Systematically Getting Referrals from your Clients

As bookkeepers we are very systematic about the way we do the bookkeeping. Unfortunately we are usually hit and miss when it comes to marketing ourselves. I believe there is a reason for that and it has something to do with our personalities. Generally speaking bookkeepers would prefer to sit in the back room of a client’s premises and get on with the job of bookkeeping, punching the air with quiet satisfaction when we finally find the 5c that was outstanding when doing the bank reconciliation! True? Absolutely! That’s what makes you good at what you do, and that’s why you’ve never had to go out of your way to market yourself. That’s why you love word of mouth referrals. You haven’t had to do anything and your business has grown by word of mouth up until now so you’re probably asking why do you have to get systematic about it now?

Well the truth is that if your Vision is to have a successful Practice then you probably don’t have to become systematic about marketing yourself. Referrals just come. But my guess is that if you love what you do and you have been successful, you will start to think about the possibility of growing into a successful Business. This, of course, means creating leverage by putting on other bookkeepers to do the work. Therefore you have more “mouths to feed” and you’ll find that you’ll have to market your Business to encourage more word of mouth referrals to feed your hungry team.

The sooner you embrace marketing and become systematic about it the smoother your growth will be. If you wait until you need referrals your attitude changes and you tend to become more desperate. People sense that and “Murphy’s Law” causes the referrals to dry up. The more you need it the more you seem to push it away from you.

So how do you become systematic about marketing your business? In Newsletter # 1 I gave several marketing tips but the one I want to remind you about is creating a Powerpoint presentation summarizing your story to present to Accountants. Writing a well thought-out, professional Powerpoint presentation which is delivered confidently is a real selling point. Remember that Accountants have as much trouble as everyone else when looking for good bookkeepers and they have a great deal at risk not the least of which is their reputation! Most bookkeepers don’t approach Accountants this way so when you do you are already ahead of the game.

TIP: Meet with the Accountant of one of your existing clients and show them the Presentation you’ve created. At the end of it, ask them if they know another Accountant who would like to see the Presentation. If the Accountant likes what they see, they won’t have any problems referring you to another Accountant who you probably have never met before. And so begins becoming systematic about Marketing.

I believe that Accountants can be a great source of referrals. You need to know the best way to tap into that source but more on that in later newsletters.