Stick with me for a second as I explain this… it’s not the same old tired thing you’ve heard a million times before. Deal?
The first step is set up an appointment with a CPA. That’s easy enough… tell them you are looking for a CPA for 3 of your top clients (duh, right?).
The difference is… what you talk about at that meeting. Think about accountants, what do they want? They DON’T want more returns to do… they want to do BIGGER returns. What kind of returns are those? Business returns! But how good are CPAs at marketing? Lousy, right?
So when you meet with them, let them know that you have ways to get in front of business owners and you were wondering if they would be willing to lend their expertise to those business owners. You now have their attention. You ask them if they would be willing to work together, as a team, with these business owners for the business client’s benefit.
When they agree, you propose to market jointly. When they agree to market jointly, you get the credibility the CPA brings… and, they get to use your marketing ability to get in front of business owners. You then create joint marketing material… don’t worry, it doesn’t cost much. You can do a number of things (but I’ll tell you my favorite in a second):
- A new, joint website
- Newsletters
- Emails
- Education events
My preference is the “small business newsletter.” It’s cheap and easy and you get an excellent ROI. The newsletter is NOT about investment issues! It’s about topics that will make business owner’s lives a little easier or more profitable. It is about THEM and their businesses. Not about us and what we offer.
If you’d like to see an example you can download it here. By offering real value to the business owners in the newsletter each month… it really opens a relationship. Both you and the accountant can approach these businesses after about 3 months of newsletters. The business owners will know who you are and you’ve paved the way by offering advice they found helpful the previous three months. It’s a three month game, but the rewards can be worth it.
