1 00:00:05,390 --> 00:00:06,560 Welcome back to Count Me In, 2 00:00:06,560 --> 00:00:10,840 IMA's podcast about all things affecting the accounting and finance world. 3 00:00:11,700 --> 00:00:15,880 I'm your host, Adam Larson. And this is episode 164 of our series. 4 00:00:17,030 --> 00:00:19,040 Today's featured guest is Gordon Van Wechel. 5 00:00:19,340 --> 00:00:21,910 Gordon is president of the Alchemy Consulting Group. 6 00:00:22,530 --> 00:00:26,550 He is a business marketing strategist and he helps firms recognize the true 7 00:00:26,750 --> 00:00:28,510 business value, grow their business, 8 00:00:28,650 --> 00:00:33,310 and provide strategic support to professionals in business. In this episode, 9 00:00:33,311 --> 00:00:37,110 he talks with Mitch about the value of working with an agency and the benefits 10 00:00:37,111 --> 00:00:38,750 that come from proper advertising. 11 00:00:39,220 --> 00:00:42,180 Keep listening as we head over to the conversation now. 12 00:00:49,200 --> 00:00:51,780 So Gordon, thank you again for joining us. And, you know, 13 00:00:51,781 --> 00:00:55,380 I just want to start off our conversation by asking, in your opinion, 14 00:00:55,610 --> 00:01:00,100 your experiences does a professional practice need to have an 15 00:01:00,320 --> 00:01:01,810 agency working for them? 16 00:01:02,600 --> 00:01:05,290 Well, at the risk of sounding a little bit, self-serving Mitchell, 17 00:01:05,291 --> 00:01:08,530 because I do run an agency. 18 00:01:08,550 --> 00:01:11,130 I'll answer the question with a yes. 19 00:01:11,131 --> 00:01:13,650 But let me give you some reasons why I say that. 20 00:01:13,651 --> 00:01:16,890 There's such a multitude of marketing channels available today. 21 00:01:16,891 --> 00:01:21,170 If you think back just 15 years ago, you know, a practice had, you know, 22 00:01:21,171 --> 00:01:25,920 the yellow pages, they worked off of referrals. Google was in its infancy, 23 00:01:25,921 --> 00:01:29,720 YouTube hadn't been invented, social media, wasn't a factor, you know, 24 00:01:29,721 --> 00:01:33,720 they could do radio and TV, but there just wasn't that much to choose from. 25 00:01:33,721 --> 00:01:38,240 So it was relatively easy to get the word out. That's changed today. I mean, 26 00:01:38,241 --> 00:01:41,720 it would be easy for you and I in two or three minutes to come up with 50 27 00:01:41,790 --> 00:01:46,150 different effective marketing channels that a professional practice 28 00:01:46,650 --> 00:01:48,670 can use and, and be effective. 29 00:01:49,810 --> 00:01:53,110 Now a lot of times when I speak with professional practice owners, they'll say, 30 00:01:53,111 --> 00:01:55,150 well, you know, my business is referral based, 31 00:01:55,210 --> 00:01:57,270 so I don't really need to do any advertising. 32 00:01:57,740 --> 00:02:02,510 What they don't realize is that there are multiple surveys out there that 33 00:02:02,610 --> 00:02:07,140 say that between 85 and 90% of the people who are referred to a business 34 00:02:07,530 --> 00:02:09,860 will first go online and they're looking for two things. 35 00:02:09,861 --> 00:02:13,060 They're looking for the company's website, 36 00:02:13,061 --> 00:02:15,380 because that kind of proves that they're legitimate and, 37 00:02:15,581 --> 00:02:18,860 and they want to look at that about us page and see who they might be dealing 38 00:02:18,860 --> 00:02:21,020 with so they select that company. 39 00:02:21,021 --> 00:02:24,050 But the other thing they're looking at is the reviews. 40 00:02:24,050 --> 00:02:28,490 That social proof has become critically important in the mind of 41 00:02:28,690 --> 00:02:33,330 a prospect because they want to know that the vendor they're considering is 42 00:02:33,331 --> 00:02:36,890 doing an excellent job with their current client and is likely to do an 43 00:02:36,891 --> 00:02:41,170 excellent job with them. Well, putting all of that together, 44 00:02:41,171 --> 00:02:44,960 managing `that diversity of channels and keeping up with the 45 00:02:45,790 --> 00:02:46,281 testing, 46 00:02:46,281 --> 00:02:51,280 knowing where their prospects are going for information updating of campaigns, 47 00:02:51,281 --> 00:02:56,280 you can't legitimately run a practice plus do all of that. So for those reasons, 48 00:02:56,281 --> 00:02:59,960 I think that having an agency is important even for a smaller, 49 00:02:59,961 --> 00:03:00,920 professional practice. 50 00:03:01,060 --> 00:03:05,880 But the caveat to that is to find an agency that understands your business 51 00:03:06,080 --> 00:03:10,080 and that's willing to work with you where you're at with the budget that you 52 00:03:10,081 --> 00:03:13,120 have available at this time and grow with you. 53 00:03:13,580 --> 00:03:18,360 So I think you've probably already addressed two of the answers or possible 54 00:03:19,271 --> 00:03:22,190 answers to my next question. But you mentioned, 55 00:03:22,191 --> 00:03:26,110 relying on referrals and then potentially budget concerns, 56 00:03:26,490 --> 00:03:30,950 my next question is what are some of the biggest mistakes that you see 57 00:03:30,951 --> 00:03:35,630 professional practices make for those that do pursue some form of marketing? 58 00:03:35,631 --> 00:03:36,100 You know, 59 00:03:36,100 --> 00:03:40,420 what are some of the obstacles or challenges that you find to be most familiar? 60 00:03:41,010 --> 00:03:41,843 Sure. 61 00:03:42,380 --> 00:03:47,380 I think one is not having a really clearly stated value proposition in 62 00:03:47,381 --> 00:03:48,940 their advertising. You know, 63 00:03:48,941 --> 00:03:53,140 the value proposition is why should I choose you versus the multitude of other 64 00:03:53,141 --> 00:03:55,780 firms that are available to me in the local marketplace? 65 00:03:56,090 --> 00:04:00,810 Something that we enjoy doing with a new client or even a prospect is 66 00:04:00,811 --> 00:04:05,610 we'll have them open up their website and take a screenshot of the homepage, 67 00:04:05,750 --> 00:04:07,090 the portion that's above the fold, 68 00:04:07,970 --> 00:04:10,170 that a prospect can see when they open up the website, 69 00:04:11,080 --> 00:04:15,050 take a picture of that and print it out and then do the same thing with four or 70 00:04:15,051 --> 00:04:16,490 five or six of their competitors. 71 00:04:17,430 --> 00:04:22,360 And what they'll be surprised to see is how similar all of those websites are. 72 00:04:22,860 --> 00:04:24,640 You know, they all promise the same things. 73 00:04:24,710 --> 00:04:27,320 They all use the same platitudes and generalities. 74 00:04:27,350 --> 00:04:31,120 Many times the only difference between those pages is the phone number. 75 00:04:31,900 --> 00:04:33,120 And if that's the case, 76 00:04:33,590 --> 00:04:38,240 then what your prospect is left with is the impression that everybody is the 77 00:04:38,241 --> 00:04:40,440 same. And if everybody's the same, 78 00:04:41,270 --> 00:04:44,190 all that prospect's going to be concerned about is who is going to give me the 79 00:04:44,191 --> 00:04:48,270 service for the cheapest price. And, that's a war that I don't want to get into. 80 00:04:48,271 --> 00:04:50,150 And I don't think many business owners do. 81 00:04:50,330 --> 00:04:52,150 Nobody wants to be in the race to the bottom. 82 00:04:52,850 --> 00:04:57,510 So not having that clearly stated value proposition and in today's 83 00:04:57,511 --> 00:04:58,250 marketplace, 84 00:04:58,250 --> 00:05:02,900 the absolutely most effective way to state that is in a little short, 85 00:05:02,950 --> 00:05:07,900 60 to 75 second video of the business owner looking right into 86 00:05:07,901 --> 00:05:11,540 the camera and saying, here's who I am. Here's who my firm is. 87 00:05:11,541 --> 00:05:16,540 Here's what we do. And here's why you should consider using us. And just 1, 2, 88 00:05:16,540 --> 00:05:17,900 3 bullet points, you know, 89 00:05:18,100 --> 00:05:21,300 whatever that value proposition is and state it as clearly and succinctly as 90 00:05:21,300 --> 00:05:24,890 possible and literally in 60 to 75 seconds. 91 00:05:25,430 --> 00:05:27,210 Any longer than that and people aren't going to listen. 92 00:05:29,350 --> 00:05:30,890 So taking that a step further, 93 00:05:31,200 --> 00:05:35,090 what is the most overlooked marketing channel professional practices could be 94 00:05:35,091 --> 00:05:37,770 using more effectively based on what you just shared, 95 00:05:37,771 --> 00:05:42,720 it feels like potentially a lot of practices are very interested in the 96 00:05:42,721 --> 00:05:46,880 social media, maybe? Maybe their website is their go-to, you know, 97 00:05:46,881 --> 00:05:47,800 from your experience, 98 00:05:48,070 --> 00:05:51,200 what kind of gets overlooked and really should be focused on better? 99 00:05:51,990 --> 00:05:55,480 Well, let's assume that a firm has a decent, 100 00:05:55,650 --> 00:06:00,600 basic website in place and it doesn't have to be a 10 or $12,000 major 101 00:06:00,601 --> 00:06:04,160 investment. It's got to be something that, as I just said, 102 00:06:04,161 --> 00:06:09,040 states their value proposition clearly and gives a person some insight into 103 00:06:09,060 --> 00:06:12,560 what the firm stands for and who some of the people are. 104 00:06:12,580 --> 00:06:16,320 Assuming that's in place and they have a Google business page that's in place 105 00:06:16,321 --> 00:06:20,390 and optimized that's the foundation. 106 00:06:20,391 --> 00:06:24,030 The next most overlooked step is retargeting. 107 00:06:24,031 --> 00:06:27,350 Now retargeting is a form of paid advertising. 108 00:06:27,570 --> 00:06:31,430 If you're not familiar with that term, you've certainly experienced retargeting. 109 00:06:31,431 --> 00:06:33,710 If you've ever shopped on eBay or Amazon or, 110 00:06:34,151 --> 00:06:38,100 really most any of the major retail websites anymore, you look at a product, 111 00:06:38,640 --> 00:06:42,820 but you don't buy it. You see ads for that product for the next week or 10 days. 112 00:06:42,890 --> 00:06:46,340 Well, you've been retargeted. Retargeting, 113 00:06:46,420 --> 00:06:51,260 I like to tell our clients is the single most powerful advertising you can 114 00:06:51,261 --> 00:06:55,580 do because it makes all of your other advertising more effective. 115 00:06:56,440 --> 00:06:59,010 And if you think about it for a minute, most of us, 116 00:06:59,011 --> 00:07:00,650 when we do marketing for our company, 117 00:07:00,700 --> 00:07:05,010 we're trying to drive traffic to that website. That's our 24/7 salesperson. 118 00:07:06,590 --> 00:07:11,330 But when people visit that website, Google will tell us that 96% of the time, 119 00:07:11,920 --> 00:07:16,650 they don't take an action. They don't fill out a form. They don't click to call. 120 00:07:16,651 --> 00:07:19,800 If you have those links on your site, they don't pick up the phone and call. 121 00:07:20,110 --> 00:07:24,320 They leave. Well with retargeting, you can keep your brand, 122 00:07:24,470 --> 00:07:28,640 your business name in front of them for a period of time, a week, 10 days, 123 00:07:29,060 --> 00:07:29,870 two weeks, 124 00:07:29,870 --> 00:07:33,680 however long the normal person takes to make a decision for your product or 125 00:07:33,681 --> 00:07:36,520 service. So retargeting is critical. Related 126 00:07:38,650 --> 00:07:40,510 to retargeting are banner ads. 127 00:07:41,250 --> 00:07:44,990 Now banner ads are similar to retargeting ads. They look the same. 128 00:07:45,350 --> 00:07:46,830 They're ads that you see on websites, 129 00:07:47,530 --> 00:07:50,310 but with the sensory economy that we live in today, 130 00:07:51,071 --> 00:07:55,310 we can really very finely hone in on target markets with those 131 00:07:56,350 --> 00:08:00,380 ads. And I was doing a presentation a couple of weeks, a live presentation. 132 00:08:00,381 --> 00:08:05,020 And I joked with the audience that if they wanted to target housewives between 133 00:08:05,050 --> 00:08:10,020 the ages of 35 and 45 with two children at home who drove a Volvo 134 00:08:10,021 --> 00:08:11,740 and ate Yoplait yogurt, 135 00:08:11,741 --> 00:08:14,980 I could put them in front of that audience in their town. 136 00:08:14,981 --> 00:08:18,100 That's how precisely we can target things these days. 137 00:08:18,101 --> 00:08:21,370 So for a professional practice that understands who their customers are, 138 00:08:21,790 --> 00:08:26,410 we can very easily expose their brand to those customers and 139 00:08:26,720 --> 00:08:29,170 prospects through, banner ad campaigns. 140 00:08:29,830 --> 00:08:32,570 And then the other aspect of paid advertising is Google ads. 141 00:08:32,670 --> 00:08:35,170 And a lot of firms have had a bad experience with that, 142 00:08:35,670 --> 00:08:38,410 but that's because of the complexity of Google ads. And that, 143 00:08:38,411 --> 00:08:40,680 again goes back to your first question Mitchell. 144 00:08:40,681 --> 00:08:45,440 If somebody's going to launch down that path of spending money with Google, 145 00:08:45,470 --> 00:08:48,800 they really want to have an experienced agency managing that for them. 146 00:08:49,860 --> 00:08:52,560 But I think the most overlooked marketing channels are paid ads. 147 00:08:53,240 --> 00:08:56,760 A lot of companies will jump into search and to optimization and I'm not going 148 00:08:56,760 --> 00:09:01,240 to minimize the importance of that. But the reality is that's a long term play. 149 00:09:01,780 --> 00:09:05,760 You can spend a lot of money over eight to 12 months to get some of your 150 00:09:05,761 --> 00:09:08,000 keywords, highly ranked on Google. 151 00:09:08,540 --> 00:09:12,040 And a lot of firms don't want to spend the money and not get the more immediate 152 00:09:12,460 --> 00:09:16,430 ROI. Well, this paid advertising campaigns will give them that immediate ROI. 153 00:09:17,290 --> 00:09:20,150 Now, obviously this is paid advertising. 154 00:09:20,151 --> 00:09:24,990 So we're looking for the firm to spend some kind of money with an agency to get 155 00:09:24,991 --> 00:09:25,824 the name out there. 156 00:09:26,290 --> 00:09:30,150 You also mentioned just recently that one of the bigger mistakes that some 157 00:09:30,310 --> 00:09:33,670 businesses make is potentially going out of budget or, you know, 158 00:09:33,690 --> 00:09:37,340 not spending money in the right place with the right agency or such. 159 00:09:37,840 --> 00:09:42,460 So when it comes to firms and a lot of our listeners work for 160 00:09:43,070 --> 00:09:46,380 those smaller businesses that you were discussing earlier, you know, 161 00:09:46,530 --> 00:09:50,020 what would be an appropriate practice for spending on advertising? 162 00:09:50,300 --> 00:09:54,060 You know, a lot of agencies will tell you spend as much as you can, 163 00:09:54,120 --> 00:09:57,450 or they'll come up with some trite phrases as well. 164 00:09:57,451 --> 00:10:00,610 If you spend a hundred dollars and get $110 in return on it, 165 00:10:00,611 --> 00:10:03,610 that was a good spend. Well, that makes no sense at all. You know, 166 00:10:03,611 --> 00:10:06,930 that doesn't cover your cost of goods or your labor, your operating overhead. 167 00:10:08,080 --> 00:10:12,370 What we consult with our clients is to first understand what's the average 168 00:10:12,680 --> 00:10:17,160 transaction value in your company. And just a very simple example, 169 00:10:17,210 --> 00:10:19,600 let's say you prepare tax returns for $500. 170 00:10:20,220 --> 00:10:24,200 Now that's low for a business return, I understand, but just as a round number, 171 00:10:24,850 --> 00:10:29,040 let's say you prepare a tax return for $500 and you keep a client on an average 172 00:10:29,140 --> 00:10:33,880 for five years. So that's $500 a year, times, five years, 173 00:10:33,881 --> 00:10:35,280 that's $2,500. 174 00:10:36,020 --> 00:10:40,950 So the lifetime value of a client in your practice then is $2,500. 175 00:10:41,690 --> 00:10:46,670 So the advertising budget question is how much are you willing to spend 176 00:10:46,930 --> 00:10:49,350 to acquire a $2,500 client? 177 00:10:50,810 --> 00:10:54,910 And frequently firms will spend more than the initial 178 00:10:55,260 --> 00:11:00,100 transaction value to acquire that client because they know that 179 00:11:00,360 --> 00:11:02,740 the average is $2,500. 180 00:11:04,221 --> 00:11:06,300 Now I've had people throw up their arms and say, oh, 181 00:11:06,301 --> 00:11:09,820 but we don't keep everybody for five years. And that's true, 182 00:11:09,821 --> 00:11:13,980 but you also keep some for more than five years, we're talking averages here. 183 00:11:13,981 --> 00:11:18,690 And the $500 example is overly simplified because most companies, 184 00:11:18,710 --> 00:11:22,010 multiple tiers of services and products that they offer. 185 00:11:22,011 --> 00:11:26,250 So you have to figure out what your average transaction value is in each of 186 00:11:26,870 --> 00:11:30,250 those tiers and, and judge it accordingly, 187 00:11:30,251 --> 00:11:34,930 but to calculate your budget, you want to really understand those numbers. 188 00:11:34,931 --> 00:11:35,570 And then you, 189 00:11:35,570 --> 00:11:38,960 as a business owner have to determine how much are you willing to spend to 190 00:11:38,961 --> 00:11:43,720 acquire that new customer. But here's a rule that we found to be true. I mean, 191 00:11:43,721 --> 00:11:47,400 in the 18 years we've been in business and I think it's true across every market 192 00:11:48,100 --> 00:11:51,480 niche, you know, finance and accounting, home improvement, trades, 193 00:11:51,481 --> 00:11:52,520 medical practices, 194 00:11:53,540 --> 00:11:57,680 the company that can spend the most to acquire a new customer will win the 195 00:11:57,680 --> 00:12:01,400 market share battle every time. And the only way, you know, 196 00:12:01,401 --> 00:12:05,440 what you can spend is to really understand that transaction value and lifetime 197 00:12:05,441 --> 00:12:06,280 value of the customer. 198 00:12:08,370 --> 00:12:12,370 Now that makes a lot of sense. And the example you shared well, 199 00:12:12,720 --> 00:12:15,520 maybe oversimplified certainly makes it very easy to, 200 00:12:16,020 --> 00:12:19,360 translate to whatever the business is that our listeners are working in. 201 00:12:20,560 --> 00:12:23,520 As I said, you know, we focus on finance and accounting professionals. 202 00:12:23,521 --> 00:12:26,800 We have a lot of small business listeners. We also have those who, 203 00:12:27,220 --> 00:12:30,880 if they're in business on their own or aspire to be entrepreneurs and in 204 00:12:31,000 --> 00:12:34,590 business on their own, a big part of that is kind of, you know, 205 00:12:34,591 --> 00:12:38,350 taking one project and then going on to something else down the road. Right? 206 00:12:38,370 --> 00:12:42,510 So I think a big question is if I'm running my own business, 207 00:12:42,650 --> 00:12:45,070 I'm focusing on my own marketing, so on and so forth, 208 00:12:45,530 --> 00:12:48,150 but this is not my lifelong play. You know, 209 00:12:48,190 --> 00:12:50,750 I have some aspirations of potentially moving on to something else. 210 00:12:51,700 --> 00:12:52,990 What should I be doing today? 211 00:12:52,991 --> 00:12:57,540 What kind of consideration should I have short term or long term for the, 212 00:12:57,560 --> 00:12:57,920 you know, 213 00:12:57,920 --> 00:13:02,780 the sustainability of the business as it is now getting ready to move on to the 214 00:13:02,781 --> 00:13:04,020 next phase of my own business? 215 00:13:05,810 --> 00:13:09,820 Yeah. I think all of us start businesses do so with the ultimate idea that we're 216 00:13:09,940 --> 00:13:11,140 probably going to sell it, you know, 217 00:13:11,141 --> 00:13:15,450 we're going to fund our retirement or our kids' education or whatever, or, 218 00:13:15,651 --> 00:13:18,450 we're just entrepreneurs and we want to do something different in life. 219 00:13:19,190 --> 00:13:22,890 And what we see in the alchemy transition side of our business, 220 00:13:22,891 --> 00:13:27,810 where we help business owners prepare their businesses for sale is one 221 00:13:27,811 --> 00:13:32,010 consistent fact is as business owners, we tend to use a rear view mirror. 222 00:13:32,630 --> 00:13:37,400 We look back with understandable pride on all of the things that we've created, 223 00:13:37,460 --> 00:13:40,240 the people that we've developed and the market that we've developed, 224 00:13:40,660 --> 00:13:43,000 all of the things that we've done to make our company, 225 00:13:43,540 --> 00:13:45,560 the profitable enterprise that it is. 226 00:13:46,700 --> 00:13:48,720 But a buyer doesn't care about that. 227 00:13:48,721 --> 00:13:53,720 A buyer is looking at what's the future cash flow of this business if I own 228 00:13:53,740 --> 00:13:58,670 it. And what's my ROI going to be based on the amount I spend to acquire it. 229 00:13:59,690 --> 00:14:03,310 So when we consult with business owners who are thinking about transitioning 230 00:14:03,311 --> 00:14:06,310 their business in the next three to 10 years, 231 00:14:06,311 --> 00:14:10,670 we have eight different value drivers that we use to help them prepare that 232 00:14:10,690 --> 00:14:13,910 business for sale. Let me just summarize a couple of them. You know, 233 00:14:13,930 --> 00:14:14,910 one is recurring revenue. 234 00:14:15,930 --> 00:14:19,940 Recurring revenue is not the same as repeat business. 235 00:14:20,530 --> 00:14:23,740 Recurring revenue is where you have people that have committed to paying 236 00:14:23,741 --> 00:14:26,940 something every month or every quarter for your services. 237 00:14:27,450 --> 00:14:28,380 I'll give you an example. 238 00:14:29,680 --> 00:14:34,380 We are working with a CPA firm who has a focus on a niche 239 00:14:34,610 --> 00:14:38,010 with real estate professionals and real estate investors. 240 00:14:39,270 --> 00:14:43,650 And so what we've done is helped them create three tiers of support 241 00:14:44,230 --> 00:14:45,570 for those customers, 242 00:14:46,120 --> 00:14:50,810 depending upon how many investment properties they own and how much consultation 243 00:14:50,811 --> 00:14:53,240 they need during the year in terms of tax planning. 244 00:14:53,940 --> 00:14:55,880 So there's three different tiers of support, 245 00:14:55,890 --> 00:14:58,920 three different monthly payment plans. Well, 246 00:14:58,921 --> 00:15:03,520 what that's done is converted a lot of their regular customers over to those 247 00:15:03,521 --> 00:15:07,840 monthly plans because they want that increased level of support. It's not just, 248 00:15:08,140 --> 00:15:11,830 here's my paperwork. Please repair my taxes. It's, 249 00:15:12,140 --> 00:15:15,870 okay I'm buying these next three properties. How do I need to structure them? 250 00:15:16,330 --> 00:15:18,230 I'm selling four properties this year. 251 00:15:18,650 --> 00:15:21,430 How are we going to make sure we don't have to overpay on taxes? 252 00:15:21,770 --> 00:15:23,830 So by creating those tiers of support, 253 00:15:24,170 --> 00:15:28,630 it has created a much more sustainable relationship with those clients. 254 00:15:29,250 --> 00:15:33,060 And in turn created, an increased value to their practice. 255 00:15:34,040 --> 00:15:37,060 Hub And Spoke is another tool that we use. 256 00:15:38,090 --> 00:15:40,940 Most businesses tend to revolve around the owner. 257 00:15:40,941 --> 00:15:45,540 The owners are involved in all the hiring decisions, they're involved in sales, 258 00:15:45,541 --> 00:15:49,940 they're involved in most of the customer transactions that they're the hub and 259 00:15:49,960 --> 00:15:52,690 the rest of the firm are the spokes of the wheel of their business. 260 00:15:53,830 --> 00:15:56,050 The rule of thumb we use that is if you, 261 00:15:56,051 --> 00:15:59,970 as the owner know more than 15% of your clients by first name, 262 00:16:00,350 --> 00:16:03,930 you would recognize them if you were at the grocery store and you would call 263 00:16:03,931 --> 00:16:08,250 them by first name. That's not a good sign from an acquirer's point of view. 264 00:16:09,110 --> 00:16:10,330 The reason being that, 265 00:16:10,331 --> 00:16:14,240 that means there's a lot of customer loyalty to you as the business owner. 266 00:16:15,140 --> 00:16:19,360 And that may bode well for me as the acquirer, it may not. 267 00:16:20,120 --> 00:16:22,280 I know when I'm gonna acquire a financial practice, 268 00:16:22,460 --> 00:16:26,480 I'm probably going to lose 20 to 25% of the clients, or at least statistically, 269 00:16:26,481 --> 00:16:27,480 that seems to be the norm. 270 00:16:28,420 --> 00:16:33,390 But the more I can show that the current owner isn't the focal point 271 00:16:33,450 --> 00:16:37,390 for those clients, then that relationship isn't the strength of the firm. 272 00:16:37,890 --> 00:16:42,630 The better my opportunity is to enhance my return on acquiring that firm and 273 00:16:42,631 --> 00:16:44,750 therefore the more I'm willing to offer for it. 274 00:16:46,050 --> 00:16:50,830 So the focus of that part of our business is helping practice owners 275 00:16:51,520 --> 00:16:56,220 understand how their business is going to be viewed from an acquiring company or 276 00:16:56,221 --> 00:16:57,054 individual, 277 00:16:57,480 --> 00:17:01,820 and try to set it up to be the most appealing to that person as possible. 278 00:17:03,850 --> 00:17:07,700 Very interesting. And, considering that dynamic of a business, 279 00:17:08,160 --> 00:17:11,780 it would make sense that you would like to see the operations and the 280 00:17:11,781 --> 00:17:12,614 organizational 281 00:17:14,851 --> 00:17:18,690 core values translate across the organization, right. Not just be, 282 00:17:19,310 --> 00:17:22,530 personified by one individual. So thank you for sharing that. 283 00:17:22,590 --> 00:17:27,410 I do have one question as a follow up to kind of wrap things up again, 284 00:17:27,430 --> 00:17:30,010 gearing back towards our listeners in finance and accounting. 285 00:17:30,011 --> 00:17:33,810 I know you said you do work with a number of firms in that space. 286 00:17:34,080 --> 00:17:38,640 I'm just curious what you kind of envision as far as how finance 287 00:17:38,720 --> 00:17:42,680 and accounting firms specifically can differentiate themselves, you know, 288 00:17:42,681 --> 00:17:47,040 going back to what you said earlier on, some successful practices, 289 00:17:47,360 --> 00:17:48,001 best practices, 290 00:17:48,001 --> 00:17:52,320 things like that for our listeners who may be looking to utilize some marketing 291 00:17:52,321 --> 00:17:55,040 to get, an extra step up on their competition. 292 00:17:55,710 --> 00:18:00,640 Sure. Well, one is to identify a niche where you have expertise. 293 00:18:00,760 --> 00:18:05,680 I just used an example of a CPA firm that had a lot of experience working with 294 00:18:05,681 --> 00:18:09,790 real estate investors and real estate professionals. 295 00:18:10,110 --> 00:18:11,310 When we started with them, 296 00:18:11,430 --> 00:18:14,790 they had a generic website that didn't say anything about that, 297 00:18:14,870 --> 00:18:19,670 even though a good percentage of their clientele were in those niches. 298 00:18:19,690 --> 00:18:24,470 We wound up creating a completely separate website and doing marketing directly 299 00:18:24,490 --> 00:18:29,260 at those niches and they saw a 25% increase in firm revenue, 300 00:18:29,261 --> 00:18:32,780 the first year as a result of focusing on that niche. 301 00:18:32,781 --> 00:18:34,260 So I think for a lot of firms, 302 00:18:34,261 --> 00:18:38,940 they have areas that they either enjoy working or have specialized expertise in. 303 00:18:38,941 --> 00:18:40,780 Maybe it's it's nonprofits, 304 00:18:40,781 --> 00:18:43,580 maybe it's building trades and doing job cost accounting. I mean, 305 00:18:43,581 --> 00:18:44,980 maybe it's retail, 306 00:18:45,000 --> 00:18:49,460 but really focus on what your expertise is and then identify 307 00:18:50,050 --> 00:18:54,810 markets that you can enhance. That you can go penetrate with that expertise. 308 00:18:55,680 --> 00:19:00,530 Another thing that you can do is consistent follow up with your clients. 309 00:19:00,870 --> 00:19:05,090 Most firms work really hard, five months a year, 310 00:19:05,091 --> 00:19:08,610 and then the rest of the year they're finishing up some business returns. 311 00:19:09,000 --> 00:19:13,000 They're are not following up consistently with our clients and really 312 00:19:13,910 --> 00:19:15,480 involving them in tax planning. 313 00:19:15,870 --> 00:19:19,520 They're not becoming the valued professional resource for their business clients 314 00:19:19,550 --> 00:19:24,240 that they could. And I think when they start to do that, 315 00:19:24,790 --> 00:19:29,680 they increase the relationship as well as the revenue from their current current 316 00:19:29,681 --> 00:19:30,514 client base. 317 00:19:30,730 --> 00:19:34,390 But they also generate a lot of additional revenue because they're providing 318 00:19:34,391 --> 00:19:35,590 that extra value add. 319 00:19:36,210 --> 00:19:39,270 So those are two things that come to mind that a practice can do immediately and 320 00:19:39,431 --> 00:19:40,790 that's even a small practice. 321 00:19:43,500 --> 00:19:44,790 This has been Count Me In, 322 00:19:45,460 --> 00:19:49,430 IMA's podcast providing you with the latest perspectives about leaders from the 323 00:19:49,431 --> 00:19:51,900 accounting and finance profession. If you like what you heard, 324 00:19:51,901 --> 00:19:55,220 and you'd like to be counted in for more relevant accounting and finance 325 00:19:55,330 --> 00:19:59,020 education, visit IMA's website at www.imanet.org.