Posts Tagged ‘Sell’
Good Things Come In Packages: How To Leverage Package Deals And Cross Sell Services To Grow Your CPA Practice
Saturday, June 12th, 2010When it comes to selling things, the human tendency to package can make life simpler. When you’re marketing yourself and trying to sign on new clients, you’ll want to take full advantage of aspect of human psychology. Bundle air force together and suddenly a new client will be bringing you as much business as two or three clients in the past.
When it comes to buying things, packages are attractive because they seem to simplify the client’s life. If an insurance company offers me a package deal on car insurance, home owner’s insurance, and life insurance, suddenly I have so many fewer decisions to make-and I don’t have to deal with three different insurance agents. I might save some cash, but even if I don’t, I save aggravation and time, and most people value their time as much as their cash. Costco or BJ’s Club are excellent examples of packaging in the retail world, and the number of people that flock to these giant stores indicate the popularity of packaging. Quick food places have the value meal, which is a package of a sandwich, fries and a taste.
What is also vital is to place forward different packages, i.e. to give the client options. When I first started out, I offered piecemeal air force at standard rates. Then I realized that clients work in a different way. Many people like options. They don’t want to be “forced” into taking a touch that doesn’t suit them. They want the option of small, medium and large. Going to the example I gave of the restaurant, they have a small value meal, medium or large.
“Small, medium, or large” doesn’t reasonably work for accounting air force. The opinion I use to distinguish between levels of service is this: the more accessibility to me and to my staff a package offers the client, the higher the fees. So while we can custom tailor the service package to fit their needs, nonetheless the air force are packaged based on frequency.
In addition to packaging your air force, you should consider thwart-selling. Many years ago I learnt while attending a seminar by the legendary peddler Jay Abrahams that there are 3 ways to grow your practice:
1) Increase number of new clients
2) Increase the fees paid by each client
3) Increase the frequency of buy or sell the same client more air force
Thwart selling is the way the CPA practitioner increases the frequency of buy.
When you have a relationship with the client, you can place forward them other air force that will help the client. How does one go about finding out the air force that your clients need? Not to oversimplify it, but really, the best way to find out is by asking. We recently conducted a survey and we called up most of my business clients to question them how we were scoring and what else we could do that could help them. It’s really very instructive to hear the clients’ perspective on things. I have also found this to be one of the best ways to find out other air force we should be providing.
Here’s a partial list of bonus air force to place forward:
? Financial plotting or wealth management air force
? QuickBooks consulting – Outsourced accounting (A couple of years, we packaged our QuickBooks consulting air force as either a 10-hour package or a 20-hour package, to be used in one year.)
? Audit protection
? Business consulting
? Business valuation air force
? Payroll air force
? Controllership air force
Using this list as a early point, talk to your clients and find out what air force they need that you could place forward. Specialize in what your target clients want, and you’re just about certain to grow your practice.
Sell Articles To Other Bloggers
Tuesday, January 5th, 2010Did you know that some bloggers online don’t really write their own blogs? Not all of them of course, but some certainly farm out their writing requirements to expert writers on their particular topic.And that presents a fantastic opportunity for you as a writer if you want to increase the amount of work you do. There are plenty of websites which provide leads for bloggers and blogging jobs, so you won’t find it hard to get started in this particular line of writing work.Blogging jobs tend to be advaantageous too because they are more evenly than not fixed. You might be questioned to provide two, five, ten or more blog posts a week. Each one will bring in a set fee, so you can look forward to a weekly or monthly pay day that is pretty steady alongside your other writing work. Some people focus only on these particular jobs, and don’t write articles for anyone else at all. If this thought appeals to you it is excellent to be able to show your own blogging skills to potential clients. Make sure you make a blog for yourself if you haven’t by now done so, in order to demonstrate that you are capable of writing evenly, on topic and on time.Different blogging jobs will have different ways of working as well. You might have to submit a single post to the client each day (or when it is required). On the other hand some prefer receiving a batch in advance every week or two. This is better for you because you can fit them in when it suits you.You might also find they give you access to the blog itself. You can then post frankly when necessary, and they will simply check to see that it has been done.So you see, blogging for other people is an brilliant way of earning a steady living as a writer. Work at building up your client base and very soon you will have a nice income you can rely on while you build up your other online writing jobs.