941 Marketing Challenge Day 2

At yesterday’s IRS-sponsored “Working Together” symposium in Seattle, the Tacoma Collections Group Manager presented material that was put together by Thomas Kramer, the IRS Collection Territory Manager for the area. In that presentation, two fascinating facts were presented that are relevant to our current line of thinking:

  • As of March 31, 2018, there were $60.3 billion in 941 balance dues, not including penalties and interest.
  • Year to date, 59% of cases that Revenue Officers resolve are business cases.

See why we’re doing this marketing challenge?

Today is pretty simple, and quite honestly should only take you 10-20 minutes, assuming you did yesterday’s exercise.

Here it is, nice and simple: Open up your telephone directory, and call FIVE (or as many as exist, if less than five) local, mom and pop payroll service providers.

Yes, payroll service providers. Small, local ones.

Look ’em up. Call them, say your elevator pitch, and tell them you’d like to discuss a referral relationship. They send you leads, you send them leads.

“Whoa, whoa, hang on a second, Jassen. If a business has a payroll provider, they don’t have a 941 problem!”

That’s what you’d think, right? Well, not so fast.

See, many small businesses with 941 debts did, at one point, have all their ducks in a row. Then, something happened. Maybe it was a loss of a big contract, a death in the family, a regulatory change, etc. All kinds of things happen that turn profitable businesses into clunkers overnight.

So, payroll service companies see this. Because one day, the total payroll + taxes debit doesn’t go through when the payroll service provider tries to run payroll. In fact, they are the first ones to see it. And maybe 1 in 200 of these kinds of payroll providers offers resolution services. So, this is your chance to build referral relationships with one type of non-competing service provider that you can help them, and they can help you.

Tomorrow, we’ll discuss how to take this little tactic to the next level. But for now, go call some small payroll providers, and get the conversation going, elevator pitch in hand.… Continue reading

941 Marketing Challenge Day 1

Today kicks off the 2018 30-Day Marketing Challenge! The entire month of November, we’ll be focusing on daily marketing tasks — yes, even on Thanksgiving day — that you can utilize to grow the 941 representation side of your practice.

Most of the marketing tasks across this challenge will be short, usually 10 to 20 minutes. Some may be up to an hour.

If you actually follow through on all the activities across the next 30 days, I would expect the typical practitioner to pick up at least 2 or 3 tax resolution clients this month, equating to roughly $10,000 to $15,000 in new revenue. Even more important than that, however, if you stick with it for the full 30 days, you’ll develop the single most financially important habit a business owner can eve develop: The habit of daily marketing.

To start, you’re going to need to create a small piece of 941-specific messaging that answers the classic question, “What do you do?”

Commonly referred to as an elevator pitch, this is a concept that’s older than dirt, but sadly it’s one that very few tax and accounting professionals take the time to craft. The LAST thing that should ever leave your mouth when somebody asks what you do is, “I’m a CPA.” Even though most of the general public knows what a CPA is, that answer provides ZERO information about how you can help them, or whom they can refer you to, etc.

Your answer to this question should also not be, “I do taxes”, or “I’m an accountant”, “I do tax resolution. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong!

Your elevator pitch is what you use to communicate the kind of clients you’re looking for. It should be specific, and have a purpose. It should not be generic. You want people to be thinking about who they can refer to you when they hear your elevator pitch. You want them to evaluate their own life against your pitch to determine if they’re a prospect for you. Not everybody should be your client — this is a filtering mechanism.

Over the years, I had a few different elevator pitches. My oldest elevator pitch was very straightforward: “I help mom and pop small business owners with tax debts to screw over the IRS.” This was a message that resonated very, very clearly with my intended target market at the time.

A bit later in … Continue reading

Tax Resolution Marketing: 2018 Tax Lien Marketing Update Series

It’s 2018, and my tax lien marketing plan that generated $3.3 million in 2010 just ain’t cutting it anymore.

Why? Basically, two factors:

  1. There is now three times as much competition in the tax lien marketing game.
  2. There are now HALF as many federal tax liens being filed.

Don’t forget that the IRS files a Form 668-Y, Notice of Federal Tax Lien, on only about 5% of all tax debtors. There is still a statutory tax lien in place, as per 26 USC 6321. But due to budget constraints and kinder, gentler IRS procedures, the public notice tax lien just isn’t filed as frequently. In fact, take a look at these tax lien filings by year:

2009: 965,618
2010: 1,096,376
2011: 1,042,230
2012: 707,768
2013: 602,005
2014: 535,580
2015: 515,247
2016: 470,602
2017: 446,378

As you can see, lien volume has dropped by 59% since the peak.

These factors have contributed to a substantial shift in how one must do tax lien marketing. It’s still highly effective, but HOW you do it has changed.

To keep you abreast of these shifting marketing patterns, I’ve put together something a bit different: The Tax Lien Marketing Update Series.

This program will be a rolling series of webinars and print updates on what’s working now in the world of tax lien marketing. As I re-launch my own tax lien marketing efforts, mine data from my tax lien database service, combined with what I hear from my connections within the industry, I’ll be able to report back to you on the shifting changes in this critically important marketing channel for tax resolution.

This series will be complimentary to Diamond Tax Resolution Coaching members, and available for a modest annual fee for all others (the annual fee will NOT be auto-recurring, like a subscription, which I think will be more convenient for a service like this).

Click here to enroll in the Tax Lien Marketing Update Series.

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… Continue reading