For tax and accounting professionals, this is the slow, potentially-lazy time. You might be reading this on your phone someplace warm, someplace vacation. Or, you’re enjoying the slower pace around the office — knowing that it won’t last.
Maybe you’re browsing around looking for solutions … and, well — it really is difficult to make decisions about different service offerings.
The hype-merchants online are everywhere, and you must be very careful about who you trust.
Possibly-damaging confession time: when I first started in business … I was one of them.
It’s an easy way to make a sale, but it’s not sustainable. It’s not relationship-oriented, and you end up with a steadily-deteriorated level of trust with your prospects and clients. Trust me — I’ve seen that happen first-hand, in a business or two I’ve observed.
(Now, of course, that said, too many tax & accounting professionals are far too leery of *anything* remotely smacking of salesmanship, so they avoid it to their detriment.)
But when marketing and selling your tax or financial services you can eschew the hype but it certainly doesn’t mean that you leave aside effective copywriting.
Because sometimes, what “looks” like hype, is actually the most integruous way to market yourself.
Here’s an example for you to consider …
Every successful business I’ve been involved with has made guarantees, and in my opinion, it represents a significant missed opportunity for tax firms of all stripes.
I’ve always told clients in private coaching situations: “If you can’t make a strong and bold guarantee backing up your tax services, you need to get out of the tax business altogether.”
I really mean that, too. If you can’t look a taxpayer or business owner client in the eye and guarantee you’ll take care of them with a specific promise (you’re deciding ahead of time what that guarantee will be), then why are you even showing up for work?
What makes you different? What makes someone come to you for services? [Sound familiar from when I’ve discussed Unique Selling Propositions (USP)?] And one of the most common ways to offer an excellent USP is through a specific promise or guarantee made by the owner of the company.
A guarantee is best used as a “selling opportunity”, not as a place to lay out policy and procedure. (You set up your office and train your employees to follow a system of policies and procedures to ensure you “back up” what you say you’ll do in your guarantee.)
And as a side note: The more specific accountability you hold to your guarantee, the better your employees will have to perform to meet the client’s expectations. It can be a built-in operational check.
Most tax or accounting firms don’t have a written guarantee in their advertising. (Usually, of course, owners *do* guarantee the tax returns or write-up work they prepare for accuracy. If for some reason something is wrong with the work, they will fix it for free and/or pay any penalties and interest on that mistake.)
But the problem is not the guarantee itself. The problem is the owner not promoting it properly. They’re thinking more along the lines of actually having to “pay out” instead of what a bold guarantee would “bring in” with respect to new sales.
Promoting a powerful guarantee will increase your overall profit, even if you do have to refund fees at some point.
Example in a seasonal tax business:
- Tax Firm #1 has a basic guarantee. If the return is wrong, he’ll fix it at no charge. (He doesn’t hold the speed of his service accountable in a bold guarantee.) He prepared 200 tax returns this year. No increase from previous year.
- Tax Firm #2 develops a strong USP from a bold guarantee. Tax Returns Prepared In 24 Hours. “We guarantee a one day turn around and the return’s complete accuracy or you don’t pay us a penny!” (He knows this particular target market WANTS a fast turn around on their tax preparation services so he promotes this bold, USP with meaningful specifics to his target clients.)
This tax firm ended up paying out for (or preparing for free) 20 tax returns, in standing by their guarantee. But the overall number of tax returns completed in his office this tax season was 450 (up 250 returns from last year’s total of 200.)
Now which seasonal business would you rather have, #1 or #2?
It’s easy to see that it makes more sense to pay out a few refunds (or not charge someone for their tax service) and get a bigger piece of the pie — than to have no refunds (or no free tax returns) and receive a smaller piece of this market.
And, of course, the same thing applies with high-end clients, with business owners, and with the lower-end market. The only thing which may change would be *what* you guarantee, and/or how you say it.
When you consider your marketing strategy, realize this: a powerful guarantee can vastly improve your results.