7 Strategies To Capitalise On Your Acres Of Diamonds!

When you’re constantly looking to acquire more clients, it’s easy to forget about your most prized asset - your EXISTING clients. This is a mistake I see often.

In many ways, it’s easy to understand why existing clients are neglected, but it’s no excuse.

Growing your firm is challenging (I don’t need to tell you that). But having strategies to retain existing clients and to maximise profits from them are without doubt the quickest, easiest and most cost-effective ways to grow your accounting firm AND give you the income and earnings you desire.

So let’s take a look at the different strategies you can use right now to capitalise on the relationship you already have with your existing clients… 

STRATEGY #1: INCREASE YOUR FEES ANNUALLY

The best and easiest way to maximise profits is to increase your fees. This is a no-brainer.
Systematically increase your fees by at least 15% EVERY year.
You’ll be surprised how few clients you lose as a result and the ones that do leave are the ones you don’t want anyway (price-conscious).

The reason why price increases are so successful is because YOU’RE NOT CHARGING ENOUGH RIGHT NOW ANYWAY. There’s a significant element of added value which you can capitalise on - and increasing your prices is the easiest way to do this.

STRATEGY #2: WOW YOUR CLIENTS WITH MOMENTS OF TRUTH

One of the best ways to add value, build strong relationships and retain clients is to use Moments Of Truth (MOT). We discuss MOT often in these pages, but if you’re new to AFG, MOT are the steps you take at each interaction with your clients to ensure their experience with you is exceptional.

If you focus on every interaction you have with a client and make this the BEST it can be each time, you will create a world-class service.

You’ll retain far more clients and strengthen the bond you have with them - making them less susceptible to the advances of your competition.

STRATEGY #3: TELL THEM WHAT YOU SELL

I know this sounds almost ridiculous, but guess what? Your clients don’t know what you sell.

How many times have you spoken to a client and they’ve turned to you and said something like, “We’ve just gone to ABC company for XYZ,” only for you to turn round to them and say, “Didn’t you know we do that?”

This is more common than you think. Plus, it also brings into focus that if they don’t know what you offer, they won’t even think to buy it. So making them aware of what you sell will prevent many clients from sourcing this service from other suppliers and also increase the likelihood of them buying the service from you.

There are more, but here are 2 easy ways to do this…

1. Include a list of services with short descriptions in your newsletter (see next strategy). This can either be within the newsletter itself or as an insert.
2. Send a letter 4 times a year making clients aware of the services you sell. A good way to do this is to use a tick-box approach whereby you ask them to tick the services they would like more information on. You then follow up with those who want more information. This strategy alone will yield significant income opportunities for you.

STRATEGY #4: SEND A MONTHLY PRINTED NEWSLETTER

This is still one of the least-used strategies, but sending a printed monthly newsletter to clients is one of the best things you can do. Done right, it can achieve all of the following for you…

• Help to retain clients
• Get clients to buy new services from you
• Motivate clients to buy more existing services from you
• Keep clients engaged with you, strengthening your relationship with them
• Differentiate you from the competition
• And much, much more

To begin with, keep it simple. 4 pages is ample, but your goal should be to increase to 8 pages.

STRATEGY #5: SEGMENT YOUR CLIENT LIST

Segmenting their client list is something that very few firms ever do. Instead, they treat every client in the same way. But, clients are not created equally. Pareto’s ‘80/20 Rule’ is applicable to your client base. 80% of your profit will come from 20% of your clients. 80% of your headaches come from 20% of your clients, and so on. It is vital that you identify who your best clients are, so you can focus on giving them the attention they deserve. Reference our execution plan on ‘A-D Client Segmentation’ for more details.

STRATEGY #6: PHONE YOUR BEST CLIENTS

Now you’ve segmented your client list, you can start to communicate more with your best clients (’A’ and ‘B+’).

Simply picking up the phone once or twice a year and having a general discussion on how things are going will ultimately lead to more opportunities and, therefore, more business for you.

STRATEGY #7: CLIENT APPRECIATION EVENT

Once a year, you should organise a ‘Client Appreciation Event’ either at your office or a local hotel/restaurant and treat your best clients. Once again, you’ll be surprised by how much extra business this generates for you.

There are, of course, many more strategies you can use to generate more and more business from your clients. These 7 strategies are a good place to start.



To know more and be up-to-date, contact us:
☎ 020 89310165 | ☏ 07900537459 | ✉ info@apjaccountancy.com

Creating An Effective Agenda!

Having a printed agenda is one of the important ingredients for creating a successful sales meeting. But you don’t have to restrict the use of an agenda to just face-to-face meetings.

You should use them for seminars, webinars, teleconferences and any other interaction you have with       your existing and prospective customers, clients or patients.

Agendas have become an ‘endangered species’.

They are rarely used today in business, but they have so many advantages and benefits…

• First, they give you control. It’s a little-known fact that   an agenda gives complete control to the person who created it in the first place.
• Second, they show you’re organized and professional.
• And third, they ensure you don’t forget to cover the main points of the presentation.

The example shown below is a template of the style of Agenda we use for our regular meetings.

There’s no ‘rocket science’ when it comes to creating an effective agenda. The fact that you use one is the most important reason for having one.

But let’s just cover the main points that you need to address…

1. GIVE IT A HEADING

Make sure you give your agenda a title. Ideally, it should include a benefit of the meeting and add a sense of importance.

Notice in the agenda opposite the title is ‘Building a Better Business’.

The meeting is therefore structured around this one big promise. Make sure you do the same thing and create a title that gives gravitas to the   meeting.

2. WRITE IN THE ‘LOCATION’, ‘DATE’, ‘TIME’ AND ‘ATTENDEES’

Your agenda is a very effective sales tool, but it also acts as a reminder and a confirmation of your meeting details.

Enter the location, the date, time and the names of the people attending the meeting.

3. ENTER THE MAIN ITEMS YOU WANT TO DISCUSS

Now simply list the high-level items you want to discuss   during the meeting. Make sure you don’t have too many points on the agenda. Half a dozen points are adequate.

You must think carefully about the main elements of the meeting. Don’t just write down what first comes into your head.

Think about the key parts of the meeting and what things are important to the customer or potential customer. (As an aside, you should send the agenda to the person you’re meeting a couple of days prior to the meeting to ask if they want to add anything to it. This is just good practice, so make sure you do it.)

4. ADD A NOTES SECTION

The notes section is more important than many think.

The person you’re meeting will use it to write their thoughts on (it’s always best to have the notes with the agenda otherwise they could easily   be lost).

But equally as important, you should use this notes section to write down important things that will help you close the sale or move it to the next stage of the sales cycle.

Simple. Easy to use, but very effective. From now on, make sure you use an agenda!

 Contact us for all your Business Building & Accountancy needs!
☎ 020 89310165 | ☏ 07900537459 | ✉ info@apjaccountancy.com

How To Market Your Business On Facebook And Twitter!

There are so many social media channels available that it’s hard to keep up, but it’s important to be familiar with each platform at your disposal. And as you want to create brand awareness, you can’t afford to ignore what makes each one unique.

If you’ve found an interesting article you want to share with your ‘fanbase’, what platform do you upload it to? Facebook? Twitter? You probably think it doesn’t matter where you upload it: as long as it’s online, people might see it.

But it does matter. Each channel is unique. It has different resources, and there are different types of people there. You want to post your content to a platform where it will be appreciated and users will engage with it. 

92% of business owners indicated that social media is important to their business, according to Forbes. In other words, getting it right can significantly impact your growth.

People use social media to learn new information, discover people and companies, and keep updated with news and share stories.

FACEBOOK

Facebook has a community culture.  People use it to connect with people they know. Many of us don’t accept invitations from people we don’t know. What this means to you is that you don’t want to just post information about your industry.

A recent study by Boston University found that people use Facebook to fulfil their need to belong and the need for self-presentation. People upload family pictures and share personal information on Facebook because they want to let people in on their lives. Private people tend to not update their Facebook profile regularly because they aren’t comfortable letting people in. 
  

1. Share Your Feelings, Values And Thoughts 

Facebook is a space to express your private life. People should get to know you - not your business - by what you post. That means avoid over-promoting your website and contact information. If you’re wondering why your page is receiving few ‘Likes’, it’s probably because you’re doing just that.  Provide insight into who you are by creative posts that have personality.

2. Track Your Audience

Understand who is following you and post content they would find appealing. You can’t be selfish in social media. After all, you are posting content for other people to engage with.

3. Post Pictures More Than Text

 There has been a move to becoming more visual, because people are more likely to read your post if there is an image accompanying it. This     is because when people scroll       their timeline , images are more               eye-catching than text.

4. Add  Links To Relevant  Content 

You have a lot of room to write your status. The huge bonus to this channel is that people can share and ‘like’ posts they find interesting, so you show up on their friends’ news feed.

TWITTER

Twitter is the easiest social media platform to grow because you can connect with other users directly. With every tweet you upload, the ultimate goal is for people to
retweet it, and then their followers to retweet, though that of course takes time and dedication.

The benefit of Twitter is  that you can easily connect with people from all around the world.

1. Make Conversation 

People love sharing their thoughts on Twitter and expect companies to have a social media presence. Don’t just put a tweet out there and expect people to ‘do something with it’. Ask questions to get a conversation rolling. You could even hold a regular Twitter chat where you answer questions.

2. Don’t Put Lengthy Tweets 

It sounds crazy that you only have 140 characters and I’m telling you to not use all of them. But the idea of Twitter is that you can receive information quickly by scrolling through your timeline. If users see a lengthy post, they’re likely to skip it, especially as most people scroll through quickly before work, at dinner and in the evenings.

3. Use Text More Than Images 

Contrary to Facebook, text performs better than images, according to quicksprout.com. In addition, I encourage you to write tweets that contain a link - specifically to your website.  Share interesting articles and news you think your followers will be interested in too, even if it isn’t something from your website.

4. Use Quotes

 You are an expert; you know what people want to know. Post motivational quotes to show that you are passionate about your industry.

5. Add A Call To Action

 The best way to get someone to do something is to tell them. Post a link to your website with text    saying ‘click here for more info’. Put things like ‘RT if you are looking for an Accountant’ to get people to engage with you.

6. Tag Suitable People

 If you decide to tweet a link to an article, why not try to find the writer on Twitter and mention them in your tweet?  The person may see this in their notifications and retweet, so their followers see your account.

It’s essential that you post for the right platform to sustain a strong social media presence.  Always think what your followers would want to read and see, to keep you focussed.

PJ

☎ 020 89310165

☏ 07900537459

✉ pushkar.joshi@apjaccountancy.com

The Plan For Getting A Lost Customer Back!

On average, and for a variety of reasons, most businesses will lose about 20% of their existing customers, clients or patients each and every year. Customers come and go. It’s simply a fact of life. 
 

Some of the reasons for customer attrition (customer losses) are unavoidable but others are in the complete control of the business owner.

According to a recent survey by Sales and Marketing Executives International, customers stop buying for the following reasons:

1. 1% die
2. 3% move away
3. 5% develop other friendships
4. 9% leave for competitive reasons
5. 14% are dissatisfied with the product or service
6. 68% leave because they were treated with indifference, disrespect, apathy or neglectful behaviours on the part of employees of the business organisation with which they interacted 

82% of a business’s customers leaving because they are unhappy is not good news in anyone’s book.

But what is good news is that because 68% of people leave through indifference, with a bit of ‘hand-holding’ and ‘cuddling’ some of those customers can be ‘won’ back.

Each name on your past- or lapsed-customer list represents the marketing cost to acquire each one in the first place and all the hours upon hours of your time spent to convert them into customers.

Plus, according to the US Office of Consumer Affairs, it costs six times more to acquire a customer than it does to keep an existing one. Therefore your past-customer list becomes  even  more   valuable,   not only because the business should already ‘have’ them, but because those past customers already know the business, which makes them far more likely to buy again.

Don’t think of them as ‘past’ customers. Think of them as ‘inactive’ customers with the potential to come back and buy again and many more times in the future. But they won’t do it on their own – not most of the time anyway.

No, you have to get proactive and start working that customer list with a solid plan and goals for creating more sales using those valuable names.

It’s likely you won’t have contacted the names on your past- or lapsed-customer list for a while, or if a lot of those customers have not come back on their own for a long time, you need to institute a ‘lost-customer reactivation strategy’.

One of the best ways to get past or lapsed customers back is with a good letter (a ‘Customer Reactivation Letter’). But whatever you do, put a plan in place for winning them back. It will be time well spent and you’ll be surprised at the results!

7 Tips for effective Employee Management!

Working with the guy who shows up at 9.15am with the remainder of last night’s party on his breath is fun for no one. Nor is dealing with the undecider who takes days to produce a one-page report.
Difficult people can drive you batty, but there are effective ways to tolerate this in the workplace.

1. Listen

We’re all human - we have bad days, but bad days shouldn’t turn into weeks and months in the workplace. If an employee is difficult, it may be because they are unhappy in their position, or there are personal issues. As a manager, you should always give your employees the opportunity to express their side first. Don’t be a school teacher where you don’t give your team the chance to explain their side first, before jumping to the dark side.

Listening shows you care and it may also highlight that the solution is a quick fix solvable by you.

2. Feedback Meetings

Complaining about employees for months, or even years, is not a constructive way of dealing with difficult staff. The situation will not miraculously resolve itself. Be proactive.
Hearing you haven’t done so good on your latest task isn’t the best thing to hear, but you shouldn’t be afraid to tell staff that you disagree with what they’re doing. If your directions are clear, the meeting can lead to huge progression.

Giving honest feedback is uncomfortable for any manager, but it doesn’t have to be a dire process.
Make the meetings regular—every six months is great, because it doesn’t allow             employees to get off track.

Make feedback meetings structured, so everybody knows what is expected of them when they close the office door and sit down at their computer. Use the meeting to inspire your team to work harder. Specific targets and clear deadlines will mean that staff have no excuse for uncompleted work, unless they don’t understand - in which case, ask if they have any questions. They shouldn’t feel uncomfortable   asking. If they do, there is a definite need to make changes to your management style.

Begin feedback meetings by asking employees how they view their own work ethic. Having an understanding of how they view themselves is a great starting point. A great manager gives their employees a chance to explain their side of a story.

3. Be Consistent

If there are set rules, don’t occasionally allow some staff to break them. A person shouldn’t be punished for not doing something, and then let off the following week. This is unreliable management and staff won’t know where they stand, and the likelihood is they won’t take you seriously when they are penalised.

4. Help Staff Get Back On Track

A good manager doesn’t just tell their employees what to do, and then leave them to it. They help their employees. That doesn’t mean holding their hand and checking up on them every five minutes. But regular reviews will keep them heading in the right direction, so they don’t fall off track.

The best teachers at schools are those who explain what students need to do, and are very approachable, so students never fear asking them for help if they're confused. At times, being a manager is similar to the role of a teacher.

Coach the difficult employee through their problems and find suitable solutions if current ones aren’t working for them. Try new methods.

Don’t make employees feel like a failure, but give them time to    adjust their behaviour and        actions, with deadlines (of course, you can’t keep hoping they will change).  

5. Get Involved Soon

Don’t allow the problems to build up and spiral out of control. If an employee hasn’t worked to the company’s standards, step in. Don’t wait until there is another problem and then another, until some action is taken. This invites trouble.

It’s easier from the beginning if employees know where they stand. One problem is easier to deal with than ten.

If an employee thinks they are getting away with regularly texting during work hours and subscribing to YouTube videos, they will persistently do this, which over time is costing your business time and money.

6. Don’t Just Focus On The Negative Things

This probably goes against everything you’ve just read, but honestly, if a manager only focusses on what an employee is doing wrong, they won’t notice when something is done right.

A manager should believe in their staff; after all, they hired them because they’re skilful and talented. Baby steps in the right direction are better than continuing with a poor work ethic. Remember that.
If an employee who never gets in on time suddenly starts showing up ten minutes early, they don’t deserve a gold medal, but this progress should be recognised.

7. Know Staff

Getting to know staff can make life easier. They will feel that they can communicate their issues to their manager, and the manager can also notice when things aren’t right.

A bad manager hides in their office all day and lets their staff get on with their work unsupervised – never asking how they’re getting on. A good manager understands their staff, sees through their fake smile and     notices when they aren’t typing away like they usually are.

Having a close relationship with all staff members makes life easier. Asking regularly how they’re getting on can stimulate the quiet ones in the office to approach you if they’re quietly stressing. 

PJ

☎ 020 89310165

☏ 07900537459

✉ pushkar.joshi@apjaccountancy.com