Where is the low hanging fruit for bookkeeping professionals? A majority of firms who we class as high performing firms (download survey study) target existing customers to upsell higher value or advisory services. It makes intuitive sense because questions asked by a prospect you have not worked will often be focused on the negative. For example ‘Why should I work with you? Or why should I buy this service I don’t need. Or, why should I change now? From a pure costs-to-acquisition basis, upselling higher value services to existing clients is, well, a no-brainer and will obviate some of the questions.
What to sell
We can’t resolve an individual firm’s challenges in selling their services beyond compliance work. We can say however that technology enables manifold solutions to be packaged and delivered. There is elegant software available to track business finances. That’s a great starting point.
You need to be across technology and in particular, cloud technology if you want to create competitive advantage and deliver best practice customer experiences.
Technology at entry level take you out of the trenches. Think through all the times you’ve had to travel to see a client to retrieve source, documents, receipts, or to obtain signatures on legal documentation. Is there any need t0 do more than a quarterly face-to-face meeting?
Use the ‘Sweet spot’ matrix
There’s little reward for offering mediocre services where value is measured hourly rates. Nor is there any point offering services that simply, cannot be sold to a SMB. There is upside in finding the ‘sweet spot’.
Low hanging fruit and sweet spots may be cute terms but they do point us in the right direction to build a practice that has a value greater than your personal earning power. You will find that clients are stickier when tied to a bundled package service rather than by a single practitioner. It also presents a genuine and potentially sustainable recurring billing for your clients.