You may have all the credentials in the world, a good website, a strong social media presence, and have done everything right in your sales presentation. But, these may still not be enough for potential clients to fully trust you. To help assure your prospects that your services will yield a great return on investment out of their hard-earned cash, here’s the best FREE way to sign up more clients for your accounting firm.
It’s highly likely that your offer would just sound very similar as compared to other accounting, bookkeeping, and tax firms out there. How can you stand out? Here’s something you can deploy to help you do that and ultimately, drive more revenue to your business.
Give Your Clients a Guarantee
Giving your clients a guarantee is your way of being able to reverse the risk associated with your services. Essentially, if something didn’t work under your watch, it’s an assurance that you’ve got their back. This shows clients that you firmly stand behind the worth and effectiveness of your offerings.
In a prospect’s mind, it’s usually hard to see the difference between accounting firms by merely looking at their services. But, if you have a guarantee that’s unconditional, simple to understand, quick to invoke, and easy to collect, a potential client will be more compelled to choose you over the rest.
All of a sudden, you can create and elevate the level of trust that your prospective client can give for your services. In effect, you also increase your perceived value. Remember, what your prospects see becomes their reality.
You can ask all of our clients in Dream Firms who have invested in our Practice Ignitor challenge, which has a money-back guarantee. Also, in our Create Your Dream Firm program, which has a $50,000 billing guarantee over 12 months. Guarantees are effective in making you on top of the competition in your niche market.
Now, let’s talk about some good examples of guarantees that have been very successful in the accounting industry. Do note that when you deploy these in your firm, be careful not to over-promise and under-deliver.
The "West Coast Close" or 90-Day Money-Back Guarantee for Accountants
The West Coast Close or the 90-day money-back is traditionally a closing technique, but it can be deployed as a guarantee even after the sales presentation. This assurance is considerate of prospects who may not yet fully understand the quality of your services, so you want to make it risk-free for them to try.
When a prospective client signs up for your monthly services, give them a guarantee in writing that if for any reason they are dissatisfied after 90 days, you will return 100% of their monthly investments. Research done by psychologists has shown that this has been effective in increasing client satisfaction, making them more likely to return to your business.
A lot may be skeptical of this particular guarantee. Many might imagine what would happen if their clients get to enjoy your wonderful service in 90 days, but still ask for their money back. In our experience, it doesn’t happen. Out of all the clients who signed up in our accounting firm, zero asked for their money back.
As long as you meet your promised results and deliver an incredible client experience, no one in their right mind should ask for their money back. If they’re now benefiting from great returns on investment or much higher profit margins, it’s remotely impossible that anyone would still dare to take advantage of your West Coast Close and be able to incur significant losses to your firm.
Penalties Assurance Guarantee for Accounting Professionals
The penalties insurance guarantee assures your clients that you will take responsibility for the penalties that they would incur out of your fault or negligence. Owning up to your mistakes demonstrates integrity and accountability. With it, you’ll be able to build strong trust with your clients.
If a client gets hit with a penalty while under your guidance, pay for that penalty on their behalf. Old accounting firms will just want you to trust them based on their credentials and experience. But, this kind of guarantee will make you stand out because it shows that you genuinely care for their success.
If you’re worried about clients abusing this, have internal systems in place to track and measure whether or not they are responsive to your requests. As long as they are and you know exactly what they need and how to keep them in compliance, there should be no problem with offering this big insurance.
Have effective and efficient fulfillment processes and systems where nothing is falling through the cracks. Stand by your promises. Assure your clients that they will have no bad experiences with you as they might have with other firms.
Guarantees Filters Bad Clients
Guarantees are a fantastic filter for bad clients. It can be unavoidable to encounter people who would choose to maliciously take advantage of you and your assurances. So, watch out for those who would exhaust all means to wrongfully make you at fault even for their own mistakes.
Track every outbound and inbound piece of communication. Try to monitor or document every transaction your clients are making during your service term. If they incur a penalty because they didn’t heed your guidance or didn’t comply in time, that should not be covered by the guarantees.
Make sure that the terms and conditions in your agreement or engagement letter are clearly written and if possible, undisputable. Stand your ground but still try to be respectful when dealing with unreasonable clients who deliberately try to exploit your services and assurances.
What Should You Do Now?
The best FREE way to attract and sign up more clients for your accounting firms is by deploying guarantees. Stand by them honorably, so your clients can create and elevate their trust in you. Own your mistakes or negligence, then make things right. Now, you will have not only business clients but also raving fans for life.
Clients who highly trust you can lead or refer you to your other dream clients. It’ll be easier also to communicate or announce pricing increases on your services too when they don’t doubt your value. Moreover, you can tremendously increase your profitability when most of your clients are willing to consider ascending to your advisory service package tier.
After signing up more clients, you will need to work on the pricing of your services. If you’re struggling with this, read our article on how to price accounting services. If you need help in communicating your pricing increases, here’s our article on pricing accounting services during tax season.
