Hi, I am trying to get a standard letter together to send to new business that have just started up telling them about my services. There seems to be at least one very week in the local paper! Obliviously I will change each one slightly depending on what business they are in. I can write all the 'stuff' about me and what I can do for them etc but it's the opening lines I have a fuzzy head about.
I'm start with 'congratulations on your new business'............ I probably need something friendly to say after this??
Then I'll go on to say who I am and what I do. Does a line that starts ' I would like to introduce to you myself and the services I provide' sound completely naff??
Professional looking, high GSM, colour headed paper.
Change "congratulations on your new business" to "congratulations from all at xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx on your new business".
"As local bookkeepers we would like to bring to your attention early in your busiess what our business can do to help yours grow".
Add the speil about your business and what it can do for them including a bit about legal complaince, timely information, importance of cash flow vs paper profits.
Don't make it too long (half to three quarters of a page) as they will lose interest.
Use a large font (11 or 12 point)
good spaceing.
After a couple of weeks of no reply send a mailshot postcard that will remind them of your business name from the letter.
Do that again after three months.
keep good CRM records to know which potential clients are at which stage of the acquisition process.
HTH,
Shaun.
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Shaun
Responses are not meant as a substitute for professional advice. Answers are intended as outline only the advice of a qualified professional with access to all relevant information should be sought before acting on any response given.
CRM is quite a big subject but it boils down to three matters. We are interested in :
Customer Acquisition
The stage that you are at now including gettin gyour name recognised by potential customers in the local market.
Customer Retention
How do you hold onto them once you have acquired them. Perhaps think about value added services.
Customer extension
What other services can we provide for (sell to) the client.
kind regards,
Shaun.
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Shaun
Responses are not meant as a substitute for professional advice. Answers are intended as outline only the advice of a qualified professional with access to all relevant information should be sought before acting on any response given.
I would probably make the headline a bit more thought provoking personally, for non start ups I used to send out one saying 'BOOKS IN A MESS?' which gave good results...all part of finding their pain. For new start ups perhaps 'WORRIED ABOUT YOUR BOOKS?' or 'SCARED OF THE TAX MAN?' perhaps.
Also always handwrite the envelopes and put the stamps on a bit wonky. You want your letter to go into the pile to be opened not the pile to be 'filed'. There's a good chance of it being opened if it looks a bit more personal, also if you send 'lumpy' mail, ie you put something in the envelope. You could head your letter 'WANT TO CHAT ABOUT YOUR BOOKKEEPING OVER A CUP OF TEA?' and enclose a tea bag and a kitkat. If you are feeling brave, put in the letter a line about giving them a quick call in a couple of days. The good thing is you will be remembered as the mad bookkeeper who sends teabags through the post and it works as a great ice breaker.
Like it Rob, I will be posting loads of tea bags out now! I suppose if you post out tea bags & kitkat will you have to go to the post office and pay extra for postage? You can imagine posting it on a normal 1st class stamp and then they having to go and collect it at the post office and pay the extra because not enough postage was put on it!
I do like the idea of a Kitkat, you would certainly remember someone for that!
Personally I wouldn't send anything that might melt on the letter.
Sending T bags through the post is a sure way to get your mail read.... by drugs and / or anti terrorist officers. lol
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Shaun
Responses are not meant as a substitute for professional advice. Answers are intended as outline only the advice of a qualified professional with access to all relevant information should be sought before acting on any response given.
Ooh, just received a special delivery cake box from James at the ICB.... Wonder why there's a ticking noise coming from the box???
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Shaun
Responses are not meant as a substitute for professional advice. Answers are intended as outline only the advice of a qualified professional with access to all relevant information should be sought before acting on any response given.
And Shaun - didn't you know? James's cakes tick because he times the postman!
I have a sightly wonky sense of humour and walking my daughter to school just now, trying to explain why this thread had made me laugh got me thinking. There is list of different contact letters on the theme of add a tea-bag.
New business - Twinnings Everyday
Spring Mail-out (March) - Nice, strong bodied Assam
An early Summer letter (May) - light and delicate Lady Grey
Any letter in mid-summer (July) - a fruit infusion, maybe blueberry and apple?
Early Autumn (September) - how about Gingersnap Peach (it's really nice - like drinking a summer evening)
Late Autumn (November) - the wind-up to the Tax months - it has to be camomile! Calm down! It's only a tax return!
Winter (January) - A mint tea to clear the system and start the year with.
Shaun - didn't you know? James's cakes tick because he times the postman!
Your not tricking me into opening it that way, lol.
But... Cake...
As for the different Tea's... tut.... you lot down in Surrey. Different world. Around here they'll get a PG tips and think themselves lucky that its not a supermarket home brand bargain range.
Just back off the school run myself and spent the entire run trying to fix what my boys being taught at school in history which seems to reflect the teachers views rather than giving the facts and allowing children to reach their own conclusions.
Sometimes I really despaire with our education system... Makes me think that the film Bad Teacher was actually a documentary. (We've had a Cameron Diaz weekend. Bad Teacher, A life less ordinary, knight and day and what happens in Vegas).
Anyway, happy first post january Monday. Time to do all those things that were put in the that can wait pile till hell freezes over pile during January.
Talk later,
Shaun.
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Shaun
Responses are not meant as a substitute for professional advice. Answers are intended as outline only the advice of a qualified professional with access to all relevant information should be sought before acting on any response given.
Oh Lor! Don't start me on the lies to children perpetrated by the current educational system!
My youngest is borderline Asperger's and takes the teachers comments as gospel, so when they were recently given a talk about UNICEF she came home believing that every third child was in imminent danger of being stolen away to a life of slavery! I'm not condoning what is happening in other parts of the world, nor do I think that life here is perfect in any way but talk about over-hyping!
Hi I would say - always include a 'call to action' in any marketing, if you can. Ive just received a pile of these after setting up my new limited company and theyve all gone in the bin, not because Im a bookkeeper but because theyve been rubbish! I should have kept them and posted piccies on here of how not to do it! Loving the ideas of how to be different, although now everyone will be using them, lol. Definitely follow it up with a call too. I often put that bit off but Ive won business with that call so its always worth it. Ive also followed up with another call maybe 2-3 months down the line - thats a good one as they usually are getting in a mess by then and realise they do need someone to help
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Joanne
Winner of Bookkeeper of the Year 2015, 2016 & 2017
Thoughts are my own/not to be regarded as official advice,which should be sought from a suitably qualified Accountant.
You should check out answers with reference to the legal position
Obviously an old thread but can anyone recommend suitable CRM software that is fairly simple to use. The ones I've looked at up to now seemed to be geared towards killer salesmen (or women) going for that all important contract.
I'm trying Chaos Intellect at the moment, and it looks pretty close to what I want, both for accounts work and other stuff I'm doing. There's a free version, and you get a free trial period on the paid for versions.
I thought that as well but just couldn't get it out of my head that it looked so much like the old MS Outlook (which to my mind was far better than Windows Live Mail) .
Probably has loads more functionality but they might want to rethink the screens to differentiate their product a little more.
That said, at free I'm not going to complain.
Thanks for the link John.
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Shaun
Responses are not meant as a substitute for professional advice. Answers are intended as outline only the advice of a qualified professional with access to all relevant information should be sought before acting on any response given.
I haven't managed to get Intellect to send or receive e-mail yet, so if anyone tries it and it works I'd like to know. This is one feature I really need.
I haven't used Outlook for so many years that I've forgotten what it looked like!
I haven't managed to get Intellect to send or receive e-mail yet, so if anyone tries it and it works I'd like to know. This is one feature I really need.
I haven't used Outlook for so many years that I've forgotten what it looked like!
Just like this CRM product except with email that works John... lol.
Its still used extensively in big business (which for the most part still seems to be on XP) so when on client sites I get to use it a lot for booking meeting in peoples diaries, tracking work, keeping contact lists, etc. but when working form home I never got it to work with Windows 7 (I don't think that its compatible unless you use the 32 bit XP compatibility mode only available with the professional version).
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Shaun
Responses are not meant as a substitute for professional advice. Answers are intended as outline only the advice of a qualified professional with access to all relevant information should be sought before acting on any response given.
I use Amphis Customer and recently got a developer friend to put together an addon that pulls all of my emails and stores them against clients automatically.
For £99 one off fee it's hard to beat and really easy to use.
