Real Tax Business Success
Lesson - 18
Your Tax Office Is One Big Sales Media—
So Take Advantage Of Every Opportunity!
Author: Chauncey Hutter Jr.
I want you to “step outside your business” for a minute (in your mind of course) and take a different kind of look at it with me. I want you to think with me for a second of the “complete business flow” that goes on in your tax office.
A prospect sees your ad in the yellow pages. (Or the new yellow pages … GOOGLE.) He calls your office and decides to make an appointment. He comes down to your office and he is greeted by the receptionist. He waits in the lobby for a few minutes and goes back to meet with a tax preparer. Since he has all his correct tax related information, the preparer decides to finish the return right there as the client watches.
The tax return is complete in less than an hour and the preparer takes the return to a processor and tells the client it will be about 15 minutes to review the return, make copies and have all the paperwork in order ready for him to sign. The receptionist, processor and tax preparer all thank him for his business as the tax service is completed. The client picks up the return, signs it and pays for everything and is now on his way to the post office to mail his return and finish his “tax obligations” for the year. [Or in our electronic world, the tax return is most likely e-filed at this point.]
That’s a pretty standard tax office flow. Your office will be a little different than that, one way or the other, but here’s what I want you to notice.
There are “SELLING or MARKETING” opportunities in every tax office’s normal business flow.
The way a receptionist makes eye contact and greets a person when they first walk in makes a difference. What brochures or fliers are available as the client waits? Does the tax preparer make the new client “feel” taken care of? (That is more marketing than you realize.) Does the “referral plan” get pitched properly either during or once the tax return is completed? How about the processor giving “quality assurance” the tax return has been double checked for peace of mind? And finally, what back end “stimulation” procedures are in place to increase referrals? (ie. Free gifts, thank you letter etc.)
Do you see this is ONE BIG SALES PROCESS or FUNNEL? You have your tax client in your office and you take the opportunity to “funnel” the client from one place to the next in your office with the whole purpose of increasing your overall back end and long term business.
Now imagine: What if you had an even BIGGER funnel over top of your tax office. And you knew from past experience that for every 10 people you added at the top of your funnel (and funneled them through your tax office), seven of them would come back the following tax season (and of those seven, four would be in your client base at least five years.) And you also knew that those same initial 10 people over a five year period would refer a total of 20 new people to your tax business.
So what’s the question you should be asking? …
“HOW CAN I GET AS MANY PEOPLE AS I CAN IN THAT HUGE FUNNEL ABOVE MY OFFICE AND RUN THEM THROUGH MY “INNER OFFICE” FUNNEL (PREFERABLY) AS EARLY IN THE TAX SEASON AS POSSIBLE?”
This may seem to be an obvious goal, but here’s why I am making such a big deal about this: it’s all about radical simplification. Look, part of this “49 Lessons” Process is to turn you into a Marketing Expert, especially relative to other Tax Business Owners. But here’s the little secret of top marketers everywhere: they do everything they can to keep things simple! And this is an easy way to conceive of your business…and it affects how you select your media.
So when you advertise and promote your tax business, never forget this “funnel” technique.
(If you do, you’re just leaving money on the table for some other tax business to have.)
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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Real Tax Business Success
205 2nd Street S.W. Charlottesville, VA 22902
Phone (434) 293-2707 Email chauncey@taxmarketing.com Fax 1 (888) 794-5712
©RTBS / Chauncey Hutter, Jr