accounting did a study. It reported that firms under $3 million in billing had around 30% of their accounts receivable outstanding for over 90 days. Out of all firms, the average is close to 26.1%, which is around the same. One-third of the money you earned is floating out there and not in your bank account.
Jeff even sees firms who don’t practice what they preach. These firms teach their clients the importance of cash flow, yet they are twice as worse in their firm.

At QuickFee, Jeff says his goal is to help each client chop their accounts receivable in half. (There will typically always be accounts receivable, FYI). Thus, Jeff shoots for a 15% accounts receivable pattern in the numbers.
If you’re curious about what causes these cash flow problems, that’s what we will cover next.

The Problems Causing Sickely Cashflow Issues: 

None of us like to admit having a problem, especially if we’re not collecting the money that is due to us. However, Jeff sees the same problems happening again and again.

The reason most firms have cashflow issues stems from not getting your invoice out the door fast enough. That’s right. We are shooting ourselves in the foot.

Here’s what’s going on: We finish work on a client, we wait 1-2 weeks to send the bill, we draw up the bill, give it to our admin staff, they wait 1-2 weeks to send it out. Then, the client gets it. It sits on their desk for 30-45 days. Then, they forget about the bill or pay it much later. Meanwhile, you are trying to run the business.

In essence, the workflow is the main predictor of accounts receivable issues. Right now, firms average around 66 days to get paid after a project is completed. Jeff works with his clients to get them down to 45 days if not lower.

Another issue isn’t workflow, it’s fear. Fear of actually sending out a bill and getting pushback from the client. None of us like to lose clients. So, every time we send a bill, we pray it’s not the bill that ends the relationship.

Yet, when you think about it, the accounting industry is the most different out of all industries in terms of how we collect fees.

Look at the plumbing business. If you have a leaky pipe, they come to fix it. Then, what do they do in the end? That’s right, they give you the bill to pay ASAP. There’s no delayed payments, no hesitations, just cash in the bank for their plumbing business. Why is it not the same for accounting firms? The bill is part of every service or product.

Why are we timid?

There are a few things to start trying out now so you can turn your accounts receivables into cash.

Give Your Team Members the POWER: 

Right now, owners have their sticky fingers in too many pots in firms. One of the big ones is the billing side. It’s not uncommon to see only partners prepare billing sheets and bill out.

Firm owners and partners are busy. They are trying to bring in more business, they’re managing employees and workflow, the list goes on. Guess how far up the priority list is preparing invoices? Very low.

That’s why owners need to start empowering their team members to be able to bill. Not to mention, team members should know the billable rate of the firm, so it shouldn’t be too difficult. If you undercharge one time, it’s not a huge issue. Those small things can be corrected and learned. Leaving thousands if not millions of receivables uncollected is much, much worse.

If you run a ‘fixed fee’ firm, which is becoming more popular, there are zero reasons your team can’t send out bills themselves. Get it off the plate of the owners, it’s a waste of their time and it’s not helping with collections.

Here is the #1 Tip for Lowering Your Accounts Receivable: 

The best way to begin lowering accounts receivables is by having the conversation with new and renewing clients. Explain in clear specifics on how you expect to get paid and when they should pay.

DAVID’S TIP:Having these types of conversations during the onboarding process does two things: 1) It’s an easier conversation than having one with a long-time client. 2) You set expectations so there are no surprises.

Some firms put ‘late fees’ on their invoices as a scare tactic to pay on time. Yet, Jeff notices almost 100% of the time, when a client asks for a waiver of the fee when they pay late, it just piles onto the notion that you allow late payments. That’s why, instead of focusing on scare tactics, focus on having those conversations and setting expectations.
Perhaps the best tip of all…

There are so many ways to get paid today — online, ACH, Paypal, and, of course, straight check, and now a payment plan that is financed through QuickFee No longer can we simply wait for a check to get sent. Sometimes clients would prefer electronic payment and in a payment plan.

When you have the flexibility in how you get paid, it makes the sale easier, and it makes it easier to stay paid. 

Jeff actually says: If you break up payments into payment plans, you can actually charge more because you can add more services that they need each month. So, in the end, it’s a win-win.

If you’d like to hear more from Jeff and what he does with QuickFee to get you paid, email him at jeff@quickfee.com. Or, call him at 310-584-1141.

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