In this episode I give advice and insights on various topics related to running a bookkeeping business, attracting and converting clients, pricing strategies, marketing tactics, engaging with prospects, handling follow-ups, and more.
In this episode you’ll hear:
Resources mentioned in this episode:
Thanks for listening. If this episode inspired you in some way, take a screenshot of you listening on your device and post it to your Instagram stories and tag me, @ambitiousbookkeeper
For more information about the Ambitious Bookkeeper Podcast or interest in our programs or mentoring visit our resources below:
Thank you for your support of our show. If you haven’t left a review yet it’s super simple. Please go to: https://www.ambitiousbookkeeper.com/podcast and leave your review.
Podcast Publishing Tools we use:
In this episode I give advice and insights on various topics related to running a bookkeeping business, attracting and converting clients, pricing strategies, marketing tactics, engaging with prospects, handling follow-ups, and more.
In this episode you’ll hear:
Resources mentioned in this episode:
Thanks for listening. If this episode inspired you in some way, take a screenshot of you listening on your device and post it to your Instagram stories and tag me, @ambitiousbookkeeper
For more information about the Ambitious Bookkeeper Podcast or interest in our programs or mentoring visit our resources below:
Thank you for your support of our show. If you haven’t left a review yet it’s super simple. Please go to: https://www.ambitiousbookkeeper.com/podcast and leave your review.
Podcast Publishing Tools we use:
Have you been getting a lot of leads and either. Very few or none are converting, or maybe you've had a diagnostic review with a client and they've completely ghosted you after. You're having difficulty engaging with your prospects and want to know how you can continue to follow up. When is the best time to follow up. Well, in this episode, I'm going to be covering all of these questions. I am grabbing a few questions from a live Q and a that I did. And sharing this with you so that you can benefit from. This information as well. I also dive into some practical tips on dealing with, converting discovery calls, some pricing strategies, attracting the right clients. Using social media appropriately for the clients you're trying to attract. And so much more so tune in to today's episode. If you have any questions regarding. These topics. Alright, now let's get into today's episode. I am having tons of discovery calls, but having trouble with having them sign up. Sometimes I don't hear back after following up. Is it price shock or should I sell better?, any advice? This is a good one. Okay. So one thing to keep in mind is this time of year, I think people are shopping around for bookkeepers, unless they've already been following you. And kind of getting used to your style or whatever. I'm not sure what type of marketing you're doing. But right now people are booking discovery calls left and right. One of the ways that you can weed out people that aren't serious is to either charge for your discovery call or make sure you have an intake form, that they're required to fill out before they can book the call. that those two things have really helped me weed out. Tire kickers. But you're still gonna have people come on discovery calls and not be able to close them. If you have a hundred percent close rate or even anything, honestly, above 50%, you're probably pricing too low or maybe you're just really well positioned. So that's the other thing is you shouldn't expect to close every single discovery call. So my question back to you is. Of, your discovery calls, what is your close rate? Are you tracking this? Do you have a good idea of it? so that I can kind of give you some pointers. It might not be a price, it might just be that they are shopping around and, meeting with other people. and also what are you doing to follow up? pop those comments in the chat and we can kind of go back and forth. something like this is really awesome question to bring to a hot seat if you're a VIP, and this is where we can work through these issues and dig deeper together and kind of pinpoint where are things falling apart. So one of the other things that you could do is practice your discovery calls with someone else. And that's something that we can also do inside of the program together. You can call a biz bestie, you can do things like that and just role play and practice positioning yourself and presenting your offer to the client and things like that. the other thing too that I would dig into is, What are you packaging and offering them, what level of business are they in? Are they overwhelmed by what you're offering? There's so many things that it could be. And so, yeah. Alright. I wanted to add, they always just want tax accountants. Sometimes they say are fine doing bookkeeping themselves. So with that information, what that tells me is that you're actually targeting people that are too small. they just don't have the budget for a bookkeeper and they don't understand the value of it yet because they're such a small micro business that they can handle things on their own and it is good enough for now. So you wanna be targeting client base that does not have the time to be keeping their own books, but they're not quite to the point where they are bringing it in-house. So I would say you should be targeting a revenue range of over $200,000 a year. And beyond. And so if you need to adjust your messaging to be attracting, I don't know if you're doing online marketing, I don't know who I'm talking to. It just says Facebook users. So I don't have really an idea of what you're doing for marketing. But if you are posting a lot of content that is like DIY stuff, you're gonna be attracting DIYers in the smaller micro businesses if you're. Posting a lot of content, related to getting your business started and the beginning stage business owners, that's who you're going to attract. So think about that and if that is your social media content. Maybe start rethinking what you're posting about and start posting some higher level stuff and put yourself in the room with those higher level business owners. Ps higher level business owners are probably not hanging out on social media, but they are in masterminds, they are in tight knit groups. So try to make connections in those worlds. that is my best piece of advice or podcast interviews, things like that. I'm starting to provide content on my webpage via blog or vlogs. I'm also trying to boost social media. Any advice on getting people to click or download? Depends on, what are you trying to get them to click on and download, and who's your target? That's the other thing, kind of ties in with the other, Question I guess that I was riffing on, around who's your ideal client? What are you offering them? All of those things I want you to make sure that whatever you're offering them to click on or download, it meets them where they're at in their business and it is the type of client that you want to work with. Sometimes we tend to be like, oh, well, like let me solve this problem. But this isn't actually the type of client I wanna work with. I don't want the DIYer who's price sensitive. So. If you're offering a DIY guide, you're gonna be attracting the client that you don't want. Um, yeah. Mostly trying to get them to click my website and I'll be adding a newsletter soon. yeah, so , I drive everything to our website, so when I post something on social media, I typically try to drive people to our contact page where there's a questionnaire, to get onto our waitlist as a client, and that creates some, Scarcity, if you will, where it's like we don't actually accept discovery calls from anyone and everyone first you have to fill out this interest form and get on the waitlist, all that kind of stuff. And so I'm always driving people either to the blog, through our newsletter or to our website contact page, one of those two things. and so getting them To click really depends on the content that you're putting out and making sure you do have a call to action on everything. So, I'm not sure if you follow me on Instagram with the Ambitious Bookkeeper, but one of the things that I've been doing a lot lately in my reels is saying, comment such and such keyword, and I'll send you the information. You could do something like that and you can do that manually. I use a tool called ManyChat. and you can set up those keywords and you can set up the link that it delivers to their inbox and all of that stuff. And so it makes it automated, which I didn't use to have it automated. I used to do all that manually and then it became. A little more difficult to stay on top of. Plus you wanna deliver that link right away. So, I use ManyChat for that. And, it's many M-A-N-Y chat. Not mini like Minnie Mouse, but anyways, that you could do something like that. But my main point is to always have a call to action and make it easy for the client or the potential client to click. So. If it's a social media post that you can do a clickable link, do that. But in, in Instagram you can't click links in the description. So you have to either drive them to your link in bio or preferably do something like, comment such and such keyword, and I'll send you the information or shoot me a DM to discuss, or things like that. You always want that call to action. People need to be kind of fed that information. as far as getting them to stop their scroll and watch what you're doing, you've gotta hook them in somehow. So a pain point, a desire, something like that. I'm not a social media expert. That's something that's kind of out of my scope. I like to experiment. I observe what other people are doing and what I think is working, and then I implement. So that is my strategy., I wanna offer resources they can download, but I also don't want to give everything for free. So do a discovery call with me and I'll give you a free, simple resource, et cetera. Yeah. So I wouldn't be worried about giving away stuff for free because you're not gonna be giving away your work for free. So think of it that way. For instance, this Live Q&A is free for people in the Ambitious Bookkeeper group. I am going to answer every question as thoroughly as possible. And yes, some of the answers are in my programs that you would pay for, but you're not giving away the whole. A to Z step by step in the right order, right? So it's like, yes, I'm gonna answer the question that may have already been answered inside of my program. I could be one of those people that's like, actually you have to work with me to get that information, but I don't, because that doesn't feel right to me. And the same goes to client facing on. Instagram, someone can DM me and ask me a question about like, how should I handle this in my business? Generally the answer is it depends because every business is unique, and so that's what I open with and I'll say, but in general, this is what I see among my clients, or blah, blah, blah. But if you wanna go deeper and have me look at your specific business to answer that question, you can book a consult here and have a link for a paid consult because you will get people that need help want information. Aren't ready to work with you on a monthly basis and will pay for your time. So that's my other thing too. Always have that availability of like, I don't wanna give everything away for free. So if it requires more than like a two minute answer and looking at their specific situation, then absolutely offer them a paid consult. so yeah, as far as creating a bunch of downloads and things like that, I wouldn't go that far. I would create one download, make it free. use that to get people on your email list that you can then nurture and go from there. the other thing too is blogs. Blogs are a lot of free content. It's available all over the internet. Like you can create a blog and you can have that be how you position yourself as an expert. Yes, that person can go and consume your free content, but when it comes down to their specific business, they're going to need to have you personally evaluate, and that part you're not gonna do for free. So that's my little rant on free content. I've been hanging out in a lot of small business groups on Facebook. What are some better groups to be in since it seems like their business is too small. Should I invest in SEO help? I have been posting more content to get engagement on Facebook and Instagram. LinkedIn I'm not entirely sure where to start targeting clients, looking for condo associations, which is your background. Property management service-based wellness, et cetera, business. Okay, so I said this earlier, one of the really great ways to get clients is through podcast interviewing. If that's not your jam and you would rather be in these Facebook groups, it's just gonna require a lot of your time to filter. And look through there and answer people's questions. And that's another thing where you're going to feel like you're giving stuff away for free. Let me give you a little example. So I'm in a lot of business groups too. I don't engage in them as often, as I used to anymore. And, frankly I don't need to because people now tag me. But, you can get to that point by building your authority with those industries. So I would say get on podcasts. That target those industries. That's where the people that don't have time to be hanging out on Facebook are going to be listening and multitasking throughout their day. Like I'm a CEO of two businesses. I listen to lots of podcasts and that's how I consume content. I don't. Network and Facebook groups anymore, really. You know what I mean? so since I've done that legwork of listening to podcasts, going on podcasts that target my industry and building, relationships in the industries that I target, I now have. Those people that tag me in those groups. so there is a specific business group that I was tagged in recently. because someone was looking for, someone had to ask the question, how do you find a bookkeeper basically? And what ended up happening was I was tagged by somebody, but then I went back. Because I was tagged probably hours, maybe a day or two later, and there was a bunch of comments from other bookkeepers that said, I'm a bookkeeper. I can help you, basically. But nobody actually answered the question of how do you find a bookkeeper? So I popped in there and I like thanked the person who tagged me, and then I created a new comment and basically just answered the question. I did not pitch myself. That post resulted in two or three discovery calls because I didn't pitch myself so, That's part of the giving away content for free. You have to be okay with that. So basically what I did, I took that opportunity to just answer the question, answered the question honestly and authentically of how should somebody look for a bookkeeper? And I listed out three bullet points, and gave my 2 cents. I nowhere in that comment did I actually say, I'm a bookkeeper. I can help you with this. Or book a call with me or anything like that, and that's just my style. I don't prefer to just like pitch myself to people, and so I offer the value and then I take a step back. Those people on their own accord, went to my website, found the link. Actually, I think the person who tagged me linked my website. So it was easy for them, but they found the link to fill out the form and get on our interest form, and then I invited them onto discovery calls. So, that's the other thing is building your network within those groups, is still valuable, even if all those people aren't gonna be your clients, because those people are gonna start tagging you and offering you the opportunities, basically. So condo associations, I would go and join, whatever networking group or events or things that are geared towards condo associations, property management, things like that. And then same with wellness. start going to wellness events, wellness, fairs and things like that are, I mean, I know even small towns have those. Mine does, they have like this big wellness expo a couple times a year. go to that. Just go and network with the people that are at the booths. Those are the other businesses that are also in that world. I can't say whether or not you should invest in SEO help. I have not done that and I've built my business, but I also know that I do have an SEO play because we do have a blog. I do have certain keywords on my homepage, things like that that can be done, that are low-hanging fruit. And if you're working with local businesses, I've heard Google my business is a really, really good option as well. I don't personally use that and I haven't paid anyone for my SEO. stuff either so. Not completely necessary. What do you do if you forget to follow up with a prospect and ways to avoid it happening again? Ooh, this is a really good question. Okay. Number one, if you forget to follow up with a prospect, it is never too late, do it today. This is your assignment right after this live. I want you to go and draft an email that says, Hey, we had spoken on XYZ date. I'm just kind of coming up for air after 1099s and whatever excuse you wanna make, I'm just coming up for air. I would love to touch base again. this was the proposal that I, if you sent her a proposal or him, them, if you sent them a proposal, you can say, this was the proposal I sent. I'm still honoring it until XYZ date. Even if you had let it expire or if you have a system where it expires, go fix that. Okay. That's one way you can do it. Just it's never too late to follow up with a Prospect. number two, how do you avoid it? Use a system that does the follow up for you like Dubzado. you can set expiration dates on your proposals. And pretty much any software that you use if you're not doing it manually, or you can set yourself a reminder in your project management software or an email to yourself, however you need to do it, to follow up with your prospect. so it can be manual, but if you want to really prevent it happening in the future, set up a system that sends, the reminders for expiring proposals and then. Also in our Dubsado, if a proposal expires, they still stay in there as a lead. And I move them to, an area or a tag or whatever funnel. I don't know what Dubsado calls it. I changed the project status to something called, follow up. And so every so often, maybe once a quarter, especially if we're like. It's a downtime and I'm like, we need more clients. That's the first place I go. I look at my list of leads of people who didn't sign the proposal, didn't end up booking a discovery call, all of those things, and I follow up with those people. Couple times a year just send them an email and say, Hey, we had chatted back in such-and-such date. I just wanna see if you ever found a bookkeeper and how's business going? Super simple. Okay. that's the lowest hanging fruit because you've already had a conversation with these people. And if they don't respond, keep'em on your Follow up list. If they respond and say, I found a bookkeeper not happy with them. So I definitely wanna chat with you. I've had that happen before too, so you never ever know, right? You never know. The fortune isn't the follow up business Cliches, I feel like should do a podcast on business cliches. I had a potential client ghost me. Welcome to the club. Um, after she paid for a diagnostic review, how many times do you reach out? How long would you wait to issue a refund? I know she's got personal things going on, but how long is too long for me to wait? And has anyone, covered this possibility in their engagement letter? I have not with a diagnostic. I've had people ghost me on diagnostics if they haven't paid for it. but if she's paid for it and you know that she has personal stuff going on, I would shoot her an email and give her the option of a refund right now, or to utilize the diagnostic within the next six months. And let her know that if she doesn't respond by the end of the six months, there won't be a refund after that period. So please let you know so you can manage your workload. Like there's nothing wrong with saying that, and if you just don't want to mess with it, just refund her right now and send her an email and say, Hey, when you're ready to have the diagnostic, you're welcome to book it again and pay again. I've refunded you. It can be that simple. You don't have to wait for people to respond. Back to the following up with prospects, how many times do you follow up with someone? There are two I would love to work with. I've followed up like two to three times and they won't reply to my emails. What are other ways to keep the door open or just let it go and check on them in a few months? I don't know how close together you follow up two to three times. But what I would do is I would set a reminder to follow up with them in six months and then, at the six month mark. It can be a very simple email that's just like we had spoken in, blah, blah, blah. You told me to follow up. I haven't received any response. I'm just kind of cleaning up my list of people to follow up with. Please respond. Not interested. if you've found a bookkeeper and you don't need my services, and that's it. Like, make them respond that they're not interested and generally. They'll either answer or they won't, and then you can just archive them honestly. because why would you wanna work with someone who doesn't have the decency to reply to a couple emails?