Hi
I thought id share my business update since the 1st March. .
I am fully registered , I have sent out a lot of emails to potential clients but still no luck :( i have quoted 2 companies but haven't got any work from it.
I don't no what I'm doing wrong :( just need to keep pressing on with some marketing I guess
Go Networking that is the key to it all. I have found in the past that emails don't really work, I myself get a lot of junk emails from different people and to be honest I read the first line and then delete them.
HTH
I'd be a bit more concerned that you have quoted 2 people and not got anything in return. Whats gone wrong? Are you trgetting the wrong people (or do you have no targetting strategy)? How are you selling yourself? Are you getting in front of them and understanding thier problem, or just giving a price?
Maybe worth thinking a bit more about this, it's pointless getting leads if you're not converting them.
Amanda echoes what was being said yesterday in that other thread about letters to accountants.
Unsolicited emails are not a way that I would go and like Amanda I get loads, some as parts of mail shots with my name being one of many recipients. I quite often read them and the other day I wrote back to one with corrects.
The extra bit here though over yesterdays post is that you actually got to give two quotes and then heard nothing.
To my mind thats worse as it says that the client was interested in your services and you lost them.... Why?
What sort of busiensses were they (startups, micro, service businesses?).
Did you listen to them rather than going into auto pilot on the pitch?
i.e. what service did they actually want / need? was it full service or bookkeeping only? Did your pitch match to their expectations of what you could do for their business?
Next thing is money? Were you more expensive than they were expecting?
Were you nervous when you gave the pitch?
You need to sell potential clients on the idea that they need your services, that you are really very, very good at what you do, that you have lots of experience, that your prices are a bargain for the service offered (don't confuse that with undercutting the opposition. Clients know that they have to pay for quality).
You must however never be disparaging of other bookkeepers services or claim unfounded superiority of one's own services. Nothing puts clients off faster than a bitchy bookkeeper.
Next factor is market conditions.
Its much better out there than it has been but that doesn't make it easy. Because of ease of entry to the profession there are a lot of bookkeepers to service the number of clients who need a bookkeeper.
The bulk seem to need cheaper accountants offering a full service rather than stopping at trial balance. Many bookkeepers have taken that on board and are now offering the services from the top end of the ICB/IAB/AAT qualifications to the SME market.
The issue there is that one is competing in accountants territory and the only way to win that one is on price. So if you are in that market is the price differential suffficient for the client to come to you?
Going back to bookkeeping clients are you looking at the right market?
Many (many, many) bookkeepers aim at the MSME market but as mentioned above to service those clients you need to be offering the full service from the upper end of the qualifications (i.e. tax advice) not stopping at trial balance and expecting an accountant to do the rest.
Conversely there are many mid range businesses that need people with an understanding of bookkeeping to work in areas such as sales ledger , purchase ledger and credit control on a temp basis. Working with those is probably not the career that you envisaged but it is money coming in whilst you find more intereting clients. (Actually, some credit control work where its not a call centre environment can be really interesting).
Anyway, if your emails are getting to quotes then its doing something right and that you are losing them on the quotes shows you where you are going wrong if not why.
Hope something in the above brain dump helps,
kind regards,
Shaun.
-- Edited by Shamus on Sunday 7th of July 2019 03:53:46 PM
__________________
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.
Think that we both picked up on that getting two quotes and no conversion.
Its just occured another factor that I should have covered.
There are people out there who have no intention of hiring a professional but use the initial meeting to try and get as much information out of you as possible for free.
Sure that you've had a few yourself Kris where half way through the meeting the penny drops that they consider the meeting a public service.
__________________
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.
Thank guys, I think you are right about networking events.. But I also think im expecting too much too soon, as im working full time and just doing this at evenings and weekends.
Actually its not as bad as I made out, I think one of the clients I quoted, I did quote too much, which is was I didn't hear anything back, but he was being a bit vague, so didn't want to get trapped in doing something for nothing- if you get my drift. but it probably was a chartered accountants fee :(
The other client hasn't ignored me, he has accepted my fees, but his deciding on staying as self employed or going limited.- so I think I may get this client, should hear back in April hopefully.
well this one was just a quote on the info he provided through email, was a small ltd co with 4 employees, about 300 invoices per year, and quarterly VAT. I quoted everything separately.. Maybe ill suggest visiting them first before quoting..
He may be thinking about it, I don't know.. Should I email him again?
so I did email him again, alls not so bad, his selling another business at the moment so doesn't have time to look into this.. Need to email him end of next week :)
Could be a diversion tactic... but I ALWAYS visit client before quoting and never quote over emails, I did before and didn't get much of a response. Now I quote via post in a bound 'Quote Pack' i like to call it and I've had a 99% hit rate with them!!!
I've just sent out 8 more and wait to hear results, but I'll keep you posted and maybe share some of the ideas I used! ;)
Always Visit them as clients have no idea... They say there may be a 300 invoices, but that might be close to 500, and you VAT return may take weeks to sort out due to the level of work involved. If you go to them, they cant hide anything (unless its in the other room) and you can get a better idea on what you want to quote.
Regarding emailing him, I personally wouldn't have emailed him to start with so I can't really advise.
I have a process developed over a long time that I now use which involves a phone call and two meetings before they get a price. I did used to give prices out through my website and thought that this was the right way to do it. We all develop and realise that some of the things we've done are not really the best way to do it.
Now though, I tend to be able to weed out the potential problem clients more efficiently and have a better rate in closing the sale than I've ever had in the past.
