Two Golden Nuggest to Attract More Clients
Even though you may consider yourself a freelance bookkeeper by profession, marketing must be one of your top priorities as a business owner. That’s because building your business is not something you do once and you’re done. It’s not static. Your business is constantly in the process of either growing or dying.
That’s why it’s important that we keep an eye on our marketing efforts, even in busy times, so business is always moving in the right direction – growing and attracting more clients.
To that end, I’ve become an avid student of marketing methods and even psychology. In truth though, like many freelance bookkeepers and QuickBooks consultants, I hate playing the role of sales person. But I do love to help people. So I’m always looking for great ways to market my business that focus on helping people, and having fun in the process.
That’s why I enjoy watching a weekly web TV show (something we will see more and more of this year, by the way) put on by Andrew Lock, an Internet marketer who likes to help all kinds of small businesses learn how to effectively use marketing strategies and tactics, both online and offline. His show is called, “Help! My Business Sucks!”
Catchy title, huh? 
In a recent episode I found two golden nuggets that are especially important for attracting prospects to our kind of business.
1. The importance of communicating clearly what you have to offer.
Our services are intangible and people often misunderstand what it is we actually do. This causes them to undervalue our services.
Our best solution is to educate our prospects. This can be done with your website, a brochure you provide about your business, or even in one-on-one conversations while networking.
Here’s the formula for effectively educating your prospects:
- Use a one-line statement to clearly communicate what you provide from a big picture standpoint.
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Include a specific benefit, wherever possible. For example:
“ABC Bookkeeping will bring your books up to date so you can manage your business profitably, and minimize your tax bill”
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- Give examples of all the problems you solve. This demonstrates the value of having a professional bookkeeper and helps them envision how your services benefit them personally.
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People think in terms of solutions (results) not in terms of tasks. So it is not necessary to list off the accounting functions you know how to do. This has little practical value to your clients. Don’t speak your language, speak theirs. They want to know whether you can solve their problems.
2. Use a limit to helps people make a decision more quickly.
The video gave the example of how Disney does this with how they sell videos of their classic movies. They periodically offer them for only a limited time, and then pull the videos off the market. They do this to create urgency for buying.
This marketing method is known as “scarcity” and is a powerful tool for helping people to make decisions quickly. When someone says they want to “think about it” and make their decision later, 9 times out of 10, they will not buy. Procrastination kills sales.
The famous book among marketers, Influence: Science and Practice by Robert Cialdini, includes scarcity as one of the 7 most powerful factors when it comes to influencing people.
Unfortunately, it is commonly misused by manipulative marketers, and we are all pretty jaded because of it. But used sincerely and ethically, scarcity can nudge a prospective client in the right direction.
The two usual ways to create urgency are…
- limited time
- limited quantity
By adding some kind of special time or quantity limit to the services you offer, you encourage potential clients to make a decision more quickly and not procrastinate. And as we know with bookkeeping, clients just love to put if off. Of course, that only hurts their business! So giving them a nudge to engage your services is actually beneficial for them too.
Give a real reason for limiting your services, such as, “We can only accept five more clients until April 15th due to high demand for tax season deadlines” and you will automatically attract more business.
It’s a psychological thing. None of us wants to miss out on an important opportunity.
The caution here is to not use scarcity with negativity. Encourage action in a positive way so clients are benefited positively by working with you. Scarcity does not mean using scare tactics to bring in more sales.
There are several ways to use these golden nuggets in your bookkeeping business, with much success. In fact, in my brand new Cash Flow Mastery course, there is an entire lesson devoted to specifically putting these principles to work at pulling in more sales on demand.
Sadly, most bookkeeping services I’ve seen don’t pay much attention to their marketing efforts. That’s why they struggle. But you can make yourself stand far above your competition when you learn how to communicate clearly the benefits of your services. Show your clients why they need you now with a limited offer of some kind, and you will become irresistable.
Hmmm. The irresistable bookkeeper. Has a nice ring to it, don’t you think?
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Recommended Resources
Referenced episode of “Help! My Business Sucks” – Episode #91
Cash Flow Mastery – online training for cash-crunched entrepreneurs
Influence: Science and Practice by Robert Cialdini
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The book links in this post are affiliate links
7 Responses to “Two Golden Nuggest to Attract More Clients”
Donna Cook on February 15, 2010
Hello Gabrielle
The article was very helpful. I work a fulltime job and I am currently in my second year of school studying for a degree in accounting.I just opened my office for bookkeeping/tax services. Marketing is the most important part of a business and I am defintely looking for new ways to sell my business.
Gabrielle on February 22, 2010
Congratulations on all you are doing, Donna! You really sound like you’ve got your act together!
Especially in the beginning the marketing can feel like an uphill battle. But stick with it. Building relationships is going to be your most powerful marketing, but it is harder to gage when it will start paying off. A connecton you make today could bring in new clients next week, or next year. So you just have to “scatter your seed” like crazy and eventually you will hit critical mass and have clients coming to you.
Stay tuned, because I have several new webinars planned over the next few months for some “out of the box” ways to market your services.
Runno on February 24, 2010
Gebrielle, I really like your article. The more I read your blog the more I get the feeling that it’s rather new to the “bookkeeping-industry” and other freelance or contractor-based bookkeepers, to engage in the new media. What I mean is that it seems people are very bound to doing things the way it has been done for years, waiting in the office balancing books, hoping there’s enough companies out there that need the service – hence, I’ll get my customers some way or another.
I just love Donna’s enthusiasm. Donna, you seem like a very ambitious young entrepreneur, who is not afraid to try new things to market your business any way possible. It’s obvious, we all have to take extra steps to sell our business.
I am currently learning how to help people like you to do that. Could you help me understand how do you find your clients? Where do you find them? What else, than your outstanding service, you could offer them to stand out from the competition and give extra value?
Thanks.
Gabrielle on March 8, 2010
Runno,
Yes, you’ve got that right. The vast majority of very small businesses who hire freelance bookkeeper are not up to date on the new media. Many are leery of the cutting edge, cloud computing….as are many bookkeepers themselves. It takes time for these technologies to filter down to the “little guy.” I see this as a common lack of understanding in the software development world. They believe that all small businesses are up to speed, when in fact, most typical small businesses simply are not. As bookkeepers, we need to be ready to serve the businesses that need us at all different levels (and choose our own slice of the huge small business market).
Laura on February 27, 2010
Great post Gabrielle!
Marketing always sounds do-able when I’m reading about it … but much harder to implement successfully. All your suggestions help me to think outside my comfort zone … which is in front of the computer doing bookkeeping or web master tasking.
Thanks for all your ideas. :0)
Gabrielle on March 8, 2010
You are entirely welcome, Laura!
Marketing gets easier if you are the shy type, if you just choose one small action to focus in on at a time, and then set a goal to make progress on it this week. Doing is the best teacher of all, and it will help you to keep stretching that comfort zone in a way that will build your confidence…and your client base.
Always remember – inch by inch, it’s a cinch!
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[...] by Gabrielle on 22 Mar 2010 at 05:16 pm | Department: Articles, Marketing In last month’s post, I made reference to the importance of having a concise statement that communicates exactly what [...]