I’ve got a question for you: What’s the most powerful lead generation thing you’ve ever done? In other words, what’s your “golden goose” for generating qualified leads that turn into real, paying clients?
Because a few things caught my attention this year that will undoubtedly influence your answer.
- AI took over the business feed.
- Google took one gut punch after another.
- Tax and accounting professionals talked with eyebrows raised about the speed of changes happening in our industry – this time from within, not mandated by the IRS as in past years.
We are witnessing a sea of change in our industry in so many key and consequential areas. Work productivity, software developments, and practice management tools in our space are experiencing innovative but tectonic shifts.
With the proliferation of AI as a golden thread through all of those spaces, the way our industry works is not the same as it was five years ago, and it will not be the same as it is five years from now.
Change is disruptive. It can also be scary and disorienting.
To me and my team, from our vantage point, there has never been a better time to be a firm owner in the tax and accounting industry.
If you can roll with the billowing sea of change, and embrace learning new technologies, we’re angling toward a world where getting work done in our industry is more streamlined and easier than ever.
Still work, but easier by and large.
So I want to come back to my first question: How are you getting on the phone (Zoom, Google Meet, Teams) with qualified leads?
As work efficiencies continue to increase, you’re still going to need a good answer for finding or getting found by folks you want to serve. Getting qualified leads requires focused effort.
In sharp contrast with the changes in your production tech stack and softwares, the core of digital marketing (and acquiring those qualified leads) isn’t actually changing that much, believe it or not. I mean, the details and minutiae of digital marketing are constantly changing, but the “E on the eye chart” is actually staying the same.
- Step 1: Create an ecosystem that generates meaningful visibility on Google via paid advertising, organic search, or both.
- Step 2: Make it easy for your customers to start a conversation with you on your site. (Hint: Figure out where their pain points are and speak to those things.)
- Step 3: Follow up with relationally-oriented email content (and SMS too!).
- Step 4: Reach for and engage your existing database of qualified leads and customers regularly, even when you don’t have a meeting on the books with them.
I speak to step #1 and #2 probably more than the other steps because, well, they are first on the list for a reason. Everything else flows like a waterfall from it.
If you’re not visible anywhere online first, nothing about your follow-up or sales process matters that much.
Steps #3 and #4 are the things you probably don’t realize you need, but that you will never go without again once you’ve crossed into the promised land of regularly emailing your list.
If that feels like a heavy lift, that’s what we’re here for.
That quote about moving mountains by carrying away small stones seems fitting for navigating the changes coming your way right now. Keep moving forward.
Or, as Dory so aptly sings to my three (very soon to be four) littles: just keep swimming.
With you in this,
Christian Jones
CEO, TaxProMarketer
