client service opportunities

5 ways to attract higher-quality clients

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arrow hits target bulls eyefinding the sweet-spot for your target client.

by sandi smith leyva
the accountant’s accelerator

many accountants serve clients with extremely small businesses that gross six figures a year or even less. these clients are prone to being price-sensitive and often struggle with budgets and cash flow. if you’re serving these clients, you’re definitely meeting an important need in the marketplace, but you may also start to question your own prices, or worse, under-price your services. read more →

8 essential ingredients for your new client welcome kit

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by sandi smith leyva
the accountant’s accelerator

how you welcome your new client can set the tone for a relationship that could last for years or in the worst of cases, just days. start out on the right foot by looking super-organized (because that’s part of why we get hired anyway) and making it super-easy for a client to get on board with you. the best vehicle for this is a welcome kit. here are eight things that should be in your kit at a minimum: read more →

sound off: accountants see opportunity in obamacare

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bullhorn

in comments, it gets political.

by 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间

call it what you will – the affordable care act or obamacare – accountants are calling it opportunity.

when we asked recently, “what’s the future of the professional tax preparation business?” a number of respondents called out the affordable care act.

“i think as aca takes effect we will be busier than ever before,” said jay d. parks of jay d. parks & associates, cpas in edmond, okla. read more →

some clients just aren’t worth the ‘mishegoss’

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by ed mendlowitz

question: i have a client i really don’t like and want to drop, but i hesitate because of the long relationship i’ve had with her, and also i don’t want to lose the income. what should i do?

response: i’ve addressed this before, but i am taking a different approach this time.

dropping clients is never easy and i don’t think should be done lightly. however, there are some instances when it needs to be done. this particular client i was called about is extremely obnoxious. not the normal grade of obnoxious, but far more so.

in fact it was one of the rare clients that i dropped. the call was from the accountant who had the client since then. i had the client six years. she’s had the client eight years – so she is much more patient than i am.

when she told the client she was dropping her, the client started to cry and beg her not to, so she changed her mind. now she wants me to tell her what to do. for beginners, i have dropped very few clients. this client was one of the nastiest people i’ve ever dealt with. she was also very nasty to her husband, treating him like s – – t, and he has since passed on.

read more →

how to find new clients on social media

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leadtail2

study shows cfos’ key interests and topics for conversation.

by 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间

new research into chief financial officers’ habits on twitter shows their favorite topics of conversation, how they describe themselves and their top sources of information.

any one of those could be an opportunity to make a connection, maybe even make a new client, according to business development experts. 

read more →

the 5 first steps in targeting clients

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ed mendlowitz cpa the practice doctor q and a

how to build a plan.

by ed mendlowitz
101 questions and answers for managing an accounting practice 

question: i want to start growing my practice but am having trouble defining my target client.  i tend to accept every client i can and seem to have clients all over the place. is there anything i can do to better target my “ideal” clients? 

answer: to have a target client means you have a target. the target is the result of a plan. so, what is your plan?  read more →

i just lost my biggest client

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ed mendlowitz cpa the practice doctor q and a

by ed mendlowitz
“tax season opportunity guide“

question: i just suddenly lost my biggest client. they said they outgrew me. what could i have done to keep them?

response: maybe nothing. and at this point it may not matter, but there are some things you can do to maybe get them back in the future and stop it from happening with another client.

losing any client is not pleasant, and losing a large client hurts. and when it is sudden it hurts even more.

i will answer this in three parts.

1. how to try to salvage something from the loss.
2. how to stop this from happening in the future.
3. how to avoid being “suddenly” surprised. read more →

overcoming your clients’ worst fears

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how to help them take initiative and allow you to be proactive.

by hitendra patil
pransform inc.

neuroscience studies have shown that fear is a far bigger driver than we would ever care to admit. according to kevin hogan, author of the science of influence: how to get anyone to say “yes” in 8 minutes or less!, “most people react to the fear of loss and the threat of pain in a much more profound way than they do for gain. they overemphasize the importance of pain by about 2.5:1 in decision making.”

your customers and prospects fear that their actions or inactions will cause bad things to happen, or bad things can suddenly happen to them. it’s therefore important to ask yourself what sort of problems your potential clients are facing during current times. if you can identify their true fears and show them how you can remove the possibility of loss, you are one step ahead of your competitors. read more →