When looking to grow the fees in your practice you have three options:
- Cross-sell additional services to existing clients.
- Target business start-ups.
- Target established businesses.
In this article, we will focus on the last option and how accountants should target established businesses.
The first thing to bear in mind when targeting established businesses is that they will already have an accountant. The marketing activities you deploy will therefore be aimed at getting them to question the service they are receiving from their current accountant and if they would be better off signing up to your firm instead.
In many instances, you are implementing a ‘next in line’ strategy. You want to make these businesses aware of who you are, what you do and how you can help them so that as and when they start looking to change their accountant, yours is the first firm they think of.
The second thing to bear in mind is that it will take time to sign up these types of clients, unless of course you get lucky and your marketing hits them at the right time!
The 9 point plan to targeting established businesses
- Decide what type of businesses you want to act for. Is that related to their sector where you have a particular specialism, the size of business, or where they are located?
- Do your homework. Do as much research as you can to gather the correct contact details of the person you want to speak to, but also to confirm information about the business. This research should involve looking at their website and Companies House information but could also extend to checking out any trade associations or professional associations they belong to.
- Before contacting your targets, ensure they are happy to receive unsolicited marketing communications by checking they have not registered with the Mail Preference Service or Telephone Preference Service.
- Ask your existing clients and business contacts to see if they know the target people and if so, could they introduce you. As with all marketing activities, the aim is to start a conversation and it is much easier to do that when it is by personal introduction or recommendation.
- Send a personalised letter inviting them to a free 1-2-1 to find out more about their business and to identify ways you could help them.
- A few days after sending this letter make a follow-up call to confirm receipt of the letter and to see if they would like to book a 1-2-1 appointment, but also to start finding out more about them and their business. They may not have a reason to leave their accountant at the moment, but any information which you can gather at this stage is very useful for future conversations. Also, use this time to ask if they would be happy to receive your newsletter or be sent future marketing letters and updates.
- Connect with them on social media. It gives another touchpoint for helping to keep your name and your firm’s name at the front of their mind. Ideally connect with them on a personal basis, such as on LinkedIn, but also follow their company pages on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook. The aim is to get them to reciprocate these connections so over time they see posts from your firm in their news feed, which will hopefully prompt some interest and get them engaging with you.
- Having sent the above letter, plan to send them follow-up mailings or emails (providing they have not opted out of receiving any future marketing communications from you). I would suggest future communications should be every 3-4 months (with the exception of newsletters, which are fine to send monthly). These additional mailings or emails can include things such as invites to future webinars or events, but also sector-specific or business/tax-related updates which would be of interest to them.
- Where invites to webinars and events have been issued, you should continue to make follow-up phone calls to see if they would like to attend. Again, use this time to further the conversation and to start developing the relationship, with a view to arranging a 1-2-1 with them.
Targeting established businesses tends to be a long-term marketing strategy and, in many cases, takes over 12 months to convert a client. However, when these businesses sign up to be your clients, you can expect to retain them for a long period, so the gross recurring fees are worth it.
When it comes to making follow-up phone calls, I would recommend using the skills of a good telemarketer or using an admin or marketing person within your firm who is happy to make cold calls. Their aim is to ultimately get the person to sign up to a 1-2-1 with you, but this may take several calls to achieve, so it best to use a designated person to do this, thereby freeing up your time.
The follow-up calls are vital and not doing them is usually the reason why many marketing campaigns fail, so do factor this into your plans when targeting established businesses. Read our blog ‘Using telemarketing to increase your fees’ for more tips on making phone calls.
If you would like help with targeting established businesses, give me a call on 01822 833300 or email me at vicki@momentumforprofessionals.co.uk.
