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Offload Some Tax-Season Workload with ProSystem fx Outsource

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Why Tax Season Is an Ideal Time to Market Your Firm

Your April client meetings can win you additional

business. Here’s how to take advantage of them

If you're focused solely on IRS forms during tax

season, you're missing out on some outstanding

marketing and sales opportunities. "This is the most

face time you get all year," says Jean Marie Caragher,

a 25-year industry veteran and president of Capstone

Marketing in Chesapeake, Virginia. "Add to that the

fact your competitors may have stopped their

marketing activities — which means that you can gain

an advantage if you use these next few weeks

wisely."

Caragher, whose company works exclusively with CPA firms, says that the busy season

offers several key ways to develop additional business. These first ones should happen

when you’re working face-to-face with clients:

Identify cross-selling opportunities. "While you're talking to the client about this year's

issues, you need to develop a list of assignments or special projects to follow up on

afterward," Caragher says. In fact, the "selling" part is a bit of a misnomer, because it's

really about helping your clients solve problems. Make sure your entire team is up to

speed on all your services, so they can recognize opportunities, too.

Double up on data. If you don't already have a good email list of client contacts and

referral sources, face-to-face meetings are the perfect excuse to shore up your database.

That way you can reach out to them later with your firm’s newsletter and other marketing

efforts.

Client satisfaction and retention are elements of marketing, too. Yes, you're on time

and technically accurate, but are you making clients feel important? "This is the time of

year to gauge not just how happy they are with the work product, but also how you do

business," Caragher says. Having the face-to-face contact can allow you to really listen to

what your clients need and how satisfied they are.

Even during the busy time of the year, be sure to:

Keep on networking. "You need to maintain involvement in business events such as

lunches, community events or being part of a board of directors," Caragher says. "If you

drop off the radar for months, it's hard to start up the relationships again in May. And you

don't want your competitors at those functions if you're not."

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