Federal tax lien volume picking up

During the federal government shutdown in October, the IRS stopped filing new federal tax liens. That put a major damper on marketing efforts for those of us that rely heavily on tax liens for our marketing.

We’re starting to see lien volume picking up again finally. There was a full two weeks of nothing, then two more weeks of just a trickle. Literally over the course of the past few days, we’re finally starting to see a significant uptick in lien records we’re picking up. We’re still a long ways from the 400+ liens per day above our $5,000 threshold that we’re used to seeing across the country, but it’s back above 200 per day and growing.

This hickup in the flow of lien filing was a good time to remind ourselves about two important marketing rules:

1). Make sure that you’re wringing every ounce of value from your existing lien lists by contacting them multiple times over a lengthier time period.

2). Never rely on a single prospecting method to bring in all your clients.

No business, no matter how small, should have less than three different methods for bringing in new leads. Tax lien marketing is lucrative and powerful, but it shouldn’t be the only trick up your sleeve. If you’re not simultaneously utilizing non-lien marketing to help bring in clients, then you’re doing yourself a disservice.… Continue reading

Why YOU should write a book

I wrote my first book over the long Christmas weekend of 2011. In terms of generating highly qualified inbound tax resolution leads, it was the best piece of free marketing I’ve ever done. Today I’m going to share with you the benefits of writing your own book, and a strategy to help you actually get it done.

To this day, two and a half years later, an average of two dozen people per month purchase Tax Resolution Secrets. And on average, about 1/3 of those people contact me directly every month in some fashion. Some of them call me, some of them go straight to my web site that’s listed in the book, some sign up for my email list, etc.

Are all of these ideal clients? No, of course not. If I wanted to, I could work with all of them. But I’m quite choosy these days about who I will represent. But every two or three months, a case will come along directly from the book that intrigues me enough to take on, and these are usually cases with higher fees. The rest of them either stay in my lead follow up program with no effort on my part to close the sale, or I refer them out to another practitioner.

My friend Salim Omar experienced something similar after writing his first book. Very different book topic, mind you, but still effective at generating a small, yet steady, trickle of inbound leads. In his case, he’s interested in attracting small business clients for doing their books, write up work, corporate returns, payroll, etc.

Having a book out there is not only a legitimate lead generation strategy in and of itself, but it’s also a tremendous credibility booster. Something very interesting happened when I would meet people locally, and they’d start telling me about their own experience, or the experience of somebody they know, in relation to an IRS problem. Instead of handing them a business card and suggesting they or their friend call me, handing them a book with my name on it generated a very different reaction. At only $2 or $3 per author copy for the book, it was a good investment to always have a few laying around.

Having a book is also one piece of the overall process for framing yourself as a local celebrity in your area. It can be the gateway to newspaper interviews, … Continue reading

Last chance to pre-order “Tax Resolution Systems” and save 50%

There are only a few hours remaining for you to pre-order the first edition of the Tax Resolution Systems manual. I’m meeting with my local printer at 3pm Pacific today, so I absolutely need a final unit count prior to that.

If you’ve been on the fence about ordering, don’t forget that, after today, the price for this complete set of checklists for running a tax resolution practice will go up to it’s normal price.

Order your copy here –https://taxresolutionacademy.com/systems

If you’ve never used a checklist-based system to do anything in your practice, then you’re in for a high-efficiency injection of organization and systemization into your practice by following checklists.

This manual includes checklists for everything from your lead generation marketing and conducting sales consultations, all the way to actually resolving the tax debt itself. Using checklists like these to establish procedures and routines in how you do things streamlines your entire operation. It sets standards that you can enforce upon your employees. It also makes your practice worth more if you intend to sell it.

You’re always going to want to spend time tweaking and improving systems, and creating new ones for unique situations in your own practice. And most tax professionals intuitively know this. The problem is that it’s such a daunting task to get started, because nothing like the Tax Resolution Systems checklist compendium has ever existed before.

In exchange for this 50% off price, all I ask is for your feedback on the manual itself. If a checklist step doesn’t make sense, or you think of a checklist that should exist but I didn’t think of it, let me know. All users will be mailed an “update packet” in October with any significant additions/revisions.… Continue reading