Each year, tax season ends and we think about what’s next. Often, that means revisiting marketing and business development activities. While we believe you should continue marketing during tax season because it’s the very best time to grow your business, we realize that for many of you there comes a point where there is a lull in your business development and marketing activities between March and April. May is an excellent time to refocus and can present accounting firms with many opportunities. Here are five ideas to capitalize on now.
- Fire your D clients – We all have clients we don’t like serving or that just aren’t profitable. May is the perfect time to evaluate and prune your client list. This process is just as important as bringing new clients on because it can give you some of the capacity needed to serve the right type of clients. Spend some time to identify those clients that are no longer a fit and work out a plan to let go of them or refer them to another CPA firm.
- Follow up with clients about additional work – How many times does a client mention something they want to do and you forget? Probably at least twice as much as you remember. Do yourself and your clients a favor and send them a note to schedule a time to discuss.
- Meet with your top clients – Reach out to clients who you think could benefit from additional guidance. Even if they didn’t request it, follow up and let them know if you think there is something you can do that will put them in a better position next year. Books in bad shape? Consider offering some bookkeeping training. Were there taxes underpaid or significantly overpaid? Offer quarterly meetings with them.
- Develop Articles- Jot down the top 5 most frequently asked questions you got from clients or issues you noticed during busy season and then write about them. You don’t need a novel, but 400 to 600 words on the topic should suffice. Not a writer? Consider hiring an outside writer.
- Revisit your business development activities– Whether it’s the prospect who said that they want to reconnect after April 15 or those COIs you have been dodging lunch invitations from, you need to get back out there. Waiting until June won’t cut it. Make it a priority now to reconnect with these people. Many prospects that are unhappy will be thinking and talking to people they trust about switching firms.