Category: Business Development

1. If you have little or no experience with IRS Collections and Examination representation, now is a good time to start filling in your skills gap with appropriate CPE. Don’t wait until a representation case lands in your lap, start skilling up now to avoid the mad dash later. If you’re already an experienced representation practitioner, it’s time to get up to speed on any recent changes in IRS policy and procedure on this front.
2. On the marketing side of the house, start lining up your late spring/early summer public speaking opportunities now at appropriate organizations where people with tax debts are disproportionately present. Delivering Tax Talks to such orgs is, hands down, one of the best ways to get representation clients.
3. Revisit professional referral partners. During filing season, it’s easy to ignore joint venture and referral partners. Don’t wait until the end of filing season to let other tax professionals, attorneys, financial planners, mortgage loan officers, and the like to know that you are available, ready, and willing to help their clients with tax debt or audit issues.

Email is the backbone of every digital marketing strategy, in every industry.

Not social media.

Not search ads.

Not even – dare I say it! – SEO. <gasp!>

Email.

Despite the rise of social media and messaging systems like Slack (ahem, anybody remember Internet Relay Chat???), email is still the primary business communication tool in use today. This is for both active client communication, but also for marketing purposes.

Have you ever watched a new show on Netflix because of that weekly “What’s New” email they send?

Have you ever applied for a credit card because Credit Karma sent you that promo email to utilize your credit score?

Ever cashed in a 20% coupon from Bed Bath & Beyond (🚀!) that you received via email?

How about purchasing an item on Amazon that was advertised at the bottom of those shipment confirmation emails from your last order?

Oh, oh, I know a good one. Ready? Have you ever registered for a CPE class that was brought to your attention via email? Hmm? Hmm? 🤔

Still not convinced? You’re an accountant, you like numbers, so here are some stats: According to MarketingSherpa, 91% of Americans want to receive promotional emails. According to Adestra, 73% of Millennials prefer receiving email marketing over direct mail, text messages, and phone app notifications. According to the Direct Marketing Association, email has a 38:1 return on investment. Lastly, consumers that purchase via email spend 138% more than those that don’t receive email offers, according to marketing agency CRM platform BenchmarkOne.

To help you get a grip on your email marketing, you’re invited to attend the next Digital Marketing Trialogue session with moi and special guests Nate Hagerty and Christian Jones of Tax Pro Marketer. We’ll discuss concrete steps for integrating email marketing into your overall business development process. There is no cost for this webinar, but it is limited to the first 100 registrations.

We’ll go live at 12pm Pacific / 1pm Mountain / 2pm Central / 3pm Eastern on Wednesday, February 3, 2021.

Register Here

If you’re unable to attend live, don’t worry: These webinars get converted into podcast episodes, so you can listen at your leisure later on.

To your success,
~Jassen Bowman

P.S. Ready to get going with your own email marketing for lead follow up? I’ve assembled a special collection of back issues of The Profitable Accountant newsletter covering lead follow up strategy and building … Continue reading

Yesterday, I discussed why real estate agents are a great place to focus your 1040 tax resolution marketing efforts, due to their common failure to make estimated tax payments.

Today, let’s delve into one of the best ways to get to know real estate agents so that they become your clients and referral partners.

There are obviously many ways to network with people in any given profession, but certain professions lend themselves better to specific marketing strategies over others. When it comes to real estate agents, and getting them to know, like, and trust you (KLT), there’s one marketing strategy that stands out above all others, and has for decades: Public speaking.

Why does public speaking work so well for lead generation with real estate agents?

Because, just like tax professionals, it’s common and normal for real estate agents to naturally assemble themselves together in a room.

Seriously. That’s entirely what it boils down to.

Here are just some of the ways in which real estate agents gather:

• Weekly sales meetings at their brokerage offices.
• Roving home tours of new listings.
• Local Board of Realtors meetings.
• Continuing education classes.
• Technology demonstrations.
• Conventions and conferences.

…and more. Again, it’s very parallel to how WE behave.

After reading that, your first thought might be, “Yeah, but there’s no way they’ll get together to hear somebody talk about taxes.”

Wrong, my friend! Two quick examples…

First example: One of our veteran Tax Resolution Academy® members in Sacramento, CA, Mike Ornelas, EA, has been using this tactic successfully to get new tax resolution clients from Realtors in his area for a couple years, by delivering “Tax Talks” directly to the real estate agents.

Second example: Ever heard of a little newsletter called the Tax Reduction Letter from the Bradford Tax Institute? This company generates millions of dollars a year in revenue by having traveling salespeople deliver 2-hour presentations on tax savings for the self-employed at Board of Realtor offices all over the country. It’s one of the primary sales channels for their business.

Bottom line: It works.

I realize that your next thought is going to be something about COVID-19. Well, guess what? Just like tax pros, those real estate agents still need to complete their CE. They’re selling homes at a record pace, during the pandemic. They’re still holding sales meetings. They’re still having speakers, just via Zoom instead of face-to-face. And when this … Continue reading