6 Strategies To Promote Tax Planning Services To Your Clients

1. Have 5 different Tax Planning leaflets on display in the reception area of your office. Some clients will then pick them up and read them while waiting for their appointment. The leaflet series details tax planning options for: Rental Property Owners, Small Business Owners, Buying/Selling/Starting a Business, Employees, Investors and Retirees.
2. Include a Tax Planning leaflet in any client mail out. If you are posting documents or a letter to a client for any reason, include the relevant Tax Planning leaflet in there.
3. Have a Tax Planning retractable banner sign in your office reception. Clients that are interested will see it and ask about the service. Banner is 2 metres x 83 cms (vertical).
4. Be proactive and mention saving tax and tax planning with every business client when you see them. All business clients are interested in saving tax? Don’t pretend that they are not or use excuses such as they won’t pay the service fee – when the real reason is more likely your lack of knowledge about the service. Work on your areas of weakness and understand what tax planning really is and what it requires.
5. Give your top 20 business clients a book on saving tax. Clients are actually like normal people and appreciate gifts so you will win favour with them on that front. In addition, you are getting them thinking about strategies to save tax and starting the conversation with them on that. Through Booktopia or Fishpond you can buy the following books for client gifts:

   ·        101 Ways to Save Money on Your Tax Legally – Adrian Rafferty  

   ·        How to Legally Reduce Your Tax – Ed Chan        

   ·        Tax for Australians for Dummies – Jimmy B Prince    

   ·        Tax Tips That Add Up – 150 Tax Saving Strategies – Darren Gleeson

6. 
   Newspaper advertising and post office box leaflets promoting a Tax Planning Review for business clients. Sell the benefits of it. Doing any advertising just promoting the fact that you are an accounting practice and provide the standard service’s is pointless and a waste of time and money. Who cares that you do BAS, Accounting, Tax Returns etc. So do all the other practices.

Focus on benefits – For example, an advertisement that states we provide Tax Planning means nothing to a potential client. Instead you need to promote a strong and powerful benefit such as ‘Utilise our 150 tax saving strategies and save between $2,700 and $100,000 tax per year.  Ask me how.’

Building a new client service offering involves a large investment in time and money – there are no shortcuts. Without a commitment to both of these things you will not be successful. If you implement the above six strategies over time you will build your Tax Planning fee base. The aim is to build this service so it generates at least 6.9% of your gross fees (industry average). Of course the best practices in Australia are generating over 35% of their fees from this service.