Tax Season Is Over – Now, How Do I Grow My Business?
By Jack Surgent, CPA

If you are in public accounting and work in tax, you are probably just starting to feel like your old self again. It is amazing what a few weekends off can do to raise your spirits. If you are like me, I ask myself the same question at this time every year: now that busy season is over, how do I grow my business? We all hope that the phone will ring soon with that big new business client that wants our help immediately. The problem is that we also know that this rarely happens in the real world, and we need to do more to bring new business into the firm. The question is -- how?

The easiest way to get new business is to provide our existing clients with more services. The next best way is to have our existing clients refer new clients to us. The hardest way is to go out and find that new client on our own. While we all agree with this analysis, I don’t think we execute on this plan very well. For example, if you only talk with an individual client once a year when you do their tax return, and they see how busy you are, they know that this is not a good time to talk about other matters. Look at it from the client's perspective: in most cases, they do not want to bother you during busy season with any tax or financial issues they have, because they feel bad that you are so busy. Studies have been done in the financial services industry to determine what it takes for high-net-worth individuals to refer business. One study concluded that you had to have a minimum of 28 contacts in a year with this type of individual before they would refer business. I believe that this same study would apply to our industry.

Talking with a client once a year just does not cut it if you expect that person to refer you to their friends and business associates. Also, when I talk to CPAs about referrals, they do not think that preparing individual tax returns is a good lead generator for new business. Why? They say that the partners at their CPA firms are looking for business clients; not more individual clients. While I understand their view, I strongly disagree with it. In my opinion, every referral you get comes from a relationship with an individual. In my practice, we cultivate our individual clients and the individual business owner to refer other individuals. These people might be professionals, closely-held business owners, or high-net-worth individuals to whom we can provide services or who can refer us to others. In other words, you have to keep expanding your relationships to keep growing your business.

Now, up to this point I hope you are saying that this all makes sense. But the problem remains -- how can I possibly maintain a relationship with each of my clients 28 times a year in order to finally get a referral? Well, here is the pitch. Click on the link below to find out about 20 customized emails for individuals and business owners. We have developed all of the content; however, because they are customized with your firm's information, they appear to have been fully developed by you! The idea is that you can email these Client Alerts to hundreds or thousands of your clients, or to professionals in your community. Each of these alerts provides a tax or financial planning strategy or key information that a client needs to know. Further, these alerts generally suggest that the recipient should contact you if they want to find out more or if they want to fully execute the strategy or idea put forth in the article. In this way, you are pitching your existing clients with more services and providing the kind of contact that will lead to new referrals from your existing clients.

I know that my CPA firm has one of the highest profit margins in the country. One reason for that is that we constantly focus on marketing and service. The tag line for our firm is “personal service -- valuable results.” Using email with direct offers for services is one of the most effective, low-cost marketing strategies that firms should consider.