In-Season Profit Maximizers And Google Places

I’m still processing the 65-degree day yesterday, in mid-February, in KANSAS CITY, but the weather is cold again … and it smells like tax season!
There’s a few things that I wanted you to make sure you thought about, heading into the weekend here — as it relates to your marketing, and maximizing your profits even DURING the rush of tax season…
1) Google Places
Rightly so, there is a lot of clamor about claiming your territory in this precious online real estate — but I also happen to know that many tax professionals are missing out because they’re jumping the gun!
You see, the Google Places algorithm takes into account a variety of factors to determine which business is listed at the TOP (and, by the way — when people look for “Places” from a mobile device, the only algorithm is proximity, so I’m speaking here about when people browse “conventionally” from a computer).
The primary thing you need to understand, and the simplest factor, is that when you “claim” your Google Places listing, it’s critical that you have already listed your business with a bunch of OTHER local listings directories ahead of time. For some reason, Google doesn’t weigh your listing as favorably if you claim these listings after the fact.
So before you claim your listing there, claim it on other directories FIRST.
(By the way, all of our existing clients got an in-depth breakdown of this earlier this week, AND this process is something which we are already fully handling for our Website and SEO clients — so rest easy, if that’s you; we’re on top of it.) 
2) In-Season Profit-Maximizers
We also talked about these on Wednesday during our clients-only coaching call, but here are a few quick nuggets for you to digest, in order to maximize profit, even now:
* Increase your referrals during in-person client meetings
Run a staff contest to incentivize the asking, make sure that the ask is ACTUALLY occuring, and give your clients pre-written referral messages for email and social networks.
* Add “upsells” into your tax meeting process
“Assume the sale” with state tax prep, audit protection or other ancillary services and have your client expressly TURN THEM DOWN (rather than requiring them to “opt in”).
* Raise your prices, even now.
It’s been done by clients of ours, and it can be a major boost to your profits. Consider everyone who came in before March to have received “Early Bird Pricing” — chances are, you’re already under-priced to begin with!
* Trim your payroll
You know you have at least one staff member whose hours are bloating your expenses. Pull the trigger on (kindly) letting them go — and watch the rest of your staff realize that their job isn’t just a “given”.
Hope this helps!