As a Marketer I’ve had many conversations about the most effective forms of lead generation. And to be honest most accountants I speak to have lead generation pretty high up the list of topics during our initial conversation. However Practice development is not all about constantly generating new leads.
I can tell you categorically that there are only three ways you can grow your practice
1. Generate More Leads
2. Convert More Of Those Leads Into Fee Paying Clients
3. Maximise The Return You Get From Your Existing Client Base
So whilst I can see that wanting to generate more leads is important there is the small question of actually turning those costly leads into Clients and this is where people (in all types of business) fail.
So addressing number two i.e. converting leads into fee paying clients should be your first port of call. And let’s face it without fixing this one is there any real point in generating more leads?
Assuming you have a website and or some directory adverts running ask yourself this question ‘How many unsolicited enquiries do I get per month via the web or through say Yellow Pages?’
Now whilst you’re busy adding them all up my guess is that the answer is most probably ‘Not Enough’
Why?
Because your potential clients shop for their business services in exactly the same way as you do. They know the service they require and they set about finding the provider who will give the best possible service and be of greatest benefit and valueto them.
Now there may be numerous benefits and some very good reasons why somebody should become one of your clients – But do they know what they are? How do you communicate all the many benefits of being a client with the people you’ve yet to meet? – This is called Marketing.
J D Rockerfeller summed it up very well...
“Next to doing the right thing.
The most important thing
Is to let people know
You are doing the right thing”
Let me illustrate this very point for you...
I recently, at the behest of a good friend took on a non Accountancy client – An office cleaning contractor. In three months we have managed to double his client base. Now I’d love to tell you that this was totally down to my superb copywriting skills and a hitherto unknown marketing master plan designed by yours truly but unfortunately I can’t.
Those of you who employ contract cleaners will at one time or another have encountered reliability issues I’m sure. In a recent survey the biggest gripe of contract cleaning customers was the fact that often a cleaner would not turn up, to compound this they’d still be billed and then spend an eternity trying to get a credit note and prove the transgression in the first place.
My client (the cleaning company) had, at enormous cost built a tracking system that allowed a cleaner to dial his computer on entry to an office enter a pin number and then redial when clocking out at the allotted time. The clever computer then prepared the billing and recorded the numbers from which the calls were made. If a cleaner does a no show i.e. no call with a pin number, a message is sent to my clients mobile and he finds a replacement cleaner.
What a fantastic system... Offices always cleaned, No spurious invoices, No credit note issues, No disgruntled customers.
So were all the benefits of this fantastic system plastered all over his Website? Emblazoned on Company Brochures? Heralded in Self Satisfied Sales Letters..?
No Not a Bit Of It...
And Why?
Because he’d never met J D Rockerfeller and he thought it was just a nerdy thing he’d developed. He’d been a software engineer before joining the family cleaning business.
In reality he was hung up with selling his services in exactly the same way as all the other cleaning companies. He had missed the real value and benefit of his service (that his very loyal customers were enjoying) even though it was staring him in the face and was never going to tell anyone.
Just remember what Mr Rockerfeller said – he didn’t do too badly
Mike Smith