Description

Advertising, Customer Service and Sales

Choose the Best Clients According to Their Needs and Your Ability to Deliver

Now let’s assume that your marketing message has captured the interest of a potential client. How would you go about confirming that he or she meets your ‘ideal client’ criteria and that they are a good fit for your business? Getting more of what you define as your best bookkeeping client should be your business goal.

• Questions to identify the best bookkeeping client
• Build a Client Profile
• Which Bookkeeper would consider this as their best bookkeeping client?
• Summary: Know when to let someone go

Qualifying and How To Respond To Ad Enquiries

You placed an ad for services and you’re starting to receive inquiries. Congratulations! However, before you start calculating your profits it’s important to gather some basic information from your potential clients – they’re called Prospects.

Asking a few targeted questions up front will help you to qualify your prospect and ensure that they are the right fit for your services. It will also serve as an opportunity to build rapport and find out where they are in their decision making process.

An inquiry could come from a business that needs urgent assistance with bookkeeping, or it might simply be a fact finding exercise for a new start-up. Knowing which questions to ask will help you to prioritise your own work according to the needs of your clients and your business, and save you time and energy in the long run.

• Qualifying: What you should be asking when you receive an enquiry about your services
• Summary

How To Write A Compelling Ad For

Compose an ad for your services that sets you apart from your competitors and has potential clients clamouring to know more.

Put yourself in your client’s shoes for a moment. Imagine that you are searching through ads online, looking for some help with Xero bookkeeping. You’ve narrowed your search to your local area and yet the ads all look the same.

What would make you stop scrolling to click on a particular ad? What factors would compel you to pick up the phone and make a call?

In this course we make improvements on our generic Ad to entice customers to make contact!

Prospective clients of bookkeeping tutoring want to know that you have the right knowledge and experience, a solid professional reputation and the ability to meet their training needs within an agreed timeframe. The objective of your ad is to:

• Make a strong first impression
• Showcase your expertise
• Create urgency
• Generate more enquiries

Try these techniques to make your ad jump off the page and generate a list of prospects who will be lining up to talk with you:

• What Makes Your Services Unique?
• Heading and Keywords
• Special Offers
• Client Testimonials
• Images
• Call To Action (CTA)
• Summary

Following Up After An Ad Enquiry

In an ideal world you would place your ad, your phone would start ringing immediately and your clients would be lining up around the block to book your services.

Unfortunately converting a prospect isn’t that straightforward, but with a few simple steps you can significantly increase your chances for signing up new clients.

• Gain Agreement for the next steps
• Calling Bookkeeping Prospects
• Recap the Key Points
• Asking for a Decision
• What to do if they say “No”
• How many times should I follow up?

Ads Without Follow Up is Throwing Money Away (Sales Pipeline)

Use Microsoft Excel to keep track of sales leads for your ads.

When you’re receiving enquiries about your bookkeeping services from a variety of different sources it can be difficult to keep track of them all. Having a system in place to manage your sales pipeline ensures that you don’t miss any opportunities, and that you are able to maximise the potential of every sales enquiry.

By ensuring that every lead is followed up in a timely and professional manner you will increase your sales and your income, and build goodwill within your client base.

There are some easy ways of doing this that you might not have thought about.

• Tools – What You Will Need
• Managing Your Sales Pipeline of Prospects Who Are Not Ready to Use Your Bookkeeping Services
• Using A Spreadsheet To Track Your Leads
• Summary

Listing Your Services On Marketplaces & Directories—Is It Really Worth It?

Project bidding sites such as Bark and AirTasker may seem like an attractive way to find new bookkeeping clients, but who really wins—you or the middle man?

Project bidding sites provide an online platform for service providers to quote for contracting projects. The customer then narrows down their choices to a short list and selects a final winner. In theory this may sound like a sure-fire, low-risk way to get leads for your business. However, if you’re planning on putting all of your marketing eggs in one Bark-set, be prepared to lower your expectations.

• Bark—How Does It Work?
• Pros and Cons—Is Their Bark Worse Than Their Bite?
• Bark vs. Airtasker
• Bookkeeping Customers—Who’s Barking?
• Summary – Better than Bark or Airtasker is Build your own Brand

Stay Relevant & Competitive By Refreshing Your Ad

Regularly updating your ad to reflect your skills growth and flexibility will help you you find your ideal clients.

When you place your first ad you are likely to receive a burst of initial enquiries followed by a gradual decline. This is because:

• People have already seen the ad a few times and the novelty has worn off. After a few views, they will no longer notice it.
• The services you are offering may not be relevant to their business needs.
• They do not feel a sense of urgency to engage your bookkeeping services right then.
• They are located outside of the geographical area that you have stated in your ad.

As you begin to attract more enquiries and engage new clients, your skills will expand and you will become more flexible and creative in the way you deliver your services.

Talking to your prospects and listening to their business problems allows you to gain insights into the key issues that need addressing. With this knowledge, you can change your ads and tailor them to capture the attention of your ‘ideal client’ and make them more relatable to business owners.

This is how some of our own ads changed over time and why. Let’s begin by recapping the evolution of your ads to date.

• Ad Review: Xero Bookkeeping Tutoring For Beginners
• Ad Review: Specialist Bookkeeping Services
• Training and Support
• Updating Your Ads To Reach New Bookkeeping Clients
• Digital Advertising Milestone Summary

Sales Pipeline and Rapport Building

It is common knowledge in the digital marketing and advertising industry that only a small percentage of website visitors or ad inquiries are ready to buy right then and there. Some people estimate the figure to be 3-4%. Building a sales and marketing pipeline ensures that you stay front of mind so they choose you when they are eventually ready.

• What to do when your bookkeeping prospect says “no”
• Building Rapport
• When “No” Means “Not yet”—Uncovering Hidden Objections
• Overcoming Objections
• When “No” Means “No”—When To Let Go
• Some people take time to make a decision
• Summary

Pre-Sales Customer Service – Engage Prospects and Build an Income Pipeline

Build a list of potential income sources by helping people.

When a prospect picks up the phone to call you or enters your online chat, it’s safe to say that they already have an interest in your product or service. They may have browsed your website and gathered extensive information, or they may have simply clicked a link out of curiosity. Either way, you can be sure that they will have some questions.

We’ll share our tips for successfully engaging prospective customers and helping them to find the products and services that best meet their needs. We’ll also cover methods for capturing their contact information so that you can re-target them at different stages of the buying process and guide them towards an eventual purchase.

• From Service to Sales
• What Is Lead Generation?
• Understand Your Products and Services
• Qualify Your Prospects
• Increase Engagement
• Follow Up
• Summary

Prospect Not Ready To Buy? Find Out Why

What to do when prospects get ‘stuck’ in your sales pipeline

Have you ever received an inquiry from a prospective client, only to get the silent treatment or a “thanks, but no thanks” when you try to follow up? Sometimes, no matter how professional you are or how competitive your rates are, some prospects will decide that you are just not the right bookkeeper for them – or they are just not ready to make a decision!

Here are some ways that you can improve your conversion rate by helping your prospects to become ‘unstuck’ and become happy, satisfied clients.

• Show Them You Care
• Get To Know Your Client
• Forget About Selling
• Re-think Your Offering
• Summary

Find Clients By Helping Solve Problems

Xero Bookkeeping Packages for A/R, A/P, Rescue Bookkeeping & Payroll

Not all clients will have needs that fit within the predefined service packages offered by your business, however that doesn’t mean that you have to lose them as a client. By opening yourself up to alternative solutions and thinking outside the box, you can qualify more prospects and increase your chances of winning new clients.

• Solutions, Not Services
• Types of Bookkeeping Jobs
• Identifying Client Needs – Client Scenario
• Creating An Ad to Attract New Clients
• Summary

Referral Networks – Don’t Have The Skills? Refer Them On and Get Reciprocal Leads

You’ve received an enquiry in response to your bookkeeping tutoring ad, however, after asking a few questions and ascertaining their needs you realise that the solution to their problem falls outside of the scope of services you provide. That’s the end of the call, right? Not necessarily.

• Every Enquiry Is An Opportunity
• Why Are Referrals Good For My Business?
• How To Build A Referral Network
• Keep in Touch
• Summary

Online Customer Service via Website Chat is a MUST for Businesses – Australian Federal Government Says So!

The Federal government says you can’t afford NOT to.

Pre-COVID, many businesses sold their products and services via retail outlets, distributors, door-to-door, and at markets and events. Advertising online and in local directories and publications was the preferred marketing channel, and for the most part it was effective. During the pandemic however, businesses had to rely more on online sales, and their traditional methods of advertising were no longer as effective.

As a result, businesses began to take a closer look at their website, eCommerce shops and website chat services to connect directly with customers while they were online at the website. The Federal Government realised it’s importance too, and this is what they say about it!

• Government Recommendations For Australian Businesses
• Huge Opportunity for Remote Working Virtual Assistants
• Website Chat For Your Virtual Assistant Website
• Summary

Xero Bookkeeping Tutors – How To Create More Money Making Opportunities

Grow your business by offering training and consulting solutions.

As a Xero bookkeeping tutor, you will encounter many different scenarios that provide opportunities to increase your earnings potential. You can guide prospective clients to enrol in training courses that include a tutoring component, or you may decide to work as a virtual assistant, receiving training enquiries and recommending courses for a commission.

Additionally, you can propose solutions to your existing clients as you work together through their bookkeeping issues. There are more possibilities than you might realise.

• Training and Consulting Options
• Your Ideal Client
• Define Your Bookkeeping Package
• Lead Generation for Bookkeeping Work
• Know when to refer your prospect to somebody else
• Remember—Every Client Is A Prospect

Want More Clients? Work for FREE If You Have To

Working for free is a last resort, but you’ll learn a LOT and increase your confidence

How much you charge for your services will depend on your confidence in your knowledge and experience, as well as your people and conversation skills. If you have been a small business bookkeeper or BAS Agent for five years, you will speak differently than someone who is just starting out. So—how do you get that knowledge and experience? By offering some of your services for free.

• How Much Do I Have To Give Away?
• Work Experience
• Relationships and Reputations
• Earnings Guarantee
• Summary

Have a Website? Earn Extra Income With Affiliate Marketing just like the Career Academy

Earn income online while working remotely from home

Affiliate Marketing is one way that you can add an additional passive income stream to your existing online business. All you need is a website, some products or services to recommend and a strategy for driving traffic to your site.

• How does Affiliate Marketing relate to the Career Academy?
• What Types of Online Businesses Are Suitable for Affiliate Marketing?
• Case Study: The Career Academy

Why Would Someone Call YOU to Work for Them?

Give your prospects a clear reason to choose your ad over your competitor’s.

Placing an ad that lists your services and contact information is not enough to make you stand out from other service providers. Include an eye-catching offer or point of difference that stops prospective clients in their tracks, chances are that they may contact you as a result. The most important thing to do is remain humble and thankful that you don’t need to go through the hiring funnel where you’re competing against up to 100 other job applicants.

• Proactive vs. Reactive Hiring
• Define Your Ideal Client
• Your Call-To-Action
• Incentives and Value Adds
• Summary
• Marketing Plan – check list