Real Tax Business Success
Lesson - 17
Here’s The VERY FIRST MEDIA You Should Use:
Author: Chauncey Hutter Jr.
Without a doubt, the first media to always start with is a sales letter to your own clients. When I do consultations with people, this is the first place I tell them to start.
They want to start out and go after this market and then target that market, and I say, “Wait a minute! You have to tap into the goldmine already right under your nose.”
They will say, “Oh, I already send my clients a Christmas card.” Or, “Don’t worry, they get a postcard from me each year in the first week of January!”
This in my opinion is a terrible waste of “existing” assets and resources.
Yes I said ASSETS! (Your database IS the top asset in your office. More so than your money in the bank. More so than the computers or your office space.)
Let’s say you’ve got 400 clients that came into your office and did business with you last year. Did you know mailing the right sales letter “reminding” them how great you are and why they came to you last year, updating them on your “story” and what’s new for this tax season, AND MOST IMPORTANTLY, giving them some extra incentive to refer others to your tax business, COULD INCREASE YOUR CLIENT BASE BY AS MUCH AS 10% TO 15% WITH JUST ONE SALES LETTER!
It’s true. And to think you wouldn’t take advantage of those 400 potential sales reps already out there in your community just waiting to have an extra few reasons to talk about you to their friends. Don’t let that kind of word of mouth business go untapped!
We are in a “service” business. Service businesses historically “live” off of word of mouth income. Why not “fan the flames” even more and do more than just LIVE? How about increase your income drastically!
I don’t know why I have to continue to hammer this point home all the time, but some tax business owners still think the extra expense of a few mailings in January costs too much. (It might cost you a few extra dollars in “up-front cash flow” in the early part of tax season, but it is well worth your time, effort and money, with more new clients and an increase in your income during the overall tax season!)
Most tax business owners still don’t “get it” when I say the BACK END part of your tax business is the most profitable! Things like a “dual incentive” Special Refer-A-Friend Plan to increase the “talking up” that goes on between friends, associates and/or neighbors. That IS part of your back end business.
The front end is obviously getting new clients. (It can get expensive.)
If you’re doing a good job in your tax business, you will automatically get referrals. But that’s NOT the best part nor the most profitable part of your back end. It’s the repeat clients that we all get each year. (The lifetime “VALUE” of your clients should be a mandatory study for every tax business owner.)
If you went out and measured how much money you actually made from an ad you ran 10 years ago, it’d boggle your mind. (That’s the REAL back end.)
And if you keep in touch with your clients throughout the offseason in some capacity (a newsletter, regular mailings, occasional gatherings, etc.)…well, that’s what will take it up even another notch!
Chauncey Hutter Jr.
Tax Marketing Expert
Chauncey Hutter, Jr, is a best-selling author and leading marketing consultant and success coach to the tax industry. Mr. Hutter grew his father’s $50,000 per year tax preparation business to a multi-million dollar empire with 24 locations, 400+ employees and over 27,000 tax clients all coming from his marketing campaigns.
For more info on Real Tax Business Success, go to www.taxmarketing.com
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