For some of you, June, July and August means your summer business will dive as the vacation season starts. Your summer business dries up and you sit around waiting, living off savings until labor day. This is not a good strategy as you can have a very profitable summer. By the way, from the best numbers we have been able to gather (US Post Office data), only 11% of the people in a particular area are on vacation at the same time. So the "lack of summer business" is more in your mind than in reality.
Here are three ideas to set appointments and do summer business
Most every financial services professional fails to do additional business with existing clients, or at least not as much business as they should. They constantly look for new clients. Big mistake. Here are three ways to use the summer to reignite relationships:
Set a Tax Review with Every Client and Prospect
They just got done with taxes in April so it's on their mind. Strike while the iron is hot.
Here’s the letter you send:
Dear Bob,
Although you want your accountant to give you ideas for tax savings, he takes your information and simply drops it into the right boxes on your tax return and sends you off to overpay for another year. I do something different. I look to the future to see how you can pay less tax this year and every year. From June to August, I set these tax return review appointments and I’ll do my best to give you money-saving ideas so that you keep more and give the IRS less. There is no cost and I can often provide ideas that can slash taxes as much as 50%. My assistant Stuart will call you next week to set a time for you. This is a complimentary service of our firm, ABC Financial Consulting.
Set a Ton of Summer Referral Meetings
Forget meeting with any CPAs during tax time. They are buried until June 1 filing all of the returns on which they got extensions. You can use this opportunity to meet several accountants during the summer. Each time you look at a prospect or client tax return, flip to page two, which lists the name and contact information for their tax preparer. Ask them, “How do you like your accountant?” Would you mind if I let him know we got together? Starting May 15, you call each accountant:
Hi, Bob. My name is Harold Benin and Mrs. Jenkins, one of your tax clients, spoke very highly of you. I have other clients like Mrs. Jenkins and maybe you can help them also. I’d like to learn more about your business and see if I have some people who may be appropriate clients for you. Can I buy you a sandwich on Friday?
You could turn the summer into a very profitable time by having lunch with another accountant every week.
Gather Data on Your Clients and Convert to Summer Business
Once annually (and summer is a good time), send your clients a questionnaire.
From the data you gather (use this questionnaire as a sample to create one for your prospects and clients), you:
1. learn when they have funds coming due
2. uncover what clubs they belong to so that you can inquire about speaking there
3. gather referrals
4. find out what publications they read for potential advertising to prospects with similar profiles
Your summer business could be stronger and more profitable than ever.